www.musicweek.com PROFILE WALL OF SOUND Music Week speaks to Wall Of Sound founder Mark Jones as the label turns 20 years old


LABELS n BY MURRAY STASSEN


T


here are only two kinds of music,” says Mark Jones. “Good music and bad music. [I like] music that has been made because it’s


real, that’s the first of something and is not a copy of something else. I don’t know if shops would do that, just have a good and bad section, but I think I’d go to the bad section, just to see what’s there,” he tells Music Week. We’re sat in Maison Bertaux, a French patisserie


in Soho where Noel Fielding’s Mighty Boosh-esque art adorns one of the walls. Jones tells me: “This is the oldest patisserie in London.” It is. I’ve checked. But we’re not here to discuss this venue’s past nor to admire Fielding’s art. Wall Of Sound is celebrating a pivotal landmark in its own history - its 20th anniversary. I’ve noticed that the wallpaper behind Jones is a pale shade of pink. There’s also a single pink chair outside, which he insists on bringing inside to sit on before we start talking. I could be wrong, but I’m certain the choice of


venue is no coincidence. If you’re familiar with Wall Of Sound Recordings, you will also be aware of the seminal indie label founder’s inclination to wear the colour pink. And he is indeed wearing a pink jumper, pink trousers and a pink hat, too. It was Charles Bukowski who wrote that:


“Every person has their eccentricities. But in an effort to be normal in the world’s eye, they overcome them and therefore destroy their special calling. I’ve kept mine and do believe that they have lent generously to my existence.” It’s evident that Jones’s calling was Wall Of


Sound and his eccentricities have undoubtedly lent to his existence and even more so, perhaps, to his success as a label owner. In spite of a character that has earned him a reputation of being “frankly a bit unhinged” among many other descriptions, his eclectic taste in music and willingness to support and develop alternative artists has secured a pioneering status for Jones and the label. “I just do what I do, I am who I am and that’s


it,” he says. “I never really think about it from the point of view [of the media], but obviously certain people will have their visions and ideas. To me, it’s just that I never want to not be myself. And you know, sometimes from a business perspective that can be quite difficult, sitting in a room with lawyers and accountants.” I ask Jones if there have been times where ‘being himself’ has made doing business difficult. “Yes,” he laughs. “The whole 20 years!” Keeping a label afloat for 20 years is no easy feat


for anyone. There have been so many changes to the music industry between 1994 and 2014, with countless companies becoming casualties of the digital revolution. Yet Jones is still very much active in the industry and Wall Of Sound is still signing acts and releasing music by new and old artists on its diverse roster. One such release is Röyksopp’s latest album The Inevitable End, which recently peaked at No.2 in the independent album chart.


ABOVE


Give ‘em hope: The first Wall Of Sound release was the compilation Give ‘Em Enough Dope Volume One featuring Kruder &


Dorfmeister, Mekon, The Wiseguys and Howie B amongst others. The record was followed by Give ‘Em Enough Dope Volume Two and


Volume Three


“I just wanted to give artists the platform to do what they do. It’s always been about that for me” MARK JONES, FOUNDER, WALL OF SOUND


“They’ve never compromised their artistic integrity and that’s what it should be about,” says Jones. Some of the most significant names in electronic


music have put releases out via Wall Of Sound since its inception in 1994, including The Human League, Felix Da Housecat, the aforementioned Röyksopp, Mekon, The Wiseguys and the Grammy award-winning Stuart Price. The label has also worked with a diverse range of other artists, including I Am Kloot, Reverend And The Makers and Grace Jones, who released Hurricane on the label in 2008 - her first album in ten years. Wall Of Sound was not Jones’s first taste of


musical success though. Prior to founding the label, he was the singer in London Records-signed A Perfect Day, a pop rock, or ‘prock’ band, as Jones calls it. The group released four singles, Jones appeared on the covers of magazines, but the group’s album was ultimately shelved. “When I started the label, I didn’t tell anyone


about [A Perfect Day]. Then Stuart Price, or Propellerheads found something and freaked out, but they got it from the artist side and it actually helped. When the band split, I did a couple of solo tracks and releases and then I was back on the dole. I just used go to record shops and I’d get them to play records because I didn’t have any money to buy any and I wanted to hear something.” One of the record shops Jones would frequent


was Flying Records in Kensington, where a chance encounter with Marc Lessner would act as the catalyst for the formation of Wall Of Sound. “Before the band formed, I did all the visuals at all the mad acid house clubs like Trip. Marc used to sell records on a table while we were doing those club things,” explains Jones. “I hadn’t seen him for years and he just said, ‘Oh wow, what’s happened with the band?’ So I told him the whole story.” Lessner had a distribution company called


Soul Trader at the time and Jones explains that he wanted to learn the other side of the industry, so Lessner let him work there. “I was ringing up shops in Soho and other places and selling them records and packing boxes in warehouses and that’s how I learned the other side of the industry. “People would knock on the door, or they’d send


stuff in and we would press them 500 12” singles or whatever. We gave early breaks [to the likes of] Basement Jaxx and Kruder & Dorfmeister - lots of people like that, who didn’t have that opportunity “One day we were doing this and I said to Marc,


‘Alright, we should do a compilation album of all of these people that we help.’” That compilation was called Give ‘Em


Enough Dope Volume One, featuring tracks such as Kruder & Dorfmeister’s High Noon, Phatty’s Lunch Box by Mekon, Breathe In by Howie B and The Real Vibes by The Wiseguys. Mark and Marc sold every copy. “And then we repressed them and repressed them and then we did two other volumes,” says Jones. Give ‘Em Enough Dope Volume Two and Volume Three followed, featuring the likes of Les Rhythmes Digitales, Basement Jaxx and Propellerheads. “There was an alternative evolution of dance


music bubbling. The dance culture had no meaning then and it had been very diluted by certain labels. It didn’t have any feeling or meaning. You weren’t


‘IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT ARTISTS BEING THEMSELVES’


12.12.14 Music Week 19


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40