What's in a label

Updated: 2017-12-23 08:52

By Jon Lowe(HK Edition)

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For those who've formed a group, written some tunes, started gigging and even gained a following around HK, what's the next step? Jon Lowe meets some of the music mavens trying to take the city's grassroots acts to the global market.

For Hong Kong's indie bands there's a perennial conundrum - how do you get beyond being a big fish in a small pond? Major entertainment companies in Hong Kong have been dabbling increasingly in the non-mainstream/underground scene - but will rarely touch an unsigned act. The potential for self-marketing music in this information age is huge - but not everyone has the skills or inclination to do so. The backing of a record label thus is still a major ambition for many serious indie bands. Fortunately, the city is alive with creative entrepreneurs who dedicate themselves to the challenge of running an independent label.

Indie offers an alternative to the local mainstream fare - Cantopop - churned out by transnational music companies such as PolyGram, Warner Music and Sony Music/CBS Records since the 1970s. Revenue from music sales in Hong Kong in 2013 plummeted to less than 16 percent of the HK$2.5 billion at its peak in 1989, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Former executive director of EMI Music Asia Hans Ebert, who coined the term Cantopop in 1978, recently decried the city's "rigged" mainstream market, saying, "Local music fans were force-fed (the) same old artists for decades, and nothing much has changed since It's always been about the money."

With Cantopop, its star system and fan culture long in decline, indie has progressively become more culturally significant as a reaction against the profit-driven yet inept mainstream music business. There's a widespread feeling that Hong Kong's grassroots music needs to be taken seriously - to put the horse back before the cart, as it were - and most indie label owners are first and foremost aficionados of the music. "To be passionate is the first condition," says Matt Leulier of hot-off-the-press Hong Kong indie label Drop'd.

Organic spread

With creative concerns frequently trumping commercial ones, indie labels often sprout organically. "At the beginning we were never thinking to sign local bands," says White Noise Records (WNR) co-owner Gary Ieong. Opened as a record shop in 2004, WNR aimed to provide an outlet for the grittiest of global underground music. The business soon expanded into promoting concerts for international artists and licensing music from overseas.

WNR only got into the label business when tfvsjs, a local instrumental/math rock group, asked Ieong if he was interested in working with them on an album in 2012. Though reluctant due to his workload managing the shop, mail order, events and everything else, the prospect of helping shape a creative product swayed Ieong. With the moral and financial support of WNR, tfvsjs were able to release their debut album Equal Unequals to Equal in 2013. The first batch of 1,000 CDs was snapped up by fans who'd been following the band's live shows, prompting the shop to order a further 1,000 - not bad when you consider that international pop artists such as Taylor Swift achieve IFPI Gold Disc status in Hong Kong selling 7,500 copies.

True to the unconventional spirit of indie, the 2016 follow-up CD Zoi - the result of six months' hard work - baffled many fans with its artistic progression. "For some people it's totally different music," Ieong says approvingly. "I like this. I don't want a band to just continue their same music style, I want them to change." Over half of a first batch of 2,000 CDs have sold via the WNR shop in Prince Edward and the Kubrick shop in Yau Ma Tei. Meanwhile, overseas sales appear to be keeping pace, with both albums available in Taiwan and Malaysia and each licensed to a Japanese label. The team has also put out several promo videos.

As tfvsjs became "indie-successful" around the region, an overburdened Ieong declined requests from other bands hoping to sign with WNR. But a new trio with just a handful of songs, Milos, caught his eye early this year. Ieong is currently guiding them through recording their first EP. "Honestly we are not a traditional record label signing bands -we sign a band more by feeling, and treat them like friends," he says.

This spirit of camaraderie is echoed by Leulier of Drop'd. "What I really like is the spirit of family. The bands we produce are connected with each other, support each other and give each other advice. If you are alone you are weak; if you are together with other people you are stronger."

Going global

Formed by Leulier and fellow Frenchman Rom Esteve in the summer of 2016, Drop'd set a faster, firmer course than many of its peers, while remaining recognizably indie. So far they have signed local alt-rock bands such as Andy is Typing, SilHungMo and all-girl metal group Fiester, plus idol group Candye Syrup and rock band MAMY from Japan. Leulier hopes Drop'd can be an example to Hong Kong bands and labels of how to "operate dynamically within the structure of the music market economy", targeting international markets to notch up exports. While record sales figures for 2017 won't be available till next year, the label points to its success in garnering international radio airplay for Andy is Typing - 539 broadcasts in Europe and North America, including more than 100 on FM stations in the United States. "You have to think globally," Leulier says.

Barnaby Bruce, a percussionist and recording artist who in 2014 launched independent label Palms & Charms, specializing in lush, acoustic-tinged Balearic house music, agrees. As he displays on a shelf in his studio the collection of 12 vinyl singles and EPs that the label has released, each of which has sold 300 to 500 copies, he reflects, "Small labels are not like commercial ventures these days. You just kind of hope to break even. But it increases your profile internationally - that's really the purpose of it."

Most indie labels place importance on a global network. For tfvsjs' second album, WNR's Ieong dipped into his international contacts to enlist the help of Mino Takaaki, a studio wizard who mixes and masters recordings for major Japanese artists and also plays guitar with Japanese math-rock group Toe, for whom WNR had organized an Asian tour back in 2008. Meanwhile, Drop'd's network, encompassing Europe, Asia and the US, is invaluable in enabling the label to organize tours to these regions.

Drop'd places special emphasis on readying its roster of bands for overseas performances, investing a lot of time in helping them with songwriting and stagecraft. That's just the beginning. "We are trying to achieve an end-to-end process," Esteve says. This extends from employing accomplished composer Esteban Pineiro to help the bands with compositions, to overseeing recordings, mixing and mastering, to managing global distribution on different platforms as well as promotions, music videos and live tours.

"We're not trying to interfere in artistic direction, but to support and leverage what we have," Leulier stresses. "We ask what's the vision, what's the direction, and how can we support the bands to achieve that?"

Autonomous rule

While many bands clamor for record company's attention, some acts prefer to keep total control by producing, marketing and distributing their records themselves. This can be done quite simply on websites such as Bandcamp, where acts can sell digital, CD or vinyl recordings as well as merchandise and receive 80-85 percent of the gross profit. The popular site also provides statistical feedback on market penetration and has an efficient payment system. It is another outlet for labels too - WNR's Ieong has utilized Bandcamp, selling a further 400 digital tfvsjs albums on the site.

Yet even the most self-reliant artists understand the record company cachet, and still channel their endeavors into a label. For their debut album, experimental post-rock/progressive quartet Life Was All Silence formed their own label "Stille Records" as an aesthetic extension of their identity - a kind of imaginative zone both in and beyond the commercial world. "We love this word, silence," says bassist Leaf Yip, explaining that Stille is a German word for silence. "Our music is not really silence and our city is not silent, but we use the term 'silence' for the band and for the label."

There were practical considerations to forming their own label too. "We have more flexibility - we can take as long as we want," says guitarist and synth boffin Jay Tse. "And we can keep the profits for ourselves," he grins. Tse's mixing skills in the studio, and those of renowned Hong Kong mastering engineer Anthony Yeung who supports indie artists by regularly offering them reduced rates for his services, make for a polished sound on their 2014 CD album The People, which they sell via Zoo-Records, HMV and WNR as well as at live performances, with around 1,000 copies shifted. Acclaim for the album, their videos and their live shows including at Clockenflap festival have spurred them to start a follow-up record.

"You have to spend a lot of time on creating a network with different people. And if you are planning a tour somewhere, you have to deal with all the different live houses and arrangements yourself," says Yip. Their recent self-organized tour took in 10 cities including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Wuhan, as part of ongoing efforts to reach the mainland audience which also saw the release of a new song last month on a compilation of Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland artists from Beijing label Sparrow Music.

"On one side you have to practice, and on another you have to do the planning, promotion and marketing. It's really, really busy," smiles Yip.

Contact the writer at jon.lowe@chinadailyhk.com

What's in a label

From top: Barnaby Bruce holds some of the releases from Palms & Charms; Fiester, who are signed to Drop'd, show their mettle; Leaf Yip and Jay Tse of Life Was All Silence take a moment to contemplate; Life Was All Silence in concert. Photos provided to China Daily

(HK Edition 12/23/2017 page5)