international news _ 12th January, 2006
Coldcut's Not So Secret Of Success
Acid house pioneer turned pop star turned independent record company chief
Jon More chatted to Skrufff this week about his upcoming Coldcut album Sound
Mirrors and revealed that hard work was the key factor behind his 20 year
career in the music business.
Now that I'm older I've come to believe that you make your own luck, I
really do believe in that nowadays, said Jon.
There are a lot of useless people in the music industry, in all industries,
and if you've got an ounce of nous (brains) and a desire to get up off your
arse and do something you can bust some moves and wreck it, if you want. But
there's no guarantees. If I knew the secret, I'd be talking to you from my
idyllic lobster farm on my island, not from not so sunny Kennington.
Despite his grumbles about England's currently bleak midwinter conditions,
Jon was as upbeat about Coldcut's new album as he was about his label Ninja
Tunes, the label he launched in the mid 90s with Coldcut partner Matt Black
when their career appeared to be on the wane.
We started Ninja Tune off with £500 and a computer and the computer gave us
the ability to pretend that we were a major company because we could print
loads of headed notepaper and do things with the telephone system that made
it sound like people were being put through to other departments, he
recalled.
We didn't do adverts and we pursued a brand thing, vaguely based on our
love of labels like Stiff, Motown and Def Jam; very distinctive labels that
if you mention them, you can immediately picture what their music is like.
We tried on our own crude way to do something like that. We also built our
own network of people up, he said.
Today, running a label is just different, you could say it gets harder, or
perhaps more interesting. It's like a computer game, he continued, sharing
a few tips for those wanting to follow in his footsteps.
Actually it should be a lot easier with the Internet; you don't even need
an office any more, you can do it from your bedroom with a website. Develop
your own niche in whatever it is you love and believe in, he advised.
Sound Mirrors, featuring contributions from Robert Owens, Roots Manuva, The
Herbaliser and DJ Food is out later this month on Ninja Tunes.
Jonty Skrufff (JontySkrufff.com)
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Interview : Coldcut (25-0ct-2005)
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