Nathan ‘Barley’ Philips (Basick Records)

Last month NH7 announced the launch of its Music store as part of Flipkart Flyte. The store also included a few titles by non – Indian bands, they were from UK based progressive metal label Basick Records,one of my favourite metal labels.
I spoke to their label boss Nathan “Barley” Philips to find out more about their plans for the Indian market.

Congrats on having the Basick Records title available in India via Nh7.in platform on the Flipkart website. Tell us a bit about how the deal came about.

Thanks, we’re really stoked to finally have our albums available for our Indian fans to get into!
We’ve been working with the NH7 guys on a whole bunch of other stuff in the past, so when one of the guys at Only Much Louder (OML) came to us and told us about their plans to hook up with Flipkart, we just knew that we had to be involved. It took a bit of time to iron out all the details, but it’s great to see that store is finally up and everyone can now check out our releases on there.

Do you have anything special planned for your Indian fans?

We’re always looking for new ways to interact with our Indian brothers, so right now we’re working ways of getting some exclusive products out there as well as having early discussions about getting some of our other bands on shows out there. It’s an exciting time!

For those not familiar with Basick Records, tell us a bit about early days of the label.

BASICK began nearly seven years ago when my brother and I decided to run a label from our parents spare bedroom in order to help a few local bands (Enter Shikari, Fellsilent, etc) reach a wider audience. Music has been my life for as long as I can remember and starting a label was something that I had always wanted to do, so we just got on with it and made it happen. It took pretty much four years of solid work to be able to get to a point where we were starting to make real progress. And the rest is history!

How did you come across Skyharbor, the only Indian artist signed to your label?

I’d heard of SKYHARBOR quite early on actually, when Keshav Dhar had started posting out demos of his previous solo project a couple years ago. So I kept some quiet tabs on him to see where things would lead and It was great to see how things developed. After a while Keshav started really honing in his sound and then got some great inspiration from collaborations with other artists, which helped the sound no end. Then a mutual friend from India hooked me up with the brand new vocal version of the album and we hooked it all up from there.

Earlier this year in April, Roadrunner Records shut down its offices in Europe and Canada. Where do you think the future lies for metal record labels?

I feel very sad for the staff at Roadrunner that lost their jobs – there were some great people working there, but overall I think Metal labels still have a very strong future, if they play their cards right. The fact is, people’s interest in this genre hasn’t waned, if anything it’s getting stronger. And labels that are adopting the correct approach to the current climate are managing to weather the storm. Undoubtedly, times have changed and some of the bigger labels that are owned by the corporate majors (as Roadrunner were to Warner Bros) are inevitably going to suffer, purely because they have huge overheads and cant live large like they once used too. But on the flipside, you have forward thinking indies like ourselves and Metal Blade for instance, that are experiencing growth in a time of austerity. Labels need to get leaner and smarter, that’s all.

Advice for bands that are just starting out and looking to get signed?

Honestly, just be yourselves and work your arses off to be as good as you possibly can be. Be as active as humanly possible and network yourselves like a bitch too. I’m a believer in fate and vereything happening at the right time for a reason; so don’t force it. Just apply yourselves and out yourselves out there in the most driven and professional way you possibly can. Real talent will always shine through. Us finding SKYHARBOR is a great example of that.

What artists/bands are you currently listening to?

I’m actually listening to a whole bunch of Electronica artists right now, like Claro Intelecto and Enabl.ed. Go check out anything released on Concrete Plastic and Ai Records if you’re into that underground UK sound.

What are you plans for the rest of 2012? More releases planned?

Yep, lots more in the pipeline; new releases, new bands and new corners of the globe to preach the good word BASICK! Looking forward to sharing all of this with you guys!