Introducing: Durham University Records

Manav means business.

A University record company! How did the idea come about and what’s the motivation?

I had an idea over the Christmas holidays of making an E.P of musicians from Durham Uni whose talent I had seen on-stage  Then I began to wonder if some these artists deserved their own release? What if they have the talent to be recognized beyond the infamous ‘Durham Bubble’? I think they do and this is the answer.

Got an ultimate ambition?
We want to get our artists into the national spotlight and for this label to function on the same line as a top independent label, but more importantly we want this to be a stepping stone into the bigger labels. Many musicians come out of university and almost cut out the musical part of their lives completely as they enter ‘the real world’, but they could easily gain from being artists! For those that work with us, we want to provide them with experience in the music industry, much in the same way that Purple Radio provides its members with invaluable experience in the radio industry. Making a record is a tricky business,  from producing and sound engineering, to marketing and advertising, we can give them that and provide them with that extra line in the C.V (because we know how career driven the mass student population are!). We also hope that this inspires those in other universities to setup their own labels and share their music with a wider audience.  It would be nice to have some competition!

Who are the founder’s of the company?
Me.

How’s the whole project being financed?
We’d like to keep that quiet for the time being.

So far, so good?
We’re still in the ‘setup’ stage of the label at the moment. Mostly, we’ve been gathering up our artists and organizing the recording sessions. But of course, we’ve been hollering at people to like the Facebook page. I mean how else is everyone gonna hear about the fantastic idea we have!

Got anything lined up in the near future to get Durham buzzing?
We have our sampler E.P coming out March 1st, featuring artists of various background. From singer-songwriters to an EDM (Electronic Dance Music) producer, expect anything and everything to come in one nice package.

Can you tell us who you’ve signed so far?
We’ll be revealing our full roster in the upcoming weeks, all of whom will be appearing on our sampler E.P. We’ll also continue to look for talent at college gigs.

Have you considered collaborating with our musical initiatives in Durham?
We hope so. While our top priority is producing great records, we’re also interested in working with established groups to produce live gigs – such as The Bubble Burning and Butler Live. We’re also very keen on promoting gigs and college open mic nights setup by Durham Students in North-East as it’s usually the gig performances that catch our eye in the first place. Equally if anyone wants one of our artists to perform at their event/show/back garden, then we’re keen to promote their event as well!

All sounds good, but what do you feel you as a record company can bring that doesn’t already exist?
For quite a long time, there has been a great amount of musical talent across the colleges of Durham. The Open-mic nights, College Days in the summer and even promotional groups like The Bubble Burning and Butler Live have proven this time and time again. What came as a massive surprise to me was that there are some many Durham acts with solid and enthusiastic fan bases that just don’t grow. As we speak there are acts messaging the page, who have a solid presence in their own right, and yet I’ve never even heard of them. Given how popular some of these acts are, this just isn’t good enough. I think a lot of the talent in Durham sees music as more of a pastime activity. We hope that with this they can begin to think that they take ‘that little interesting hobby I do every now and again’ and turn it into something wonderful. Our label seeks to take their fan bases beyond their expectations, not only in number but in loyalty.

Where can people find you/listen to your artists?
At this moment in time, we’re solely communicating to our target audience through Facebook (who doesn’t enjoy a free page in the inter-web ). Over the next few terms, we’ll be expanding through the social-media websites (particularly SoundCloud and YouTube). As far as our own website? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see…

Any advice for budding musicians/producers/people who may want to get involved?
Are they a Durham Student? All they have to do is tell us! The aim of our label isn’t to make money and frankly we shouldn’t expect to, but we aim to get your name out there. So if you ask, we’ll more than likely come to one of your shows, and then probably sign you. We’re fully aware of the vast musical talent that’s in Durham, so vast that it’s quite easy to miss out on potential stand outs, so telling us is a good first step. But we especially love it when your fans tell us about you! (*hint, hint*)

Practically, what are you giving you artists in terms of support?
In terms of recording, we’re offering up time in a Durham studio. In fact, the vast majority of the sampler E.P is being recorded in Collingwood’s Music Room. I myself have had experience in producing my own work and know that I can channel that production skill into recording other artists. Promotion-wise, the idea is to send our E.P’s to Student Radio stations across the UK, as well as online blogs that we’re fans of. If an artist has an idea for promotion such as a music video, then we’ll discuss it with them and see whether or not it’s a good idea.

So what’s the big  dream right now?
Hope to God/Allah/Chuck Norris that our sampler E.P receives the recognition that it’s going to deserve.

Durham University Records can be found on their facebook page.