‘We’re permanently skint, but I love it’ – Inside Todmorden Record Label, AnalogueTrash

Running an independent record label in this day and age is not for the faint-hearted. One thing’s for certain – you’re not going to be in it for the money.

“Passion is a big thing” says Adrian Brian Thompson, co-founder of AnalogueTrash, a label born in Manchester, now based in Todmorden.

“It can be stressful and we’re permanently skint, but when you release something and people genuinely engage with it, and when the artists are really happy with it, I love that.”

AnalogueTrash started, as many music projects do, at a gig. Adrian and his partner, Mark Buckley, had been to see Swedish electro outfit Covenant at Manchester Academy.

“There was no after-party. We really wanted an after-party. So we said ‘Maybe we should just start a club night’. You know, how you do when you’re drunk. But that manifested. We started at a venue called Moho Live in the Northern Quarter of Manchester.”

That was 2009. They called their club night AnalogueTrash and, before long, they had live bands playing as well – “predominantly electronic, alternative electronic, industrial, EBM, synth pop.”

In time, Adrian and Mark got close to a number of the musicians they were putting on. They became friends with them, as well as fans of their music. The next logical step, it seemed, was to help get those artists exposed to a wider audience.

“I floated the idea of starting a record label… We just asked people in the industry for loads of advice, for favours, learning as we went. ‘How do record labels work? How do you release an album? How does streaming work?’ I’m not saying it was perfect from the beginning. The people we were working with at the start were pretty patient.”

The first AnalogueTrash release – serial number AT0001 – was the album Deus Ex Machina by Advance, which came out on CD and digital in 2014. It’s a vibrant piece of pounding electro-beat with apocalyptic tendencies that set the tone for the early AnalogueTrash output. But they soon spread their wings.

“With the label, we wanted to diversify a little bit. We loosely cover a few musical umbrellas now – post-punk, indie, synth pop and electronica and then more leftfield instrumental stuff.”

The current roster includes, among many others, Tod-based ambient-psych exponents Lines Of Silence, the sci-fi industrial atmospherics of The Royal Ritual, garage-rock storm-troopers Birdman Cult, the infectious synth-laced dream-pop of This Bliss and stylish, emotive indie in the shape of Friends Of Our Youth.

Adrian’s tastes in music have never been constrained.

“I don’t remember being an aficionado of music. When I was younger, I got into music because – and this is horribly uncool – but my parents had a subscription to Britannia Music Club. I used to pick CDs based on the names of the bands and I became really into, as a child, stadium rock for some reason. Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Thunder, Fleetwood Mac. Then I went through loads of phases – dance music in the Nineties, heavy metal, goth, then pop music. I love a good pop song. I’m starting a pop music night in Tod at Nan Moors. I love Chapell Roan, I love Cradle of Filth.”

With such a broad range, you wonder what criteria Adrian and Mark have in mind when considering new artists for the label. What checkpoints need to be ticked off.

“Well. We think, ‘Is the music cool? Are they decent human beings? Do they want to engage in the community side of the label?’ We work on the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats. So all the people attached to the label collaborate, share gig line-ups, remix each other, support each other. It’s like a community of artists.”

Each release is treated individually. There is no template approach. Adrian and Mark like to “meet people where they’re at”. Sometimes an artist has everything ready to go – the mastered album, the artwork, the merch – and sometimes they need more help.

“It’s about filling in the gaps.”

The same goes for formats.

“We do a mix of stuff. We do a lot of digital-only. We do short runs of cassettes, which are great. They’re not particularly expensive. We’ve done some USB stuff. CDs are still pretty popular. People love CDs, particularly in Europe. We’re doing a lot of vinyl at the moment. I love it as a format, but it’s incredibly expensive… There have been disasters, of course, but we want to be in a position to pay bands. They should be making money off the thing they’ve spent hours and hours of their time and life doing.”

It’s a lean operation. Just the two of them, in fact. They have established ‘go-to’ contacts for mastering, graphic design and press. Mark and Adrian have full-time day jobs too. Mark is a full-time psychiatric nurse. Adrian works in marketing for a roofing company in Holmfirth.

“We’re just doing it for the love of it. I approach it as a fan a lot of the time. I think not being a musician is good, because I don’t get bogged down in the technical stuff.”

In the 10 years AnalogueTrash has been going, there have been seismic changes to the way music is made, released, promoted and, above all, consumed. Spotify, while supremely convenient and accessible for the listener, is a kick in the crotch for the artist. Spotify’s decision to stop royalty payments for any track with less than 1,000 streams a year affects a chunk of those musicians on small independent labels like AnalogueTrash. There have been considerable shifts in marketing and promotion too.

“It’s going full circle, I think. I’m back to mainly promoting gigs with posters and flyers now. No one sees stuff online. I mean, I love magazines. Getting print coverage is such a buzz. Social media is not helpful. The platforms are there to harvest data and make money. We’ve always had a decent mailing list. I’m a bit old school like that and that’s sustained us when Twitter went weird and Facebook wasn’t very helpful.

“Patronage is becoming more of a thing too. We’ve got a supporters’ club on our label where people can give us a few quid a month and I know artists on the label who have Patreons. People do want to support music. I don’t think that’s ever changed.”

With the forthcoming release of Back Where We Started, a rich dose of mood-shifting synth work by The Frixion, AnalogueTrash are now up to serial number AT0213 – and counting.

There’s a new album in the pipeline from Vieon, an electronic artist from Coventry who was one of the first to work with the label. (Adrian handles the live visuals on stage when Vieon expands to a four-piece for gigs). There are also new releases on the way from Monitors, a post-punk combo from Paris, This Bliss, based in America, Friends Of Our Youth, whose singer David is in Todmorden, and Be Kind Cadaver, a “post-everything doom-pop” outfit from Sussex.