…David West
Hello everybody, today I’m with David. How are you?
I’m not too bad, just got a lot of work on at the moment as I have my final year university exams the next two weeks but instead of revising I’m posting up the latest track from our forthcoming 7” split!
Can you introduce yourself?
I’m David and I started Art is Hard with my best friend Rich the summer before last. Although we had no big plans when we started up, things seem to have gone pretty well. It’s probably been the most exciting 18 months of my life.
When we started the label we wanted to make each release special, so that it would mean as much to the people listening to the release as it did to us and the band. So far we’ve started cassette fan clubs, released music in cigarette packets, pizza boxes, maps, tshirts and we have plenty more ideas up our sleeves.
Haha really? Cigarette packets?
Yep, there’s still pictures of them on our Bandcamp - aesthetically speaking probably the nicest release we’ve put out.
Can you tell us when did you come up with this idea?
We came up with the idea whilst we were putting on gigs in our hometown of Weymouth, a couple of years back. It just seemed like the natural progression from putting on great local bands that no one seemed to know about outside the people coming to the gigs
How would you define musical scene of Weymouth?
hmm pretty non existant these days, it’s a town of 60,000 population that pretty much doubles in the summer but it’s full of people just waiting to die. I’m moving back there in a couple of weeks time, so I’m hoping to start putting on shows again.
“It’s full of people just waiting to die”, eheh. What are your plans for musical future of your hometown?
I’m not sure really, I plan to stay there the least amount of time as possible. I don’t hate the place, it’s just that nothing really happens and people seem to hate paying for gigs!
Where do you wish to move?
Pretty much anywhere with a more vibrant music scene…Bristol, London, Brighton, Manchester.
What has been the greatest pleasure you’ve ever had in this business?
Wow, there’s been so many! Recently one of our bands (Black Tambourines) played their first gig outside the UK in Barcelona. Apparently it was one of the best shows they’ve ever played with everyone singing the words and stuff. To go from finding their demo in a local record shop, to knowing you’ve played a part in that development, is a pretty great feeling!
Wow, this is cool. What are you working on these days?
We’re still being kept busy with our biweekly Pizza Club - putting out a single every fortnight for the whole of 2012. We’re on number 10 and have some amazing things lined up for the rest of the year. We also seem to be doing a lot of split releases at the moment, between 2 or 4 bands. I’m not really sure why, but there’s something I’ve always loved about compilations splits. They give you the chance to fall in love with two bands for the price of one and sometimes it’s a band making a type of music you might not normally listen to.
What are your plans for the future?
Other than the immediate releases we have planned, we have no long term vision for the label. Hopefully just keep on releasing music we love as long as possible.
The interview is over, thank you David :-) I’m planning to move to London next year, so maybe we can meet there, sometimes in the future eheh. Is there anything else would you like to say to our readers?
Sweet! Start up a label, put on gigs, keep supporting people doing it independently!
Cheers man
David
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