|
 Katy Lowe is a girl with a mission: To bring
back the true spirit of punk to the Wigan music scene. Having set up her
own label, Kinetic Records earlier this year, Katy promptly set to work,
organising a hugely successful gig at Apply Bridge Community Centre back
in August and snapping up local pop-punkers Smudge.
The LINC caught up with Katy and her boys at The Fuzzbox ahead of their
special Halloween gig back at Apply Bridge to talk about the past, the
present, and the future of Kinetic Records and Smudge.
Ok, let’s start with the basics, why did you decide to set up Kinetic
Records?
Katy: Kinetic was an idea that came from work that I’d done in
Manchester with larger labels and rock bars, and I really just wanted to
do something myself on a more local level. The idea was to give
something back to the kids who’d put so much into the local scene, and
also to some of the bands who are really talented yet don’t get the
chance to propel themselves because there’s a chance they could get lost
on larger labels and not get the attention they deserve.
So what kind of work where you doing up in Manchester?
Katy: It was mainly working in the live music scene. I started off just
as bar staff and then just got into voluntary work and basically being a
glorified roadie! Just through that I got myself jobs organising live
entertainment in some of the smaller venues and then worked my way up to
bigger things. Just through bits and pieces like selling merch’ and
stuff you end up getting your name noticed, and once you’ve built up
your list of contacts and that, everything becomes a bit easier.
How long have you been doing this for now?
Katy: Well, the idea for Kinetic started about a year ago, managing
smaller bands and giving them a bit of help with promotion. I was
working with bands that were signed to some larger labels but weren’t
getting the promotional help I felt they deserved. Then people started
coming to me and asking if I’d help out, so I just started from there.
Over the last six months I’ve secured the name and started organising
the live music events and things like that.
So will Kinetic be both promotions and a proper record label?
Katy: Yeah, at first I’m concentrating on management and promotion with
bands. But I’ve built up the experience through my jobs for the things
that I needed to know. Things on both sides on the industry from
recording to live work. I’ve built everything up now and I can start
concentrating a bit more on actual recordings. We’re going into the
studio with Smudge next week, and that’s pretty much a first for
Kinetic, they’re the first band to record under our name.
Have you got any more bands lined up that you’re working with?
Katy: Yeah, quite a few that have come to me for promotion. All the
bands that are playing at our Halloween gig and all the bands who’ve
played on our shows previously are connected to Kinetic. I do work for
them solely for the band, rather than just getting a bit of exposure
through the gigs.
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So, what has Kinetic achieved thus far?
Katy: I’d say it’s more of a moral victory really because the ethics
that I’ve wanted to go for I’ve stuck to. I mean, you know yourself from
the D.I.Y punk night that we held, the idea was just to take something
that is completely different and do it on our own. I mean, kids will
come up to me now and say ‘Have you heard of this band?’ and then they
pass me on demos and things. I’m a big fan of Scutter [Promotions], and
it’s brilliant like if I’m at one of their nights at Topspot and people
recognise who are you and come up to you like ‘Oh, I love your bands,
when’s your next gig’ and all that.
Have you done any work with Scutter then?
Katy: Not yet. I mean, we’ve done a lot of gigs through them, but I hope
we can work together at some point because they’re really important for
the local scene. A lot of people are starting to respect them and their
moving up. Especially like with the Skindred thing and bringing The
Fight, they’re starting to get the bigger names in. I think the problem
with the local scene is… I mean, Gunpowder Plot, they were hugely
influential in bringing punk into this town, and as soon as they split
up, bands started to slip through the cracks, and never really got what
they deserved. I think the idea of punk gets argued about so much, that
people loose sight of what it was really about in the first place, which
was having somewhere to belong. That’s what we want to do, to give kids
somewhere to belong.
Speaking of The Fight, was it a big deal to get your boys, Smudge
playing on that bill?
Katy: Obviously, everybody was really physched about that gig. I mean,
they [Smudge] are starting to get out there with the bigger bands now,
like they did the thing with The 5-0s and they’ve played with The Fight,
and I think their name’s getting out there a bit now. We did a gig last
week at The Attic in Accrington, that was only the second time they’ve
played there, but there were people singing along with all the words and
packed at the front. It’s just a really nice feeling to go back to a
place for only the second time and see people really into one of your
bands.
So do you get a lot of pride in watching them on stage?
Katy: Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, if I’m at the back of the stage
taking photographs of the crowd and I can see everybody really buzzing
and getting energetic and physched about them, it’s cool. I really hope
for big things for Smudge.
The first few bands that I started with have gone to some really
respectable, household name labels, and I want that for them too.
Would Kinetic grow to accommodate Smudge the bigger they get, or would
you be happy for them to leave the next when it’s time?
Katy: It would depend on time. If we were big enough and I could afford
to back them up properly, I’d love to go with them to the end.
Management wise I think that might happen, but other than that, if an
offer arose, I’d be most happy for them to go to a label that could
accommodate them properly.
Have you had any problems so far?
Katy: Sure. Like with this Halloween gig we’ve got coming up. It’s all a
bit up in the air at the minute. We’ve had a venue pull out, and we’ve
been a bit messed about with the headline bands. We booked three bands
through Distort Manchester, and they were interested n three of their
larger bands to play the gig. I was a bit worried because these were big
name bands, and this is a really small gig in Apply Bridge! But they
were adamant they wanted to play, so I put them on, then two months down
the line they started wanting to swap their bands and things.
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So is that gig in order now?
Katy: Yeah yeah, we’ve got it all sorted. Smudge are playing, along with
Wasps In The Attic, Backwash and a few more. We’re actually putting on
some grind bands as well which should be interesting! The theme of the
gig is ‘famous monsters, it’s gonna be fancy dress, ‘Misfits style.
There’s a surprise band on at the end of the night for everybody, that’s
gonna be something special. It’ll just be something different from the
punk night we had.
After this then, do you think you’ll just go back to putting the punk
stuff on?
Katy: Yeah, I think so. I mean, we just wanted to do something different
for Halloween. Next time we’ll go back to the DIY theme, but even this
is just all about coming down and having fun, getting everyone together
to have a good night. It’s all about the ethics of punk.
There’s gonna be a load of gigs going on for Halloween though, why
should people come to the Kinetic one?
Katy: I just think the idea of ours is so much different. I mean, we’re
talking about Apply Bridge community centre, it’s right by Wigan, it’s
next to the train station, you can easily get down, roll out of the
venue and on to the last train home. We like to pride ourselves on
providing a safe environment, I mean, it’s a Sunday night and a lot of
those gigs are going to be in the centre, or off into the cities. We
know our audience is going to be quite young and we want to make sure we
cater for them and make sure everybody gets home safe.
We’re gonna have more traditional Halloween things going on as well. I
mean, I read an interview with the Scutter lads in The LINC and they
were talking about making gigs as a proper night out, we adhere to that
rule as well. People loose interest if they go to watch one band and
there’s five bands on. Especially if their band is on first, you’ll
loose a lot of your audience, so we want to keep them entertained and
putting on things to do.
What sort of things?
Katy: Ah, that would be telling, I don’t wanna spoil the surprise. Just
traditional Halloween things…
Oh c’mon Katy, give us a LINC exclusive!
Katy: We’re erm… gonna make sure all the bands drown themselves apple
bobbing or something, I dunno. All the bands will be in fancy dress
though; it’s just for fun.
Is there a plan to move Kinetic out of Apply Bridge and come into Wigan,
taking on Nirvana and places like that?
Katy: Definitely that’s a good idea. A lot of our bands have started
playing the bigger venues in Wigan. We’ve been looking at places like
Ormskirk and Preston as well, just keeping it in the North West. Like
Conrads Club, a lot of the bands that are on Kinetic meet up there, and
that’s like their venue. I mean, I’d love to get out there and do more
things, but I’d never not keep it small. This is what it’s all about,
keeping with the local fans, giving something back to the people who’ve
put so much support into the our bands.
I think that’s where a lot of the bigger labels loose a lot of their
audience. As they get bigger and bigger and attract new fans on a bigger
scale, they loose a lot of their local fans, and I think they forget
about the people who supported them in the first place. I know, and my
bands know that we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the people who come
to Apply Bridge, and who come to Topspot and around Wigan.
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What do you make of the local music scene in general?
Katy: Erm, like I said earlier, there was Gunpowder Plot and I’m a
massive fan of the original punk bands and I think that we lost a lot
when they split up and the scene took a nose dive. Then the Wigan Music
Collective came in and it picked up and you’ve got bands like Hatemale,
and there was like, even AWOL, they’ve kind of kept things going. Now I
think with Lupine and Scutter, the scene’s got a lot of potential to be
even bigger. The people who aren’t into this music run rife in this
town, but I think it’s becoming less so. You’re out in Wigan at 10pm on
a Thursday night and just the amount of young people piling out Nirvana,
that’s great. It just a place for them to go and listen to their music
and to be with their mates, making it a social thing, rather than just
sat in your bedroom listening to punk.
How far do you reckon Wigan could go in terms of rivalling places like
Manchester for live music?
Katy: I don’t know, I mean, I think it definitely has the potential.
Those places will always be the bigger places for live music, nobody’s
ever going to dispute that, especially Manchester. I think the more you
do to integrate a town with a big city the better it becomes. Like we’re
doing the Manchester VS Liverpool thing with Avarice & Inglory, and the
more of that we can get, the better it’s going to be to show people that
Wigan does have it’s own thing going on.
Are the any other bands you’d like to have on Kinetic?
Katy: I don’t know, I mean, I’ve not really had the chance to check the
scene out in that much detail. There are a lot of really very small
bands who have the potential but their still in the process of changing
around musicians and getting a bit of a background together. I think
it’s better when it’s done that way though, because you do get bands who
get together and start recording demos and gigging, then you’ll get
people who seem them play really badly and it all goes horribly wrong
for them. There are a lot of bands round here though who are on my
radar. Now’s a really good time for Kinetic to be running though because
there’s been much going on over the summer. People have gone out and
caught the bands maybe playing with some of the bigger bands and say
‘Oh, you’re putting them on’ and then they’ll come down to one of our
gigs for that.
So you’re essentially a punk label…
Katy: That’s right.
I take it you grew up listening to punk then?
Katy: Most definitely. My biggest influences in this are bands like
Black Flag and Minor Threat, you know bands that did it for themselves
and did it solely for the music. I’m a big follower of all the original
punk bands. I grew up with bands like The Clash and The Dammed and then
moved on to the more hardcore stuff like Black Flag, and that’s what I
want my label to be based on. We are a punk label, but not
restrictively, because I listen to a lot of emo and hardcore and other
kinds of music too.
What essentially do you do with Kinetic, to help bands like Smudge?
Katy: Well, with Smudge, we signed contracts and we’ll work together
till the end of the year. After that we’ll look if they’re happy with
what I’ve done and take it from there. I’m in charge of booking gigs,
I’ve put money into buying merchandise, I turn up for gigs and sell the merch’ for them. We’ve got promotional campaigns like websites and
street teams and things. Just all the stuff that slips through the
cracks when you’re a band and you’re struggling on your own to get your
live image down to a tee, things tend to go unnoticed that should really
be concentrated on for the growth of the band.
So, what’s next in the immediate future?
Katy: Well, Smudge is my main priority at the minute, getting them out
there. I really hope that we get bigger and better, and I that they’ll
choose to re-sign with me in January. Other than that it’s just
continuing to grow and get my bands out there. I don’t intend to sign
too many bands, because that’s where a lot of labels go wrong. A lot the
bands who come to me have come out of contracts like and saying that
they’ve been with suchabody for three months, they’ve not had any
meetings, seen any merchandise, not had any promotion or anything. I
don’t want to be like that, I want to keep everything small and make
sure that the bands I’m working with get exactly what they want out of
Kinetic and just keep the punk rock ethic going of our doing everything
ourselves.
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Do you do all this yourself or do you have people helping out with the
label?
Katy: At the minute, it’s just me, but I do have a very close group of
friends who come down to every gig to support me, and whenever I need
anybody for the technical side of it, the bar side of it, the merch side
or whatever, there’s always people that are around to help me. They
won’t go unnoticed in the future should we get bigger!
What’s the ultimate achievement for the future then?
Katy: I would absolutely love to have one of my favourite bands on my
label, to get really big, take it to other countries. I mean, obviously
being a kid growing up listening to punk rock, I would love to get bands
out there on the Warped Tour, skate-punk is just such a massive love of
mine. I’d just love to see Kinetic on the map really, for the bands
rather than the label. I’m doing this for the love of the music and the
love of the local scene.
Anything you’d like to say to the nice folks reading this?
Katy: I’d just really like to implore people, whether it be people from
our area coming down to a Kinetic gig, or somebody from another area
who’s found The LINC website, just find out about your local scene, find
out about the bands in your area, go down to the shows. It’s really
important that these bands that get overlooked for one reason or another
do get a look in. Read up about the local promoters and smaller labels
in your area, and…show the love!
 At this point in our interview, the lads from Smudge have finished
packing their gear after another successful rehearsal and sit down to
join us for an impromptu Q & A.
Alright lads, how’s it going?
(A series of grunts and smiles and hellos follow, along with a
conversation about the last time your humble interviewer met singer Jack
on a Friday night out)
How long have you lot been together?
Jack: Just less than two years is what we usually say. We’ve had some
line-up changes and that, but as the band we are now, it’s about that
length of time.
Gary: We’ve only had Chris though for a couple of month.
Jack: Yeah, but he’s fit in with us well now.
What’s been the biggest thing for you guys so far?
Jack: We always enjoy playing the big gigs, like when we supported The
Fight and things. When we’re playing a gig when there’s gonna be a lot
of people who are into it, that’s always a buzz.
How would you describe the Smudge sound?
Jack: Your tape’s just gonna be quiet for about five minutes
Dan: Pop punk with an emo twist.
Jack: Yeah that’s better.
Dan: Better than ‘experimental emo’.
Jack: Pop-punk is at the core of it though. That’s what we all like
doing and what we’re all into.
What sort of bands inspires you then?
Guitarist 2: Blink [182]’s a big one. We all listen to them.
Chris: I listen to some heavier stuff as well.
Jack: Yeah, everyone likes pop-punk but at the same time, everybody
likes something different as well.
Chris: He likes the old-school rock, and that might come through on
certain tracks.
Jack: Everyone’s got the same ground influences but then everyone adds
their own little bit.
And do your collective influences come through in the tracks?
Jack: Yeah definitely.
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Why did you decide to get Katy on board then?
Dan: Because nobody else would basically!
Katy: Thanks guys!
Jack: She fits in the group perfectly. She’s just the same as us. Daft!
But she has some really good ideas and just helps us out a lot.
Dan: She has her foot in the industry so she’s exactly the sort of
person we need.
How’s the relationship going between you all going so far?
Jack: Well, it’s still early stages yet, but we’re getting a CD together
soon and hopefully we can send that off to get more gigs and then Katy
can start sending that off.
Katy: Within the next couple of weeks though we should have everything
under control.
Jack: Yeah, and then we can really start to push it.
Cool, so you’re playing this Halloween gig. Why should people come down?
Jack: To see me in a gorilla suit! Nothing more than just that! Nah,
it’s gonna be a great gig. Last time we were there it was just a great
atmosphere, it’s a good venue, everyone has a good time, and there’s
some very good bands playing.
What’s the biggest achievement Smudge could hope for?
Dan: World domination!
Chris: Just to get on the road I think.
Gary: We’d be happy just for a label to give us a van and some money and
say ‘right, go and tour’
Jack: To be at the same level as The Fight at least and get to go out
onto the Warped Tour. For us to do that with all the bands we love,
that’d be cool. The Fight are not on a huge label and they managed to do
that, so that’s something we’d definitely look for.
Katy: See! I said the Warped Tour as well. We’re on the same page.
What’s the ultimate buzz for you guys?
Jack: To have people singing our songs at gigs. We’ve had that and it
just feels really good.
What’s that like?
Guitarist: That just gets us more fired up.
Jack: You do this because you love it, but then when you can see that
people are into what you’re doing, you know that it’s definitely worth
while.
Guitarist: You know when you go to gigs yourself and your singing along,
well when we’re on stage now, it’s like we know what our favourite bands
must feel like. It’s a good feeling.
And finally, back to Katy, anything you’d like to say to the nice folks
reading this?
Katy: To everyone reading this, whether it be people from our area
coming down to a Kinetic gig, or somebody from another area who’s found
The LINC website, I’d really implore you to just find out about your
local scene. Find out about the bands in your area; go down to the
shows. It’s really important that these bands that get overlooked for
one reason or another do get a look in. Read up about the local
promoters and smaller labels in your area, and…show the love!
Kinetic Records presents “Bands Back From The Dead” Halloween show at
Apply Bridge community centre on Sunday, October 30th, featuring bands
including Wasps In The Attic, The Sellout Flaw and, of course, Smudge.
For more on Smudge visit
www.smudgerock.co.uk or
www.myspace.com/smudge
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