FRIZZ RECORDS
>>> Frizz Records is the independent record label that I started back in 2008…
>>> You can read the story behind the label here…
>>> You can buy or stream all our releases from frizzrecords.com (and find vinyl & CDs copies for the titles where those formats exist)…
>>> You’ll find most of our releases on most streaming platforms (lots of links here), or you can listen below, and click the ‘buy’ links on the players if you hear something you love…
I started Frizz Records in 2008. I was living in East London at the time, and part of a thriving community of musicians, most of whom were struggling to find an outlet for the music they were making. I was looking in starting the label to help to raise everyone’s profile. I set out to allow artists as much creative freedom as possible, and to make the financial arrangements transparent and fair…
We released a 7″ single and four albums in the second half of 2009, all on vinyl & CD as well as download (streaming wasn’t yet much of a thing) – ‘It’s Not The Wand, It’s The Magic’ by my own group, August, ‘Modern Mediaeval’ by David Garside, ‘Anutha Kinda Brotha’ by Art Terry, and ‘Dark Joan’ by Leila Adu were the LPs, and the 7″ was the debut release from Joy Joseph (who at the time was my bandmate in the group Mr Hudson & The Library), ‘Our Love Is Taking Us Through’ b/w ‘Out Of All The Boys & The Girls’….
After that initial burst of energy a number of different factors conspired to mean that we didn’t release another record for several years… I was having most of my time taken up with my ‘day job’ playing bass guitar for Mr Hudson; and trying to get a fledgling business off the ground at the same time exhausted me to the point that I caught pneumonia and then tuberculosis, basically from trying to function on too little sleep… It didn’t help that several of the acts on the label were also relying on me to be a part of their live band… It was also just a very challenging time to start a label, just as downloads and then streaming were taking hold as alternatives to physical music formats, and no-one had quite figured out how any of that was going to work…
What we did manage to do, during 2011-13, is to host a very successful live music night called PARADE at Servants Jazz Quarters in Dalston, East London. As is usually the case in the Frizz universe eclecticism was the name of the game… Art Terry’s band (for which I was playing bass & acting as musical director) played the role of ‘house band’, and we invited some of the finest live acts around, from London and further afield, to join the party, including… Band Of Holy Joy, Spanner Jazz Punks, Now! (& Justin Paton solo), No Cars, Roshi ft. Pars Radio, The Hics, Tom Rodwell & Storehouse, Erin K & Tash, Renu, Miryam Solomon, Aloosh, Yinka Oyewole (of Sabatta), Chima Anya, Vedina Mosé (aka Vedina Rose), Kaoru Noda, Orquesta de la Rebelión, Madame Pamita, Official Burnt Toast, John Blood & The Highlys, Bobbie Gordon, George Simmonds Septet, David Garside, Trople, The Fruitful Earth, Rosie Okae, Natasha Awuku, Wandering Horse, Other Materials Studio Sound (aka Akawe), Salaryman, Boat To Row, & Mutana, Gypsy Punk of Dalston Kingsland Station…
In 2014 we eased ourselves back in with a five song EP from Miryam Solomon. ‘Evergreen’ was the debut release from the London-based Swedish/Eritrean singer-songwriter, produced by guitarist & bass player Jean Berthon…
In 2015 I became a father, and left London after 35 years, to live briefly in Hungary and then on to Ramsgate on England’s Kent coast, and meanwhile ending up in hospital with a serious back injury…
I got settled enough in Ramsgate eventually to release my first solo single, ‘This Is Where You Need To Be’ in 2016, inspired by being bed-ridden in Budapest and reading ‘My Happy Days In Hell’ by Hungarian poet György Faludy…
When I had my first back injury I was told by the specialists that I’d never play on stage again. I was determined to prove them wrong and spent the next three years building my strength back, until I was able to start playing local gigs again (with short-lived Ramsgate supergroup, Yogi, jazz singer Sabina Desir & as a duo called St Tropez with Marianne Dissard), only to end up back in hospital in an even worse mess at the start of 2019…
We did manage some Frizz releases during that period though, starting with ‘One Specific Thing’, the debut EP from Sugarcane in 2018, and their follow up single ‘Shambala Mess’ the following year…
I was just getting back on my feet from my second injury when the Covid virus appeared and sent everything into chaos… As it happened though, the 2020 ‘lockdown’ period seemed to be a catalyst for creative activity, with various musicians in our orbit getting it together to record and collaborate remotely… Which led to a string of Frizz releases over the next couple of years from Marianne Dissard, Baka, Sugarcane, several solo singles from me, and my collaboration with Maree Choie as The Silver Panda, which began as lockdown project and grew into a band…
2023 brought a second release from Baka, with an analogue electronic exploration of Nick Drake’s ‘Pink Moon’; and 2024 another collaboration between myself and Marianne Dissard (after 2022’s ‘Rappel’ album) on the soundtrack of her ‘Souvenir Of England’ theatre piece…
