2012 is set to be a very "busy year" for Bristol’s Invada, according to the label’s head honcho Geoff Barrow. Barrow and Invada have put together a Soundcloud sampler of all the artists who’ll be releasing albums via the label this year, including longtime Quietus favourites Anika and Beak>, alongside new acts including The Fauns, Drokk and The Veees. All of these, as well as Katalyst, Thought Forms and Scarlet Rascal & Train Wreck are featured on the excellent Soundcloud mix that we’re hosting below these words.
"We’ve never done a forward compilation and thought that we’d better catch up and do it because we’ve got so many good things coming out this year," Barrow told us this morning. "We’ve always had quite a few releases on Invada, but it’s been they’re here and they’re over there, so this ties it all together."
Despite always trenchant views on the machinations of the music business (Kim Dotcom "sounds like a rubbish James Bond character", major labels "are peddling shit. I mean, they’ve always peddled shit, but now they do it and disguise it as something worthwhile") Barrow is chipper about Invada. "It’s weird because as a label we started quite a few years ago, and have gone through Gonga, Crippled Black Phoenix, Lucky Luke, all sorts of stuff. Really it’s been me and Fat Paul, and then we’ve brough Redg on board. It’s been really good, Invada has been able to stand completely on its own for the last couple of years with very little investment from outside."
Barrow adds they’re still resolutely independent: "We’re not one of those labels that has brunches with music supervisors. We haven’t got a publishing company, we don’t take the bands’ merch stuff, it’s a 50/50 split. It’s quite a prehistoric way of running an indie. We’ve been lucky with bands like Crippled Black Phoenix, Beak> and Anika who’ve all done pretty well. It’s all positive. We know that of course everyone’s moaning about the industry. We don’t even have a download page, we usually just let the bands do their own Bandcamp. I’m sure as sales get smaller and smaller we’ll have to start having brunches with people about an ice cream advert, but until now we haven’t gone into that world." Check out the Invada sampler below:
GEOFF BARROW presents INVADA SAMPLER 2012 by Invada Records