Unless you’re an obsessive fan of Kicks Like a Mule’s 1992 rave hit the Bouncer – and let’s face it, that leaves about three of you – then chances are you won’t recognise the man sat sprawled across a big brown leather couch in his Ladbroke Grove offices. If, however, you are a fan of innovative new music, then you probably should. For this is Richard Russell, the boss of XL Recordings, a label that has bucked the trend for gloomy music industry stories over the past decade by breaking a stream of commercially successful yet critically drooled-over artists.
The Prodigy, Dizzee Rascal and MIA have all made music on XL, showcasing exactly what the label does best – taking innovative music into the mainstream. Whether it is Dizzee’s success opening the doors for the current grime/pop success of Tinie Tempah et al, or Vampire Weekend heralding the indie scene’s recent obsession with Afropop, XL likes to break new artists and build the foundation blocks of an emerging scene as it does so. XL was also represented at Tuesday night’s Brit awards with nominations for Vampire Weekend and the xx, not to mention a show-stopping performance from Adele, whose second album, 21, has just sold a million copies worldwide. Such a presence might suggest that XL is an establishment big-hitter, competing on a scale similar to, say, Sony or EMI. But it comes as something of a shock to learn that XL only puts out some half a dozen albums each year.
“The small release schedule is fundamental to what we do,” says Russell of the label he helped launch in 1989. “In the past, we veered off it, and our eyes went off the quality control a bit. Once I’d recognised that, I made it a real mission to only do things we could commit to. There’s a natural momentum towards doing more, and I battle that all the time.”
Doesn’t he want the company to grow? He shakes his head. “We get offered 200,000 unsolicited demos a year and yet only sign about one artist a year. We’re basically saying no to everything, lots of big artists as well. You need an element of fearlessness to do that. It’s basically an anti-business philosophy.”
Certainly, XL’s history does not read like that of your average FTSE 100 company. For a start, its origins were in the rave scene, putting out records such as SL2’s On A Ragga Tip and the Prodigy’s Charly. Simon Reynolds, author of rave bible Energy Flash, reckons XL’s hardcore [rave] output alone would make it “a legendary label”, yet Russell refused to be pigeonholed. After his partners left him in sole charge of the label in 1994, he built on the massive success of the Prodigy (their third album, The Fat of the Land, went to No 1 on both sides of the Atlantic) and diversified, signing acts that have set the agenda for much of the past decade and a half of music – from Dizzee Rascal to the White Stripes via MIA, Badly Drawn Boy, Basement Jaxx, Thom Yorke, Devendra Banhart and Peaches.
It’s a staggering list that makes you wonder why XL doesn’t get more recognition. After all, music industry stories are so gloomy right now: album sales dropping for six years on the trot; HMV due to close 60 UK stores; the decline in physical sales still not being plugged by the rise in download sales (combined sales down 7% overall). Elsewhere, EMI, the jewel in British pop’s crown, was recently taken over by those well-known pop lovers, Citigroup.
Why doesn’t a small company that thrives despite this bleak environment get a bit more credit for being a Great British Success Story?
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