Many young entrepreneurial upstarts tend to start their own businesses because they are sick of business as usual. In the music industry, sometimes mixing things up as a label with creative and outside of the box ideas can lead to a renewed sense of excitement.
After years of being a go-to producer on the London scene — working with groups like Franz Ferdinand, M.I.A, Bat For Lashes, Toy, Kate Tempest, Black Midi and Fontaines D.C. — Dan Carey decided to shake things up and start his own label, Speedy Wunderground. Founded in 2013 with Alexis Smith and Pierre Hall, the label’s main ethos (illustrated in a handy 10-point plan) is to pair Carey with an artist to record one song in a single day to be released as a single. No second-guessing or any frivolous overdubs — warts and all, baby.
The singles would be released in limited runs throughout the year and collected on a larger compilation at the end to give a snapshot overview on what they were able to accomplish. Each 7” generally hosts a post-punk outfit on one side and a dub track on the other; a truly electric pairing.
The label recently released its 35th single with Brodka & Scottibrains and Wrong Party and a physical release will soon arrive.
We caught up with Pierre Hall of Speedy Wunderground to talk about the ethos of the label, their dream collaborations and what tricks they have in store for us down the road.
What made you start the label as a singles-only series before shifting towards proper album releases?
At first the idea was to make a product that was very limited and physical only. The focus at first was for established bands and artists, which Dan was already working with, to do something different and outside of the constraints of the normal industry-release cycle. As the focus shifted onto a lot more new bands it got to the point where we were basically doing A&R for other labels, so it made sense to move to albums too.
With 7” singles, there is a feeling of exclusivity to owning each release from a label. Were there any labels that inspired Speedy Wunderground where you had to snatch up every release?
Factory is the obvious one. That’s what inspired things like the uniformity of the single releases and artwork. But a label like Heavenly is who we look up to and are integral in helping us get started. Jeff and Danny (Heavenly) have been huge supporters and are a constant inspiration.
How do you select the bands that you wish to work with on sessions?
It completely varies. Sometimes a recommendation. Other times from demo submissions. Often we’ll see a band one night and ask them to come into the studio the next day.
What is Dan’s pre-production process like when working with some of these artists? Is there a “get-to-know-you” ritual involved?
Ha, it completely depends. It’s a lot of people we’ll have seen and hung out with before. But then other times, him and Lex have to meet them on the day for the first time and then get to recording as soon as possible. That sense of urgency definitely feeds into the recording sometimes.
Does a band usually have a track geared up before approaching you for the finishing touches, or is it assembled on the spot?
It’s a bit of mixture. For a lot of the early ones it was on the spot, which is more common when we have the collaborations. A lot more of the time now, a band and us have a song in mind that they’ve sent us or we’ve seen them play live.
How has your A & R had to transition into discovering new acts given the loss of touring?
To be honest we have a huge backlog of acts we want to work with and vice versa. So it hasn’t made that much difference.
The Savage Gary “Quarantine Series” has been great. How did these sessions start and will there be a plan to collect them all into one, or more, physical collections?
It started with a Kate Tempest collaboration – in response to the beginning of the pandemic ‘I Was Looking Forward To The Summer’ – and kinda grew organically from there. It was a good way for Dan to remotely work with lots of different people and knew he’d wanted to [work with] for ages but didn’t have the time.
It also changed the scope of the label a bit due to the lack of studio. The releases became less band and post-punk focussed – which I suppose is what we’re known for – and more hip-hop, beat-driven, electronic influences, which we love. We’ve put out two Savage Gary ‘Quarantine Samplers’ on 12” so far and there’ll be more later in the year.
What is the design ethos for Speedy’s releases? They all have a uniform feel, and are there other labels and films that you draw inspiration from?
Factory, Jean-Luc Godard, Trojan, Heavenly, Rough Trade and Sarah Records. We like uniformity for the singles and compilations. It’s like being part of a club. But it’s important for the albums to be a completely different thing that reflects that particular body of work.
If you could choose one artist to join Speedy Wunderground for a full collaborative album, who would it be?
Julian Cope. I think him and Dan would get on. They’re both pretty weird and like the same stuff. Although there’d be so many long intense conversations… I’m not sure how much recording would get done.
