New Chichester record label will support emerging new talents

Chichester band Dutch Criminal Record are determined to help other artists get their foot on the ladder.
Joe Frampton of Dutch Criminal RecordJoe Frampton of Dutch Criminal Record
Joe Frampton of Dutch Criminal Record

The band are setting up a management company with label services to ensure that other bands and performers don’t waste their time learning the lessons it has taken Dutch Criminal Record years to learn, says band member Joe Frampton.

“The idea behind the label is to help local musicians with the first steps into the brutal music industry. Having spent a few years traversing the industry we’re hoping to help the amazing young talent coming out of Chi and perhaps prevent them from having to make the mistakes we did when starting out.”

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The Chichester-centric record label is called Novium Records. Anyone interested should get in touch with Joe at [email protected]

“I started thinking about this maybe early to mid-December, and I suppose it was partly out of boredom, but I have been with DCR for about four years and it has gone well, but we are still on the cusp really… But we have learnt a lot about the industry along the way. We managed ourselves, and we know that the industry is incredibly brutal.

“There is a lot of futile effort in there. It seems that people only really care about you when you are hot.

“When you are doing well, everyone wants to be on your side and everyone wants to help. When things aren’t so great, then you are totally abandoned and on your own.

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“And that’s not to say that things aren’t going well for us at the moment. They are. But there was a time when we got into a few really big Spotify playlists and a lot of big labels got in touch with us.

“They were wanting to see us play live but we hadn’t got any gigs planned at that point, so we planned a show for them to come along.

“We got a lot of our mates on a bus and played a really big show… but none of the A&R men turned up.

“I have learnt through speaking to promoters and other label reps that what they do is have a quota, that they have to bring the names of a certain number of artists to their bosses.

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“But they won’t always go to the gigs. They might just say that they went and didn’t like the artists, and that’s it. No one will check.”

The lesson is to remain realistic, Joe says: “We just thought it was amazing. And we thought all the big reps were coming to see us. It was a great show that we did, but what can you do?”

It’s helped teach the band that they need a proper release strategy and that it needs to be part of a proper wider strategy; that they need to be more restrictive in the gigs that they play; and that they shouldn’t just be “throwing music out there”.

“It all needs to be part of the bigger plan for the band’s progress.

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“Also, just don’t expect labels and management to come to you…

“Being in Chichester, there is not a massive music scene, to be frank. Chichester College is absolutely fantastic at producing amazing young artists, but as a band we had to adopt Portsmouth as our music scene because it was the closest thriving music scene that we had for an indie band… and that’s something we want to change.

“If we can help artists put together a proper release strategy, then it can be their first step into the business and help them gain some momentum and get people coming to see their shows when they can. There will be a demand for them.

“In a perfect world, the label will do so well that we can release DCR on there as well and DCR would be another band signed to the label. That would be the dream.

“But I am not expecting to make any money on the label.

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“It’s really just to provide the artists with the first step so that they don’t make the mistakes that we did and so that it doesn’t take them years to learn the lessons that it took us years to learn.”