Kit-Chat: A fireside conversation with Richard Greenan (Kit Recs)
One of our most beloved residencies at the bar happens every first Thursday of the month when Richard Greenan of Kit Records takes control of the hifi for the evening. To those familiar with the label and longstanding NTS show, you will know the cosmic polymath pulling the strings. We sat down with the man himself for a candid chat about his projects, beginnings and inspirations.
Morning Richard. To get things started I wanted to ask you about the origins of Kit (an appropriate launchpad!) Is it correct the label came out of the radio show?
Hello! Yes that's right. I started the radio show in 2011, and named it after one of my favourite Jonathan Richman songs, 'When I'm Walking'. That was about as far as the concept went, but listening back to what's left of those early shows, it sounds like I'm doing my best worst Adam Buxton impression. Thank god the NTS archives only reach back as far as late 2012. After a year or so people started emailing me music, and eventually I came across an amazing unreleased album by a guy from my hometown, Brighton. We went to the pub and decided to dub the recordings onto tape and hand paint some artwork. That was 'Live From Concrete Island' by The Nag's Head (amazing techno bricolage, check it out). I then built a Bandcamp, social media accounts and so on, and rebranded the radio show in line with the label. More music came trickling through, and Kit took on a life of its own.
2011 would have made you one of the early adopters to the platform (NTS) - did you approach the show with a plan on what internet radio had potential to provide you with creatively as a canvas? Or was it something that evolved more naturally with the station?
I had no idea or plan when I started doing radio, I just knew I enjoyed choosing songs and playing them out. I didn't know how to use the equipment properly, let alone have a grasp of the creative potential of a platform like radio. Looking back over the last nine years, I realise radio is the source of everything, and has changed the course of my life irreversibly. It's an amazing connector, bringing together musicians, writers, visual artists, creatives and listeners. As NTS grew, so did my ambitions with Kit - we began collaborating with bigger artists, were asked to curate nights at places like Somerset House and Cafe Oto, and even started running our own peripatetic record store. I couldn't predict any of this, but I know none of it would be possible without radio as a foundation.
Someone once described to me those early days of NTS as something akin to a nightclub. Or what a ‘club’ used to mean as a space. Not just for the music but for the sense of belonging and community that can then provide building blocks for its contributors (mirrored by community focused bars and nightclubs closing in spades). Is that a sensibility that you would share in?
My experience of NTS in the early days was always on a Sunday afternoon - I was lucky enough to get the most chilled slot imaginable, from 3-5pm ... So in that way it was something like the opposite of a nightclub! It felt like a place where people congregated after a weekend of clubbing to reassemble their minds. However, I think I know what you mean ... For myself and many of the friends I made through NTS - such as Chloe Frieda (Alien Jams), Babak Ganjei (Hot Mess), Anu, Kit Grill, Debi Ghose, Sam (videogamemusic) - the station certainly provided us with the basecamp from which to go on and achieve stuff, such as club nights, record releases and other creations. NTS has always felt very inclusive and democratic, like a welcoming dance-floor, I suppose.
It’s interesting because it really marks that move from London music belonging to pocket communities with clubs and bars to creating that same sense of space online with so much more reach and potential. The internet seems to provide a broad canvas for all of your work. Yet everything I would associate to you has a very physical and tangible feel to it. How important is it to you to transcend that divide between digital and physical spaces; and, is this something that informs your creative process and decisions?
From the beginning the label had a very analogue, painterly visual aesthetic. I was also keen on hand assembling things, such as zines and mixtapes, to give out at parties, as inserts for records or as prizes on the radio. I attempted to document the making process through social media and newsletters, as a way of sidestepping total digitisation. This felt important to me, and I'm not entirely sure why. I suppose the idea of the label living and dying on the internet frightens me. In many ways, the core of the label is about tangibility and human connection, and that means breaking down things like the formality of sleek radio, digital art, and the audience / performer divide at events. I get a kick out of seeing Kit take physical form, with our artists travelling from far and wide to spend time together and meet audiences. Having a physical space (as we do periodically at the Kit x NX Records shop in New Cross) and regular events cements this. I was really influenced by the patter between songs and communal warmth at events run by the Scottish label Lost Map, and made a point of trying to incorporate that approach into the way I presented electronic music in London (with varying results).
To the uninformed - can you tell us about the work you do with NX?
NX records is a label built into the music department at Goldsmiths University, set up by Matthew Herbert about 7 years back. As label manager, I work with students to get their music released, doing everything from nitty gritty admin all the way through to graphic design, organising launch parties and so on. Please check it out, some of the music coming out of Goldsmiths is truly amazing!
Yes second to that! On a related note: any advice for how to get an inherently physical project (a bar or record shop for instance;)) to crossover into digital?
That's the hard part! Social media and streaming seem to be key ... How to get maximum reach is beyond me.
With both of these projects, what does it mean to you to be a record label in 2020? They both seem to be so much more than what you would have considered a label to be even as recently as a decade ago. For instance, I see Kit as a welcoming space for curious minds to wander around in, both online and with the physical products. Whereas in the past, I guess the idea of an independent label was a bit more exclusive and cosseted.
Yes, I think the idea of running a label has been totally blown open in the past ten years. Wee labels seem to have taken the place of blogs - curious avenues and little signposts to homespun collisions of sound and art, or things unearthed. Big labels still exist, obviously, but they function in a very different way to something like Kit. How to transition from the cottage industry / 'labour of love' model to something more sustainable and profitable, or whether you want that at all, is the question.
Ok, so now for the quick-fire round: top 6 releases on Kit?
I love all my children equally.
LOL! Well, I was gonna say; '“if that's too close to the bone (like picking a favourite child)” top 6 records to play out atm?
In my current spring summoning mood, ones I keep coming back to are:
Poirier Marshall Partners - ATELIER / FERME (ridiculously infectious analogue groove sketches)
Cara Stacey & Camilo Angeles - Ceder (virtuosic piano and flute duets, baked in the improv desert)
Yaaard - How to Download a Glass of Water (crystal clear dancefloor wonkers)
Romeo Poirier - Plage Arriere (everyone's favourite lifeguard conjures eight Greek beaches)
Cosmic Neighbourhood - Library Vol 1 (radiophonic vignettes accompanied by paper collage; includes a squirrel)
Electric Capablanca - Puzzles & Studies (70s Italian chess robot believes it is Autechre)
Which (Kit release) has caused you the most heartache?
A great - and easy - question! The forthcoming HESITATION record, 'Triple Bluff', makes me cry on a regular basis. The band is a group of people closest to my heart, who are dispersed around the globe. Last year we convened for a holiday in Malmo, Sweden, and made these extraordinary, sloppy, gorgeous recordings. It reminds me of the Velvets and Galaxie 500 (after many pints) ... But most of all it reminds me of spending time with my loved ones, in an ancient Swedish barn filled with sound and light. I'm currently trying to make the artwork, which is basically a collage of everyone's faces, and I can't quite handle it.
And which has brought you the most joy (I understand this could be the same as above!)
Yup, see above!
Any artists to watch out for this year?
Someone, or thing, going by the name UNDERMEDVETENHETEN, will surface on Kit this spring. In addition to an LP of truly uplifting, weird music, the release incorporates an interactive / spiritual element that we're very excited to unveil. Stay tuned.
A fave mix to share?
Our friend in Copenhagen, Martha Hviid, makes the best mixes. You can grab them all over here.
Can we do a t-shirt?
Of course, I would love that. Thank you :-)
