Label Focus: Dead Hound Records

We had the pleasure of speaking with Ollie Turbitt, the man behind Dead Hound Records. It’s a small label based in Edinburgh, but one which fills an important role in the greater musical ecology. What follows is a conversation covering experimental music, city life, top releases, and covid troubles (and a lack thereof) that should demystify the notion of running a label.

Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from, and a little bit about the music you put out on your label?

Hello! I’m Ollie Turbitt, I’m a 4th year English Lit/History student at Edinburgh Uni, and I run Dead Hound Records here in Edinburgh. The label is a small DIY imprint that mainly releases musically digitally and on cassette. Very loosely speaking, the music that the label focuses on leans towards the more experimental/avant-garde end of things, but I try not to be too strict with the overall “sound” - we recently released an EP by the Dunbar pop-rock band Yellow Helen, for example. On the whole, I try to avoid stuff that’s heavily represented on other local labels (indie rock, metal, singer-songwriter stuff, etc), not because I don’t like those genres but because I think more off-kilter and alternative stuff deserves a dedicated platform. Basically, as long as it’s quirky I like it, I’ll consider putting it out!

How did Dead Hound Records first start?

I started a Bandcamp page with the Dead Hound name about 6 years ago, and initially it was just a place for all my terrible blues-rock bedroom demos to go. Over the years I rejigged the page a bit to include my more experimental material, but it still wasn’t very serious until around the summer of 2019. Around that time, I received an email from the kind folks at the British Library, who offered to keep a digital catalogue of all the label’s releases in their sound archive. At this point I realised I could offer something unique to local and international artists, and I started to view the label as a little bit more than a bedroom project. For the past few years I’ve also been running avant-garde/alternative gigs with my pals in the Orpheus Collective, and the people I met while doing this (like Joe Coghill, Michał Fundowicz, and others) were really helpful in inspiring me and helping me get involved with the wider international tape scene.

What’s it like running a record label in Edinburgh?

It’s great! The thing I like most about the Edinburgh scene is that it’s pretty small compared to Glasgow - some people hate this, but I think it’s nice that everybody seems to know each other, and as a result there’s a real sense of community spirit on the local level. At gigs (when they were a thing, anyway) you tend to bump into the same people and the same acts, and everyone really seems supportive of what everyone else is doing. There are a load of great outlets for the student/DIY scene too, with magazines like LOAF and Summerhall’s radio station EHFM providing a lot of coverage and support for local creatives. As well as this, the folks behind local labels like Czaszka Rec. and East Records have become really good friends of mine in the past year or so, and it’s really nice having like-minded people to chat to (even if our musical interests diverge slightly).

Does the city influence you much?

For sure, although it’s hard to say exactly how. I think on a creative level the places I live in (or have been to) always have a subconscious effect on everything I do. With regards to running the label, the connections and support I mentioned earlier have been super important in convincing me to keep running the label. Our local venues have also been very influential in a number of ways - I’m very inspired by the grassroots ethos of places like Sneaky Pete’s, Henry’s Cellar Bar and Sketchy Beats, all of whom have been really kind and accommodating when helping the label and the Orpheus Collective run gigs (even horrible noise shows, haha!)

We really loved your recent release with Whole Foods Kids. Can you tell us more about working with them?

Cheers! At the beginning, the process of working with WFK was similar to everything else that happened over the initial phases of lockdown: I got a message from Rob on Facebook, and pretty much everything was done virtually (due to quarantine and the fact that both Rob and Evan were living in the States at the time). We exchanged files, had a couple of video calls and I mastered their first EP (f*ck it, we vibe) via the internet. In a way, working like this was new for me, but it was nice to start to look outwards and expand the label’s roster beyond the immediate local scene (around this time, I also released things from artists from England, Sweden, Croatia, Austria, and elsewhere). However, for the more recent album Sometimes My Arms Bend Back I had the chance to actually meet Rob in person, and we even wrote a couple of bits and pieces for the album together. It was really interesting to have a more hands-on approach with an artist; being able to share my own opinions in a collaborative setting was really interesting. Both Rob and Evan are quite methodical about how everything should sound (in a good way!), and it was cool to be involved during the writing process instead of just receiving completed master files at the end. Hopefully this is something I can do more of when the world starts to open up a bit more!

What draws you to experimental music as a label?

That’s a big question, haha! For years I’ve just been obsessed with all kinds of weird stuff, from noise to electronica to drone and beyond. I’d been making a lot of out-there music on my own for a few years, and it wasn’t until quite recently that I found out that there’s a rich underground scene consisting of people who are pursuing similar freaky musical ends. As I said earlier, I chose to base the label around experimental stuff because it’s generally the kind of stuff that gets overlooked on the local scene. Also, there’s a really vibrant international tape scene for avant-garde music - over the past year or so I’ve been in contact with loads of little labels and musicians (too many to list!) via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and the people who are into this stuff are really into it. There’s a real international feeling to the tape scene too, with people interacting and trading everywhere from the US to China. I think having this kind of niche market is beneficial, because having a small-but-dedicated audience ironically means that our releases are easier to promote (if it was a pop or indie label, for example, the market is so saturated that I think it’d be much harder to initially find an audience and create the same kinds of personal ties with fans). One other simple thing is that the noise/industrial/ambient underground has always had a tradition of having a hardcore DIY ethos (with everything from designing artwork to mixing/mastering and distributing the final release being the work of a very small number of people, largely outside of the mainstream music industry), and this is something that I continually find inspiring.

How has covid-19 affected you this year?

I don't want to play the scale of the pandemic down at all, but in a weird way it’s been pretty beneficial for the label! Since the beginning of the lockdown, I’ve had a lot more free time to answer emails, do video calls, master releases, work on tape packaging etc etc (all the generic admin stuff, essentially!) Because of this, I’ve been able to be a lot more active with releasing music by people who aren’t me, haha. Generally I’ve been online a lot more too, which maybe isn’t the best for the brain but it’s been super useful for networking with like-minded people. I’ve also definitely noticed a huge spike in the number of demos I’m receiving from artists (because everybody has more time on their hands to record): while it can sometimes be a bit overwhelming to sort through it all, it’s great because I never run out of stuff to listen to or to consider releasing. This means that the label’s roster is growing all the time, and I couldn’t ask for more really!

With live events currently on hold, how have you been coping with the lack of gigs, festivals, etc?

The loss of gigs has had a huge impact on the industry as a whole, and it really does suck that the label (or the Orpheus Collective) can’t host gigs for the people we work with. It would’ve been nice to run launch shows for a lot of the recent things Dead Hound has put out (particularly for those albums that have had physical releases). On the other hand though, due to the fact that people are staying at home, searching the internet for new music and spending money on digital & physical releases, it’s been weirdly handy for the label too (Bandcamp Fridays have been a HUGE help in this regard). Also, while I haven’t had a chance to run anything similar myself, there have been some incredible live-streamed concerts happening over the lockdown which have kept me sane (Fuzz Bat Gigs, Heinous Whining, TUSK Festival and Isolated Mess all deserve a shout-out for being amazing hosts for the avant-garde end of things!) A lot of these events have had little chat boxes which have been like little forums for enthusiasts for the strange to communicate and share links. There’s been a fair amount of folk discovering Dead Hound through this kind of thing, and I’ve also been working through a huge list of albums/labels/artists that I’ve picked up too. While nothing can really replace an in-the-flesh gig, the international aspect of these events has been really cool - I hope they continue in some capacity even if/when things return to normal.

What are some of your favourite releases from 2020?

Another big question! For the sake of fairness, I’ll choose stuff from outwith Dead Hound. In terms of global experimental stuff, here’s a top 11 (that’s a thing, right?):

Autechre, Sign (Warp Records)

Új Bála, How The Cookie Crumbles (Czaszka Rec.)

E-Saggila, Corporate Cross (Hospital Productions)

Max de Wardener, Music for Detuned Pianos (Village Green)

Paul Hermansen, Leichenpumpe (self-released)

Matmos, The Consuming Flame (Thrill Jockey)

UCBM, United Color of Black Metal (zamzamrec)

Sylvia Din, CRWLND (self-released)

Eiko Ishibashi, Hyakki Yagyō (Black Truffle)

William Basinski, Lamentations (Temporary Residence)

Anna Von Hausswolff, All Thoughts Fly (Southern Lord)

What can we look forward to in 2021 from Dead Hound Records?

I’ve already got quite a lot in the pipeline! Nothing is 100% confirmed yet, but I’m currently talking with Frans de Waard (a big hero of mine) about releasing a cassette by his Modelbau project, which is very exciting for me. I’m also putting together tapes by local acts like THE FEAR and Whole Foods Kids as well as some of my own material (for the first time in a little while). For obvious reasons it’s hard to plan anything concrete at the minute, but I’m definitely keen to get back into putting gigs on as soon as it’s safe and legal again. Who knows what the future holds!

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I’d quickly like to give a little shout out to my man-behind-the-scenes Jo Higgs, who’s been absolutely amazing for sorting out a lot of the PR/press stuff for the label. He’s been on board since around February, and a lot of the writing related to the label has come from him - it’s taken a real load off my back and he writes about music way better than I do, haha. Also my girlfriend Ellen deserves a mention for always helping out with the label’s artwork and putting up with my horrendous artistic directions! A lot of the label’s aesthetic comes from her, so I can’t thank her enough.

The lovely team at Lahmacun Radio in Budapest have been hosting my Dead Hound Radio show every month too, and they’ve been really really supportive - so a huge cheers to them. Everyone also needs to check out the local folks at Czaszka Rec., East Records, LOAF & EHFM (there are also definitely other things I’ve forgotten to mention). One final & important thank you to everybody who’s sent music to me over the past wee while, and a HUGE cheers to everyone who’s supported Dead Hound in any shape or form: you all give me a lot of hope & inspiration and I quite literally couldn’t run the label without you all!