So long
In the summer of 2014, Joe and I had an idea for a different way of running a record label. One that meant that musicians could get together to make music without having to make any huge sacrifices to do it; a system where creative types got together to help each other make some really cool stuff that their fans would then be happy to pay them a little bit for.
It turns out, it doesn’t work. Or to be fair, I should say it turns out we can’t make it work. It’s a sucky realisation to make, but it would suck more to not realise it at all.
Joe and I have talked over this a lot, as you can imagine, and if any one of three specific things were true, then we wouldn’t be writing this post:
If it were easy, then we’d carry on. If running the label, recording bands and releasing their EPs around the rest of the administration required took no time or effort, then we could do it with our eyes closed and in our spare time. The fact is, it’s a relentless, time-and-effort-consuming process. It’s hard. Not so hard that we couldn’t start it in the first place, but hard enough that after two and a half years, we’re done.
Likewise, if it was making ludicrous amounts of money, then we’d carry on. It could be as hard and time-consuming and stressful as it liked, if we were able to pay our artists thousands of pounds and turn it into a full-time job for ourselves. While thankfully we’ve always run the label on the right side of the zero bank balance, suffice to say we’re not buying a gold-plated toilet seat any time soon.
Lastly, and sort of most importantly, even if it was still stressful and wasn’t making millions, we’d be able to find the time to carry on if it was just more fun. This probably skirts with sounding more negative than I mean it to, because there have been some very, very fun times along the way. We’ve made some amazing EPs with some incredibly talented musicians and have made some greats memories. What more can you ask from life? Trouble is, the fun times are often outbalanced by just straight-up stressful times. Being human means that it gets more and more difficult to find and appreciate the fun in something, the more it’s surrounded by... not-fun.
Because none of these three possibilities are true, and haven’t been for the last few months, Super Sick Records are calling time on our monthly releases. Between the two of us, we’ve always enjoyed using music to form projects that were built primarily on being a bit of a laugh, both before Super Sick started and since. In that sense, then, you can imagine why ‘regret’ wouldn’t even come into how we feel about the decision to strip back what the label does. We had an idea of something that might work, and don’t mind having spent a couple of years seeing if it did.
But it doesn’t.
Super Sick Records will still exist, but in a far different capacity. Without the monthly releases, the output from the label will obviously shrink substantially, but we’re still open to the idea of producing and releasing more music from more amazing artists in the future. Who knows, maybe we’ll be able to return to the freedom of simply revelling in creativity that we were originally looking for at the label’s inception.
A tiny bit of housekeeping: all of our existing members will have been sent details of what’s happening with their membership. Everything should all be squared away, but obviously get in touch if you’ve got any questions.
I wanted this post to be only an explanatory one, rather than one that tries to do justice to celebrating what we’ve achieved with Super Sick Records. We’ve got a bucketload of good music to remember it all by, and plenty of memories that we’ve been glad to make with everyone involved. Even if I don’t want to get bogged down with all the ‘remember when’s and ‘wasn’t this cool’s, I do want to thank everyone.
Not individually, one by one, that would be mental.
But everyone who’s enjoyed something that we’ve released, or one of the live shows, or just something witty that we’ve posted online. Of course, all of our artists up to now deserve not only thanks, but congratulations where we see that we’ve facilitated the making of great things.
Thanks for being part of an experiment that was a lot of fun while it lasted. It’s not quite over, exactly, but it’s time to let the current incarnation of Super Sick Records go.
- Ben & Joe