What’s the full name of your label? Which city is the home of your label? Do you run any sub-labels?
FatCat Records. We are based in Brighton, on the south coast of England. Our sub-labels include the Splinter Series, 130701, and the Split 12″ Series. We also did a series of 7″s remixing Emilliana Torrini, under the name E-RMX.
Why did you choose that name? Which meaning do names of labels have for their work?
It was the result of someone randomly opening a book and sticking a pin into the page. It’s a fairly arbitrary name, to be honest. But it’s funny in that ‘fat cat’ denotes someone who makes huge, unjustifiable profits, which actually couldn’t be much further from the truth: our entire history as a label has been one long rollercoaster ride trying to stay financially afloat and keep doing what we want to do without being at the mercy outside influence.
When did you start the label? What where initial motivations, what the initial idea?
The label started life as a shop in 1990, which became hugely influential as an outlet for the best in electronic music. People who used to shop there would give you a pretty decent A to Z of the important movers in electronic music in the 90s – from Aphex Twin to Carl Craig to Bjork to V/Vm. The label started in 1997 when the shop was forced to close down. The initial idea behind the label was to just put out a really good, broad range of new music that we were excited by, to keep the quality control as high as possible and to try to avoid being pigeonholed into any one kind of genre. It was a really great time for trying to open minds and put quite different things together.
How many people do work for the label?
We have an office here in Brighton with 4 full time staff, 2 part time and 3 or 4 interns working part time. We also have an office in New York with 2 full-time and a couple of interns.
What criteria decide about whether you release a record or not?
It has to be something we think is of a really good quality, and not something that’s derivative of something else. Generally, we also try to look for artists who have a good solid sense of artistic integrity and who are actually good live musicians.
Vinyl, CD or MP3? And why?
Personally, I prefer vinyl because it’s a tangible physical object that you can hold and that should look and sound great. But MP3s have many benefits too (portability, ease of transfer, spreading around, etc.). You have to embrace the new reality, otherwise you’re doomed to die out. I usually use MP3s as a good way of checking out to a lot of new stuff, especially when i’m on the move, and then if it’s something i really like, i will buy the vinyl or CD version.
Which record from your back-catalog represents the label best, aesthetically, ethically and musically?
That’s really too difficult I think we are so broad and diverse in what we do that i don’t think this label can be represented by one release. I guess it would have to be a compilation like ‘Branches And Routes’.
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