————————————————————————-

> – Your ¨A Day For Destroying Things¨ farewell manifest is one of
> the greatest texts of the 20th century. Did you think that way from
> the very beginning or it was a building-up idea?

I’ve definitely always believed in the ideas expressed in that advert
- my old fanzine used to write about similar things, and it also gave
away flexidiscs, which were a perfect illustration of the idea of pop
music being about NOW – of burning brightly like a firework for a few
moments and then disappearing forever. But, until Sarah, it was
always just words and ideas – the flexidiscs were never regarded by
the world as “proper” records. Sarah was the first chance to make the
ideas real. I’d like to be able to say that, when we released SARAH
1, we already knew that we would stop at SARAH 100, but obviously
that would be a lie – when we released SARAH 1, we did not know if
there would ever be a SARAH 2! But we always knew that, if Sarah did
succeed, it had to end properly, not just fade away. It had to end
with a bang. So the idea of stopping at SARAH 100 was first discussed
quite early on – I think we also considered stopping at 50, but
decided 100 was more spectacular!

> – You are probably the only label founder who prefers to write
> instead of publish his own music. Does it have anything to do with
> the idiosyncrasy of Sarah Records or Shinkansen?

I’ve never been a musician, and I would never have the courage to
stand on a stage, so I suppose writing is the nearest I can get! And
I’ve always loved the idea of achieving the same effect with words as
a musician achieves with music – that’s why we included written texts
with all the Sarah singles, and why we released fanzines with
catalogue numbers as if they were singles. I wanted people to feel
the same excitement after reading the words as they felt after
playing the record.

> – Sarah Records had a strong connection with socialism, feminism
> and other movements. Did all the groups defeat those ideas?

I think some groups shared our beliefs – either our attitude to how
music should be released (the emphasis on singles, no “bonus” tracks
on 12″ versions etc.), or our political beliefs – and sent us demos
because of that. But other groups just sent us demos because they
liked the music we’d released. And mostly the politics and the music
were completely separate. We sold the songs in a way which fitted the
politics of the label, but we recorded songs simply because they were
good songs. The bands were entirely responsible for recording the
songs, and we were entirely responsible for the politics! Obviously
sometimes the songs were also political, but we would never release a
song just because we agreed with its politics – though we would not
have released a song if we had disagreed with its politics!

> – The way you prefered and defeated the 7¨ format was great. What
> will end first, the vinyl or the human kind?

To be honest, it was not the idea of 7″ of vinyl that we championed,
it was the idea of the single song – the compression of words, music
and emotion into one 3-minute (or 2-minute!) piece of magic. At the
time Sarah started, this obviously meant that we championed the 7″
single, rather than the album or the 12″ single, because they were
the only formats in existence – CDs were still rare, and MP3s just a
dream! The important thing about a 7″ single isn’t its size or what
its made of, it’s the fact that it focusses everything – there’s only
room for what is ESSENTIAL. And you could argue that downloading
individual songs as MP3s encourages exactly the same attitude – it
forces bands to focus their ideas, because if there is only one good
track on an album, people will only download that one track! The
important thing is the ATTITUDE, not the format.

> – Near 100 7¨ releases, plus compilations of singles, long plays,
> fanzines and even a board game. Did you ever release merchandising?
> Sarah was a well loved label, fact that would justify the existence
> of shirts and similars, but i supose this could be against your
> ideas…

We made T-shirts for some bands, to sell at gigs, but I never enjoyed
it, and it didn’t really seem to fit in with the idea of the label. I
loved making things like the board game and the fanzines, but the
whole point of these was that they had catalogue numbers just like
regular singles – I thought the board game was just as much in the
spirit of Sarah as any of the records, so it deserved its own
catalogue number!

> – Some Sarah groups are now on Shinkansen, under other name. Are
> you friend of Harvey Williams and Bob Wratten?

I’ve known Harvey since before Sarah started – he used to buy the
fanzine I wrote before Sarah began, and then I would sometimes see
him at gigs in Bristol – he’s from Cornwall, and Bristol was the
nearest city that had regular gigs. And Bob sent us the first Field
Mice demo after buying the first Orchids single on Sarah (SARAH 2),
so I’ve obviously known him quite a while too. But most of the bands
on Sarah/Shinkansen were independent and lived in different cities,
so there was never any great social scene. Only two bands were from
Bristol (Secret Shine and Tramway).

> – The basement where Sarah had his home was a few minutes away from
> one of the bridges where Bristol suicides do their things. Had
> anything to do with Sarah this environment?

The bridge you’re talking about – the Clifton Suspension Bridge – is
Bristol’s best-known tourist attraction, and is really beautiful – it
crosses a deep gorge on the edge of the city, about 80m above the
River Avon. And because it is so famous, we deliberately chose NOT to
include it on any of our releases (every Sarah single had a photo of
Bristol on the centre label). Instead, we decided to wait until the
very last release. Which is why there is a photo of the bridge on the
cover of our final release, the SARAH 100 compilation. But I think
that’s the only real connection!

> – You have moved from Bristol to London. Which do you prefer? You
> seem to love Bristol so much as the photos of sarah singles shows….

Well, I’m from London, and our family has been here for centuries…
so London will always be home, and always be special. I was in
Bristol only because that’s where I went to university, and that’s
why Clare was there too – originally, she’s from Yorkshire. But we
both loved the city, so we stayed on after we had finished our
studies. And it’s still my second-favourite city – if I did not live
in London, I would go back to Bristol.

Although I love London, I understand totally why people in other
cities resent the way that London regards itself as more important
than anywhere else. In the music industry, people always seem to
think that in order to become famous, you must move to London. And if
a band wants to be seen by journalists, they have to play gigs in
London, even if they live in Glasgow or Cardiff – journalists won’t
travel to Glasgow and Cardiff. That’s why we emphasised Bristol so
much when we were running Sarah. We wanted to make the political
point that it was possible to run a successful record-label in a city
that was NOT London. Obviously Factory Records had a similar attitude
to Manchester – it would have been much easier for Tony Wilson if he
had moved to London (as Alan McGee did with Creation), but he
refused. He wanted Factory to be a success IN MANCHESTER.

> – Once Clare Wadd wrote ¨You kept blathering on about fields and
> trees and stars when all she wanted was a bloody good FUCK¨. Do you
> support this words?

I’m not sure this is for me to comment on! But it was all part of the
feminism of the label – a lot of our critics thought that Sarah was
all about shy girls in dresses with flowers on, and it wasn’t like
that at all. We hated that whole idea of “twee pop” – a phrase mostly
used by people who’d completely missed the point of the label. Being
quiet and sensitive is NOT the same as being meek and apolitical…

> – You tried to beat the record industry and the false indie
> attitudes of people like Alan McGee or Bob Gillespie. Is still
> possible?

I actually think it’s a lot more possible now, because of digital
downloads. As we all know, CD sales are falling, because people are
downloading music from the internet – either paying for it (iTunes
etc), or listening to it for free (MySpace etc.). Basically, no one
really needs a record-label any more, or lots of money; a band with
good songs and a good web-page can have their music heard by far more
people than ever heard a single on Sarah…

> – When people say that the latest Radiohead maneuver is a
> revolutionary action i laugh. They really wanted to say
> ¨publicitary action¨. Have you seen any sign in the last years
> which invites to believe that a revolution is still possible?

I think the Radiohead album was just a marketing gimmick. And it
worked – every radio station and magazine was talking about them
constantly. But, as in my previous answer, I think there is a
definite air of revolution about the way digital downloads have taken
over from CDs and vinyl as the most important way for people to hear
new music… all the old power structures are changing, and I’ve no
idea where we’ll end up!

> – In an interview you said ¨I like the idea that records should be
> affordable, that you can buy them from your pocket money¨. Seems
> that you tried so hard to make this possible….

That was one of the most important things about Sarah, but you have
to remember the context. Sarah began in 1987, when 12″ singles were
at their most popular – a band like The Smiths would release a 2
minute pop song on a 12″ record, and charge twice as much as they
would for the same song on a 7″. Sometimes they would deliberately
extend the song to 6 minutes, simply to fill the space and justify
the price. Or they’d put different B-sides on the 7″ and 12″ version,
so that fans had to buy the same record twice. That’s the sort of
attitude that Sarah was totally opposed to, because it made buying a
single feel like a big investment – whereas when something is cheap,
it encourages people to be spontaneous, take a risk, and that’s part
of the essence of pop music.

> – A bunch of indie minilabels were created since the birth of
> Sarah. Was it good or did it saturated the scene?

Having more labels should be a good thing, but sadly some labels have
no concept of quality control… people just seem to like the idea of
releasing records, and miss the point that the records have to be
GOOD. If a band recorded something for us that wasn’t good enough, we
wouldn’t release it – we’d either give up, or we’d record it again.
You have to do that, otherwise people stop trusting you. And when
there are lots of labels releasing bad records, it affects everyone,
even the good labels, because the ordinary record-buyer does not know
who to trust. That probably sounds arrogant, but it’s not – we made
lots of mistakes with Sarah, but we didn’t release the mistakes, even
if it meant that we lost money!

> – Matinee, Marsh-Marigold, Apricot, Cloudberry Records… which do
> you believe is better?

Factory.

> – Have you ever met Morrissey or Lawrence Hayward?

Er, no. I once had a girlfriend who’d been a girlfriend of Lawrence,
but that’s as close as I got. Apparently he hated cheese. Oh, and a
friend of mine threw a courgette (zucchini) at Morrissey when we went
to see the This Charming Man tour, but it missed him.

> – Exists the rumour that Sarah tried a long time ago to sign Brian
> (of Understand fame). Is it true?

Yes, we heard his first single, and loved it, so Clare phoned him…
but he thought she was one of his friends having a joke. By the time
he knew we were serious, he’d already signed to Setanta.

> – If Belle and Sebatian had existed before the suicide of Sarah
> Record, would they have a Sarah reference published today?

Proabably not, because we’d have insisted on releasing ONLY the songs
that Stuart Murdoch wrote… quality control!

> – What are the plans of Shinkansen for this year?

To be honest, I’m not sure there will be any more Shinkansen
releases. The music industry has changed completely in the last few
years, from 7″ vinyl to MP3s, and I’m not sure there’s any place
these days for a label such as Sarah or Shinkansen. I know that some
labels still release 7″s, but they’re sold as collectors’ items, just
a few hundred copies, and I was never interested in that side of
things, or in just releasing album after album. If I was starting a
label now, it would involve MP3s and web-pages instead of record
sleeves and sleevenotes… but bands can do that for themselves –
they don’t need a record-label, they need a web-designer.

> – Now you can say whatever you want to the spanish fans of sarah
> and Shinkansen:

I’ve always been puzzled by the fact that, although the Spanish fans
of Sarah and Shinkansen clearly have exquisite taste in music, the
Portuguese fans are so much better looking…

———————————————————–

The Spanish Translated Version:

http://www.retromusica.com/entrevista-con-matt-haynes-iii-sarah-records-shinkansen-records/

I hope you like it!