Relentless Records has had a rocky ride in the music business. Founded in 1999 as a joint venture with Ministry of Sound, it had a spate of success during the early 2000s, heading up a UK garage revival with chart-topping acts including Artful Dodger, Craig David, Daniel Bedingfield and So Solid Crew. However, in 2003, the scale of its debts reached more than £3 million – said to be due to “the high expense of videos and marketing to break acts” and Ministry put the independent label into voluntary liquidation.
In retrospect, Relentless’ seemingly early demise led to greater things. By this time, the garage scene was waning and Relentless artists Joss Stone and KT Tunstall “needed [a major label] infrastructure to be able to maximise their potential,” says the label’s boss Shabs Jobanputra. So, alongside co-founder Paul Franklyn, Jobanputra found a new home for Relentless at Virgin EMI. He says: “We were quite keen on [working with Virgin] because they had all the principles of what we were trying to do, which was [develop artists] in a different way, which Virgin had always done, but with the artist development credibility of [owner] EMI.”
Another period of prosperity followed; during 2003 – 2006, Relentless sold five million albums, including Joss Stone’s debut LP, The Soul Sessions, follow-up and UK No.1 Mind Body & Soul, as well as KT Tunstall’s first album Eye To The Telescope.
In 2009, Jobanputra was offered the job of president at Virgin Records UK and Relentless lay dormant while the exec focused his efforts on developing Virgin acts Emeli Sandé, Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5 and Professor Green. It was a challenging time for EMI - then a debt-laden music company in the process of being taken over by Guy Hands and his investment firm Terra Firma. (Said Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien at the time: “EMI is in a state of flux. It’s been taken over by somebody who’s never owned a record company before”.) Still, Jobanputra weathered the storm and oversaw successful album campaigns from Robbie Williams, Empire Of The Sun, Laura Marling, 30 Seconds To Mars, Jamie T and Katy Perry.
In April 2011, Jobanputra left his position at Virgin ahead of the sale of EMI to Universal Music Group, again taking the Relentless name with him. Thanks to a relationship with Nick Gatfield, who had recently left his position as president at EMI Music to join Sony Music UK as CEO and chairman, Relentless joined Sony, with Jobanputra back at the helm, in 2012. “Nick’s forté was artist development - he was looking to change Sony’s whole A&R policy and I felt that it would be good for me to be part of the change,” he explains. Gatfield left the major in 2014, and has since been replaced by former Mercury Records boss, Jason Iley. Despite the personnel change, “a real energy and desire to build on what [Gatfield] had done and make it work” convinced Jobanputra to stick around. “I’ve known Jason quite a long time and he really gets what we’re about and what we’re doing,” he explains. “We have been given the freedom to operate in the way that we really want and he appreciates and respects what we do.”
A new three-year deal with Sony and Iley has just been signed, and Relentless operates as a standalone label within Sony, alongside Columbia, RCA, Syco and the recently acquired Black Butter. Adds Jobanputra: “An important part of the new deal was having our own focus, our own marketing team, our own way of doing it. That’s been a philosophy that’s paid off for us and to do those kind of projects we need to be fast and flexible and control our A&R and marketing fully.”
Relentless’ first signings as part of Sony Music were grime producer Rude Kid and Misty Miller - then a folk musician, now an angsty 20 year old singer/songwriter. Together with Miller, priorities for this year are New York hip-hop artist Joey Bada$$, US DJ/producer Chris Malinchak and UK electronic duo Bondax.
Alongside Jobanputra as MD, the Relentless team consists of consultant marketing director Roland Hill, label manager Ben Coates (possibly one of the youngest in the business, aged 27), A&R man Jamie Croz, PA and A&R coordinator Sade Lawson and consultant A&R/radio plugger Becky Tong.
It is Jobanputra, though, who continues to set the agenda and pace at Relentless, and who knows exactly where the label is heading.
You’ve just done a new deal with Sony, where does Relentless stand amongst its other frontline labels?
We do the things that other people don’t want to do, [projects] that seem too much like hard work. Relentless is here to do things that RCA, Columbia and Syco, or even Black Butter wouldn’t do. That’s our modus operandi really. If you look at the label in 2015, the two acts that really sum that up are Misty Miller and Joey Bada$$. And sometimes it takes a long time, we’ve had Joey for 18 months now. We’re all about acts that change the mode; to us, difficult is good.
How are you able to stay true to that philosophy whilst achieving the targets Sony set?
It’s always an interesting balance! We’ve got a bunch of dance singles coming as well, which keeps our ship rolling. That’s quite important in terms of keeping our flow of repertoire going, but it’s also important that we focus on a few things; we can’t be a major label with 50-70 acts. We go after things that are generally non-competitive; if it’s in the A&R scrum we’ll probably walk away, we’re not going to pay [big advances] and we can’t pay a lot of money for a video or a recording session. When you’re doing projects that are not conventional and on Radio 1 right now, you have to take time and be able to work within the remit of being financially smart. However, we are also here to have hits and big acts. That’s our job; we’re not a fringe label in that sense.
In major record companies, labels like Relentless are now few and far between, they don’t really exist anymore because the whole thing is just, “Stick it all under one roof and off you go”. I think Jason [Iley’s] view is doing things like Black Butter, where it’s “Look, let entrepreneurial people be free to do their thing. That’s where things may flourish.” If that’s the principle, that’s why we flourished in the past and why I hope we will now.
We have to have a balance, but Sony respects what we’re about and what we’re doing. We are different and that’s the reason why we’re here. We have to deliver, but if we carry on being good at it and know what we’re doing and we’re not too far away from the core market, we’ll generally always do well. No-one was thinking, “Let’s go and sign So Solid Crew at the time.” Signing 30-40 blokes from a council estate wasn’t anyone’s idea of a laugh and a joke. And indeed it wasn’t a laugh and a joke! But it was good. It was challenging and it was different. And we did that at EMI, when EMI had no history of this stuff. With Jason it’s good because he understands it and he gets what we’re trying to do.
I think the drive and energy in the [Sony] building is, “Look, we’re here to do business, we’re open, we’re aggressive, we want to make things happen, but we’ll do it in our own way.” Relentless is consistent with that philosophy. The reason we still exist is because we’re strong and passionate about what we do, and as long as we’re open to do that, then we’ll be great.
Relentless was dissolved when you took the job at Virgin in 2009, was that a difficult decision to make?
It wasn’t easy, especially when you’ve built something up and you want to make it work. But for me personally, it was another interesting challenge: could I run a major label? Could I still keep the ethos of what Relentless was? I’d always respected Virgin Records as something I thought was amazing so being asked to run it was a great thing. I’m much better for it in terms of understanding what it’s actually like being the big wheel as it were. At Virgin, we reduced the roster right down, we changed the A&R team, we changed the marketing team. We were at quite a difficult stage then because at the time no one really wanted to sign to EMI because of all Guy Hands stuff. But we applied the same principles of Relentless: “Let’s focus on a few things”. We knew not everyone was going to want to sign to us because of where we were at. We signed Professor Green who’d just been dropped, no one wanted to sign Emeli Sandé, it was a non-competitive deal, and no one wanted to sign Swedish House Mafia. We went from a roster I think of 50 to 16, and alongside Laura Marling, Peter Gabriel and Robbie Williams, we had to break new acts.
What was the secret to making Swedish House Mafia, Professor Green and Emeli Sandé work?
Desperation! We had nothing else, seriously. Robbie Williams was brilliant, Laura Marling, brilliant, and we had The Kooks - it was all great, but new acts are always the lifeblood of any label. With Professor Green we were like, “What do we do? How do we develop this bloke who’s just come off Mike Skinner’s label? How do we market Stephen?” We did a joint venture with Swedish House Mafia for a lot of money, but we had 50% of all their income. We all sat down, scratched our heads and thought we’ve got to make this work, otherwise in a year we’ll all be out of it.
Why did you leave your position at Virgin?
When I started the job at Virgin I said I’d give it two years, I’ve always been independent-minded and wanting to do my own thing and I don’t like being confined in that sense. Having 50-70 people in a room on one act each time was great fun and great experience, but politically and mentally, it’s all a challenge. I enjoyed it for as long as I did it, but I’m happier being a small cog in a big wheel, rather than being the big wheel.
Relentless had a lot of success with UK garage in its early days, how important is genre today?
It’s never been [genre specific], it’s more about a feeling for things that we believe in. For me, it’s about creative exploration; what’s new, what’s different. I’ve worked with Asian, urban, folk and hip-hop music. There’s got to be some commercial value for it but the stuff we’re doing feels culturally relevant now. Relentless started off being fairly genre-specific, but accidentally, there was no vision about, “Let’s do garage”. Creatively, we have to look for the new and the exciting. Our projects are all connected in that sense. They are not always conventional people, this is not, “Let’s go and do Katy Perry”. If you look at where we’re going, it will be more interesting, difficult and culturally relevant artists that have something to say.
Why is 2015 the year that you’re deciding to officially re-brand?
I think we’re ready, we’ve got freedom to do what we want to do, we’ve got a clear sense of purpose, the artists are focused, we are armed and geared and ready to do it. And I feel like the team is right. Creatively, you always have peaks but you’ve got to keep making good records that you believe in. It doesn’t mean the rest of the public will think they are very good at the time, because if you try and do something different, you have to expect to fail. But you can’t have a fear of failure, you’re going to have to accept it. It’s not bloody easy, but at least you tried to say something different. It’s not always going to work, but it feels right now that it could work.
Are you actively looking to sign?
Absolutely.
How many acts a year?
There is no number, but we can’t do too many. Our roster probably can’t be above six artists at any point really because we don’t have the time. We have four at the moment, plus the singles.
What would make a potential signing stand out?
They should be standing on a roof shouting, “Please look at me” in their own way, dressed in whatever they want to dress in and doing whatever they want to do. It’s got to feel like it’s exciting, it’s challenging, but that it will sell. We’re not niche, niche, we’re not trying to be stylised sort of label. We’re a boutique label within Sony; our job is to provide things that people might nick ideas from later on.
Our artists’ ambition has to be greater than ours. We’re only going to help artists fulfil their dreams, that’s what we’re here for. It’s a classic record company mistake to go, “Oh, I’ll make you into something”. That’s not the job of a record company, the job of a record company is to help artists fulfil what they want to do, support them and help to direct them if need be.
Do you ever envisage a time in the future where you could be standalone and not have any major label affiliation?
I don’t know if I really want that, I quite enjoy the challenge of doing the two. It’s actually a bit bizarre, people think you are less free within major labels, but I think in a way you’re more free because you’ve actually got the resources to do what you want to do. We’re very lucky; being able to do what we’re doing within a major system is incredibly fortunate. I think possibly down the line, Relentless could be standalone. The ethos would have to change slightly because I think to really break worldwide acts you do need some power. That’s what Sony gives you, as was shown last year with big international acts - Daft Punk didn’t break in individual territories, they were everywhere, Beyoncé is not in small territories, One Direction are enormous and George Ezra is about to break in a lot of territories. That power is phenomenal if you can harness it.
What are your future ambitions for Relentless?
To carry on doing something different and survive and stick to our principles for as long as we can. We’re enjoying doing it, who knows how long it’s going to last. It’s bloody hard work but it’s fun. I don’t know where this is all headed, [the music industry is] so mad right now, who knows, but I probably would have said that ten years ago. There’s still a business here, we like it, people still think we’ve got something to say and we’re still signing good artists that are passionate.
Relentless’ priority acts for 2015:
Misty Miller
Those in the know might recognise the name Misty Miller as the young and innocent looking blonde-haired folk singer who released her debut album on AWAL Recordings in 2011. Sweetness and light are now out the door and a grown-up Miller has had a punk rock makeover. Still blessed with angelic vocals, her new material is all about the frustrations of a young woman today.
Says Relentless label boss Shabs Jobanputra: “The message in one of the songs on the album is about her boyfriend watching too much porn and what that means in a relationship between people and what that is in today’s world. The album is very guitar-led, her voice is really strong, and her band is really good. She feels like a really exciting new artist to us and she’s in a fantastic place.”
After spending a few years earning her stripes on the live scene, supporting Television, Jake Bugg and Eels, Miller’s second album is out in July. Produced by Liam Watson, it’s been written in collaboration with Dan Lyons (drummer for Fat White Family) and Crispin Hunt.
Jobanputra’s hopes for Miller’s second LP are “stratospheric”. “I don’t aim anywhere else but No.1,” he explains. “I think she’s an extraordinary new long term artist. The top five in the BBC Sound Of poll were all blokes, which is just ridiculous. There is real room for a strong independent woman with a different voice and that’s what Misty is about.”
Releases:
Re-introductory EP, Sweet Nothing - 2/3 (TBC)
Single 1, Happy - 27/4
Single 2, Other Girls - 13/7
Album - 20/7
Single 3, Best Friend – October
Joey Bada$$
Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott, aka Joey Bada$$, this week released his debut album, B4.DA.$$, on January 20 - his 20th birthday. The New York rapper was signed to Relentless around 18 months ago via a deal with his own label, Cinematic. Singles, videos and mixtapes have been released in the meantime, until he delivered a finished LP to Relentless in November.
Scott is part of Pro Era, an American hip-hop collective of around 47 members that also includes CJ Fly, Kirk Knight, Nyck Caution, Dyemond Lewis, A La $ole, Rawle, Dirty Sanchez, Ali and T’nah Apex, along with producers Chuck Strangers and Powers Pleasant.
While Scott’s music harks back to the “golden era of hip-hop”, he isn’t afraid to bend the rules, says Relentless label manager Ben Coates. “B4.DA.$$ feels like it can be one of those albums that is a touchstone record in years to come, that ushers in a new era of hip-h. It also shows Joey’s level of ambition - he’s not just going to stay in the world of hip-hop, he wants to explore new things.”
His next single, Teach Me, is a collaboration with Kiesza. Names to have worked on the music include up and comer Raury, Maverick Sabre, DJ Premier and J Dilla.
Reaching the Top 10 is what Jobanputra is aiming for, as well as continued success with singles throughout the year. “It looks like it’s going to be really big in the US, we’re hoping for 60-70,000 sales in week one, the pre-orders are really high,” he adds.
Releases:
Debut album, B4.DA.$$ - 20/1/15
Single, Teach Me ft. Kiesza - impact 16/2/15