Say Dirty Records

A very, shall we say. candid insight into Say Dirty.



Paul Dalgarno



Published in the Sunday Herald on 19 May 2007.



Bjorn: "Our father's from Sweden but we were raised in Glasgow. Our eldest brother, Ulf, is a professional jazz musician in Stockholm and our other brother, Lars, is international techno DJ Funk D'Void.



We're always busy and have our fingers in a lot of different pies. As well as running a weekly club night in Glasgow's west end for up-and-coming musicians, we have our own band, Wake The President. But on a day-to-day level, Say Dirty Records takes up most of our time. We started the label from our flat last January. The ethos is simple. If there's anything new we like, and have the money, we'll stick it out. We've got four acts on our roster at the moment. Things work mostly by word of mouth. Even though acts like Franz Ferdinand set the eyes of the world on Glasgow, it's always been a vibrant place for music.



Erik: We do a lot of planning and scheduling for things months in advance, whether it's organising a new release or setting up a video shoot for a band. Most of the hard work goes on behind the scenes. Last year we released three records, but this year we have five or six already planned. Our inspiration came from another label called Postcard Records, which was started in a Glasgow living room. We went into business with our eyes closed and didn't really know what we were doing, but it was the best way to learn the ropes. Eighteen months down the line, we are much more experienced in promotional and marketing campaigns and everything is more coordinated.



Bjorn: There's no set routine to our days, but we try to work between nine and five because you can never get anyone on the phone or email outside office hours. Our lives can be fairly intense because we live together, eat together, and do pretty much everything together. It's difficult to define our day. Even when we're sitting down having our dinner, it's tempting just to check the email to see what's going on.



Erik: When people meet us for the first time it can be hard to tell us apart, but they soon begin to see us as individuals. For instance, Bjorn's a Celtic fan and I'm a Rangers fan. But I'd be a liar to say we don't try to take advantage of the fact we're so alike. There can't be many identical twins in Scotland running a record label and playing in an up-and-coming band. To be honest, I think we're lucky. A lot of twins seem to go off in separate directions, but we've always had similar tastes in music and been turned on by the same kind of things.



Bjorn: There's nothing better than working together because we have such a strong relationship. It can be volatile at times (Ed, all the time), and we argue a lot, but no one could ever come between us. We would never have such a major fall-out that one of us would leave the label. In terms of our band, it's a great selling point to be identical because of the dynamic we have on stage.



Erik: One of the big differences between Say Dirty Records and other labels is that we are incredibly hands-on with our bands. We act as managers on occasion and even play live for a couple of the acts on stage. We should delegate more because doing so many different jobs is taking it out of us. For the label's last release, we hired radio pluggers to promote the record and that lifted some of the workload. I can see us doing more of that in the future.



Bjorn: We don't have many hobbies because our lives revolve mostly around music. Last weekend I played golf (Ed, for the first and probably last time) and found that focusing my mind on something else for a while was great. Overall, I would say we're good at juggling things. If the band is going fantastically and touring Europe, we'll do that. If another band on our label starts shifting a serious amount of records and getting loads of airplay then we'll throw all our weight behind that. I wouldn't like to choose one thing over the other.



Erik: I generally read to unwind. I'm very interested in 18th and 19th century literature (Ed, that's 'cause Erik's dead dead clever). On the work front, we know we are living in each other's shoes, but that's a decision we made consciously. We're definitely not crying about it.



Bjorn: In the evenings, I like to relax in a hot bath with a Baileys (Ed, aye, obviously). If there's a gig, we'll usually go to bed at around one in the morning. There can be a lot of shouting at times, but we generally agree on most things. Our minds work very similarly, though not on a psychic level. We just know each other very well and have the same thought processes. I can't imagine not working together - at least not at the moment."



WAKE THE PRESIDENT'S RADIO 2 SINGLE OF THE WEEK YOU CAN'T CHANGE THAT BOY



ALAN HORNE, POSTCARD RECORDS' IMPRESARIO



alan horne



Grant McPhee | MySpace Video



PAPER PLANES' DEBUT SINGLE 'DORIS DAY'



PETER PARKER'S DEBUT SINGLE



PAPER PLANES' SECOND SINGLE - DOUBLE A-SIDE, THE SWAY/DISCONNECTED i KNOW