Sean Steinfeger w/ with Kerstan Mackness from Gondwana Records.
As Gondwana Records was founded in Manchester back in 2008 by Matthew Halsall, when did you come on board and how did you first met Matthew?
Matthew and I were discussing exactly this last week. I came on board in 2010 so we have been working together for 13 years. I was introduced to Matthew and his music by the saxophonist Nat Birchall (who I have known for over twenty years) and I was immediately struck by how beautiful and honest Matthew’s music was and our relationship and journey together has grown organically from that first meeting.
How would you describe the label’s philosophy and what do you think were the key elements for building such a loyal fan base that you have right now?
Gondwana’s philosophy is based on ideas of community and family. We are very focused on providing the best platform that we can for the artists that we work with to express their artistry and we also love helping artists develop their careers both artistically and commercially in terms of creating sustainable careers. I think that is why we work with so many debut artists! Musically we look for artists that sit somewhere between jazz, electronica and ambient music or who draw on contemporary influences regardless of genre as well as artists who are excited at joining our little family. A really good example of someone who perfectly illustrates our philosophy is Jasmine Myra. Matthew heard her first self-released EP and was immediately drawn to her musical world which draws on her love of jazz but also other influences as diverse as Nils Frahm, J Dilla, Bonobo and the great Kenny Wheeler. Her music is lush, elevating and soulful and we’re really enjoying being part of her journey.
How many people are working at Gondwana Records, respectively are involved in the label‘s work?
There are currently seven of us, myself, Matthew and Daniel Halsall who are the creative heart of the label, Adam and Will the product managers and run our campaigns, Matt who looks after socials and digital marketing and our latest recruit Rich who has been a regular collaborator on our videos and has joined the team as an in-house content creator. We also have a tight team of trusted collaborators who we work with for mixing and mastering, design etc. as well as of course our distribution partners around the world.
Were there any specific turning points in the label‘s history or is your success ‚only‘ the result of your continuous work of you and your network?
Aha, an interesting question. To some extent it is a testament to Matthew’s creative vision, assisted hugely by his brother Daniel who created a lot of our visual world together with a lot of hard work and determination from all of the team. But it is also all about the artists that we work with. GoGo Penguin were a key early signing as were Mammal Hands who have just released their fifth album with us, and of course Portico Quartet and Hania Rani who are comparatively more recent signings are also a big part of our story. More recently we are really excited about some of our more recent signings Jasmine, Estonian sound artist Hanakiv, Danish duo Svaneborg Kardyb, the wonderful Vega Trails, immersive jazz band Phi-Psonics from LA and the inimitable Chip Wickham who joined last year but who goes right back to our first releases when he played with Matthew. They have all brought their unique music and personalities to our journey and helped us grow our community around the world. Finally, I think our tenth anniversary was an important mile-stone as our label events around the world (London, Berlin, Brussels, Manchester, Tokyo and beyond) helped us promote not just the artists but the label too as people were able to join the dots between different artists and get a sense of the label and it’s philosophy.
Gondwana Records is not only well known for its quality music output but also for the quality of their physical products – whether it is the attention to detail or the ‚art‘ within the ARTworks. Who’s responsible for the visual side of the label?
Thank you for your kind words. We are all obsessed with records. What they sound like and of course how they are presented to the world. It is really important to us that a Gondwana release is a beautiful object in every sense of the word, so we pour a lot of love and time into what we do. Again, a lot of this is a testament to Matthew’ vision but a very special mention here for Daniel Halsall who is the designer behind a lot of our records and responsible for such iconic covers as Matthew Halsall Into Forever, GoGo Penguin v2.0 and the Mammal Hands releases. We also collaborate with Duncan Bellamy of Veil Projects, Adam Heron and the legendary Ian Anderson of Designers Republic TM all of whom have bought their ow unique talents to our artwork.
I’ve seen Matthew selling a lot of vinyl records after his two recent shows at Gretchen. Is this typical for all other Gondwana artists? What roles are physical releases playing for your label and how important is the digital sector for you?
Matthew sells a lot of vinyl doesn’t he? And we are still very much a record label who make records! But we have also been very lucky with the support we have received from Apple, Spotify and all of the digital platforms as well of course Bandcamp. In fact we don’t really mind how people want to enjoy the music that we make. For us the most important thing is to be open and that people find us and our artists. To that end with have been really pleased to see how our YouTube channel has grown and it has become a really important platform for us – somewhere where we can share videos and our music in a really accessible way and where we are really enjoying watching our community grow with over 130,000 subscribers and a lot more joining us every month.
Coming out of the Covid-19, how heavy have you been hit by the pandemic as an independent record label? What part did your fan base play and were there any other key elements for you to manoeuvre through these difficult times?
Covid – and the resulting lock down – was of course a really difficult thing for us all to process and I think to some extent we are all still feeling the after effects of that dark period. That said we were also very lucky, our fans were very supportive and clearly wanted to support the artists that they love. So we concentrated on making and releasing records and producing some special editions of our records as well as limited editions and T-shirts, 7 inches etc in order to generate some income for the artists that couldn’t tour and to keep us all connected as much as we could. We also produced a virtual concert film of Matthew Halsall live at Hallè St Peters – a beautiful venue in Manchester – and sold tickets to raise money for the mental health charity Mind. We also found the support of bandcamp and their bandcamp Fridays initiative to be a real blessing during Covid as it gave music fans a really powerful way to interact with and support labels and artists.
After dealing with Covid-19, UK artists and creatives have also been affected heavily by Brexit at the same time and they still suffer from it until this day. Can you give us any insights? How hard is it for UK artists to tour Europe nowadays? Are there any new ways for you as a label to compensate this lack of income?
Ah, Brexit, another disaster which we are still grappling with. We are extremely saddened by the whole thing – we were proud Europeans – and it has made some of what we do more complicated and slower. But in all honesty it hasn’t made that much difference to us as a label and our artists are still touring Europe. The changes in VAT and import duty were initially an issue but we have worked hard to make sure that we can prepay these costs and this all seems to work okay now. We are also working hard on developing our relationships with local distributors and shops and later this year we will start to ship our direct orders from Germany to the EU so this should help too!
Can you tell us a bit about the connection between Gondwana Records and Gretchen?
Gretchen is a very special club. Lars is a hero who promotes music for the right reasons and whenever we visit we have a real sense of being part of a special community. Maybe only our own nights at Yes in Manchester, the UberJazz festival in Hamburg and the Gondwana events at AB in Brussels have that same special feeling for us. I have personally enjoyed very special evenings with Portico Quartet and Matthew Halsall at Gretchen and we are currently planning some events at Gretchen later in the year that will build on that special relationship.
How do you find new talents and artists for your label?
Artists come to Gondwana in a number of ways. We listen to all of the demos we are sent, we go to a lot of concerts and listen to a lot of music, and we have also signed artists through the recommendation of other artists. To some extent everyone has their own story. Mammal Hands for instance were heard at a festival by GoGo Penguin who suggested we check them out, whereas Matthew discovered GoGo Penguin in Manchester through their then drummer Rob Turner. Other artists such as Portico Quartet and Chip Wickham were part of our extended community already and others such as Hania Rani, Hanakiv and Svaneborg Kardyb reached out to us as they were fans of the label. The only thing that is constant is the sense of excitement when a new artist joins our family.
How did you come across Jasmine Myra and what can we expect from her upcoming live concert at Gretchen on April 6th?
Matthew Halsall ‘discovered’ Jasmine through actively searching for new artists from the North West of England and was immediately entranced. She is a really special composer and artist and we are both blessed to work with her and hugely excited to see where her journey takes her. Her music is elevating and soulful and absolutely beguiling live. She tours with a large ensemble featuring guitar, harp, piano, bass and drums and so is able to really represent the full layers and textures of her beautiful writing live. You’re in for a real treat.
As 2023 marks the 15th anniversary of Gondwana Records, are there any specials coming our way this year to celebrate this remarkable milestone?
We’re planning some special concerts – including at Gretchen – and we have some beautiful records lined-up including landmark records from Matthew Halsall and Hania Rani. As a wise man once said ‘ Watch this Space’!