Where are you based?
Thurrock, in Essex
Where do you work? What do you do?
Hornchurch, 20 minutes from home – a friendly and busy town still in Essex, but that might count as East London if we stretch the boundaries a touch, so long as that doesn’t multiply our rent
I’m Managing Director of SRD, an independent distributor of some renown, in business for 34 years; I joined in 1997, and took over the company a decade ago.
What are you listening to?
Have taken the lockdown opportunity to purge the overflowing vinyl collection, to create space to fill with new records (for a purge in five to ten years, in turn) – so, a mixture of everything as that review process continues, interspersed with second-hand purchases (hip hop, and 80s 7” singles mostly) and new gear (techno prominent).
How do you discover new music?
A deliberately-limited group of friends whose opinions I trust, along with the odd browse of choice stores (Hard Wax, Rush Hour) and newsletters/circulars (RA being a regular source).
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services? Why?
Vinyl accounts for 90%; headphones when in transit, CDs while driving, and via digital audio/WeTransfer links for new releases as they hit our schedule. Cassettes? Not for probably 30 years. This will not change, dreadful format: unwieldy, impractical and with awful sound quality. We must resist this attempted revival, if it ever warrants being taken seriously (it won’t). I still treasure my copy of the ‘Twix Trax’ tape comp as much as anything I own, that said.
Where do you do most of your music listening?
Wherever I am, in short. There’s always music on. Get home desperate for the loo? Put a record on first. You get the idea. So, at home (standard turntable, CD and amp, in no way elaborate), in the office (same) or in the car. Or on my iPod with headphones when commuting, or exercising. Think that’s all of my time covered.
“There’s always music on. Get home desperate for the loo? Put a record on first. You get the idea.”
How do you find and listen to pre-release music?
Very rarely listen to radio, but only because that would eat into valuable time working through the physical formats and links that quickly accumulate (as in, there’s a record on immediately without thought for alternatives). As such, new stories or posts, along with advance audio sales assets, are my most common introductions to new output.
Downloadable edits are essential for many of our retail partners, and as such almost all new titles to hit the pre-selling cycle have some kind of listening material, whether a lead track/premiere at press, or a whole album of snippets.
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?
I pick and choose which releases to give airtime to, both for internal and external material – because you have to. So, typically a balance of where my personal leanings take me, and where I need to familiarise myself, for example for a new label and where they’re pitched. The more user-friendly and low-content the better, for efficiency and housekeeping.
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?
If something qualifies for repeat listening on a personal level it gets added to the library, for easy access and reference – or better, I’ll make sure I pick up the vinyl when that surfaces. Needless to say, the collection is ruthlessly organised, through necessity given the scale…
Do you tip other people off to new music? How?
Oh, every day I’ll share links to something with someone that springs to mind while I’m listening myself, and will continue to do so even when the audience might not be receptive.
Anything you want to “promote”?
Some of my favourite SRD labels perhaps, more comfortably? Tresor, Kranky, Tectonic, Livity Sound, top of head. And my label, Arlen, and Plantman, for whom the label mostly remains active these days.
