TNSrecords is a not-for-profit punk and ska label, band night, fanzine, distro and podcast based in Manchester. They started life as fanzine in 2003 and the band night soon followed. In 2008 they released their first compilation CD and are currently in the process of finalising their ninth release.
Their current roster includes: Sounds of Swami, Beat the Red Light, Stand Out Riot, Revenge of the Psychotronic Man, The Kirkz, Sense of Urgency, AWarAgainstSound and Harijan.
We caught up with Andy to have a quick chat about what’s going on the world of TNS Records…
Hey guys, firstly thanks for taking time out to chat to us, well appreciated. First up, what was the inspiration behind TNS Records?
This sounds really cheesey and obvious, but it really is the music. We like listening to good bands and we like seeing mint bands play live. After years of putting on gigs and doing the fanzine and hours of pissed up conversations between myself and Bev about how we’d love to release some cds, we figured a label was the logical progression and a great way that people could hear some bands who we really rate.
We figured no-one else was releasing the bands we liked, even though they are fucking brilliant so decided we may as well do it ourselves. It’s also a great excuse to have meetings in pubs.
You’ve just released your second compilation “Mainstream Music Is Shit”. What’s the feedback been like for this?
It’s been good so far. It just got a 5/5 review in Big Cheese and some pretty positive things are being said in fanzines too. A few people have got all defensive about the title, which is good, because that’s why we picked it haha.
One of the main things for us is that all the bands are so happy to be on the CD.
It’s only £6 for a double CD and 37 bands so people should grab a copy from our webstore at www.tnsrecords.co.uk
I know you have a load of releases coming up soon, can you tell us about them?
TNS008 is another split ep (our third split now) and it features three of the best ska-core bands in the North-West (Sense of Urgency, Stand Out Riot and AWarAgainstSound). We’ve been putting all three on at our nights and seeing them play in the area for ages now and thought that they all had a slightly different take on the genre, but would work well on a CD together, which it does. It sounds really good. It will be out in December. All three are great live and you should check out Stand Out Riots Carnival Militia album too because that is fantastic.
TNS009 will actually be a re-release of the Beat the Red Light ep. I’ve had this ep for a while and always had an interest in doing something with them, but we also won’t do a release for a band unless we see them live. Fairly recently my band (Revenge of the Psychotronic Man) were on the same bill as them and we were all truly blown away by them. We saw them again in Manchester a few days later and after hearing that they had only pressed 200 copies of the ep, asked if they wanted to re-release it through TNS. Happily they said yes. You can expect that in January.
You can also expect a Kirkz album in the new year. That’s more on the punk side of what we do. Fast paced with Rancid-esque bass lines and also mint live!
And why should people order these new TNS releases? This is your chance to really sell them to us?
Well mainly because they are genuinely fucking good bands. They are all also really original. Sense of Urgency have amazing Kid Dynamite type bits thrown into a ska mix, Stand Out Riot throw in loads of gypsy influences and are incredible musically. AWarAgainstSound are also technically amazing and their songs are so originally structured and Beat the Red Light sound like Slayer playing ska… how mint is that? All these bands also work their arses off, sometimes for very little reward, and they genuinely believe and support the underground punk ethic which is so important to us all.
And also, because TNS is completely not-for-profit, so every single sale makes a big difference to us and what we can afford to do in the future so we genuinely appreciate every single CD sold.
And finally, because we have offers on so you can get a £1 copy of one of our previous split eps with TNS008. £6 for two great CDs! Bargain!
How do you see the next 12 months for the label?
As mentioned previously, we are not-for-profit, and throw every penny back into the label. However, to get things up and running we also threw loads of our own money into the label and have a bit of debt, so I guess future plans do depend on how things pan out financially.
That said, we have lots of stuff in the pipeline and I imagine our third year as a label will see an increase in the number of releases we do. I think the Kirkz album will be out fairly soon and we are looking at stuff for Sounds of Swami (punk/hardcore/rock), Harijan (ska/reggae), Revenge of… (fast punk) and much more.
One of the most difficult things for me is that financial restraints mean we can’t release stuff for every band we like, which is a shame, because there are loads of bands (many who are on the compilation) who I’d like to work with, but we just can’t do everything.
We are also involved with the Strummercamp festival again, which will be mint!
You also put out a free zine, do you feel zines are an important part in the music scene?
Definitely. I love the whole idea of an underground network and fanzines are one of the most important elements of this for me. They are such a great way to share ideas and more people should read them. You will definitely find out more about underground music from a fanzine than you will from a music magazine. The fanzine was actually how TNS started. The first one came out in 2003. We re-badged it as TNSfanzine (it used to be That’s Not Skanking) and started from issue one again when we started the label, but if you count both versions we are up to issue 25 now.
Obviously other than TNS and Lights Go Out, what zines should people be checking out?
There are so many good ones, I’m scared of missing people out. OK, Mild Peril is one of my favourites, it covers lots of bands I really like and has a great sense of humour. Other good ones include Beat Motel, Issue, Fear and Loathing, Burnout, What Would Henry Rollins Do?, Riot77, South London Mess, Second City, Four Minute Warning, Barbies Dead, A Short Fanzine About Rocking… I read loads of them so sorry if I missed you.
You also run shows up in Manchester, what has been your fondest memories from these nights?
Haha they all blur into one! Some of them get a bit messy. I guess there are too many to choose from. We’ve been doing TNS gigs for nearly six years now and seen sooooo many good bands and made so many good friends. There is nearly always a really great atmosphere and that is something that’s important to us, everyone working together and supporting each other. We insist all bands watch each others sets, which contrubutes to that atmosphere. It’s been awesome to bring bands from outside the area to Manchester and see them become established here. I love that.
There have also been lots of funny things and immense stupidity such as animal masks, Xmas parties in summer and some quality djing skills. You don’t hear Altern8, Kriss Kross and Earth Song on the jukebox at your average punk night. We have a beach party with The Stupids in January, which promises to be… er, stupid!
And which bands have really stood out for you?
Again, there are too many. We tried to count up how many bands we’ve put on over the years. We inevitably missed some, but it’s pushing towards the 200 mark, which is crazy. I guess all the bands we’ve released stuff for have left a big impression.
If you could book any one band to play one of your nights, which band would it be?
You’ve probably guessed by now I will be incapable of saying just one band so….. the Lawrence Arms, no… Zeke… actually I’ll go with Kid Dynamite… or Sublime. I’m pretty pleased to have The Stupids actually, that will be good.
What have you found to be the biggest headaches with the label, the zine and the gigs?It sometimes gets hard to find enough time to manage all the aspects of it, especially as we are both in full time work. I feel sorry for our girlfriends! Financial restraints are also frustrating.
We are actually cutting down how many gigs we put on to concentrate more on other things, but it’s difficult as we like the gig element. We’ll still be doing gigs, but not nearly as many as previously so we apologise to all the bands we are going to have to turn down.
I love doing this so most of the time it’s fun, but every now and then we get TNStressed (see what I did there).
Myself and Bev handle most of the label stuff, but we are fortunate enough to have lots of people who really do loads to help us out with everything so thanks to everyone. Mikey, Sam, Francis, Nathan, Nat and Moz have done loads and lots of people contribute to the fanzine, take photos, let us store things in their shops (cheers Kathy), the bands do their bit and much more. We really do have a great community of people, which is growing all the time and it’s really a pleasure to be involved with.
Can you let us in on why you use animal heads on human bodies so often?
It’s mainly because we are fucking idiots. Haha no it is mainly to be funny. I’ve always enjoyed how sketch shows such as Big Train do that sort of thing and act as if it’s completely normal. As you’ve probably noticed we quite like the idea of taking a concept which is completely ridiculous and following it through as if it’s completely sensible. It gets a bit silly!
“Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically” Sol Lewitt, 1968
See, I did learn something at uni!
What advice could you offer to other people looking to start labels?
Don’t expect to have any free time… ever again. I guess just release music because you like it, do things with the best intentions, don’t sell out, work your arse off, but perhaps most importantly make sure you continue to enjoy it. If it’s not fun there is no point.
We are learning and learning as we go along and you will also probably make mistakes, but just try to learn from them to better what you do.
Some labels don’t like demo’s to be submitted, what’s your take on this?
It’s kinda weird for us being a band night and a fanzine too, we get a lot of stuff sent and are not always sure what the bands are after. In label terms we are not going to release something for a band just because we like their demo and gig wise we don’t have enough slots at our gigs to put everyone on, but I always like to hear new music and will listen to everything I get sent.
In the fanzine I try to never put a negative review in so if you send something and don’t get reviewed, sorry, that’s how I do it, but I have listened to it. Tbh I don’t particularly like reviewing as a concept, I prefer to just spread the word about stuff I like. Basically I don’t think I have the right to criticise your music. If I like it I’ll review it so people can find out about you, if I don’t it’s not my place to pass comment. If we do really like it, chances are we’ll offer you a gig and go from there, but I have to say, I tend to get into bands I see live more than I do from recordings.
I’d also much prefer actual CDs/vinyls than links to mp3s.
And finally, how can people get in touch with you and why should they?
www.tnsrecords.co.uk, myspace.com/thatsnotskankingrecords thatsnotskanking [at] hotmail.com
If you get in touch we will sell you good music for cheap prices.
If you email us your postal address you can get a copy of the fanzine for FREE every issue and exclusive offers on our shizzle!
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.Comments are closed.
© Lights Go Out – A punk fanzine from the UK. All rights reserved. RSS Feed | Best viewed in Mozilla Firefox
site by ledbyexample | admin