Big Scary Monsters - The '10 Collection

Understandably regarded as one of the UK’s leading lights in the independent/underground music community, Big Scary Monsters Recording Company continually plays host to countless promising, pioneering, and sometimes near penniless acts, such as (of late) Calories, Pulled Apart By Horses, Talons, Blakfish, and many more. This year, BSM have unveiled an interesting new project, a kind of singles club for the the 21st century dubbed the ’10 collection, with a new, previously unreleased single available to download for subscribers each of the 52 weeks of 2010, including exclusive releases from the label’s roster, unsigned bands, a selection of guest acts from other independant labels and some past favourites from the BSM archives. With the ’10 Collection delivering (amongst other things) a previously unreleased track from hardcore legend Walter Schrieifels and much anticipated new Tellison material in just its first seven weeks, it’s going to take a lot of work to keep the quality of inclusions at such a level....

‘So far –‘ says label founder and Kev Douch, ‘and I’m probably going to jinx it here – it hasn’t been ‘’too’’ ‘’ labour intensive’’ , and I’ve really enjoyed receiving people’s feedback to each new single, so it’s all been totally worth it. It stemmed in part from our ’09 Collection (which was made up of four compilation CDs over the course of the year – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) and also partly because I really wanted to run a singles club, but unfortunately physical releases are time consuming and expensive, plus there were so many bands I wanted to get involved, a 52-part series would at least allow me to work with a few of them.’

With each week’s single only announced on the day of its release, there’s a definite potential for some great surprises. ‘The majority of bands you’ll see come through the series this year will be new and unsigned acts I really enjoy’ Kev explains; ‘others will already be signed to the label and a few will be signed to friends labels. Musically it’ll be pretty eclectic too. So far we’ve only released one artist signed to another label, and that is Ice, Sea, Dead People, who work with our friends over in Ireland, the wonderful Smalltown America Records. Other labels we’ll be working with through 2010 include Alcopop, Favorite Gentlemen, Richter Collective, Blood & Biscuits and Topshelf, but I’m not naming artists just yet! Some of my absolute favourite new bands around are coming up in March, so I’m really looking forward to that month of releases.’

Upcoming UK trio Hold Your Horse is recently contributed the oddly named ‘Mackerel Jason’ to the collection and were happy to be involved, as James Penny from HYHI elaborates. ‘I think that the '10 collection is a great idea and I'm glad that people like Kev are trying to be creative as far as releases are concerned’, he says. ‘It will introduce people to a load of new bands and the 10% online discount is a genius way to get some label loyalty in there!’ But why Mackerel Jason? ‘Mackerel Jason is a song we have been playing awhile now, but we have only just managed to get it out there through the BSM '10 Collection. We decided to call the song half jokingly 'Mackerel Jason' instead of 'New Song', after watching that bit in the Reuben DVD "What happens in Aldershot stays in Aldershot" on the way to a gig in Staines. Coincidentally and tragically, Michael Jackson died that very night so we decided to stick with that name in tribute! As far as how us being on the '10 Collection came about, we have been chatting with Kevin from BSM for a while now (another one of our songs was on the autumn sampler) and he asked us if we wanted to be involved.’

With the ’10 Collection looking likely to go down as a success for Kev and the Big Scary Monsters family, it’s only natural to wonder what the future could bring on this front. ‘I have an idea of the shape I would like the 2011 Collection to take already,’ he reveals; ‘although that’s bound to change slightly over the next 10 months. ‘10 was actually part 2 of a 3 part grand plan to take the label into a different position, not just through these series but as a whole, trying to shift our thinking to stay inline with the way people are choosing to buy their music, as well as giving myself a chance to focus on the things I think we do best/are most important. All a little bit cryptic at the moment, I’m afraid, but hopefully all will make sense in a year or two!’ As for BSM’s year aside the collection, things are looking pretty exciting.

‘This year’s shaping up to be really busy,’ says Kev. ‘We’ve already had Shapes out on tour with Glassjaw, Talons with Johnny Foreigner and Blakfish in Europe with Biffy Clyro, where they unfortunately and unexpectedly split up! We also announced (and promptly sold out on pre-order alone) a limited edition, square-shaped 7” single from Andrew W.K., as well as the debut EP from Tall Ships, a very promising band who recently took part in the ’10 Collection. Walter Schreifels’ debut solo album comes out in April and he’ll be touring here to coincide with that – with a second run of dates already being planned – and it looks like Talons and Adebisi Shank will both be recording new albums over the summer. I’m sure there’s plenty more I’ve neglected to mention, but if people want to check out www.bsmrocks.com and follow me at www.twitter.com/bsmrocks, they should hopefully fill in the blanks.’

Otherwise where Hold Your Horse Is are concerned, the near future is looking to be equally promising. ‘As far as 2010 is concerned, the only things set in stone at the moment is a tour with 'Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea' in March/April and our new mailing list/log in area on our website, where we will be giving people free stuff like radio sessions and acoustic tracks in exchange for their email address! We are also writing and recording our next release,’ mentions James, ‘just trying to take some time over it and do it properly!’ It’s shaping up to be a bumper year for fans of BSM all round then; and you never know what might be round the corner...

Visit www.bsmrocks.com/10collection/ to check out the artists who’ve already contributed singles to the collection, and to subscribe.

For more information on Hold Your Horse Is, and to see their upcoming tour dates, visit www.myspace.com/hyhi.