Jess Bell speaks to new indie Suffolk label and self release venture, Deaf Surfer Music...

Who is the brains behind Deaf Surfer?
The label is my idea (Lee, manager of The Cads). I thought of the idea for The Cads to self release their music and to hopefully build it up with some other releases from bands we like and come across on our travels.

When did you decide to create your own DIY label?
I set up my first label Holy Twist Records in 2008 but for garage punk/psychedelic kind of music. I met some good bands whilst touring and now help out some bands from France, Mexico, USA with gigs over in England and Europe as another side project. Deaf Surfer has been created mainly to release The Cads first EP Spark Up In Style but more recently we have had an offer from NRONE Records so we will be working with them to release The Cads latest creation, Club Of Rome. We are all pretty excited as its a big step in the right direction.

What inspired you to start up Deaf Surfer?
By having your own label it gives you complete freedom with what you do and there’s no pressure or expectations and no fear of being ‘dropped’ . These days its a pretty level playing field and anyone can set up a record label as its so easy, plus its a nice hobby which teaches you a lot about the other angles of music as a business.

What about the Suffolk music scene and the local talent, are there any names we should watch out for?
The Suffolk music scene is pretty lively at the moment and what’s even better is that there are so many good bands around with Richard and Graeme at Radio Suffolk helping them out now that there’s a proper BBC Introducing… show every Thursday. Bury St Edmunds has always produced good bands like Miss Black America and Jacobs Mouse, so I’ve always followed the local scene closely but in Suffolk there are so many good bands we are spoilt for choice.

The bands I’d recommend would be Ten City Nation, Black Sands, The Cads (of course!), Umbrella Assassins, The Waxing Captors, Generation of Swine, So-Called Humans, Ideals, Volunteers, AYB, The B Goodes, These Ghosts, and Millionaires by Morning… but watch out for The Cads and Black Sands with the most potential!

After deciding to create your own label how have you gone about promoting yourselves and getting your name heard?
The label has only just started so its mostly word of mouth and Facebook at the moment but expect regular club nights in Bury and Ipswich under the title ‘Deaf Surfer presents…’

Obviously you’re an indie label but what type of sound do you want your label to represent? Are there any bands that you would associate with your labels sound, local and non-local?
If the music is good and we all like it then it’s simply going to be run by good music, whether that be hip hop, indie, electro etc. We want to stay away from heavy metal, but The Cads and Black Sands would be a good start for us. Some bands we really like at the moment are Little Comets and Egyptian Hip Hop. Between all six/seven people involved with Deaf Surfer there are so many musical tastes it will be interesting to see how it unfolds with our mix of tastes.

So are these similar to your own musical influences?
My own musical tastes started in the mid 80s when electro came through and break dancing took hold of every town and city in England. Since then I’ve collected records across all genres including a stack of old house music from 1990/1993 but my main personal favourites would be DJ Shadow, The Horrors,13th Floor Elevators, Black Lips, The Black Angels, Masta Ace and Big Daddy Kane.

What advice would you give to any musicians wanting to break into the local music scene and get themselves noticed?
Play lots of gigs, give stuff away free, do it for the love of it and if you are good you will get noticed. Don’t hassle people, let them come to you.

It all sounds good so far. So what does the future hold for Deaf Surfer Records?
The Plan for now is to get the EP ready on CD and iTunes for April 24 with the money made whilst touring Germany and to hopefully find some other good bands we can put out too. Because there’s so many musical ideas in The Cads they can also use the label to release any side projects they come up with.

The Cads debut EP Spark Up In Style is released on April 22 2011 on Deaf Surfer Records: Launch Party @ McGinty’s, Ipswich

Photography: Jenny O’ Neill