“I get so frustrated when I hear people blabbing about record companies ripping off artists,” says Steve Beckett, co-founder of independent label Warp Records, with a wry smile, “when we are investing hundreds of thousands of pounds of our own money into basically a song! Can you imagine going to a bank and saying, “Can I have a few hundred thousand pounds with no security on anything ‘cos I’ve got a good song?” They’d laugh you out of the building. But we do that every day!”
Now approaching its twentieth birthday, Warp Records has become one of the great success stories of British music. Founded in 1989 out of a Sheffield record shop by Beckett and business partner Rob Mitchell – who died in 2001 of cancer – the company has specialised in proving that there is a market for experimentation despite the well-publicised deterioration of the music industry. Acts like LFO (who gave the label Top 20 hits within their first four releases), Aphex Twin (famous for, amongst other things, DJ-ing with sandpaper), Boards Of Canada (beloved of Radiohead) and, most recently, Battles have confirmed that it is still possible to take risks and achieve commercial success.
Beckett’s secret is that he has always remained true to his and Mitchell’s original vision. “Truly experimental music will stick out from the crowd and reach an audience,” he argues, “so we worked out a way of making a business model out of it.” And while hoardes of other independent labels have meanwhile been forced to the wall or at least cap in hand to the major labels, Warp has remained fully autonomous.
“I’m not motivated by money at all,” Beckett confirms, “and if I was I certainly wouldn't invest in the music business, because the risk is probably similar to betting on a horse race! But in my experience something that blows my mind will probably not be commercial suicide. People pay good money to have their minds blown”
Warp started out life offering, loosely speaking, dance music, and their constant belief in innovative sounds – combined with a strong identity courtesy of Designer’s Republic, who provided artwork for the majority of their releases – swiftly established their reputation as a label that discerning music fans could trust. But over the years the label has branched out, working with acts as diverse as songwriter Gravenhurst, post-punk revivalists Maximo Park and even moonlighting film director Vincent Gallo. Through it all the label’s supporters have remained loyal, recognising Beckett’s ability to “follow my ears. I just go with my gut and then worry about success afterwards.”
It’s not just Beckett’s ability to recognise songs worthy of investment that has made Warp such an influential company, however. In 2004 he launched the award-winning Bleep, a digital music store that, unlike most of its rivals, refused to employ Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems that limited where the music could be played.
“We realised no one wanted DRM downloads when you could just get music free without DRM,” he explains of his controversial but ultimately successful decision. “It’s just like anything: testing the water and getting your own real time direct market research on whether people want something or not.”
This freethinking approach also led Beckett to set up production company Warp Films in 1999. The label had already proved itself unusually visionary through its music video commissioning, working most notably with Chris Cunningham, who had cut his teeth developing animatronics for Alien 3, Judge Dredd and on Kubrick’s AI. His revolutionary videos for Aphex Twin’s Come To Daddy and Windowlicker brought Beckett into contact with the likes of Lynne Ramsey (director of Morvern Callar) and close-to-the-bone satirist Chris Morris (The Day Today, Brasseye).
“I realised we’d got a similar connection with these people that we had with our artists,” Beckett elaborates, and in 2003 the company’s first release, My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 117, justified their mutual faith in one another, winning that year’s Best Short Film BAFTA Award for director Chris Morris. Since then the company has gone from strength to strength: in particular their association with writer and director Shane Meadows has seen them produce two more award winning movies, their first feature Dead Man’s Shoes and 2006’s gritty but unforgettable This Is England.
Naturally the aesthetic behind Warp Films – which now employs ten people in Sheffield though the label itself has moved to London – remains similar to Warp Records’, with Beckett well aware of the parallels. “Whether it’s an artist, a film maker or a musician, I look for authenticity, fearlessness, spontaneity, and an appreciation for and ability to express beauty.”
It’s undeniably these qualities that have allowed Warp, in all its guises, to maintain its groundbreaking approach. Beckett’s belief in artists rather than executives may have kept him out of the limelight despite his success, but it has led to some of the most exciting music and film to emerge in the last twenty years.
“I prefer to carve my own route and trust my own judgements,” he concludes. “I don’t wake up and think, “let’s be pioneering today”, but I do try and work with the most talented people that I can find. We have put out the best music and art we have been able to, and made it available and known to as many people as possible. Every year I think it can’t last another year, but it does, and it keeps on growing.”
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