TOOLBOX
FEEDING YOUR LOCAL MUSIC ECOSYSTEM WITH TOM ROBERTS FROM TJ ROBERTS
INTRODUCTION My name’s Tom and I front the band TJ Roberts and am a director of the record company Rose Parade Recording Company. As a band we’ve been performing together for just over 2 years and have recently released our sophomore album ‘Love, Loss & Other Useless Things’. We are all from and based in Cardiff and the community of Welsh music plays a huge role in not just the label but also the band itself. This was a year of firsts for us. Our first sold-out show, our first self-released record and our first global pandemic. DEVELOPING A VISION One of the cornerstones in starting a label is having
a strong vision. This wasn’t an idea that arrived from nothing. It was directly in response to the industry around us (the good and bad elements) and the apparent space for our label amongst the existing artists and practitioners in our area. Our primary driver in establishing the label was to distribute democracy more evenly amongst those who had a stake in the label’s success; including its artists. Too often it seems that small or independent labels are beholden to a singular voice, albeit one belonging to an incredibly hardworking and passionate individual. Rather than create an echo-chamber of sorts, we wanted to create a label where the addition 24
or removal of bands from the roster brought with it new visions for success. In this way the label can be more than the sum of its parts and actually develop organically with the music and community forming around it. "UNDERSTAND NOT JUST THEIR GENRE OR MARKET OF MUSIC, BUT THE LIVING BREATHING MUSIC ECOSYSTEM THAT SURROUNDS THEM." USING GOVERNMENT SUPPORT By the time it came to get this idea in writing, it was clear that we
