HE.SHE.THEY. / CREATING A BRAND

TOOLBOX CREATING A BRAND

WITH STEVEN BRAINES / CO-FOUNDER OF HE.SHE.THEY.

INTRODUCTION

I’m Steven Braines co-founder of HE.SHE.THEY. – an international event series/record label/ podcast series/social media app fashion label/consultancy – and more besides.

Essentially, HE.SHE.THEY. is a brand name, an umbrella name, for all the different activities that my co-founder Sophia Kearney and I do that have a shared ethos about disruption and making different disciplines more inclusive and diverse. We also have other brands like the Weird & The Wonderful, and historically, other brands which I made for others, sold to others etc.

IN THE BEGINNING

My particular method to starting songs up in the demo process is to not be precious and just make as many as possible. All in one burst of energy. Doesn’t matter what I’m feeling, I just grab a guitar or bass, plug into garage band (cue boos and hisses from the crowd but I lovvvve garage band IOS), I might try a few of my fuzz pedals in the chain too for chaotic wonkiness. For every 20 demos, I make there’s typically one or two that go on to become a proper fleshed-out song. It’s just a numbers game. It’s kind of inevitable you’ll strike gold with that ratio. I’ve always hung on to something I once read that either Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen said (I forget which… LenBo?) - they would write 20 or 30 verses of a song just to get the best 3 or 4. Mind - blown! they too are brands, even myself or you are brands to others. I basically think that a brand is what you are seen to stand for by others. As a person, that can be communicated by what we are wearing, what we post on social media, and what we say. I’m a queer, left-wing, Goth music fan – in a nutshell, I tend to post about queer and minority rights, I wear almost exclusively black clothing and I post about this. I also post a lot at being at gigs or artists I like. That’s not the entire sum of my parts by any means but I think a lot of people who know me or indeed don’t know me that well. Would describe me as that. I’m also a huge wrestling fan but I don’t post about that often so people don’t know that – so most people wouldn’t include that as part of my “brand” because I don’t communicate often by

posting, or wearing wrestling shirts etc. .

WORD ASSOCIATION

The same thing applies when you’re creating a company or DJ brand. That’s why I called the music management company I founded The Weird & The Wonderful, as I wanted to manage artists that were left of centre but very talented. The name definitely helped like-minded artists come to be managed by us, which in turn attracted others. Some of the artists I’ve managed over the years include Maya Jane Coles, Tricky, Nadine Shah, Tale of Us, all of which I would argue easily pass the “are they weird and wonderful?” test.

Having a brand like that meant that promoters, music supervisors, other brands etc knew if they wanted something ‘weird and wonderful’ – we were the go to people. I was once asked by a major fashion designer if I knew someone who could taxidermy a horse that had just died and within 30 minutes I had them on the phone to someone. This is the schematic power of a brand. If I was called the “Blue Water” or “the beautiful & the brilliant” I wouldn’t be the first thing in people’s minds by association. Similarly, If I had mainly mainstream acts having the name ‘The Weird & Wonderful’ would either not really help or at worse be confusing and hinder.

So now it’s your turn. You’re starting a record label, club night, fashion label or just even marketing yourself as an artist.

Who or what are you? ‘HE.SHE. THEY.’ is about equality in music so it means if you identify as male, female or non-binary then you are all included. So the name fits the concept. We’re actually further than that as we look at things intersectionally but it’s basically a name we felt both captures that we’re about bringing diversity and inclusion to different things and, also, crucial for commercial success, looks good on a T-shirt, flyer and rolls off the tongue.

THE LAME NAME GAME?

Is the name good or lame? Ask your mates. Ask the brutal ones and ask those who would likely be consumers of your brand. A dear friend once wanted to call men’s fashion “Mashion” – thank goodness he had asked others first. Fashion is not female “ashion”. Menswear is the name for male fashion. Had he spent loads of money on that idea it would have been awful and the fashion world would not have taken his other ideas seriously. At first, he thought I was being tough on him, but then others agreed and thematically, it was viewed as not a good idea.

INNOVATE DON’T IMITATE

“Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery”. Unless you're a drag queen that’s probably not true in the creative business. If you’re an artist PLEASE go to Spotify, Resident Advisor and Beatport first and type your name into the search function. If there is another artist or DJ with the same name DON’T CALL YOURSELF IT – it often leads to headaches and, at worst, heartaches, if you’re forced to change it.

Try not to create a club night name that sounds like someone else – as it will be mistaken, it would look like you copied it, and also if something bad happens to the other brand, that mistaken identity sometimes mean you get associated with what happened

FUTURE-PROOFING

Personally, I have also avoided using my own name in the company or club night brand etc because a) you sound like a law firm b) it’s harder to sell the company – who wants to own Braines LTD without Steven Braines as part of it, and also just ego wise too. Unless you're a performer yourself rather than a company or a group, then it’s just you so it’s fine. If you’re a designer, I often think it’s better to have a brand name rather than a designer name. There is a great Vivienne Westwood documentary about how she franchised out the name in Asia and didn’t like the layout of the shop and some clothes that were sold bearing her name. The minute you sell that company with your name on it, someone else essentially owns your legacy. Always, imagine when you start something that one day it could be massive and sold and that way you future proof your brand from the start. I would hate to have had Steven Braines – a fashion house – and sell it and then suddenly people are selling fur products or sweatshop made clothes in my name with zero recourse for me to change things.

BRAND CONGRUENCE

Make the brand congruent. Who we programme for the club night and who we release on the label are linked. The imagery we have on the flyers is about platforming people who are performing at the night but we tend to use dancers over DJs for it as a way of signalling to people what type of night it is and that you can be experimental in what you wear and it’s welcomed to be different and many are trans and non-binary to show we’re trans-inclusive in a world were transphobia is still sadly rife. Who we interview on the podcasts links into nightlife, art, the charities we support, people who bring diversity and inclusion

"IMITATION IS THE MOST SINCERE FORM OF FLATTERY”. UNLESS YOU'RE A DRAG QUEEN THAT’S PROBABLY NOT TRUE IN THE CREATIVE BUSINESS."

to what they do, or have broken glass ceilings. With our fashion models, we use different people of different genders, and body types so it’s more representative. I’m 16 stone. I like seeing bigger bodies in clothes so I know what It might actually look like on me! Also, with our clothing, we make sure there is a range of sizing for all bodies, that designs are things anyone could wear including if you’re gender dysphoric. We make sure that the materials are vegan friendly and the factory conditions are good and wages. We also make the garments good quality so they last longer so there is less fashion waste. All these things are important to Sophia and me, and we hope and believe they are important to our customers.

MORALITY OVER MONEY

MI think that’s really important, that the morals of the company reflect Sophia and me. Could we make more money in the short term if we cut corners or used the cheaper supplier, or just exclusively booked cis-het white male DJs maybe? But we wouldn’t want to, it wouldn’t be us and we may as well just be brokers in the city or selling anything if that’s the case and we’re driven more by activism than money and the money comes eventually if the work is good anyway. I don’t need racists, transphobes, homophobes, or misogynists to buy our stuff. We’d rather be poor. The idea that success in business should purely be judged on a profit and loss sheet, is archaic, a bit

For more information on what to expect on the night, visit the HE.SHE.THEY party FAQs: www.heshethey.me/faq