‘I LOVE THE PRESSURE, I LOVE THE DEALS, I LOVE THE WIN’ MBUK’s partnership with the excellent Did Ya Know? podcast continues, with Adrian Sykes interviewing Atlantic Records’ Rich Castillo about his experiences, ambitions, passions and gripes within the UK music industry…
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ich Castillo and his three siblings were raised in Nottingham in the eighties and nineties by their single
mother. It was an upbringing that taught him important lessons and instilled core values. He says: “My dad had left before I was born, so I grew up with a bit of resentment in that sense. I always felt like my mum had to constantly do the job of two people. And if she could do that, then I’ve always thought I’ve never really got that much to complain about.” Even now, one of the things he enjoys about the record business is when things go wrong. “I always manage to find some sort of pleasure in the process of rectifying situations. I feel like I’m just cut out to do this, because of my character, and what has happened in my life to date.” And also, you suspect, because he’s rarely dealing with what the real world would call actual problems. There were also lessons to learn and plenty to absorb outside the family home: “We have a really good palette of culture in Nottingham. We’ve got a big Jamaican community, a big Indian and Pakistani community; I grew up around a lot of diversity. “I also went to a Baptist church, so I was raised around gospel music. And my mum, being Jamaican, played a lot of reggae music. I grew up doing chores to Lovers Rock. If I heard Freddie McGregor, I knew there were jobs to do!” Having been in management, records and publishing (and a boy band, more on that soon), he is now back in label land as A&R Director at Atlantic UK, a label which Castillo describes as “the leaders when it comes to introducing domestic repertoire to the rest of the world”.
He works across the company whilst simultaneously building his own roster, including Tion Wayne and Darkoo. Career highlights to date include discovering and breaking N-Dubz, working in Canada for Universal Music, returning to the UK to be part of the new Polydor and a flurry of big name signings at what was then Sony ATV. Future highlights, he hopes, include running a label and winning a Grammy. First though, about that boy band… When did you start thinking about getting into the music business? I went to college to do a performing arts course doing choreography and music and auditions for local pop groups would come in on our notice board.
I think that’s where I got the music bug properly and at the end of the summer we decided to try and go to London and get a record deal. There were people worse than us doing a lot better. We got a book called Showcase International and we went through it calling about 200 to 300 management companies in this book, and we managed to get a meeting with a guy called Richard Park, who was on [TV talent show] Fame Academy at the time. He agreed to work with us. So we move to London, we rent a two-bedroom flat in Stratford, we record a single – and then he pulls a plug before the song comes out. We’re all in London, with what we thought was gonna be a massive record deal, and suddenly we’re scratching our heads wondering how we’re going to survive. We all signed on, whilst doing all sorts of other stuff. We’re sneaking into nightclubs, getting on guest lists, still managing to get drunk and live a semi-decent life on benefits. We figured out a system of how we could survive in London, literally on about £20 a week each. We were in debt up to our eyeballs, but we looked at everything like a challenge: London will not beat us. My dole officer eventually said, ‘I’ve got to put you on a course, or you’ve got to show me that you’re looking for a job’. I said I only wanted to be in the music business, because I’d got the bug at this point. So they put me on a course, I think they called it the New Deal for musicians, where I did two days a week of college and then the rest of the time I’m supposed to be looking for a job.
“I couldn’t sing, but I could dance, I was in decent shape and I could blag it...”
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I went for an audition for a tribute band that were going to spend the summer in Spain, touring hotels. We were going to get paid what seemed like loads of money, we were going to meet loads of girls, we were going to have the best time. It was a no-brainer! And that’s what I did, I joined a group that got sent to Spain, to Majorca and Menorca, for a summer. We were a tribute band to Motown and to the popular boy bands of the time. I knew I couldn’t sing, but I could definitely dance, I was in decent shape and I could blag it, so I just thought fuck it!
