Continuing our ongoing series of chats with some of the smaller players in the music industry Phil Reynolds of Small Bear Records, based on the Isle of Man, took the time to answer a few questions recently.

 

MG: Firstly then where did the label name come from? I imagine bears, small or otherwise, are as rare on the Isle of Man as record labels are.

 

PR: Ah, no. We're overrun with 'em. Well, if by "Bears" you mean "Seagulls". It's a pretty twee story, really. A few years ago, I recorded an album and decided to release it somehow. My wife suggested we set up a label to do that. We'd originally planned to call it "Studio 31" after our address, but that already exists, so we looked around, and the first thing we saw was a small stuffed bear we've had for years (he's called "Dav" after a Canadian friend who he resembled) and it kinda stuck.

 

MG: From your website I see the labels' existed for the last five years. Presumably you felt back in 2011 that there was a gap in the market and you had an idea of what releases to fill it with? Is running it now the sole concern of those in the team or are day jobs still a necessity?

 

PR: Heh. I love the idea that we have a plan. We genuinely have no idea from day-to-day what we're doing - I mean, obviously we have releases we know are coming out which we're working on, but generally being so small allows us to move quickly and react as things happen. I think we've only lasted this long because things happened that we couldn't have foreseen. We'd only really imagined we'd be putting our own stuff out (Phil & The Dead and Postcode, for instance), but after, I think, we'd had four releases, we received an intriguing email from Brian Shea of The Bordellos asking whether we'd be interested in their new ep (to this day, Brian still can't remember where he found us - our profile at the time was virtually nil ...). We were, and that began a journey with the guys which lasts to this day and resulted in us taking Vukovar on board and releasing the Bordellos/Schizo Fun Addict (from New Jersey) charity tape last December which has so far raised over £1000 for Save The Children. They've been a cult for a few years now, and it's undeniable they helped to raise our profile. The label pretty much runs at a (slight) loss, so everyone involved is still very much ensconsed in their day jobs. We do it because of the amazing people we get to work with (many of whom have become friends), for the sheer love of the art and, in my case, my obsession with Factory Records.

 

MG: Your most recent release seems to have been by Swedish act This Heel so clearly you've an international roster of acts - how do you come by the bands and artists that make up Small Bear's output?

 

PR: Brilliantly convoluted story on this one ...

 

Postcode did a small tour of Europe and the UK in 2012 for which I stood in on bass because their bassist was away getting married. One of the gigs on that tour, organised by our pal Caroline, was in Shoreditch (well hip!) where we were supported by a lovely, shy, tall Swedish guy called Matt Bouvier whose first solo gig it was and who made us fall a bit in love with his songs of glorious reverb-drenched misery. We became friends and started hassling him as to whether we could give his homemade demo a bit more of a "proper" release. As it happened, he wrote an entirely new record for us. Anyhoo, he'd been friends with Martin Mansson Sjostrand from Dog, Paper, Submarine for years and when they were looking for somebody to put out their (utterly wonderful) eponymous ep, Matt suggested that they get in touch with us. Martin is the brain behind This Heel (and is ridiculously prolific!), so when he'd done the first ep, he asked us whether we'd put that out as well. Coincidentally, he's also friends with Anton from Club K, which is how we ended up working with them.

 

MG: Do you ever attempt to bring your acts together on the island for a festival of sorts or is that not logistically a reasonable proposition? This comes from a personal total ignorance of the island having never holidayed there.

 

PR: Unfortunately, we can barely get arrested on our home turf, so that's a big no. We're hoping to do something where us, our UK guys and our Swedish guys can possibly do something in the UK sometime, though. Also, you should come here. It's lovely.

 

MG: We're a good way into the year now so what are your release plans for the summer and autumn? And what are you particularly pleased to have released in the early part of 2016?

 

PR: Our first biggie is Vukovar's second LP, Voyeurism, which is due out in May. It's been a labour of love and no mistake, but their debut (Emperor) got such stunning reviews, that we had to go balls-out to follow it. Following that is our third Dog, Paper, Submarine release (which is coming out on 10" vinyl - very exciting). Then we've got debuts from Steve Nash and Matt Kelly - Matt originally wanted to release his LP as a mug with a download code printed on it, but that - sadly - hasn't been possible. We're also really excited about working with a band we've only just come across called Reptilians From Andromeda, who hail from Istanbul!