FROM LOSTPROPHETS TO THE AUTOMATIC:  FIVE YEARS OF NEW MUSIC IN WALES

Editor of Welsh Music Foundation's magazine since April 2001, James McLaren
looks back at its successes and developments along the way.

Writing about the demise of something that pays your wages, provides you
with a living in an area you enjoy and that has literally soundtracked your
life for five years is never easy. But that's the situation with Sound
Nation now. I've been editor of the magazine since April 2001, and it's time
to celebrate what it's been and what it's done. I've never been one for the
personal view, the proselytising point-of-view editorial; that's why I've
employed others to give their views as industry experts, so it's strange
that I now find myself in the position of having to set down my thoughts.

I think that the lasting legacy of Sound Nation, if there will be one, is
that Wales has got used to having a national music magazine. It's been at
the centre of the music industry in Wales for the last five years, and has
gradually become the place that the grassroots music industry comes to first
when looking to begin publicity. Having an editorial spectrum that places
equal importance on the bedroom record label and the internationally-minded
expanding pro label has meant that we've been able to pick up some
enterprises right at the start and see them grow. We've also been able to
pick up some acts right at the beginning of their careers too, which has
been one of the most exciting aspects.
Honk - the forerunner of Sound Nation - started on this note with its first
interview: the first outside the fanzine press with rising Pontypridd stars
Lostprophets. Ian Watkins and Mike Lewis were both working at the time,
unleashing broadsides into a Welsh music scene at the time which didn't seem
to give credence to rock music. This eight-page matte paper zine was the
first indication that Wales was about to enter an era of greater acitivity
than ever before, both artistically and industrially. For in the same issue,
we featured the fledging Mighty Atom label, dealing at the time with Powder,
Goatboy and Stickman, but soon to find one of the keys to Welsh rock's
renaissance.
During 2001, Honk was reflecting the established 'big' bands (Feeder, Manic
Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Gorky's, Super Furry Animals), but
enthusing about a new generation of Welsh potentials - Mclusky, Mohobishopi,
MC Mabon, Kosheen, Melys, Jarcrew, Plastic Raygun for instance - in a range
of genres. We quickly established the raison d'être of Honk and its place in
Welsh Music Foundation's philosophy: the talent was there, but how to
marshall it in an industry context? To that end, arming readers with
information on how the industry worked was paramount, and we set about
beginning the huge range of How To... features from setting up a record
label, to organising live gigs, to joining collection societies. This series
continues to this day. We also began to work on getting industry experts
involved and contributing, from estalished journalists like Simon Price,
Iestyn George and Steve Lamacq to business experts in their fields.
Issue nine in December 2001, saw a redesign from the two-week rush of the
initial design. By this time we'd began to pick up readers at a steady rate
and to bring people up to speed, we asked for some of the scenester's tips
for 2002. Amongst a list of never-quite-made-its, one of those who got their
bets right in the long term included dance scene stalwart (now Radio 1Xtra
producer) Raeph Powell, who namechecked current drum'n'bass star High
Contrast...
Honk and Sound Nation have striven to emphasise the linked nature of various
arms of a good local music industry, and in 2002 we put together a feature
on Wales' punk scene with the DIY approach to the fore. This genre, more
than any other, has always armed itself with the knowledge to operate
independently if necessary, and it's this ethos that the magazine has
continued to encourage. What's the point of having acts in the area if there
are no labels, promoters, fanzines and managers to support them locally? We
also wrote about Adequate 7 (almost four years later, still going and with
Radio 1 play), and a fanzine called Third Engine, edited by Matt Davies, who
was about to take his new band, Funeral For A Friend, to heights he'd never
imagined.
This feature was also the first in our Scene But Not Heard series, in which
we uncovered the businesses and acts making up a current scene in Wales,
sometimes generically, sometimes geographically, but also, for 18 months or
so, historically. These historical features were later abandoned, but I
believe for the short time they ran (covering Young Marble Giants, Freur,
rare Welsh punk, Steve Strange, the Beatles in Wales, Fierce Recordings, the
history of Manic Street Preachers, hip hop in Wales, Ankst and Ankstmusik,
electronica, black music in Cardiff Bay, North Welsh labels, glam rock and
stoner rock) they provided both the information to seek out those acts and
records, but also the context to understand what is happening currently in
Welsh music. These features contained reminiscences that had never before
been published, and photos which had never before been published.
Thankfully, all these features are archived and still available.
We continued the work of publicising the industry movers and shakers,
companies and schemes that provide Welsh copyright holders with the best
methods to utilise their copyright. We encouraged people to get in touch
with labels, managers, DJs, venues, promoters and publishers to further
their careers, and fostered the belief that no-one and nothing in the music
business is unattainable if you have the right information. We kept our ears
to the ground on acts too, with interviews in 2002 and 2003 from Skindred,
Jean Jacques Smoothie, Jon The Dentist, Hybrid, Brave Captain, Alabama 3,
and the first chats with upcoming stars like Funeral For A Friend, Hondo
Maclean and The Crimea.
The arrival of Elliot Reuben as Chief Executive of WMF in 2003 saw a
name-change, a redesign and a new ethos to the magazine. The new Sound
Nation magazine was designed to represent Wales' music industry as it
deserved to be: printed on gloss paper, better designed, improved editorial
and also to cover the stated aim of increasing the magazine's circulation to
a targeted audience of active music consumers in the general public, as well
as those engaged in some way in the music industry itself. Splitting the
editorial into 'punter' and 'business' sections, we set about engaging
consumers in the music business, talking about established and new
businesses, publicising their services and arming readers with the knowledge
that if there was something they wanted to do, that they could. By
interviewing people about their careers and asking their advice, we fostered
an attitude that anyone from the grassroots upwards could improve their own
business practises.
By this time, we'd seen that the old guard of 2001 had been joined by new
raft of acts, wowing the music press, playing live gigs, and with copyright
often being retained within Wales, something that was a near-impossibility a
few years before. Mighty Atom were canny in getting points on Funeral For A
Friend's deal with Atlantic, which set them up to expand massively their
roster and reputation - which is still growing today. Loads of record labels
started working hard on putting together a competent press and publicity
machine, investigating proper distribution and gradually becoming more and
more professional. High Contrast was establishing himself as one of the UK
dance scene's foremost new stars and producers, with plans for his own
label, which has now seen the light of day. And Lostprophets had become
massive by the release of their second album in 2004.
2004 saw a marked jump in the amount of the UK's A&R departments using Sound
Nation as a resource, and contacting me for my thoughts on acts featured in
the magazine. This brought home the fact that the magazine had been bridging
the gap between the local fanzine level and national press and industry,
enabling small acts and labels to make themselves known to people it would
otherwise be hard to reach. Publicising the Welsh music industry to the rest
of the UK and the world was something we'd always set out to do, because an
enclosed, insular local industry cannot sustain itself. This went
hand-in-hand with a greater international outlook on the part of Welsh
labels who had taken advantage of WMF's initiatives to assist Welsh
businesses to access the likes of international licensing and distribution.
By September 2004 it was time to change format once more. If you're
successful in bringing people into a free magazine, you'll soon start to
accelerate costs. Sound Nation was becoming too successful, had too many
subscribers and we also had to look at bringing business once more back to
the fore. A change of policy meant that we had to aim our editorial firmly
at existing businesses within Welsh music, not anymore to potential
start-ups or the active consumers. We also underwent the biggest format
change, to a compact A5 size. Not that this meant any reduction in the sheer
volume of editorial. In each 32 page issue, there are still around 21,000
words.
Neither did it mean any reduction in our ability to pick up some potential
big hitters. Issue 14, the first A5 edition, featured Jem Griffiths, who'd
been on our radar for a year previously, and for issue 15 we went out on a
limb putting Bullet For My Valentine on the cover. They've since established
themselves in Lostprophets' and Funerals' wake as one of the UK's biggest
rock acts. We did the same again by putting The Automatic on the cover,
continuing our record - of which I'm proud - of being the first on the scene
for acts who come through in the national scene. Of course, sometimes things
don't work out for the acts we cover, but we can only do our best with the
information we get. And this is where I can look back and thank all the
people who have fed their information into the magazine. From the tip of
Anglesey to Cardiff Bay, Honk and Sound Nation covered every genre, every
scene, every hot tip in some way. Both English- and Welsh-language acts and
labels provided a lasting legacy of astonishing Welsh music in the last five
years.

I think we've done a good job with Honk and Sound Nation. While I would
never suggest we were the sole reason for any success, I think we've
assisted people along their way to their successes.
People have told me that they've made money from what they've found about in
our How To... features. People have told me that they've increased their
business from being covered in the news section. People have told me that
they've made contact with commercially-beneficial people in the business
sections, or that they've got management, legal advice and business advice
from contacts in Sound Nation. People have told me that they got extra press
from being covered. And people have told me that Sound Nation is the only
outlet they have for their releases.
I hope against hope that something comes along that gives all these people
the same ability to publicise their business. As I said at the beginning,
Wales has got used to having a national music magazine, and I think it's
essential that something is in place to carry on the work of Sound Nation.

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