23 years since its launch as one of the original music blogs and online communities, Drowned in Sound reboots as what site founder Sean Adams is calling an “audio publication”.
Part record label, part podcast, the new version of Drowned in Sound straddles the line between creator and curator. Somewhere in the translucent grey area between magazine cover mount compilations and album audio commentaries as extended liner notes. A place where audiobook essays and the Patti Smith school of punk rock collide with a playlister mindset.
“Whenever the anniversary of Tony Wilson from Factory’s death rolls around, I find myself missing not just his phone calls but the incorrigible influence he had on me in the early days of DiS,” begins Sean Adams, the driving force behind the infamous blog.
“Tony had an enviable position of being able to oscillate between being a broadcaster and an agitator. A TV presenter who released some of the art he loved on his pioneering independent record label. It made him the perfect tastemaker for the time, building up trust with an audience, whilst putting his money where his mouthful of eight syllable words was, and bringing us records like Unknown Pleasures, albums with sandpaper sleeves, and era-redefining singles like ‘Blue Monday’. It’s impossible to replicate that now but I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from it when dreaming up what a record label and music magazine could look like in the intersecting worlds and digital voids of 2023.”
If the medium is the message, then Spotify being the dominant force in music and focussing its profits on original podcasts, makes it seem strange that beyond Song Exploder, Dua Lipa, Rick Rubin, Gary Kemp’s Rockonteurs, and a few others, the music industry hasn’t really followed Daniel Ek down the Joe Rogan-shaped hole.
Sean says: “We experimented with podcasts back in 2005, and even won a few awards, but because of the success of releases by Kaiser Chiefs, Bat for Lashes and the 80k album sales from Martha Wainwright, I focussed more on the record label than the pod. And then streaming came along, and it was far less sustainable to be an independent record label as the industry transitioned… so I pivoted into playlist curation, writing a column for The Sunday Times, and artist management.”
If the medium is the message (part 2), then YouTube influencers and TikTok explainers is where the so-called attention economy is focussed, and yet, very few musicians have gone all-in on being “creators” of hashtag-content. “What can the music industry learn from the brightest minds across social platforms? I spent 4 years running BBC Radio 6 Music’s social media, and these platforms require a lot of strategic thinking to engage and grow an audience. It’s a huge task and the likes of The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins and Lizzo have had impactful experiments across social platforms, often dovetailing with their album concepts but mostly managing to interview themselves... I really want an element of my podcast and the presence of the label online to open up some windows of possibilities alongside helping to demystify creative communication and offer a tonne of inspiration from the past, present and future.”
“One of the worst things about being a neurodivergent music critic was transcribing interviews. I love being able to let my curiosity for a topic or an artist run amok, but it feels like the medium of words on a page doesn’t suit my brain. I spend most of my time listening to the radio and playlists and producing the political podcast The Trawl (#3 podcast in UK in News on Apple & Spotify) and I think if I was starting out now, I’d be a podcaster, speaking to musicians and seeking out experts. So that’s what I’m gonna do, and slip in conversations with artists on the label.”
The return of Drowned in Sound will also see the return of its Singles Club, with one release per month, kicking off on Feb 7th with ‘Cold Hearted Woman’ by The Faux Faux, which is the first solo release by Faith Vern from Manchester’s notorious punk gang PINS. “We got talking a couple of years ago, when she sang with Iggy Pop at the BBC’s legendary Maida Vale studios and kept in touch. Then I heard some of her solo demos and I can’t wait to share the magical music Faith’s been working on.”
‘Cold Hearted Woman’ by The Faux Faux is released worldwide by Drowned in Sound on February 7th 2023. thefauxfaux.co.uk | drownedinsound.org | 
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