Hey! Single Cell Collective
Hey! Manchester recently found itself on the mailing list for the Single Cell Collective and decided not to unsubscribe. How often does a new label launch in Manchester? Well probably fairly often – but this one looked good visually and promised Six Rivers, a whole compilation of local artists, as its debut release.
Below, we pick out our favourite tracks from among the 18 featured, and we speak to Jonathan Atkinson, one of the collective members.
First question is an obvious one: who’s behind Single Cell?
A growing band of over 18 artists and musicians. Most of us are from Manchester, and most of them from Hulme. We’re a pretty fluid bunch with people collaborating, writing, producing and playing on each other’s tracks. Among that there are a few standout bands including You and Boo, Caulbearers, Mel Uye Parker and Brocken Bow.
And what prompted you to set the collective up?
It’s grown out of the fact that we were already friends and already playing and collaborating together. Together we are stronger than we would be alone, we can help each other out in many ways and gain a higher profile. It’s also a political decision – we’d rather maintain control over the production and distribution of our work and collaborating as a collective allows us to do that.
Which other labels have inspired you?
Constellation Records, and their bands such as A Silver Mt Zion, from Montreal. Despite being well known they’ve managed to maintain control over their music and stayed true to their political ethos, and the music’s great. And Fence Collective because they’ve managed to walk the line between lo-fi integrity and mainstream success. Also the Forest, whose music is linked to a vibrant social centre in Edinburgh.
The first release is a compilation, which is unusual for a new label. Why did you decide to do this?
It seemed like the natural thing to do really. It reflects our collective nature. It’s something of a musical manifesto: diverse, new, political, Manchester-based, not following established trends or fashions.
And Six Rivers… what’s behind the name?
A stoned friend once told me that the reason Hulme is such as special place is that six underground rivers flow through it creating ley lines and mystic energy! It seemed crazy but the more I researched the more I found that a lot of Manchester’s rivers and natural environment has been buried and forgotten. The idea of hidden rivers and creative energies intermingling seemed like a nice metaphor for our creative collaboration and for some of the hidden issues within Manchester we aim to reveal.
There’s a lot of diversity on there – this isn’t a dedicated folk label, for instance. What does connect the artists?
We’re united by friendship, respect for each other’s music and the commitment to work together. There’s also a shared commitment to political and social justice causes. Many of us were involved in squats and social centres, environmental campaigns and anti-war actions before we played music together.
The compilation’s available as a download (with donations accepted) and for £8 as a well-packaged CD. Is this how you plan to do all Single Cell releases?
Before releasing the album we had a good think about how we would distribute it. Obviously we need to fund our work but there’s a growing assumption from audiences that music is free and available, and we wanted our work to be heard by as many people as possible. The solution we came up with was to produce a limited run of really nice, handmade CD albums for sale and then give away the mp3 download. We were really lucky to get the CDs and packaging designed by a great young designer called Loz Ives with photography from Andrew Brooks‘ brilliant Hidden Manchester exhibition at Urbis. So if people want something really nice they can go for the deluxe version; if not, there’s no reason for them not to hear our music.
What’s the plan for the future?
Onwards and upwards! Members of the collective will be playing various gigs and at festivals, Defunkles have a release coming up in the spring. We’re always looking for new people and collectives to collaborate with so if anyone reading this is interested in our work they should get in touch. Finally, we are putting on a project called ‘Guerilla Busking’ at Futuresonic 09 – you’ll have to wait to hear more about that one!
Single Cell Collective
Buy the album
Free download
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Tags:
collectives • hulme • labels • manchester • single cell • single cell collective • six rivers
One response to “Hey! Single Cell Collective”
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March 1st, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Been on the mailing list ages and been to a few Hey! Manc promoted gigs, first time on the blog though. Ace, won’t be the last time.
You’re on my blog roll now folks, plain sailing for ya from here on in. Ahem.