Label focus – We Are Busy Bodies
With a 30-albums-a-year schedule, they’re not joking either
WHAT’S THE NAME OF YOUR LABEL, AND WHO RUNS IT?
We Are Busy Bodies. The label is owned and operated by Eric Warner.
WHEN & WHY DID THE LABEL START?
The label was founded in 2005. It was originally started to issue the final release of one of the bands I was in at the time. It then grew to become a springboard for many of the bands I was friends with and booked to try to help them find larger label and career opportunities. There was a period of dormancy in the early to mid-2010s where we issued far fewer releases. Since 2019 we try to sign and retain new artists thanks to a larger distribution set up and reach than previously and issue a wide range of reissues as well.
GIVE US A BRIEF SUMMARY OF WHAT YOU’VE RELEASED SINCE THEN….
We Are Busy Bodies issues roughly 30 albums a year presently. The label releases music across genres ranging from early electronic music reissues (Tom Dissevelt), seminal South African jazz reissues (Winston Mankunku Ngozi, Pat Matshikiza, Lionel Pillay, Kippie Moketsi, The Drive, etc.) to new music and collaborations by Lee “Scratch” Perry and New Age Doom, Peace Flag Ensemble, Electric Looking Glass, etc. We Are Busy Bodies prides itself on the eclectic nature of its releases and would like to think there is likely something for everyone based on our output. The label issued a single series in 2021 that included the likes of Cornershop, Gonora Sounds, Khun Narin, Nihilist Spasm Band, Raul Monsalve, and many others.
WHAT QUALITIES ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN THE MUSIC YOU RELEASE?
Ultimately music that tells a story, is impactful, and can resonate with its intended audience. We press a few hundred, or a few thousand of some releases. We like taking calculated risks when it comes to sharing the music we believe in. Music is universal and speaks to the end listener in different ways than the next. It’s exciting for us to read reviews of our releases, as well as receive feedback from record stores, direct purchasers, and the artists themselves.
WHAT KIND OF VISUAL IDENTITY DOES THE LABEL HAVE (ARTWORK, VIDEOS, ETC)?
Our logo is of a boy with four arms. Its meaning is apt in that we cannot sit idle and like to explore, challenge ourselves, and keep working diligently to share music. Many of our reissue releases stay true to the original artwork, which at times has been challenging to restore. Thanks to the expert creative design by Steve Lewin, our lead designer and creative force, we’ve been able to reintroduce highly sought-after records that retain the integrity of the original works. We will work with artists, their families, etc. to create inserts and provide further context in many cases, which is always a lot of fun to put together.
WHAT’S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST SELLING RELEASE TO DATE? TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT AND WHY YOU THINK IT WAS SO POPULAR.
Heshoo Beshoo Group, Vis-A-Vis and Lee “Scratch” Perry and New Age Doom. All three have sold consistently well. Each are very different releases. Heshoo Beshoo Group and Vis-A-Vis’ Obi Agye Me Dofo album were highly sought after and reissues either had not happened, or not happened with artist or label involvement. Lee “Scratch” Perry’s collaborative album with New Age Doom was the first release of his after his passing in 2021.
The “drone jazz” musical approach was not so different than some of his dub techniques and experimenting previously but was a first for Perry with the cast of musicians. Many of our vinyl releases have and continue to sell briskly, which we are grateful for.
NAME ONE RELEASE THAT YOU THINK DESERVED TO GET MORE ATTENTION THAN IT DID
Peace Flag Ensemble – Noteland. A June 2021 debut release by the Saskatchewan ensemble.
While the album received some excellent reviews and generated coverage, it felt like the release had the potential to reach a larger audience and fell through the cracks for some.
It’s a beautiful experimental jazz album that was one of my favourite 2021 releases overall. Our label has since issued a limited-edition x-ray 7” for a song released around Piano Day in 2022. The ensemble is presently working on a follow up album.
IF YOU COULD SIGN ANY ARTIST, ALIVE OR DEAD, WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
We listen to a lot of music, so this is a tricky one. We would have loved to do something with Silver Apples. We booked them in the early 2000s for a concert in Toronto and were amazed at both how incredible Simeon was live, but how kind and humble he was too. There are many Japanese jazz artists that we aspire to work with, both for new releases and reissues too. This is a difficult question to say the least.
WHICH OTHER LABELS DO YOU ADMIRE AND WHY?
The list is too long here. I worked at V2 Records in the early 2000s and consulted for other labels following. V2, through distribution has a relationship with Luaka Bop and I was able to work on Canadian press and marketing for several incredible releases at the time. Nearly 20 years later, being able to reconnect with labels like these to ask questions is very humbling. Again, a difficult question but K7!, Brownswood, Mushroom Hour Half Hour, New Soil, Aguirre, Olindo, and many others reinforce that everyone started as a music fan, is still a music fan, and gets to work on incredible releases with unique and talented artists.
WHAT CAN WE LOOK TO FROM YOUR LABEL NEXT?
A continuation of our We Are As-Shams series with AsShams/The Sun to complete our Lionel Pillay trilogy of reissues and another series to be announced in late 2022. A series of Japanese reissues that we’ve been working on for some time that will start seeing release dates later this year. Debut albums by some incredible Canadian/US groups in the jazz/experimental world and many other things to come. We have roughly 30 releases planned already for 2023. We’re also working on a music education projected called The Cylinder Project that will start having presentations later this year. The project explores the evolution of sound recordings, vanishing or less spoken languages and cultural preservation. The project is in collaboration with several universities, museums, and institutions, as well as the musicians involved.
To date, we’ve collaborated with Japanese musician and producer Meitei on a cylinder recording that reinterprets a 1912 Ainu language children’s lullaby. Ainu for additional background and context is an isolated language with few native speakers. We’ve also worked on a Yiddish cylinder in collaboration with Canadian musician, Friendly Rich. A contemporary cylinder incorporating a song by prolific Australian rock wizards, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard through their Bootlegger series was created for illustrative purposes. We’re continuing to add to the project and exploring other languages, songs, and cultures in collaboration with experts in the respective fields required to manage a project of this nature. Additionally, we are working on curriculum in Canada in collaboration with a university.
Noah Sparkes