A Closer Listen
Frances Castle’s Clay Pipe Music is our Label of the Year ~ an imprint so fantastic that every release is worth hearing and having. Not only is the music of high quality; it also occupies a distinctive niche in the industry. Not only does the label indulge in physical releases, but each is lovingly constructed.
Clay Pipe Music has been special from the start. The label’s first release, The Fields Lie Sleeping Beneath arrived in 2012, which was also the first year of our site. Recording as The Hardy Tree, Castle offered a vision of a benign, bucolic England, one that may or may not have existed in real life. Static and sample mingle with homespun music; the album itself was recorded in her attic. The striking cover art was a sign of what was to come; later sets would include postcards and a two-part comic book. Looking back on the catalog, some of the other physical highlights include the surprise cassette of Tyneham House, which seemed like a tag sale treasure; the fold-out bus of Gilroy Mere’s The Green Line; the snowflake vinyl of Jon Brooks’ How to Get to Spring; and the color-matched vinyl of Andrew Waswylk’s Balgay Hill: Morning in Magnolia. In addition, Clay Pipe Music offers re-releases of sold-out music with variant packaging, a gift to people who don’t read their emails quickly enough and miss out on the first run!
Whether celebrating trains, sailboats, lighthouses or swimming pools, the imprint casts the past in a kind light, with the hope that such times might return. Not that the music shies from sorrow; recent releases have also bemoaned the incursion of industry on pristine fields and peaceful villages.
This year the label continued its Mini CD series with David Boulter’s Factory, Zyggurat’s Broken Circle, Cate Brooks’ Easel Studies and D. Rothon’s just-released Lonesome Echoes. New full-lengths included Gilroy Mere’s Golden Gate and Vic Mars’ The Beacons. A new 2024 calendar, prints and t-shirts are also available. We caught up with Frances Castle to get a few words about the label, the process of creation and what’s coming next!
First off, congratulations on being A Closer Listen‘s Label of the Year! It’s long overdue and well-deserved. One of your releases has also been nominated as the Scottish album of the year; you must be very excited!
Thanks very much for choosing Clay Pipe it is really appreciated. Yes Andrew Wasylyk’s Hearing the Water Before Seeing the Falls reached the short list for the Scottish Album of the Year Award – it’s all down to Andrew’s hard work, creating such a beautiful record, let’s hope it leads to more people hearing his music.
Our site and your imprint began the same year (2012). What lessons have you learned about the industry along the way?
Well things have changed a lot since I started, streaming hadn’t really kicked off, and the vinyl resurgence hadn’t really begun, I started the label by producing CDs with hand printed covers and it has grown from there. I’m very lucky that some of the same people who bought the very first releases are still supporting the label. I guess I’ve learnt lots of practical things like dealing with shipping and packing vinyl, test pressings and handling vinyl manufacturing problems, how records get into shops and all the very unglamorous stuff that make a label tick over. The most important thing, of course, is just to put out music you really believe in, if you like hopefully others will too. I think A Closer Listen started writing about the label very early on, thanks very much for that.
Can you remember some of the feelings you had when releasing The Fields Lie Sleeping Beneath?
My plans were low-key, I don’t really consider myself a musician, the music was constructed like a jigsaw puzzle, it felt like a new creative endeavour even though I had made and released music before. I think perhaps my ideas were a bit more focused, in as much as I could see images and packaging and music working as a whole.
Is there a release you’re most proud of for any reason (packaging, music, reception, art)?
This is a really tricky one to answer, certain records mark landmarks in the label’s evolution, but I can’t really pull out favourites as such. I have memories of working on each record, doing the cover art for them etc, each one feels like a big chunk in the last 10 years of my life.
Thank you for keeping the physical format alive and well. You have a love for often-overlooked formats (Mini-CD, Flexidisc). What draws you to these supposedly antiquated formats? Fans have obviously responded; do you think that the relative rarity of physical editions adds to their appeal?
I guess over the years I’ve just tried different things. The mini CDs have proved popular, I had a plan to use them for some releases but couldn’t find anywhere in the UK that did decent sleeves, in the end I got together with Spencer Robinson who runs Premiere print in Suffolk – he was a fan of the label – and understood the sort of look I wanted. We designed a miniature gatefold sleeve, with a belly band that wraps over it, that I’ve used that template for the whole series, so each one is put together by hand and printed to that design in Suffolk.
Do people ever stumble upon your shoppe by accident, and if so, what is their reaction? What shoppes, pubs or other establishments are nearby?
It’s a space I share with my partner who is a sign maker, upstairs our friend runs a tape based recording studio. It’s in a kind of out-of-the-way place, on the edge of an area called Fish Island near Hackney Wick, here in London, so I don’t usually get people coming by accident. There are venues and places to eat nearby, but it hasn’t quite reached our corner, which is still quite industrial. The nearest train station is a 20min walk, so I’m really impressed when people find it and visit. I now have regulars who prefer to buy direct rather than order online.
What’s next for Clay Pipe Music?
The first vinyl release next year is by an artist new to the label, there is lots planned but nothing announced, so I can’t say too much. However, I’m hoping to finish the third part of my graphic novel Stagdale at some point in 2024.
A Closer Listen thanks Frances Castle for her time and generosity!
Richard Allen
Sun Dec 10 00:01:05 GMT 2023