Hello it's DiS again

Like Twin Peaks The Return, with fewer donuts.

Hello DiSser,

It’s been a few years since I put the DiS website on pause in 2019.

In the interim I’ve done radio shows, made playlists, messed around with social media, kept the forums online, and tried to start a newsletter. Although with the latter, I switched jobs from BBC 6 Music to work for Max Richter & Yulia Mahr’s studio for a year, whilst The Anchoress who I manage released her acclaimed second album… there wasn’t much time for doing the newsletter justice. I wrote plenty of half-finished drafts though…

Deep down, I didn’t really think spending a few hours a week writing an email was really what I wanted Drowned in Sound to be, so I’ve spent the past year wrestling with a tonne of ideas and trying to find something with purpose. Many concepts got scribbled out or didn’t even make it as far as the page.

However, I’m writing to you today to confirm that Drowned in Sound is back, in pod form. Or to less Simpsons paraphrasing, as an “audio publication” (podcast) and record label.

I’m thrilled to confirm that the first release on the label will be the debut solo single by Faith Vern from DiS-favourites PINS under the solo guise of The Faux Faux. The first single will be out on February 7th and I’ll tell you more about it nearer the time.

As the numbers suggest, there will be then be a single a month, for 10 months. This zebra-like soundwave design has been done by the brilliant Angela from Sound Mirror.

Alongside the return of the singles club, which originally released the likes of Bat for Lashes, Metric, Martha Wainwright, Blood Red Shoes, Emmy the Great, Kaiser Chiefs and more, will be the all-new podcast (anyone remember when we had one of those back in 2005?!).

To be a bit meta, I’m going to record a podcast tonight to explain what the podcast is all about ahead of its launch in Feb. You can subscribe on Apple here or Spotify here (and I’ll spend some time submitting to all the other ‘podcatchers’ in next few days).

In short, it will be conversations with some of my favourite artists about their creative world alongside platforming a mixture of activists and agitators trying to fix the music industry and/or society and/or the planet, as well as exploring how sound impacts the brain and body. The feed will hopefully feel more like flicking through a magazine with short bits and long bits, big names and big ideas from people you might never have heard of otherwise.

Also, also, also…. I’ve set up a little chat group to experiment with building a very music-focussed community and to share more about the journey, bits of research I’m doing and the like, which you can join here (it’s more like WhatsApp than a forum but some channels are more like a messageboard than Discord).

Realise it sounds odd to do that rapper thing of telling you what I’m gonna do, rather than actually doing it… but I wanted to announce things in earnest today as it’s so-called “Blue Monday”, the most depressing day of the year… and obviously that’s also the title of one of the greatest songs of all-time. I’ve shared a few thoughts in this Twitter thread about how Factory Records’ Tony Wilson inspired a lot of where my head is at for the year ahead.

Here ends my first email ramble of 2023 (hopefully with less or fewer mistakes than usual). I’m really excited to start sharing music with you all in coming weeks and I hope you’ll stick around for the next phase in Drowned in Sound’s adventure that started way back in October 2000.

Bye for now,

Sean