About ten or twelve years ago, a young Jack pOp (aggh I’m writing in the third person) – I went into HMV in Swansea and bought a sampler that changed my life. Sure I’d always been into indie music, but rarely had I considered the label the bands were on, or the spirit of labels not necessarily sat atop ivory towers tossing flowers at George Michael week in week out. That Sampler was the ‘Dead Cheap Fierce Panda Sampler’. Catchily named it wasn’t, awesome it was.
And soon, not only was I in love the label, but I had albums or had seen live 10 of the 15 bands on it, and very much fallen in love with the Panda into the bargain. Then they sent me some awesome white label test pressings for a university show I was doing at the time, and the love continued. It made me want to run an indie label, which somehow I’ve ended up doing. It’s not quite as glamorous as I hoped, but hey ho…
And so, when they got in touch with us to ask to help out with their latest signing Acres of Lions – we were very eager to listen. When we found out they sounded like a big happy mix between Tellison and the Gigolo Aunts, we were absolutely delighted! So officially we’ve leapt into bed with the Pandas for a month or two, and though notoriously difficult to pop into their office without being fascinated by Bellatrix masters or Llama Farmers posters, are really excited to be working with Ares of Lions – our second Canadian import in a couple of weeks…
