Chalkpit Cassette Club - the online label going physical crowned one of NME’s x Squarespace's ReBuild Music winners!
Earlier this year, NME and Squarespace set out to find the collectives and individuals hoping to help the music industry bounce back from the pandemic in a better, fairer and possibly even funner way. The people hoping to – in the name of our contest – ReBuild Music.
The hundreds of ambitious ideas, plans and schemes were not only brilliant, ambitious ideas, plans and schemes, they were also totally inspiring and a joy to watch thanks to the overwhelming trend towards ideas that place kindness, community and joy at their core.
Chalkpit Cassette Club
Giving new artists their first physical release – on glorious cassette
The back story: There’s a lot of things to love about the Isle Of Wight – the microclimate, the, er, dinosaur museum – but away from its whopping summer festivals, you’d be hard pressed to say it’s a hub of the UK music scene. Silas Gregory intends to change that with his growing musical empire and brand new, cassette-only label club putting out extra-special releases from bands on the brink of brilliance.
Where they’re at: Already dabbling in publishing and promotions, Silas has everything in place to get cracking, from graphic design to manufacturing the cassettes, which, he says, is “surprisingly cheap”. We wouldn’t even know where to begin!
What’s next: The first release is coming very soon. It’s an exclusive, self-titles release from Silas’s favourite future-stompers The Howl & The Hum and it looks damn cool. This super-limited cassette (and digital download, wink) – was released on September 10 and is on sale now from the cassette club store – and stay tuned to NME for more on The Howl & The Hum.
What’s the big dream: Silas intends to run the label as a subscription club that allows cross-marketing of his multiple endeavours. From the Isle Of Wight to The World!
