Real gone kid

There’s probably something wrong with Davy Matchett.

Most men in his position – a father to a newborn daughter trying to balance the demands of a day job with a sleeves-up role in the on-going Oh Yeah initiative – would be praying for any excuse to scale things down a little. They would not, it’s pretty safe to assume, decide on committing to another time-intensive enterprise. And they certainly wouldn’t decide to set up a record label with all the merry madness that inevitably entails.
“That’s very true,” laughs Davy when we meet in a city centre coffee shop. “I probably need my head examined. My day runs 9-5 in work, then 5-8 dealing with the kids, and from 8-1.30 answering e-mails and sorting through Oh Yeah stuff. So, yes, it is a bit nuts.”
Not that he seems to mind. In fact, judging by his cheery demeanour he couldn’t be any happier.
Only Gone is the name of the label and, as Matchett talks excitedly about its formation and plans for the future, this arch-enthusiast doesn’t really need to tell me that it’s the “fulfilment of a lifetime’s ambition”. The size of his grin proves eloquent enough.
“It’s just one of those things that I always wanted to do,” he enthuses. “In my head, I always aspired to signing either Desert Hearts or the Disraeli Gears. The Hearts are signed to No Dancing, of course, and are doing brilliantly, so that wasn’t going to happen. And the Gears are all spread over England, so I never thought it was an option. But then one day I got an e-mail out of the blue from their lead singer, Paul Archer, saying he’d written this bunch of songs. And when I heard them I thought they had to be out there, and that I could help with that as well as anyone.”
Archer had chosen the name Burning Codes to operate under, and the songs he sent Matchett are collected on the impressive The Worthy Cause EP, and will be the label’s debut release. That’s an entirely appropriate development, when you consider that the pair have a history together that stretches back almost a decade and a half. In fact, when you also discover that the label took its name from an old Disraeli Gears’ song, it looks like Paul Archer’s new boss could also be his number one fan.
“Well, he’s just an incredibly talented guy,” Davy resumes. “He makes music because he has to, rather than wants to, but who’s maybe never enjoyed the breaks. The Burning Codes material is just incredible. On the one hand it’s very sparse and spare, but somehow it feels absolutely massive. I’m delighted to be involved in helping to bring it to more people’s attention.”
Given that over recent times even a multinational of the size of EMI has found itself in choppy waters, and that the digital revolution has posed a huge challenge to the traditional band/label/consumer model, you have to wonder if we’ve seen the end of the indie svengali. But Matchett doesn’t hesitate in citing the inspiration of figures such as Alan McGee, Geoff Travis, the late Tony Wilson, and, of course, Terri Hooley. So he’s not prepared to give up the good fight just yet.
“My aim is to put out music that I love, like they all did,” he insists. “They’re all figures I admire, and their attitude is the one I’d hope to have. I kept being told about barcodes and iTunes, but then I just thought: you know what – I’m not going to bother. I’m going to print up 500 CDs and release them in lovely sleeves. I’m sure there are cleverer and more profitable ways to do things, and easier ways to make money, but I want to do it the old-fashioned way: to put out a nice wee thing in a nice wee box.”
Matchett has enlisted the help of visual artist and current Duke Special collaborator, Tim Millen, in the hope that Only Gone will quickly assert its own distinct personality. Likewise, following on from the grown-up, bruised but hopeful Burning Codes, his next band, Under Pony, promise a similar dose of melodic but scuffed-around-the-edges melancholia. All taken together, the label’s aesthetic is becoming clear.
“That’s what I hope. Ultimately, I would love to be in the position where people buy the records on the strength of the label. The way I’d buy anything that was on Chemikal Underground.”
You wouldn’t put it past him.
But consider this- if Davy Matchett is doing so well now, what could he achieve after a full night’s sleep?