Joe
Foster has come full circle in his life. Not only is he a highly
estimated musician and producer, but also a record company executive.
He was one of the ‘holy three’ (in shoegaze/noise rock terms)
who founded Creation Records,
along with Alan McGee and Dick Green. While a lot of the hype
surrounding Creation is focused on Alan McGee, as the more flamboyant of
the lot, Joe Foster played an extremely important role at Creation –
he was the creative glue, so to speak, working as a producer with
such immense legends in the British rock and alternative scene
(whatever they may have been called at the time) as Primal
Scream, Jesus & Mary Chainand My Bloody Valentine among
others.
Musically,
his contributions are no less recognized, as a member of The
Television Personalities and
Biff Bang Pow. Nowadays, Mr.
Foster is always very involved with music, has his fingers in some
very tasty pies, and is involved in numerous projects. One of these
is his own imprint Glasgow-based label Poppydisc
Records, which continues to
issue new releases to this day. Another thing hasn’t changed with
the eternal pro - he also continues to "foster" excellent music,
often remixing and mixing new artists (such as Sleepyard,
The Veldt and
Latimer House), and
putting forth healthy estimations of others’ works, such as
occurred with the recent compilation ‘REVOLUTION
– The Shoegaze Revival’ and recent releases by Ummagma,
Maff, Malka
and Lights That
Change, among others.
We
had the occasion to exchange a quick chat with him via email and, of course, we would have been silly to pass up the
opportunity...
Joe Foster today
Hello
Joe, how are you? Where are you writing us from?
Hello
there, I am writing from Glasgow in Scotland…. where I am staying
just now…
I’d
like to start from your present, not from your past. Are you
currently working only with PoppyDisc or do you have any other
projects as a musician or producer?
I
am working on a number of things... here is a big list of my history I
was getting together... it is kind of up to date :-)
I
am about to start on a whole bunch of new projects….
Are
there any PoppyDisc records that you released and that you are
particularly proud of?
I
love them all :-) idk in a way the jazz ones I like, from Chet Baker
to Sun Ra. idk my late father would have seen that as more serious
music :-) but yes I love them all... Vivian Stanshall is one I am very
fond of and proud of...
Do
people remember you more as the founder of Creation (together with
McGee and Green), as a member of The Television Personalities, Biff
Bang Pow and other bands or as record producer?
I
imagine if they remember me at all it is as all of those... idk it’s
history…. interesting, and I like it, but I live in today..
You
know Alan McGee very well. Could you tell us one of his biggest
qualities and perhaps one drawback?
Yes
I do... his qualities of believing in artists and letting them run
with their dream is one of his many positives… negatives I cannot
think of one everyone has failings but in the art and business we
have done together he has never let me down nor as far as I ever saw
anyone...
When
I think of Creation I immediately think of two albums I adore,
Adorable’s 'Against Perfection' and 18 Wheeler’s 'Twin
Action', rather than thinking of Oasis, Teenage Fanclub or Boo
Radleys. What are your memories about those two albums?
We
loved all the artists on the label... sometimes the less obvious ones
we loved even more... but we never saw a separation between them at
all… they were all stars to us...
This
summer Jesus And Mary Chain was in Italy playing Psychocandy and
celebrating 30 years of that album. Did you ever think that they
would have had such a big influence in the history of music?
We always thought that they especially and we all as a group of
people were going to change the world... we kind of did I suppose… so
happy to see them back and raging!!
It was a pleasure to ready your positive comment on the compilation 'Revolution – The Shoegaze Revival', released by Indonesian label Gerpfast Kolektif and UK label Raphalite Records. I was pleased because to see that there are 4 Italian bands included there. Why do you see the work they are doing as a continuation of Creation and 4AD? And how come you talk about “the rebirth of a shoegaze sound world”?
It
is very much a label of the old school YET of the future which I like
about them very much, and the comp showing a rebirth of the shoegaze
and atmospheric sounds from a new young generation of artists is so
positive.. and this is just their year zero!
It’s
the 20th birthday of a wonderful record that was very underrated at
that time: “Pygmalion” by Slowdive. Are there any regrets now
that Creation didn’t give adequate support for such an outmoded
(out-of-vogue) record in 1995 at the time that brit-pop was full on
in popularity?
It
had the same support as everyone else on the label we did not
differentiate the same staff did the promo for everyone and they were
exceptional at it... there is nothing to regret... just wasn’t their
moment, much to our chagrin and disappointment, and theirs
too... that’s life, that’s showbiz... I do find the idea there was
a 2-tier system at Creation bizarre and slightly offensive... oh well
:-)
Thank
you again Joe. Is there a song that you particularly like and that we
can use as soundtrack to end this interview?
Upside
Down of course! :-)
Slaughter Joe's website
Poppydisc Records' website
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