Wee label with great chemistry

Published on Friday 29 January 2010 18:04

ON THE top floor of an industrial unit in the East End of Glasgow, the Chemikal Underground office looks as if it's been going since the dawn of time.

• Chemikal Underground was formed by the Delgados and even though they split in 2005, the label is going strong. Picture: Complimentary

It's either a cleaners' worst nightmare or a time capsule representing some of Scotland's greatest indie music, depending on how you choose to look at it. The original art for Arab Strap's classic second album, 1998's Philophobia, is the first sight that greets you. Yes, two huge paintings of singer Aidan Moffat and his girlfriend side by side, cross-legged, and stark naked. A beat-up keyboard is propped on two rolls of bubble-wrap. Boxes of CDs and records fill the shelves, colonise the floor, spill on to desks. Mogwai, Delgados Peel Sessions, the Phantom Band … the names scrawled on the boxes in black marker read like a roll-call of the best bands to come out of Scotland in the last 15 years.

"Pure bloodymindedness," is the unassuming reason co-founder Stewart Henderson gives for Chemikal Underground lasting so long. The seminal label, Scotland's most respected since Postcard Records, celebrates its 15th anniversary tomorrow with a birthday bash featuring artists old and new. Such longevity is rare in an age when even major labels are struggling to stay afloat, let alone "a wee indie" that started out in a Glasgow tenement, operating with just a fax machine in the bed recess of the kitchen. And the quartet who set it up, and were once known as the Delgados, know it. "It's miraculous," says Emma Pollock. "Every year it still feels like, 'Thank God we managed to get through another one.'"

Pollock, Henderson, Alun Woodward and Paul Savage formed Chemikal Underground in 1995 to put out the Delgados' first single. Things instantly stepped up a gear. The first band they signed, the fresh-faced (as in school-age) Bis, ended up on Top of The Pops with a hit single. Their second and third signings, Arab Strap and Mogwai, didn't do too bad either. In the office I meet a steady stream of artists who have been signed to the label over the years, all of whom say it was the best decision they made. Their affection for Chemikal shows in the way they rib each other, the impassioned discussion about the state of the industry, and the fact that they keep coming back to Chem19, the label's Blantyre studio. Over the years everyone from King Creosote to Franz Ferdinand, the Fratellis to the Twilight Sad has recorded there.

"It was always about the records they were putting out, and the fact they were a band," says Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite who seems most blown away by the biscuit selection on the table. Chemikal only released Mogwai's first two albums, but even today the American student on work placement in the office tells me it was her Mogwai obsession that brought her here.

"It's tough for labels just now, probably the worst time ever," says Braithwaite. "It's incredible that Chemikal are still here and it's still the same people." In the end, the label outlived the band – the Delgados split in 2005.

"It's a romantic label," says Damien Tonner, drummer in The Phantom Band. "I remember seeing a documentary about their fifth anniversary, when John Peel came up, and they're still going strong. I don't know if we'd still be going if we hadn't been signed by Chemikal."

Bandmate Andy Wake adds: "I remember buying the first Mogwai album and feeling totally taken aback. Here was this Scottish label and this Scottish band and it was completely different, like not gadgey."

Tonner laughs: "Remember, Wet Wet Wet were big at the time."

For Braithwaite, there is no Chemikal sound, but there is a feeling. "They're a very Scottish label, and very Scottish people. The music has a spirit of independence, humour, honesty, and melancholy." The founders even manage to be sanguine about the ones that got away, from Interpol and Antony and the Johnsons to the demo tape they ignored from Idlewild. "Oh, and Kaiser Chiefs wanted to tour with us," recalls Woodward. "Did they?" says Pollock, looking pained. "My God."

Everyone has their own highlight from the past 15 years. For Woodward it was seeing Mogwai first play the Barrowland. For Braithwaite it was the first time they went on tour, supported by Arab Strap. Most mention the fifth anniversary party, hosted by Peel, who declared The Delgados "one of the greatest bands in the world". For Pollock it's every time a new album comes in and the four of them sit and listen to it. "All of the records have been listened to in this room, on this stereo," she says. "We've had so many highs in here."

&#149 Chemikal Underground's 15th anniversary concert is at the ABC, Glasgow, tomorrow night as part of Celtic Connections.