Interview: Simon Harper - Clash Editor

IF YOU were anywhere near the Jägermeister tent at last year's Reading Festival, you might have heard the soft sound of weeping.

• Picture: Complimentary

Inside Edith Bowman, the perky Radio 1 DJ and TV presenter from Fife, was consoling her friend, Simon Harper, the quiet and unassuming Dundonian editor of Clash magazine, over one of the biggest break-ups in modern British music.

"He was saying, 'Have you heard, have you heard? Oasis have split up!'" explains Bowman, wincing at the memory. "We were just both in tears going, 'No!' But that's Simon – it's all about the music for him. It always has been."

Aged just 31, Harper has spent the past nine years quietly creating what is arguably Britain's best music magazine. Certainly, the numerous publishing awards jostling for position on his office shelf – including Music Magazine of the Year – suggest that it might be. Originally known as Vibe, a freesheet events guide that was distributed around Scotland from its tiny headquarters in Dundee, Clash has swelled to become the definitive bible for music fans on both sides of the Atlantic, distributed in 30 countries and regularly attracting cover stars such as Paul McCartney, Kanye West, Coldplay and, yup, Oasis.

Next month it celebrates its 50th edition as Clash with a revamp and a total redesign that, it is hoped, will keep it at the forefront of international music publishing and snapping at the heels of competitors such as the legendary American music mag Rolling Stone. As Bowman – who is an avid Clash fan and also contributes a column – says: "They've gone from a little Portakabin in Dundee to international superstars. It's amazing really."

Harper, however, would be the first to admit that Clash's success was far from planned. "We started on this long road when I was just 22," he says via telephone from the magazine's London office, which now employs 15 staff. Its publishing headquarters in Dundee employ a further eight.

"Jon-Paul (Kitching, Harper's business partner] and I trained as graphic designers together in Dundee. Vibe was the product of a plan to make a local entertainment and music publication with the same aesthetics and feel of established style magazines. Neither of us have a background in journalism or media. Our CVs at that point could only boast of ardent reading of other music magazines and an undying passion for music."

But it was that undying passion, along with a healthy dose of youthful ambition, that combined to make the pair determined to outgrow their Portakabin roots. "We always had lofty ambitions," says Harper. "From the very start we were pitching for artists that were way beyond our reach and means and resources. But pretty soon we started to get them and it was like, 'Wait a minute here, we can go even bigger.'"

Harper also feels that being based outside London gave the magazine a unique take. "It wasn't London-centric or dwelling on the London music scene. Instead we were reviewing nationally famous bands, but at regional gigs. In terms of content it was really varied and it didn't have a London bias."

The magazine's first big cover star was French band Air, who, in 2001 when the magazine approached them, had recently exploded on to the international music scene. "They weren't doing any interviews but for some reason we got them," says Harper. "That was pretty cool. The next big band we got was Travis. It was the first big face-to-face interview and it was for a cover. Travis were pretty big at the time and the reason they did the interview was that they liked the magazine. After that we started to get into the spirit of interviewing bands and realised we could definitely do this, and create good, music-oriented, in-depth interviews."

The world of music magazines is notoriously fickle, and has suffered in the recent economic downturn. NME, the biggest British music magazine of the 1990s, has slumped to a readership of just 34,000, while other publications such as Kerrang!, Q and Mojo have all had to diversify with radio stations and sponsored tours in order to survive. Meanwhile, magazines such as the much-beloved Smash Hits, and the more recent Observer Music Monthly have been consigned to the scrapheap.

Harper is immensely proud that Clash magazine has retained its independence and body-swerved ownership by one of the publishing industry's behemoths, but says that does not mean it is immune to market forces. "There are two sides to it. The good side is that we don't have anyone pulling our strings. We have total flexibility. But on the other side of the coin, there's no-one supporting us, there's no-one to alleviate the problems or to fund you – you're always doing it yourself. It's been a difficult couple of years for everyone in the industry but we're lucky enough to have a dedicated readership who have stuck with us while other music magazines seem to be going in the other direction."

And then there is the issue of Clash's Scottish identity. "The fact that were still have our headquarters in Dundee is really important, but it's a double-edged sword," he says frankly. "There is a danger of looking parochial if you dwell on the fact that you're from Dundee, and it can be hard to be taken seriously as an international product if you dwell on that. But, saying that, we've had a lot of help from Scotland, and in particular Scottish Enterprise, and without that we would have had further struggles down the years. We've never lost our ties with Dundee."

Part of that help was a Regional Selective Assistance grant of 230,000, in 2008, to expand and fill jobs in Clash's online sector.

Along with Clash's reputation, Harper's star has risen, as well: he was recently named among the top 50 Scottish "stars" of 2009, and was described as being "a fusion of eclectic, slick rock bohemia".

Bowman says Harper is about as unstarry as you could imagine. "He's the most unassuming person in the world," she says. "He's so immersed in music and all the different cultural elements around him and he's very approachable about things. He hasn't changed since the day I met him, years ago. There are no airs and graces about him or any of the staff on the magazine. They just love what they do; they're not trying to prove a point or out-do anyone."

Harper, a lifelong Beatles fan, says the highlight of the job so far was interviewing Paul McCartney in 2007 when his latest album, Memory Almost Full, was released. "We were personally requested to do Paul McCartney. It was one of those interviews you can't turn down, but a lot of the guys in the office wanted to because they didn't think he was our audience or that he was relevant. But it was pretty special," says Harper.

Part of Clash's appeal to music artists of McCartney's calibre is its resolute focus on their music, rather than their personal lives. One of Harper's questions to McCartney was: "Even with all your experimentation, The Beatles' sound never lapsed into the self-indulgent, a frequent risk in experimental music. How did you achieve this?" It is this admittedly soft-soap approach that has helped make the magazine an industry favourite.

Bowman, however, defends the magazine's tactics. "They allow readers to make their own decisions," she says. "They're not trying to follow a trend or push things in people's faces. Instead, they give a platform to people to make up their own minds."

And Harper's still not above giving out the odd bit of gossip, relating how he once interviewed Yoko Ono in her home in the Dakota building in New York. "I interviewed her in her kitchen," he says. "It was very lived in. She clearly likes to cook. And she stays in touch: she sent me a Christmas card."

Bowman – who first met Harper in a pub in London when the magazine was in its early days and signed up with them immediately – says the magazine gives her an outlet to talk not just about her love of music but to give a snapshot of her life (she has a child with Tom Smith, frontman of the band Editors). "I'm not the kind of person who would ever do a photo shoot at my house for OK! magazine," she says. "But I appreciate that what I do is in the public eye, so I try and show the side of that which I believe is allowed for public consumption."

Harper is excited about Clash's future, talking of expansion in America, where they already have a presence. "Good music will always out," he says. "Everyone here is passionate about what they do and during the difficult times we spur each other on because we know that it is what we make it. We always need to know the next issue is going to be the best one yet."