Global Reggae Charts - Issue #12 / April 2018

BUSINESS
INSIGHT
global reggae charts
insight
INTERVIEW
With this issue we start a new series of interview
with business insiders, who will give insights into
their field of work. We start with Mathieu Dassieu
from Baco Records in France, who speaks about the
work of a reggae label in the 21st century.
Photo: Julie Arnoux
Felix Rühling: Hi Mat. The topic of this interview is
“managing a reggae label in 2018.” But since I know
that you are a busy man with many talents – can
you give us a little insight on your background and
the work you are doing?
Danakil’s development was useful for many other
bands. This “Do It Yourself” strategy has become a
real way to think about our business model and it
can fit many other projects or bands. We have experimented
with these “management techniques”
with many bands. What we were aware of, since the
beginning, was that we were involved in a “strange”
business where nobody on radio, TV, or mainstream
media, or big mainstream promoters, wanted to deal
with reggae artists or releases. It was very hard to
obtain visibility with our reggae projects, and that’s
maybe why big labels and major companies were
not interested in reggae bands like us.
Mathieu Dassieu: I am the former saxophonist of
Danakil’s horn section, and manager of the band since
the beginning of our activity in the 2000s, when
we were young students beginning to play reggae
music all together.
More than 10 years after our first gigs, we decided to
create Baco Records in 2011. At this time, we wanted
to take our independence back after a “not so nice”
experience on an indie label. But today, I am retired
from the road with the Danakil band and I mainly
focus on Baco Records’ activities and artist management.
FR: When I look at Baco Records, I see one of the
most successful reggae labels in Europe - some say
even THE most successful within continental Europe.
But, from my perspective, Baco is much more than
just a label releasing music. It is a small empire and
for some artists even the gateway to the European
market. What exactly are you doing and why is that?
Don’t you think that just releasing records is enough
work? [laughs]
MD: Thanks Felix! When we launched our label
activity, we were just managing our own (Danakil)
releases. But month after month, we discovered that
the independent economic model we built through
We understood at this time that the best way to
make our business go well, and to live for and from
our passion, was to try to manage the entire musical
industry “process.”
When Ben Ferdy, Danakil’s former booker, decided to
join us in the Baco adventure, it really changed the
face of our label. At this time, we were able to build
tours around a release, and so to see and to use the
“booking activity” as a major part of our promotion:
especially for bands banned on national TV and
radio. We must build strong and efficient tours if we
want to deliver our artist’s music to the audience.
At the same time, we founded our publishing company
to take good care of our publishing rights.
Two years after, we founded the distribution department
of Baco Records. And today, we are a major
distributor in France. Now we can put on the shelves
our own releases, and also offer this service to other
labels.
2018 is a very important year for us because we are
building our own office in the deep centre of
Bordeaux. The new office will be available this summer,
with a big bad recording studio inside. At this
time, we will be controlling all the “chain” between
the emergence of the first musical notes of a brand-
global reggae charts | issue 12 /april 2018
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