New Record Label ‘No Soap’ Launched by and for Scottish Musicians
Zara Grew
09/05/24
(Image Credit: No Soap)
Three Glasgow-based musicians launch DIY record label ‘No Soap’ to showcase grassroots talent and develop community within the Scottish music scene.
Sam Rafanell-Williams, one of the key creators of No Soap said, “our goal is to provide a promotional platform for local musicians…by running events and producing small-scale DIY releases, the point of No Soap is to consolidate and elevate the talent of these local artists.”.
The newly launched label has organised two events to promote their first tape NS001. One taking place on May 18 at Settlement Projects in Leith, the other on the May 25 at the Alchemy Experiment on Byres Road.
Founder, Fin Logie said, “the idea initially was to create a promotions collective that would operate with the aim of putting on fun, well-curated grassroots shows and paying musicians fairly for their time. Then another idea evolved to create a collective tape between four bands that would serve to curate and promote a certain kind of sound. The decision to call it a label came about when we realised it would be the most effective way of unifying all of these efforts under one banner”.
(Image Credit: No Soap)
Chole Kauffmann-Trappes is a member of the band Daydream who will be featured on the NS001 tape. Chloe said, “my band and I are super excited to be working with No Soap on their label launch! It’s great to see our friends and the music community in Glasgow coming together… I love that as a band we’re part of this DIY movement to spread the word”.
The creators of No Soap have found a gap in the market for an industry-led collaborative label as an alternative to larger promoters with exploitative business models.
Loup Havenith, one of the creators of the No Soap label, said “it's just the first step, getting music out there physically and digitally and spreading the word about the kind of music we're making. It's nice to have a curatorial component to it and uplift music that we love without needing to like 'own' or 'release' it, through the gigs, the radio show, and the videos.”.
(Image Credit: No Soap)
The collective, community-focused element of No Soap has been welcomed by artists across Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Alexander Gyllos from Glasgow band Wild Cabin said: “It’s a very warm feeling working together to get all these artists on a shared release. There’s been a big drop in DIY community driven projects since the pandemic so it’s refreshing to get something like this going again”.
Fin originally started No Soap as a radio show on Glasgow University’s Subcity radio but saw potential for the project to go further.
Fin said, “I started hosting a show on Subcity back in 2022. I always had a lot of fun hosting the show, and it has naturally grown to involve friends with similar tastes and attitudes towards music. We’ve had good feedback about the genres we focus on and artists we spotlight, many of them being Glasgow- and Edinburgh-based”.
You can find out more about the exciting new DIY label at their website or book tickets to the launch events here.