Dylan Haskins, The Exchange, Hideaway Records

Posted on 7th Oct 09 by Paul Groome | 0

Change is important. Change keeps things fresh, keeps people interested and introduces new methods of doing things. Having started off originally in Greystones, county Wicklow, with the Basta Youth Collective, Dylan Haskins introduced gigs for all ages. A place where anyone could come along as see a band play. Eventually developing into the now legendary Hideaway House gigs in Deansgrange, the word of mouth network was gathering momentum as the demand for these gigs grew. And so inevitably, another change needed to take place. The Exchange in Temple Bar.

Dylan Haskins

Sitting outside a cafe, over several cups of tea, this young man described the driving force behind what he’s achieved and his plans for the future. A more inspiring person, you could not meet.

Drop-d: The Exchange has been getting a lot of attention in the past few months, and with the Arts Councils support behind you, what are your plans for the venue?

Dylan: It’s giving people a place in the city that they didn’t have before. It’s a place where they can meet and discuss art projects of all different types. And when you have a place like that, you’ll feel much more a part of the city. The Exchange is simply providing that opportunity. Where it goes is endless really. With those projects being run and organised by the people involved, the volunteer administration can take more time to manage the space and see where we can develop it. The experience of running gigs with Hideaway House and the Basta Youth Collective give us that idea of developing an arts space further than just having gigs, but rather having a place where lots of alternative activities can take place. It’s taking everything one step further.

Drop-d: Hideaway Records has now taken off from the success of the Hideaway House gigs. Unlike 99% of the record labels in existance, you don’t use contracts and your approach to running the label is very honest, a word you don’t hear too often.

Dylan: Well, that’s the thing. When I setup Hideaway Records, I didn’t do this to set up a company. I basically approached it from the perspective of “I would like to release this record by Kidd Blunt, and I’ll need a record label to do that”. And that’s how I did it. It’s just a different way of looking it. You need to make sure that the horse is pulling the cart, and not the other way around. For me, the cart is the record label and the horse is my driving force and motivation. I believe you should be clear about what your motivation is behind anything you do. About whether it’s right or wrong. And this was simply to release music by a band that mean a great deal to me. Also, everything is agreed at a more personal level rather than replying on contracts.

Drop-d: So the main objective is purely to get the music to wider audience. But in the mainstream, the whole business model of the music industry is getting questioned. Do you feel that this approach is perhaps one of the ways that could help the music industry move forward?

Dylan: Well, everything is really up in the air at the moment. From the point of view of someone running a record label making a living from it, what I’m doing isn’t really something that’s going to work for them. For Hideaway Records though, it makes things a little easier, in that I’m not looking for the next big thing to come along. The bands I’m working with, if they can get their music out there and because of my approach it’s not a money making machine. It takes the pressure away from trying to run Hideaway Records as a viable business. It’s purely for the love of doing it. It’s not that I think that any other record labels are “doing it wrong”, but for me, this is how I like to run things. I’m not sure if this method is something that would help the whole industry in the longrun, but it’s certainly helping the artists objective of getting music to a wider audience.

Drop-d: MP3 file sharing is an ideal way of distributing your music to wider audiences aswell, but companies who rely on record sales aren’t going to be able to sustain this free distribution for very long without going bankrupt.

Dylan: Yes, of course. But if you ask most artists or bands why they would sign to a major label, it would be to distribute their music to a wider audience. This is achieved through file sharing, but the major label business model doesn’t work like that. Fortunately, with Hideaway Records there isn’t that conflict of interest. Everything is for the benefit of getting the music to the audience.

Drop-d: You’ve been asked by RTE to appear on Two Tube each week as part of the music review section. How did that take shape?

Dylan: RTE asked my if I’d be interested in doing this once a week, and I thought it was a excellent platform to get new music out to younger audiences that are watching. I review something that RTE have given me, and then I also get to introduce a new band that I recommend. So I actually have a chance to show some good bands too. For me it was a matter of asking myself, “if I had unlimited time, would I do this for free”. And I definitely would! The first band I recommended was Chewing On Tinfoil which I think are great, so I choose bands that I believe are good recommendations to the audience watching.

Drop-d: Are there any other projects that you’ve been working on?

Dylan: Well, we’ve just released our Roll Up Your Sleeves DVD which is nice to actually get it into shops for people. The main thing at the moment is getting The Exchange up an running though. We’re waiting on some final details before we can officially open it to the public, but we’re already getting started on several projects.

Drop-d: If people want to get involved or simply want to check out what’s going on in The Exchange, is there a website?

Dylan: We’re actually posting everything that’s going on, at the minute, up on our Facebook page. We have a lot of information there, and we’re always looking for new volunteers with varying talents and skills. Once the gigs start happening again, we’ll see a lot more under 18′s getting involved but at the moment we have a quite a bit of interest.

Tags: Dylan Hasksins, HideAway House, Hideaway Records, kidd blunt, The Basta Youth Collective, The Exchange