Louis Bloom on Island Records, his mentors, his values, and his ambitions

The following interview with Louis Bloom took place shortly before Universal Music Group announced that he was being elevated to run the newly merged London-based mega-label, the Island EMI Label Group. That move will take place on October 1. Right now, Bloom continues to run Island Records UK – as you’ll read, with some distinction…

MBW visits Island Records UK on one of its Work From Home days. Which lends a rather surreal air to UK President Louis Bloom’s regular waves towards empty desks and nods in the direction of absent colleagues.

But, while the gestures fail to land, the point does. He is keen not just to share the credit of the label’s current (and extended) run of success, built on hits by artists such as Hozier (who Bloom personally signed back in 2012), Noah Kahan, The Last Dinner Party and others, but also to emphasise the notion of a team, his team, one united by what Island founder Chris Blackwell described to Bloom as a unique and defining “taste and tone”.

He says: “This is a label with a distinct DNA – something that was laid down by Chris. It’s about artist development, it’s about signing exceptional talent that perhaps isn’t especially obvious, in a commercial sense, at the time. It’s about taking creative risks, it’s about building fanbases that have a direct relationship with artists they feel a genuine connection to.

“More than anything else it’s about great artists regardless of genre. Historically, Chris covered everything, from folk to reggae and prog rock to pop and, similarly, we want to be leaders in all fields.”

Having spent over 20 years at Island, Bloom has not just witnessed, but helped drive golden periods before – most notably the run under the joint-leadership of Darcus Beese and Ted Cockle in the 2000s/2010s which included breakthrough global success for artists such as Amy Winehouse, Florence and the Machine, Hozier, Mumford & Sons and more.

He feels something similar is happening, or at least brewing, at the moment. “Right now,” he says, “I do feel like we’re working with the very best team and artists whose cultural impact will stand the test of time.”

In Island’s relatively deserted St Pancras office, he talks in depth about that team, those artists, about the label’s culture, his mentors, his values and his ambitions…

The last time we spoke to you, in 2018, you had only been running Island in the UK for a few months. How has the company changed, and how have you changed the company, since then?

It was always A&R-led and creative-led, with no distractions, no side-hustles. It’s all about signing the right artists and building an amazing offering from an amazing team. That obviously takes time, but now we’ve done that and it’s playing out.

The acts that we signed back then were new, the majority hadn’t put any music out yet. In the case of FLO, we brought them together. Those artists had to go on their own journeys, supported by us, and then it also takes a while for culture to align with them. Now we’re starting to see the best versions of all of them.

Widening the lens slightly, how has Universal’s company culture changed during your time here, especially perhaps under the leadership of David Joseph?

David’s a very nurturing person and for me personally he’s been the biggest champion I’ve had across my career; he’s been a huge influence. Ultimately, he’s about greatness, he really is. He’s about signing the very best. We have a vision here for Island that takes time and requires patience. But I can only go after that vision if my boss loves and understands what Island is about and believes we’re fulfilling the destiny of what Island should be. David 100% backs that and we’re very grateful
for that.

More generally, he’s a person with a great aesthetic sensibility. He’s someone who is always encouraging, he’s someone who likes the debate and who values honesty. And he’s someone you can have very real conversations with, no bullshit.

What are the most important lessons you’ve learned during your time and who have you learned them from?

David, of course, who I’ve talked about. Lucian, as well, is someone who, whenever I see him, we listen to music and I find his insights invaluable. I mean, he’s one of the titans of the entertainment industry and I realise that I’m fortunate to be in his orbit and to be able to learn from him.

Monte Lipman is a very important partner, someone who is fiercely loyal to his artists and has taught me that, when you have a real belief, then you never give up. Avery Lipman has been a very wise counsel to me. He’s calm, measured and very insightful. These are people who I really look up to.

And then, of course, there’s Chris Blackwell, the man who started it all and without whom, none of us would be here. What I’ve learned from Chris, above all else, is that what you do here is all about taste and tone.

He’s got impeccable taste, and he’s always curious. We had lunch together recently, and at one point, as he was talking, he suddenly stopped, called the waiter over and asked, ‘What’s that music you’re playing?’. The waiter went and found out and Chris made a note of it. He’s just aware of everything around him, he’s got a tremendous cultural radar. And his attention to detail is immaculate – that’s certainly something I uphold.

The result is a really united company, because everyone is aware of every nuance, and everyone knows that every piece has to be perfect. It all has to be true not only to the Island ethos, but to the story, vision and ambition of the artist, so that everything is done in an authentic way that makes that artist’s fanbase feel part of something special and something coherent.

To do that, we all have to know every detail of that story. So, that the email you send to the database is, to some extent, the same and almost as important as the artwork for the album or a merch drop – the same in so much as there’s a through line in terms of what I was talking about: taste and tone.

We’re a tight ship here with high standards.

Let’s talk about Island’s current run of success and perhaps the metrics you find most useful to measure such things…

Yeah, it’s across the board; it’s not one artist and it’s not one genre – that was always our intention. With The Last Dinner Party we’ve got the biggest selling debut album of the year and in Noah Kahan we’ve currently got the biggest selling single of the year. And with Hozier, he’s had the No.1 single here in the UK and a No.1 in America.

And then you have artists like Nia Archives, English Teacher and Yard Act, recently releasing albums within different sectors of culture and each with their own ecosystems. We’ve got new music coming from the likes of Mumford & Sons, Dermot Kennedy, Sam Tompkins, Catfish And The Bottlemen and Dylan. And then you never know what to expect from U2.

“Virality comes and goes, but quality endures.”

We’ve also got ArrDee in the UK rap space, Meduza and James Hype in dance, we’ve got FLO in R&B, (all coming with new music soon). We’re also particularly excited about Chappell Roan, who has come to us via our Island US partners. She’s just had her first Top 20 single in the UK and is about to conquer the world. And, of course, we’ve got Lola Young. Like I say, it’s really across the board.

I remember hearing Muff Winwood speaking at the MBW A&R Awards and he said, ‘Don’t try and sign what’s happening now, because you’ll get it wrong – plus, it’s already happened! Try and sign what hasn’t happened yet and help make it happen. Go against the grain’. I was in that mindset already, always, but I thought that was such a great way of putting it.

We’re not opportunists. That’s not to say we don’t spot opportunities, it just means we don’t make opportunistic signings. Virality comes and goes, but quality endures. We aim to sign artists who would make an impact at any time in any decade.

How did The Last Dinner Party come into your orbit?

I remember James Talbut and Sam Flynn phoned me up and said there was this band and I was going to fucking love them. I went to a gig at XOYO and it was one of those moments where I knew instantly and totally that I wanted to sign them. That’s quite a rare thing, for there to be no questions.

Not only that, but I immediately knew how we were going to launch them, I could see me and the team working with them, I could see the whole journey mapped out, just from seeing them live once – because they were just so fabulous and unique.

As a band, they came with all the answers, they were beyond clear about who they were and who their audience was. It was small, but it was there, because they’d been gigging for around two years, but outside the industry bubble – and that has done them the world
of good.

Was it a competitive environment when it came to signing them?

Not at all, not remotely. Probably because it was so different to anything else. As far as I’m aware I actually don’t think there was another firm offer on the table. Again though, I don’t care. It doesn’t make a difference to us and if we ever had that mindset I’d really have to check myself. It’s never about signing an artist to win some sort of competition. The question is, is the artist reflective of what Island is about and can we help them?

Are you heartily tired of some of the internal industry cynicism surrounding their rise?

Well, I like people talking about them, so that’s OK. Also, I think the cynicism came from a very vocal minority. And it quickly dissipated anyway, because anyone who’s paying attention can see that they’re in charge of everything, they’re their own creation. The idea that a label would come up with this whole package is… look, they write all the songs, they created the look, the image, the story, the whole idea of The Last Dinner Party.

We launched with a three minute video which told the story of who they are. And huge credit to Studio Island Creative Director Saorla [Houston] here, who personally directed the video, collaborating with Josh in the team who works on all the band’s creative. We also made a whole album really quickly, pretty much like we used to do. These days you’re more likely to release a track, analyse the data, make a tweak, release another track…But we made an album, came up with a plan and stuck to it.

We knew when the album was coming and there was a confidence about that. It didn’t matter how things went during that process, there was a body of work and they were bringing it to the table, no matter what, with total belief, from them and us.

So, yeah, I don’t know, if people want to be sniffy about a well-orchestrated campaign behind a world-class band, then that’s on them. The bottom line is, they’re unlike anything else, and I think that’s reflected in the connection they’re making internationally. They’re selling tickets in Europe, Australia and America and they’re building a fanbase who want to be part of the world they’ve created – and which hopefully we’ve helped build out.

What’s the next part of the plan for them?

They’re desperate to release new music. There’ll be a second album next year.

Lola Young is an interesting artist in terms of how much she’s evolved. How involved has Island been in that process?

Nick Huggett, who was then her sole manager, invited me down to watch her at a rehearsal room one day, an open mic gig at the Hospital Club and, again, I had that feeling of knowing immediately that we should sign her.

They don’t come along often, but the trick, if it is a trick, or the skill, if it is a skill, is to recognise those moments and act on those moments, and that’s something I’ve managed to do a few times in my career.

In this case, it was as much about her magnetic personality as anything else at that stage.

Then started the long process of wanting and trying to sign her. During that process, Nick Shymansky joined the team as co-manager, but just because I had a relationship with him and Nick [Hugget], didn’t mean I was going to get the deal. The team and I did everything we could and I think our passion for her as an artist came across.

Once she was on the label, everyone saw what I saw, everyone knew she was an exceptional talent. We launched, and the truth is, at 18, she wasn’t quite ready. She hadn’t quite found herself, her USP which was totally understandable.

It was going OK, we were pleasing the media, but we weren’t really building a fanbase. There came a point where we kept doing the same thing and it wasn’t connecting. So I had a conversation with Nick, Nick, Jack Greengrass, my co-A&R, and Lola and said, ‘Let’s take some time out’. Because that’s what it was, a time out. I assured them that we weren’t going anywhere as a label and there was never a doubt about us regrouping, continuing and making this work, because there is no artist I’ve worked with who’s been that amazing at that age.

“There is no artist I’ve worked with who has been that amazing at that age.”

So that’s what they did, that’s what Lola did, she worked really hard and she worked it out. She developed her own look, and found her true voice. I really believe that, as a lyricist, she’s a once in a generation talent.

I’d say we properly launched that at the beginning of last year with Don’t Hate Me, which was a bit more alt, a bit more left-leaning and a bit less passive.

What we found initially was that we were actually losing some numbers, because the people who’d been on the journey initially, perhaps weren’t quite sure, they maybe saw a different artist. But this was the real Lola Young, and then suddenly, of course, it did connect, people got it, everyone was talking about her. Honestly, I think about Lola all the time and I think she’s going to be a very, very important artist for the UK.

We’re now at a stage where everyone wants to work with her, the new guard and the old guard – Kendrick Lamar, Tyler The Creator and SZA are huge fans. It’s a really beautiful time for her.

I guess it shows the value of loyalty…

Yes, and I really like that word and that value, but I also have to point out, it works both ways; they were loyal to us. Five-and-a-half years ago, this was a new operation, there were lots of untested moving parts. They could have gone with other labels, because this was a competitive signing, but they chose us, and we won’t forget that.

Loyalty is also pertinent to the recent success of Hozier, who you initially signed to the label and still A&R. How pleased were you when he got his first UK and US No.1 single this year?

I’m really pleased for him, of course. It has put him in the spotlight and Hozier now sits amongst the elite club of the top artists in the world. Which is where he belongs! The charts are a metric and it helps tell the story in a very concise way. But there are many metrics, and what I’m most happy about is that he continues to be a brilliant artist who we have a great relationship with. If there are moments within that relationship like the one we’ve just had, that’s really special, but it’s only one part of a much bigger picture for us.

Do you miss being on the frontline of A&R?

I still solely A&R some projects and I co-A&R as well, with other team members. But I don’t miss it as a sole occupation because I have a very short attention span, and I’m a perfectionist and, if I’m just drilling down into the very detailed specifics of a recording, I’d always end up doing 50 or 60 mixes of a single track, which is a kind of torture for everyone. So to have some distance between myself and the minutiae of A&R is probably good for my mental health – and everyone else’s!

But, that said, I still have the same approach, I still hear, and have a view on, everything that comes into the building and gets released. I lead the A&R meetings with Dan [Lloyd Jones]. Also, A&R isn’t just about the music, it again goes back to taste and tone running through everything, every piece of contact you have with an artist’s fanbase.

We spend hours every day applying those principles to things like social media posts. Because, yes, the music has to be as truly great as we can help make it, while at the same time we need to make sure our artists are always being presented as authentically and effectively as possible at all times.

So, I’m incredibly hands-on, whilst at the same time I hope I’m empowering, because there’s such a great team here.

How has the art of A&R changed since you were in the trenches – and are they changes you’d have enjoyed?

I think there are details that have changed, but, certainly at Island, we’re signing things so early that A&R is about going on a journey with artists and their teams, and that is all about relationships – and about trust.

You look at someone like Hozier and, since day one, there’s been a core team, growing together, learning together, and building that trust with him and his fantastic management team. There will be moments and dips and sometimes disagreements, but if the relationship is right it will all be for the greater good.

And the reason I am so engaged with A&R, by the way, is because every A&R decision affects every person and every creative element across the company. That’s what being A&R-led means. It’s not like they make the record and then it gets pushed upstairs.

It takes a lot of energy and a lot of cohesion. You have to sense-check everything every day, you have to be aware of the ebb and flow every day. You can feel what a good record company is on a day-to-day basis, you can feel that energy, it’s all-encompassing. It makes it a real joy coming to work every day.

You have to really, really believe, there can be no wavering. ‘The results are in and they’re not great’… no, that’s not what it’s about, it’s about building momentum, it’s about empathy and patience and loyalty. Then you’re growing, then you’re winning, and ultimately it’s about developing artists who can headline festivals.

That’s how I look at everything: how do we get to that point? And the only way to give yourselves a chance is to have a company full of experts, being the best versions of themselves, with focus and chemistry, collaborating around a very clear artist vision.

One thing that Lucian said to me when I took over here was, ‘Look at everything through the lens of the artist and make it happen for them’. I think about that every day – because that’s the job. And it means if any component isn’t right, I need to fix it, because everything has to align with the artist’s vision. No one person and no ego is too important to get in the way of us collectively fighting for the artist, that is our manifesto and our mantra, that’s everything about what we’re doing here. Having an overview of that is something I’m obsessed with, and what makes us different.

Overall, the roster is quite small, isn’t it?

It’s the smallest it’s been since I worked here. We know who we are and we know who we’re not. There are artists who just aren’t for us. There’s no shade in that, it’s not a commentary on whether they’re good or bad. But we’re only interested in artists who value long-term careers above everything else and management who we know we can work with to achieve that. And they’ve got to be truly great. That means you’re not going to have a huge roster, not if you stick to those principles.

“I want people to look back at this time and think that we did the spirit of the label proud.”

It’s also to do with time and capacity and how that relates to all the disciplines a record company has to have, because what a record company is and does has been reinvented. There are new skill-sets, we have experts in every field and all these things have to come together at every level and there are only so many hours, so
much time.

As you mentioned, I’ve been in the role a few years now, but no matter how long I do it, at a company with the history of Island, most of us are only here for a relatively short time, and I want to make a difference. I want people to look back at this time and think we did the spirit of the label proud.