My First Month at I’m Not From London

“Despite starting my internship with INFL in the midst of a pandemic, I was able to carry out a lot of interesting work and gain an insight into what goes on behind the scenes in the music industry.”

Upon arrival at the label’s new venue, Fishergate Point, I started meeting members of other labels who would also be based here. Tricia from Offshoots and Avarni from Wigflex were the first people I met and were very welcoming, introducing me to what was going on and what they were doing. With the venue being decorated I started helping out by painting and cleaning with a few others for the first week, during which I continued to meet more and more interesting people. After this, the managing director of I’m Not From London Records, started to give me work to do for the label. I began by carrying out research on local Nottingham artists for the label’s 15-year birthday and research on organizations which worked with deaf musicians for the Youth Music project ‘Be Scene And Heard’. I also had the responsibility of updating the label’s website by adding the newest album and single releases, along with short write-ups for each. Around halfway through my first month I started to get involved with, a project run by Tricia which aimed at nurturing young artists from Nottingham. I joined a meeting with the projects’ artists who had just finished creating their second album and were discussing ways to improve the project for next time. This really gave me an insight into what goes on behind an album release and all its complications. Later in the month I had the privilege to sit in on the submission of the album to the distributers ahead of its release on World Mental Health Day. Once again, this gave me an understanding into the technicalities of releasing an album, in particular, the way in which a project is prepared and sent out to streaming services. 

Towards the end of the month I was given some albums to review; ‘Sons of Sakanoue’ by Local Healers and Marine Store Dealer’s self-titled debut album. This I particularly enjoyed. Listening through each album and trying to find the words which best described the sounds and feelings of songs made me learn a lot from only a little bit of work. As part of the label’s 15-year birthday, rap duo Local Healers needed an art gallery setting to shoot a music video and I was asked to search for potential venues. Calling up galleries like Nottingham Contemporary and discussing the technicalities of a music video shoot was a first for me and really gave me more confidence with these kinds of tasks.

My first month at I’m Not From London Records really gave me an insight into Nottingham’s local music scene and into the work that happens behind the scenes of three devoted record labels which are all embarking on exciting projects. In such an uncertain time I couldn’t have asked for more and I look forward to the following months at INFL. 

– Alfie Austyn, Intern, I’m Not From London