Faux Discx

"I've designed 8 of the 11 releases so it hasn't been too hard sourcing somebody to put them together!" says "label boss" Dan Reeves. Recognisable for its love of design as much as its love of music Faux Discx is a perfect marriage of aesthetics and sound. It makes sense that the label started as a spin off of Exeter design collective Fake French but, considering the dedication the label shows it's unsurprising that it soon transformed into entirely its own thing. "It was basically myself designing posters and record sleeves and my friend Tom Harman (who plays in Super Tennis) designing websites"

As with many DIY projects, there was a tad of self promoting behind the label's inception. When major labels are touring showcases, picking up "managed" and booking agent laden bands, what else are you going to do? "Tom wanted to put out a record for his band at the time, called Skiptracer, and it just made sense for us to release it ourselves as we were doing the artwork and sourcing where to get it pressed." It was convenience as much as anything else. Although Faux Discx now releases predominately on vinyl, even the label's early records were not quite the real deal. It just proved to be another inspiration. "We named it Faux Discx as the first couple of releases were vinyl style CDRs which look like little records." he says "We liked the idea that we were releasing these little imitation vinyls. Since then I've managed to put out 11 releases (some digital / some vinyl / some CDs), all of which are by artists I know personally or band that I'm in / was in, or who I've worked for as a designer". Dan plays in Cold Pumas, his band-mates in The Light Sleepers, he's friends with design buffs in Teen Sheikhs, La La Vasquez, The Sticks, Pheromoans, Jacob's Stories and Hot Damn. It's easy to understand his passion when you find out he's releasing record with such great mates, all making equally image-inspired music. The hammering of ' Pumas is recognised in the records' striking mix of colour, gravity-feel slide shot and nod to 1980 waterpark- nostalgia. Teen Sheikhs' playful surf pop jumps out from behind their bastardised cartoons. He's even making real money, a feat for any independent label, let alone one run by one bloke and one city's scene. "In the past few months I've finally broken even" he says.

Importantly it's allowed him to follow through on one his pet projects, the CMYK collection. We know the label loves design. But what do colours really have to do with record releases? "I wanted to do a project that had interlinking artwork, The idea is that there's four records, each represented by a colour of the print process - cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black). Each of the covers will have a different image which when pieced together may or may not form some sort of narrative. The collection is gonna be consistent in the way the records look and also in the fact that each 7" is a split between 2 bands. Cold Pumas wanted to put out a split with Male Bonding and that seemed like a good record to kick the series off with, next up (probably) is a split between The Light Sleepers and Cheatahs."

With an ever-changing wish list for future releases Faux Discx could go anywhere from here. But one thing is for certain. They're all going to look great. "It's a big part of the Faux Discx ethos. I never want to release records where the artwork is a mere afterthought"

What other labels inspire you and why?

I'd say at the moment I'm inspired by my friends running labels like Sex Is Disgusting, Paradise Vendors Inc, Suplex Cassettes and Hungry For Power. Everybody is just doing their own thing and so far, doing it well. I love labels like Dischord, Swami and Touch & Go and at the moment I'm in to a lot of stuff on Jagjaguwar. Any label that can keep a consistency of style / content / attitude is awesome. I hope that Faux Discx gets to a point where people just trust the label. I think I'm just starting to find my feet with it now, I have a much clearer idea of what I want to do with it and also, the sort of stuff I want to release.

What's yr next record?
The Light Sleepers / Cheatahs - Magenta split 7" and hopefully a 4-way split involving Cold Pumas and some of our British and Canadian buddies. Possibly a download album with Super Tennis.

What are your recommendations for this week?

At the moment I've been listening to new demos by Teeth!!! which are AMAZING, as is the new stuff from Fair Ohs. Bands that I've seen recently who I thought were awesome would be Trash Kit, Mi Ami and Pheromoans. Records I've been listening to lately consist of Steve Reich, Oneida, Gang Gang Dance and The Cool Kids.

Faux Discx have just released a split record 'CYAN' featuring Male Bonding and Cold Pumas. It's strictly limited to 300 hand-numbered copies. You can buy it here
For Dan's record sleeve art look here [go on, it's really good]