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Sunbeam Records is a new UK-based reissue label co-founded by Steven Carr and music journalist Richard Morton Jack. Tremendous music enthusiasts both, they are dedicated to scouring the nooks and crannies of the musical world to reincarnate screamingly rare, criminally underappreciated rock, folk, and psychedelic albums, along with exciting new releases that other labels have overlooked…until now! With an aggressive release schedule that promises at least two new releases each month, Sunbeam promises to be a force to be reckoned with and a record collector’s wet dream for many years to come. We at Foxy Digitalis are excited to get in on the ground floor of this enterprise by sending our intrepid explorer, Jeff Penczak off to chat with Mr. Jack for a revealing, behind-the-scenes chinwag on why Sunbeam exists and what we can expect in the months to come.

Along with Jeff’s interview, we begin our continuing series of reviews of all of Sunbeam’s releases with a look at their first five releases. Future reviews will appear regularly in upcoming issues of Foxy Digitalis, so be sure to check back often.

And now, off to Jeff & Richard:

RMJ: Steven and I are both tremendous music enthusiasts, and felt there was room for a label that would reflect that. There was also a need for a label that cherry-picks albums that have somehow escaped the attention of other labels, and makes every possible effort with packaging and content. It’s very important to us that people should get value for money, and that we can be proud of every record we do. We also wanted to have close interaction with artists, which is very much Sunbeam’s philosophy.

We have a few basic criteria, the most important of which is that we genuinely like the music. We will never do an album that we wouldn’t listen to ourselves. Secondly, the artist must be involved. For example, "Me" by Mary-Anne Paterson and "Woman From The Warm Grass" by Robin Scott were licensed from third parties, rather than them, but we still worked very closely throughout the complicated process of preparing the reissue, so that we knew they’d be happy with the finished product. It also helps if an album has never been done before – though, as we aim to produce such a high quality package in terms of sound, artwork and bonus material, we hope to supersede any previous reissue anyway.

The reissue business is fairly crowded, but not competitive. Most labels like ours have a specific niche, so we don’t tread on each others’ toes much. There are masses of worthy albums that have still never been properly reissued, so we never worry about the well running dry. What we do worry about is having our thunder stolen, especially by bootlegs (which have a habit of appearing just as a project is reaching fruition!)

In order to maintain momentum, we have to issue at least two albums a month. We currently have about twenty in hand (in varying stages of readiness), but are always scouting for new titles, as well as chasing personal favourites such as Karen Dalton’s "In My Own Time," Tamam Shud’s "Evolution" and Ottilie Patterson’s "3000 Years With Ottilie."

The short answer is yes. New releases are of course more expensive and have less pedigree than reissues, so we have focused on establishing ourselves with a regular reissue program thus far. If people come to trust our taste in reissues, then we hope they will also trust our new albums too. It is hugely gratifying to all of us when people email to say they’re buying records we’ve done simply because they like other things in our catalogue.

Both. We find it astonishing that some of the artists we work with (such as Clive Palmer, Fresh Maggots and Bread, Love & Dreams) have had such a hard time getting their music across over the years, and are excited at the prospect of providing a proper home for their music, old and new. Equally, there are some fantastic new performers coming up at the moment, many of whom have been strongly influenced by the older artists in our roster, so our aim is to create a strong catalogue that reflects the best of both worlds.

No one so far has objected to their albums being reissued, and indeed most have been flattered (moved, even!) by the interest in their work. The vast majority of our artists were not well-served by their labels first time around, and are thus happy to see their music getting a second chance with a label that genuinely cares about it. Some have difficulty believing there is any demand for their music, so it is always a particular pleasure to disabuse them of that misapprehension. Bonus material can be more of a sticking point, though, as some artists understandably feel that adding tracks to existing albums compromises the integrity of the original.

Yes, a few. The problems tend to be with major labels, who don’t know what they own or don’t, and can’t or won’t commit the time or energy to following up requests from labels like ours. Other problems tend to be demands for unfeasible advances, contracts that exclude major territories, or (unusually) finding that artists have been conducting negotiations with other labels without telling us.

The only release we have deleted is "Boo" by Juliet Lawson. It’s a lovely album that we were delighted to be associated with, but for numerous reasons we decided not to repress it. We understand, however, that she is looking for another label for it, so with any luck it will soon be available again.

Our initial print run for the first fifteen titles was 1000, but to our surprise and delight demand has prompted us to up that to 1500 from now on. We don’t want to press any more than that in the first instance for the simple reason that if there’s a fault with the packaging or sound content, it’s that much more frustrating not to be able to correct it swiftly. None of our albums are limited editions – all will be available for as long as there is demand for them.

We have some very exciting projects in the pipeline, including the sole LP by The Free Spirits (Larry Coryell’s first band), a compilation of the pop nuggets written and produced by Sir Tim Rice in the late 60s, the first ever compilation of Meic Stevens’s legendary EPs and a possible reunion album by the stupendous COB. Additionally, there are some young singers we are both very enthused by, and are hoping to record. Finally, we will soon start a programme of vinyl issues of albums we’ve done on CD.