Michael Hall - HURACHE Records

It has taken over a decade to get HURACHE Records where it is today in which the founder contends the label it is ‘a new kind of independent actor in the music industry’. From the reading of ‘I-Ching’ in 1991, to working and mingling with industry professionals in Chicago when founder  Michael Hall took a trip in 2001 to the United States to visit his paternal family.

I thought I’d catch up with Micahel himself to find out more.

Just as several members of his family are, Michael had always been musically inclined. His mother, a professional dancer for even continued to take classes during her last months pregnancy with Michael. 

In 1991, Michale completed a City and Guilds in Sound Engineering at Newton Abbot, Devon. After being disillusioned with his surroundings and hungry for an adventure in music he embarked upon reading an old Chinese divination book called the “I-Ching”  As a result this let to the foundations of HURACHE Records. He found that the book resonated closely with his thoughts and feelings at that time.

With the knowledge that his Uncle Reggie Hall was a DJ and Vocalist he took up an open invitation to visit his dad and their family, including Uncle Reggie in Southside Chicago, USA. This however meant getting a job - in a fish factory as a cleaner - and saving up first but, against the odds, he arrived at his uncle’s front door in March, 2001. 

Mike’s Uncle Reggie, a House Music DJ, knew of Michael's ambition to get into the music industry and decided to help. He took him to various recording studios introducing him to the big names of music scene on Chicago's Southside including Vince Lawrence, one of the originators of House Music.

After a few meetings and discussions, Michael eventually took a job as a Sound Engineer at Matt Warrens Warzone Studio in the inner city industrial area of Chicago. Michael took full advantage of his new found environment by learning and absorbing as much as he could deep in the heart of Chicago’s Music industry.

Whilst working there he would see the inner workings of the music industry, meet with various esteemed industry figures and learn techniques of music production and mixing down. He would also DJ two residencies in “The Get Me High Lounge” and “Bar Thirteen”. 

He worked for a time at "Studio Chicago" for a man named Al Ursini. While there, he worked with Ronald Gresham - renowned Hip Hop mixing engineer - on a marathon 48hour shift as an assistant engineer learning a great deal about mixing music professionally.

The trip to Chicago was pivotal to HURACHE’s founding. Upon returning to England fully inspired and with the Urban sounds of South Chicago in his ears, Michael was more prepared and determined than ever to produce music but needed an outlet.

It was for that reason that HURACHE was created.

The idea of HURACHE is to always be proactive, think outside the box as well as always act independently of the Music Industry where and when this was at all possible. For instance, Brixham in Devon is not exactly where people expect to find Hip Hop with authenticity and of the quality that HURACHE produces so as far as unconventional goes, that was already a good start! 

Michael's Brother Daniel Hall became involved very early on and would use his newly learnt MC’ing skills to help create the first ever HURACHE Recordings.

While the label acts as a record label in many ways – making and selling music, there are also many ways in which it's not a label. He explains  “whenever we refer to “HURACHE Records”, the second word is actually meant as a verb and not a noun, which we would pronounce ‘REE-cords’ as opposed to ‘REH-cords’” 

“We have taken a proactive approach to the distribution and sales of our music. We produce and package our own physical CDs, take them out on the street and sell them directly to the public in towns and cities around our local area. In this respect, we operate more like an independent label.”

“We run a lean operation, keeping costs as low as possible but fortunately, we are able to find enough new and returning fans of our music in the surrounding towns and cities to keep afloat.”

“Selling our own music for ourselves helps HURACHE to stay independent. Our music will never be subject to a corporate filter. It is very important to us that we produce and release music that is raw and pure as well as avoiding any non-musical (particularly commercial) influence over what we music make or choose to release.” 

“Despite being an Urban Music outfit, you will not be hearing any gun or "gangster" talk from HURACHE. It’s just not who we are. That is not to say that we will not speak on the gritty realities of life but we are not of the camp that thinks that making Urban Music must be all about being a “Bad Man” or, as we believe is more often the case, claiming that you are. It is our belief that many (but not all) rappers and other Urban artists are totally disingenuous and inauthentic when they talk about guns, crime and being on or from streets.  At HURACHE we’d rather promote intelligent discourse and intellectualism with recourse to comedy and the chaos that spills from creativity!”

 

“In terms of selling CDs directly to the public on the streets, there's much more to it than scrawling “HURACHE” on bunch of CD-Rs with a permanent marker. They have to look professional but not cost a bundle. Successfully selling CDs on road is an art in and of it self which we have all but perfected and we tend to call STREETAILING”. Michael highlights this as one of the difficulties the company faces.

He continues “One of the major limitations of street sales however is that we can only sell where we can physically get to. Not only are there practical issues involved but the increasing costs of travelling greater distances can very quickly eat up any profits that may have been made otherwise. This places obvious barrier on our ability to get our music out to a bigger audience. At present, we tend to frequent Plymouth and Exeter as well as other town in our surrounding area.”

“Until very recently, HURACHE was virtually invisible online as we concentrated on building up a following locally through street sales. We are now in the process of implementing a strategy to bring our music online in a way that plays into our strengths and feeds on the experience we have had selling face to face to new and returning customers or fans.”

“In the end, what it boils down to is making good music that people want and can relate to. It doesn't matter how good you can sell, if it's crap, no one will want it and crucially, no one will come back to get the next album we make. As long as we keep doing that, we'll be fine.”

“HURACHE does not “sign” artists in the conventional sense but rather collaborates on a project-by-project basis.” He replies when asked what the label represents and how they find artists to relay that image, he continues “We largely work with “undiscovered” talent and we aren’t look to tie artists down contractually – they are free to pursue their own ventures and come and go as they please”

“For vocalists we tend to look for people who are intelligent, witty, expressive, poetic and last, but far from least, authentic. They of course also have to be able to deliver a tight vocal whether they’re singing or rapping.”

“It is highly gratifying to know that the artists we work with are free to dissociate at any time but most continue to choose to work with us. There is even one local rapper, who goes by the name Fluid, who felt so deeply inspired by HURACHE and what we stand for that he decided of his own accord have the HURACHE logo tattooed on his face!”

The company are inspired by other labels such as No limit Records for their “Entrepreneurialism”. Trojan Records for their “gritty presentation with a professional twist”, Full Cycle because of their “Raw enthusiasm”, Planet V for their Collection of great new artists” and lastly, Hypnotise Minds for their “reckless abandonment and a punk like approach.”

When asked about the changes in digital media he says “in the past few years has digital media has presented several opportunities for us to bring our music to a larger online audience while continuing to maintain our independence from the industry in a way that was not possible when we started HURACHE in 2001 -  Facebook and Twitter were only launched in 2004 and 2006.”

“Nowadays, we are able to offer fans the opportunity to buy individual MP3s and full albums directly on our Facebook page or from our website!“

“We are also looking very closely at emerging online technologies which allow us to offer our fans a revenue share in return for helping to sell or distribute our music. We find this a very interesting and attractive prospect as we continue to grow our audience and following online.”

“Currently, we have chosen not to use iTunes in order to maintain full control of pricing for our music. We are open to using iTunes in the future but only if we after we prove to ourselves that people are just not willing to consider alternative services to buy our music.”

“We are continuing with street sales so fans in our local area will see very little change. We’re going to be coming online in a big way. We’ve recently released our latest work, a trilogy of Hip Hop albums collectively known as “The Future of the Digital Music Revolution” Look out for Futuristic Music, Futuristic Revolutions and Digital Revolution. This is the first time we are releasing our material online before making it available via street sales.“

“There are a number of new songs in the works for an as yet unnamed album. It is difficult to give a date when these will be ready for release. Suffice to say that they will be released when we are happy that they are of a standard we are happy with.”

On the last Thursday of every month for the foreseeable future, HURACHE will be taking over the studios of SoundArt Radio, a local community radio station, and broadcasting two hours of a released and unreleased HURACHE Music mashed together into a multi-genre DJ/MC fest. It's available by tuning to 102.5 FM around South Hams in Devon.