Location: West Lothian, Scotland
Est: 2020
Potted History: “Werra Foxma is the name of the recording studio I run,” explains the label’s Frazer Brown. Along with Alasdair O’May, he is also one half of Dohnavùr, whose ‘You Can And You Shall’ album was the label’s debut outing. “We decided to use the name for that release, there was no desire to run a proper label at that point.” When lockdown 1.0 struck, Frazer found himself working on projects he previously didn’t have the time to commit to and decided to fire up Werra Foxma for real in May 2020 as a vehicle for those outings. “Soon after I launched, Steven Anderson, who records as Letters From Mouse, asked if I’d be interested in putting out his ‘Strange Selectors’ compilation, featuring artists such as Rupert Lally, Kieran Mahon, Pulselovers and Forest Robots. Having no experience of running a label, I learned a lot just by doing. ‘Strange Selectors’ was a great success, it acted as a Trojan horse to get the label out there pretty quickly.”
Mission Statement: “The goal,” says Frazer, “is to release amazing electronic music, and create true objects of desire to go along with each release – art prints, postcards, cartographic maps, wooden boxes, lapel pins, there’s almost no limit. My wife Hazel comes up with all sorts of ideas, and Kate Bosworth, our designer, has amazing creative ideas too.”
Key Artists & Releases: “The biggest triumph so far has to be Dohnavùr,” says Frazer. “We went from a new project with zero followers in March 2020 to signing to Castles In Space, which led to working with The Orb and Richard Norris. It’s all a bit surreal, but also reassuring that your own music is landing nicely. The next few months are really exciting for the label, with our first vinyl LP, Martin Christie’s ‘Electronic Music Travels’, coming in June, as well as cassette releases from Steve Hadfield, Mike K Smith, Apta, a triple cassette box from Soul Flask and new albums from Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Eonlake and Bit Cloudy.”
Future Plans: “It’s our intention to be in the vinyl game for real this year.
We should have at least three LPs and one double album on wax in the next 12 months. Fingers crossed.”
Any Other Business?: “The amazing podcasts and independent radio shows that help keep everyone in the know are crucial to our scene,” says Frazer, “especially ‘Dark Train’, ‘Magic Window’ and the ‘Home Brew Electronica Show’. We have done guest mixes for a number of radio/blog shows, as it’s critical to make sure people are aware of your offerings.”
For more, visit werrafoxmarecords.bandcamp.com
