Lockjaw’s Belgian Business Adventure
We took a weekend trip to Belgium to talk about the future of Lockjaw, and sink some top notch beers. Read up on our adventure!
“I’ll get pizza and beer,” is a text I need to see, just as I roll into Beaconsfield motorway services, four hours into the drive from Manchester to Guildford.
I’m on the way to Lockjaw boss Rob Piper’s gaff. We’re going to steal a couple of hours sleep before a 4:30am start, catching the 7:40am ferry to Calais. Why? We’re off to spend the weekend with the whole Lockjaw team in Belgium: business and beers are beckoning.
Our Lockjaw Records dream team often see each other at festivals and events, but having five of us spread across Guildford, Kingston, Manchester, Antwerp and Oostkamp certainly presents its challenges. We rarely get to sit down to talk business, instead having regular video calls to keep things rolling.
[ux_banner_grid height="340"] [col_grid span="6"] [ux_image id="31058"] [/col_grid] [col_grid span="6" height="1-2"] [ux_image id="31060"] [/col_grid] [col_grid span="3" height="1-2"] [ux_image id="31059"] [/col_grid] [col_grid span="3" height="1-2"] [ux_image id="31057"] [/col_grid] [/ux_banner_grid]Things kick off for me with a catch up with Rob, who feeds me vegan pizza drenched in the new Fights & Fires Kebaptism hot sauce. We get an uncharacteristically sensible early night and, feeling surprisingly fresh, we meet Lesley-Anne at 5am ready for the trip across the Channel.
After the world’s most expensive plate of hash browns courtesy of DFDS ferries, we immediately fall into shop talk that makes the crossing pass in a flash. We talk American copyright law, PRS payments, YouTube syncing, Spotify editorial playlists and time management.
One struggle as a small independent label is fitting in time around our other commitments, so this is a rare opportunity to bounce around ideas. We’re all individually engaged and knowledgeable in contemporary music business, but knowing what’s realistic and achievable is a different matter.
With every record we release we’re growing as a group, constantly developing, responding to feedback and making improvements. We’re striving to support our bands as best we possibly can, and we’re learning a lot along the way.
A sunny ride through France and Belgium delivers us to Cedric and Valerie’s lovely open-plan house in Oostkamp. We’re treated to a beautiful spread of pasta, salad and fresh bread, which we dutifully douse in Fights & Fires’ Kebaptism. We’re determined to prove that it works on everything – which even leads to us trying it poured on apple slices and vegan Magnums (trust me, it made both taste better).
We affix a whiteboard onto the fence in Cedric’s sun-drenched back garden, and an hour later no one’s drawn a bus stop penis on it, so it’s clearly business time. Having all five of us together in one place is such a rare treat that we excitedly roll through our agenda, debating the best way to schedule releases, ways of managing our workload alongside full time jobs, and how to make the most of festival season.
The real fun comes when we start discussing which bands we want to work with. We’re grateful to everyone who approaches us with new music, but we’ve decided that we’d be wiser to do little, but do it well. Quality over quantity, right?
Getting five people with differing tastes to agree on which music to release is a challenge, but after half an hour with a whiteboard and a wealth of ideas, we’ve got a list of albums in mind and a hypothetical hit list for bands we’d dream of working with (Propagandhi, if you’re reading this, we’re ready when you are).
[ux_banner_grid] [col_grid span="6" height="2-3"] [ux_image id="31055"] [/col_grid] [col_grid span="6" height="1-2"] [ux_image id="31071"] [/col_grid] [col_grid span="3" height="1-2"] [ux_image id="31072"] [/col_grid] [col_grid span="3" height="1-2"] [ux_image id="31068"] [/col_grid] [col_grid span="6" height="1-3"] [ux_image id="31073"] [/col_grid] [/ux_banner_grid]With sunburn glistening on our shoulders, we pack up and drive an hour to Joelle’s place in Antwerp. We’re treated to a dinner of bamis, chips and spring rolls in a takeaway that proves you can fry almost anything.
I’m desperate for a pint after a day of hot weather and hard work; Jason Berden (of El Topo bookings) comes to our rescue as soon as we arrive at Vizit. He’s booked Red City Radio and Captain Kaiser in this small youth club. As our Belgian pals arrive, it’s amusing to see the surprise on their faces to see us Brits. Bearded Punk Records have a huge distro spread out, and it’s great catching up with them, Rich Widows, Lander, Floris and pals.
After a sweaty sing along to Red City Radio, we drink outside the venue for a bit, before descending on a typically Belgian bar in Zurenborg. Cherry Chouffe proves the undoing of our team, forcing us to stumble drunkenly back to Joelle’s.
Sunday is a slow start. Joelle summons the energy to nip out to a bakery, entertaining us with a spread of vegan cheese, salad, spreads, chocolate sprinkles and baguettes. We each savour a mug of Lockjaw Coffee and Rob and Lesley have a bluesy jam session while we take turns showering.
It’s overwhelmingly hot; the tram into town feels closer to Lisbon or Madrid than it does Antwerp. We’re searching for a cafe where we can set up our laptops and work, which is evidently an unusual concept in Belgium. As Joelle puts it, “We just drink coffee and do nothing.”
We stumble upon a hipster hideaway: a calm cafe with a laundrette tucked away inside. Each washing machine has its own name. We enjoy a late lunch of bagels and coffee (or wine in my case, in the hopes of eradicating my hangover). Satisfied, we get our laptops out and work in near-silence, updating our artwork, playlists, blog posts and social media schedules. Co-working is exactly the motivation we need, so we celebrate with a bottle of Kriek each.
It’s sad saying goodbye to Joelle and Cedric after a lovely weekend; Rob, Lesley and I have been offered the best of Belgian hospitality. We’ve had some productive discussions, got a lot of work out of the way, and drunk far too much cherry beer. A 10pm ferry lazily transports us across the channel, where Rob and Lesley grab some shut-eye. I drink a bottle of wine and look forward to the future of working with my friends.
We can’t wait to show you what we’ve just planned for the future!
Fun facts learned over the weekend:
- When male dolphins get aggressive, the only solution is to masturbate them
- Fights & Fires Kebaptism sauce goes on everything, even ice cream
- You can still send a telegram
- Rob and Sarah are afraid of Moomins
- Shea butter and CBD oil will fix most things, but farting is a luxury
- Cherry Chouffe is the undoing of us all; beware that naughty gnome