One of my favourite things about writing for the 'Lord is when I discover truly amazing, hard working and dedicated labels. People who are usually out of pocket because they love the music, and the bands that play this music. One such individual is Andrew Bankes, who took the leap and started his own small label to spread the Doom. He deals in tapes of fine riff-mongering acts, and he is just at the very start of his adventure. Said home of the heavy is Dry Cough Records, based in Manchester, UK just about to release their second tape and it's a pleasure to subject him to the Inquisition.
FI) Hey man, how's you? What prompted you to start up Dry Cough?
DCR) I’m pretty, pretty good thanks dude!
I’ve fancied doing my own label since I started playing in bands, but it was always one of those “I’ll get round to it one day” kind of things. One morning last year I was sat drinking coffee and surfing the web when Oliver Goodland (former owner of Church Of Fuck Scotland UK
FI) Right now you're starting out with tapes, a format that is going through a strong resurgence with the hardcore fanbase. How do you get tapes made then?
DCR) The bands send me the tracks, and any artwork and text they want to use, then my man Dia Artio then does the layouts for me (as I’m utterly hopeless with Photoshop), then it all gets sent to a place in Yorkshire called Fairview Duplication. They then run off a test tape, and once approved by myself, we have the finished product. Some folk might point out that doing it this way isn’t strictly DIY as I’m not hunched over a table scouring card or individually screen printing 100 sleeves or whatever, but it takes up a lot more of my time (and money) than you’d think!
FI) Your first release was the Plague Survivors tape. What was it like to start with such a strong set of tunes?
FI) Your upcoming second release is by On Pain of Death, from
FI) I've talked to you in the past about this, but do you think you will reach the stage where vinyl becomes a possibility? I'm gagging to get your releases on wax.
FI) What is your preferred format, as a fan?
DCR] Vinyl without doubt. I only began buying records and tapes again about 2 years ago after 7-8 years of solely buying CDs. A friend of mine turned up one night with a couple of 7”s by 
FI) How far would you like to go with Dry Cough? Do you intend to keep it small, or would you like to go as big as possible?
DCR) I don’t have a clue. I haven’t thought past the next couple of releases to be honest. I’ll just see how things go.
FI) We've covered Plague Survivors, we've covered On Pain of Death. Who's next for the Dry Cough roster?
DCR) If all goes to plan, then the next tape will be a compilation of older tracks by the New Zealand band, Open Tomb (and hopefully some of their new stuff later in the year). I’ve also agreed in principle to a co-op with Church Of Fuck , to put out a 7” by new Manchester
FI) I ask bands about their influences, but I'm sure that label dudes have label influences too. Got any heroes who run record labels?
DCR) No not really. The closest to that would probably be Chris Braddock of Feast of Tentacles. All his releases are quality, both musically and visually. AND he sings in Moloch, my current favourite band.
FI) Thanks for answering these questions brother. I usually save this space for shout outs - got anything you would like to say to the doom masses at all?
The End
As ever, show your support to the band by checking them out at the various links. Thanks to Andy @ Dry Cough Records for the great insight into running a DIY label. You can read the review of On Pain of Death here . You can pick some choice merch here
