Simon Raymonde's Secret to Happiness Is to Let Go of Grudges and Listen to Music

Most people are lucky to even be considered good at one thing, but Simon Raymonde will be remembered for at least two great things. The 57-year-old Englishman was part of Cocteau Twins, a British rock band that played arguably some of the most beautiful and ethereal music ever made. Talk to any band in the spectrum of dream pop and shoegaze, and Cocteau Twins will inevitably come up as a major influence.

When the band broke up in 1997, Raymonde found himself in an awkward situation. He had already started Bella Union, a record label that was originally created to put out Cocteau Twins’ records. He refused to let the label die out, so he decided to keep going hoping to come across interesting bands to sign along the way. Raymonde had no clue that he was going to spend the next two decades releasing music by what would be some of the biggest bands in the alternative music scene, such as Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, Beach House and Explosions in the Sky.

Last week, Raymonde made his first visit to Jakarta to speak at Archipelago Festival. Ahead of the event, VICE managed to sit down with him to talk about the ups and downs of running Bella Union, his new passion project Lost Horizons, and how he's made peace with the future of Cocteau Twins—or lack thereof.

VICE: What does it feel like to be running a record label for more than 20 years?
Simon Raymonde: Well, it feels normal [laughs]. It feels like it did yesterday. I mean I guess it feels amazing in a sense. I’m doing something I never thought I’d be doing, you know. Started off as a musician, here I am running a record label working with other musicians. It’s a bit of a departure from what I thought my life was going to be. But no complaints from here. I’ve had a great time.

Have you ever felt so low you wanted to give it all up?
Yeah, probably about 20 times [laughs]. I mean you can’t do this independently and not have moments where you ask what the point in it all is, or whether you can survive this latest disaster. Most of the disasters are usually financial. Everything changed dramatically in the last 10 years. We’re going from the physical world into a streaming world where the income is not there. The amount of people that are consuming music may have increased on the streaming side but have fallen off so dramatically on the physical side. There’s a massive adjustment to make there. It seems to me many labels have made the mistake of having some success and then expanding quite soon after and of course success doesn’t follow success. It’s intangible. I don’t know why this is successful or this isn’t. That’s why I don’t look at sales at all, it doesn’t interest me. Putting the record out - that’s success to me. Having a band that’s happy and content, and in a good relationship - that’s success.

You can’t just give it up because you had a bad day or something terrible happened. Our distribution went bust around 2008, when Fleet Foxes was blowing up. And it was a catastrophe - I lost hundreds of thousands of pounds, which for a small label is everything. But like I said, I’m very stubborn. Music business is almost impossible. You know you need to have zero expectation in this business. Just start from zero and have fun with it. Don’t be too stressed about the money side of things and that’s how I try to live the label. So yeah, 21 years, still here - no idea how, no idea why.

What do you look for when you're signing an artist?
The music is like the easiest part of the whole equation, right? You can play me something right now and I go, "Fuck, that’s amazing, I'd love to work with them." But if I meet them and they’re just idiots or they meet me and they think, "He’s an idiot," then the relationship is going to be very short-lived. It’s all about the relationship. And I never realized this when I started. It is still about the music, ultimately, because you wouldn’t be having conversation in the first place if it wasn’t, but then it becomes just part of the equation because the success is all in the connection between us.

Sometimes you’re gonna get it right, other times hopelessly wrong. It’s not always going to be perfect. I need to tell you when things aren’t going very well, and you need to tell me when I did that thing you weren’t happy about. Then we have an understanding and the relationship grows. That’s how I want Bella Union to be. It’s not just a business transaction. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be very interested in it.

You put out records by Jambinai, a Korean band. How did they get into your radar?
I saw Jambinai at a festival. They were playing Primavera Sound in Europe. It was one of the best things I’ve ever seen, so I followed it out, did some investigating and found their booking agent, spoke to the band and all that. You know, the same way I discover any band. It doesn’t matter whether they’re from Seoul or Jakarta. It’s all about experience, it’s all about listening, it’s all about relationships.

One of the reasons we’re here [in Jakarta] is because we’ve never been here before. I’m here for a week so I can meet a lot of people, see some music, go home with a suitcase full of CDs, vinyls and download cards and go through it slowly to find if anything connects with me on an emotional or spiritual level. I’ve seen some bands at Synchronize Festival, some was good, some was OK. I went to Bandung to see some music, some fascinating things. Anything I wanna sign? I don’t know. Not right now. But it’s all about the place, it’s all about meeting people, that’s what it’s all about.

In the West, in England, it’s a very comfortable, middle class sort of society. Everyone’s got an OK standard. There’s poverty, there’s homelessness, but everyone’s kinda safe. Here, things are a lot more difficult for people. But our view and knowledge of your music scene is almost non-existent because all we read about Indonesia is earthquakes and tsunamis. That’s not representative of your life, your passions, your beliefs, but how are we gonna know all that stuff if it's nowhere to be found [in] our media?

Legendary bands like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive have reunited in recent years and even put out new materials. Do you see Cocteau Twins getting back together at some point?
We don’t talk about it because we’re busy with our own lives. And the band broke up ultimately because of a relationship between Robin and Liz. So you know, all the talk in the world isn’t going to heal that fundamental fact that is their relationship not working. And they’re very different people now. Having a relationship of any kind, to reform a band, we need to let go of all that stuff and go, "It is what it is, nevermind, let’s just make some money and have fun." That’s easier said than done if you’re quite emotional, sensitive people. Jumping in a van with somebody you don’t get along with that well for three months is a lot to ask for [laughs].

Have there been offers? Yeah, of course. Maybe there was a consideration years ago, with the guy who put the Pixies back together again. He’s a friend of ours, he used to be our booking agent. Maybe I thought we were closer to it than we really were, but there was talk about it and at one point we all seemed open to the idea. It never happened. Do I see it happening again? Nah, I don’t right now. Am I bummed about it? No. Will it be fun? Not necessarily. I like making music now with my friends because it’s fun and not stressful.

You’re talking about Lost Horizons?
Yeah, yeah. Just something I love doing with people I really love. We all have a great time together. I can’t promise that would happen with a reformed Cocteau Twins. Maybe it would, you just never know. Life’s really weird. So maybe next week something will be different and I’d give a different answer to that question. But right now, I can’t see it happening and I've got no interest in making it happen. It would be a good idea for the fans who never got to see us play. So in the same way I’ve never seen Talking Heads play, I’d love for them to reform. That’s never going to happen either [laughs]. So I’ll get over it, and you’ll get over it.

Are you happy to be able to play music again?
It’s the best feeling in the world. I’ve never thought we’d play shows because [Lost Horizons] is so strange - it's all improvised music between two people and it involves 15 different singers. How you translate that into a live show, I don’t know, but we did it. We’ve been touring for a year now and every single show we have the greatest fun ever. We get on so well, and everyone is so nice. We’re all from different backgrounds and different ages. Me, Chris [Anderson] and Richie [Thomas] are all in our 50s. It’s like three old blokes and a few youngsters. We never thought we’d make a record. Even if we stopped there, I’d be more than happy because we got to do that.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.