Kniteforce Revolution

The History of Kniteforce - Chapter 8

Nov 22, 05:58 PM

Chapter 8





So the first few KFAs were tentative attempts to remake old skool hardcore in a modern climate. This was a popular idea and people were enthusiastic about it. I was also fascinated with the new options that online selling presented.
I came up with the idea of the “executive edition” for new releases. This was done because I could see that cutting out the distributor changed the financial structure of a label, and also meant you could taylor your release to a niche market without losing out financially.


Here is the old way of selling records, and one many labels still adhere to, even now. First, press a record. Maybe it would cost you 50p per unit, and you would sell it to the distributor for ¬£1.80 per unit, or, if you were lucky, ¬£2.00. These prices haven’t really changed since I fist got into the industry over 15 years ago.
So if you sold 1000 units, it would cost you ¬£500.00 to press them up, and earn you ¬£2000.00 in sales. Which was decent enough IF you sold 1000. Selling 1000 was relatively hard to do in 2002, and in 2008 its a miracle if you get that sort of number. Being a “weird” label like KFA made the whole thing even more precarious.
However, if you are selling directly to the public, the costs remain the same Р50p per unit. Only now, you are selling the records for £5.00 each. This means you only need to sell 200 copies to make the same profit as 1000 copies via a distributor.
My thought was, that being so, its best to sell as many direct to the public as you can. The question was, how do you do that? The answer for me was to make buying direct more attractive. So, with each release, I decided to do something special for those that bought from me. This way I could encourage greater sales directly, perhaps even pay off the pressing costs that way. The rest of the sales could go to the distributor, but these sales would be profit only. So the Executive Editions were born. And as time went by, they got more extravagant and interesting. As an artist, I love this. Not only do I get to sell to the people that want to buy my music, I get to play with the whole concept of the release. I can make a sleeve, and executive edition, and the tracks to all compliment each other.
It changed the way I thought about a release – with each one I have a vision of what could be…the Ex Ec forces me to be even more creative, and the challenge to do that each time pleases me.


So for the first year of the label, I was content to make “new” old skool, and push the Ex Ecs, and see what happened. Obviously, it was a success, or I wouldn’t be writing this now.


There are many reasons why KFA has worked so well. Some, like the Ex Ec editions, and direct selling to the public, are practical in nature.
Others are due to a significant change in attitude from me, as well as the fact that I relish the challenge of working this way.
Ironically though, the most important reason that KFA has worked and keeps working is that I learned a great deal in my bad times, which I regard as 1997-2000. I learned that money really doesn’t matter that much. I knew this intellectually, but hadn’t comprehended it. Between 1997 and 2001, that became an integral part of me. Also during that time, I moved from Karate to Kung Fu in my spare time. It would take more time than I have to explain the differences here, or how they effected me, but it has to do with focus, and knowing what your own objectives are, understanding intent, method, reason, and where strength lies, and where it does not.
And, cliched as it is, understanding myself.
On top of that, I had been unhappy for a long time, and took to reading through many of the religious texts, hoping to find direction but actually finding little of use there. So I took to philosophy. Plato to Zeno, Descartes to Satre…and found particular inspiration in Neitzsche and Hume, as well as reading various books such as The Zen Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance, Catch 22, Ishmael, and books on people such as Ghandi.



















At the time, I didn’t find any real answers, and often the stuff I read made me more confused or despondent. And much of it I have forgotten or discarded. But what it did do was force my mind open. It made me think. It made me objective.
The bottom line? I no longer felt the need to be “the best”, only the need to do my best. The race is long, but only with myself (to quote someone or other).
So my approach to KFA has been at once more determined and direct, but at the same time less concerned with other people or distractions which may have caught me before.


Other practical decisions? To just be Luna-C for the most part. I accept what I am. I am not the sort of person that requires fame, nor do I need reassurance that what I am doing is brilliant. It doesn’t matter to me if it is or not, it only matters that I feel it. While I still play with other names, I have focused on my main name and put most of my work under that banner. And no subsidiaries (except for KFX, which serves a practical purpose in releasing “naughty” tracks.)
Musically, I have got more ambitious, and simultaneously less interested in the traditional version of success. I have removed “formula”, as I saw that staying on a single path leads to stagnation. I have taken Brian Eno’s quote to heart “Whatever worked last time, don’t do that again”. This more open attitude lead me to just get more artistic in that I was concerned wit what I could do, not what I should do. My music became purer, along with my ambitions, and one of those results was the My Angel video…

Much of what I have just written was a slow development that has occurred before KFA was started and as the label has developed. As I said, the first year or so of the label was quite conservative, as I slowly found my way. As time went by, I started getting more experimental with the label. This was not without its problems. Some people just wanted the old skool sound. But I realized very quickly that, while I love making old skool, it would not satisfy me.


Within a year or two of the labels existence, I was in a good position to buy back Kniteforce and the rights to the back catalogues music and artwork. I was also in a powerful position for negotiating the deal. DBM had a dead label that they could do nothing with. I wanted Kniteforce back, but I wasn’t desperate for it. I was rolling along quite nicely. I held most of the cards. In the end, a deal was reached, and so, around 2004 (I am bad with dates) I bought back my old labels, much to my relief…

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