The Process: An Interview with Gizeh Records’ Richard Knox

Being of a similar age to Richard Knox, we both hail from a generation that slips between the cracks of both the new and old world.

A generation that had plenty of time to breathe before the world wide web, smart phones and AI, being products of the early 1980s, and you’re at that fork in the road where you either embrace tech or fuck it off altogether. Like myself, Knox has a thirst for the old world, and in particular physical product.

Born in West Yorkshire and now residing in Glossop, Derbyshire, Knox is an individual spinning many plates (let’s be honest, anyone undertaking any artistic endevour in 2023 falls into this category). The founder of independent record label Gizeh Records, which this year celebrates its twentieth year in operation, Knox also plies his trade in bands including A-Sun Amissa, Shield Patterns and Glissando During.

During the lockdown period, Knox also co-founded KIN.DER, the screen printing and creative studio that he currently works from in Glossop, and this along with Gizeh Records, this was my own personal gateway into the multidisciplinary artist’s world. Namely via Aidan Baker’s wonderful Trio Not Trio series, which Knox played a vital role in bringing to life.

Released over five albums featuring some of the world’s leading experimental artistic voices alongside Baker, including Khanate’s Tim Wyskida, Japanese vocalist Ayami Suzuki, Oneida drummer, John Colpitts and Melissa Guion, Knox’s artwork reveals its own story, rounding out what is the year’s most underrated series in the esoteric sound world.  

In a day and age where physical product is being swamped by streaming and tech’s incessant attitude for grinding art into the ground, it’s voices like Knox who continue to fly the flag and kick against modern trends. Through his attention to detail and care, the work Knox produces underlines the need for that physical relationship between artist and listener.

Last week, following the release of Trio Not Trio’s final instalment, Letzte (featuring Guion and Jana Sotzko alongside Baker), we caught up with Knox to talk about the series, Gizeh Records, and more.  

Sound Coalition: An Interview with Trio Not Trio

S13: How did the Trio Not Trio collaboration with Aidan Baker come about?

Richard Knox: “Aidan had been working on this idea for a while and I think he’d already offered it to a few labels before bringing it to me. It seemed like no one else was mad enough to take on such a big project, so naturally I said yes. Gizeh had been dormant for a couple of years after the Brexit/ pandemic double-whammy-shitshow, and I was trying to work out how to move forward again with the label. I felt like the approach to the music Aidan was putting together was pretty novel and I’m all for trying to find new ways to release music, no matter how against the grain that might be. We had a video chat and it just felt like a cool challenge to be able to make the whole thing work. I admired his ambition, and it seemed like an interesting way to kick the label back into life again.

“Over the next few weeks I was really thinking deeply about how the project could work. There were a million questions and a million options on how we could actually logistically do it. After another call we had pretty much figured out the nuts and bolts of the thing, but details really matter on this stuff, especially when you are dealing with collectors and fans and shipping hundreds of parcels around. Spreadsheets were a must!

“One of the main questions centred around artwork. We wanted it to be something special and preferably hand-made/printed. I’ve been making art and screen printing for many years, so I offered to put something unique together and saw it as an opportunity to try out some new ideas.”

S13: How do you approach a big project like this? Is it the same way you approach any piece of art you make?

RK: “Around the time of chatting with Aidan about this release I was playing around with some new ideas in the print studio. Normally I’m working more with monoprints and black and white work but at that time I was doing more collage work and experimenting with shapes and colours.

“We knew there would be five separate releases that needed to talk to each other visually so this new approach I was working on seemed to fit perfectly. There are also constraints with artwork if it is going to be screen-printed so I needed to work around that as well, not to mention the time involved in hand-printing all the sleeves.

“I decided that gatefold sleeves were the way to go, and we’d need five different colourways. I have a supplier that specially cuts the sleeves for me and the card we used is made in Italy from 40 per cent Post Consumer Waste and 15 per cent natural fibres (by-products derived from the food processing industry which would otherwise go to landfill). Essentially it turns a waste product into a natural, GMO free, raw material derived from nuts, fruits etc., which results in these super distinctive colour shades. I’ve been designing and printing CD and vinyl sleeves for a few years now, but this project was definitely a step up and quite a challenge.

“Each of the five releases is an edition of 185 and each sleeve is a two-colour screen-print. The sleeves come flat to enable them to be printed on so then there’s the task of folding and glueing each one and inserting CD’s, inlays and download codes and hand-numbering them.

“This project began in May and the last instalment landed [last week], so spacing the work out and scheduling everything was a really important part of the process.”

S13: Do you see both your print studio KIN.DER and the label as direct links that tell the whole story?

RK: “In a way. The label has been going for pretty much 20 years now and the print studio has been open for just two. KIN.DER definitely gives me the ability to see through more ideas and enables me to make more interesting packaging for the label releases. More and more people are coming to us for packaging work and merch now, so it seems to be of interest to other bands and labels too which is cool. In this digital age I feel like elaborate physical releases are more important than ever, you just need to make less of them and make them desirable and collectable.”

S13: Your studio is in Derbyshire. How much do your surroundings influence what you do?

RK: “We’re very lucky in that we live in a really stunning part of the country but it’s actually quite difficult to contemplate how that impacts the work I do. I’m sure it does but it’s not especially tangible. After living in and around cities for most of my life, moving to Glossop definitely changed the pace of life a bit but now I’m in my forties that seems to work just fine.

“I’m in a somewhat rare place where the work I do, be it making music, the label or printing is something I cherish and appreciate and enjoy on a daily basis. I work a lot but being able to step outside and be out in the hills with no one around in ten minutes is a beautiful thing.”

S13: I imagine from your work on the label and music in general over the years that both you and Aidan would have known a lot of the artists who contributed to the project. It must be nice to have some of these artists feature under the Gizeh stable so to speak?

RK: “Absolutely. Although I confess to not knowing all the artists involved before the project began, it’s been a joy to discover the work they have been involved in. Exploring each artist and their different projects has been really interesting and I’ve found some wonderful work along the way.”

S13: It’s been 20 years since you first formed Gizeh Records. That’s a pretty wonderful milestone for an independent label, given these times. Is that something you have had a chance to reflect on?

RK: “To be honest I’m almost always looking forwards, so it’s actually quite weird and unnatural to be contemplating 20 years of the label. That being said, I’m aware it’s a hell of a milestone and it’s something I’m very proud of. Sustainability is something I try to impart on every aspect of my life and the label is no different. The goal has always been to keep existing and putting out great music for as long as the spark stays lit. I’ve tried to be adaptable to circumstances and just go with my gut and what feels right.

“After Brexit I lost 40-50 per cent of label customers almost overnight due to so many fans living across Europe and the taxes / logistics involved in shipping goods there. That was a time to pause and allow some space to contemplate what could happen next and it was absolutely the right thing to do.

“I’m slowly cooking ideas for the 20th anniversary in 2024 so we’ll see!”

S13: A lot has changed since then, too, of course. How much of it is a challenge to keep running the label, especially now given all the uncertainty with a platform like Bandcamp?

RK: “It’s a massive challenge but that’s life, right? You just have to keep finding ways to make it work. Billionaire tech bros are running the world and pulling the rug from under everybody at each turn. People and businesses are building and crafting their worlds around these platforms, and they can be taken away or systematically dismantled in an instant. It feels so temporary and fragile and it’s getting harder and harder to reach people. I’m not really sure where all this ends up in the next few years, but if Bandcamp goes the way many of us fear we’ll be even more fucked than we are now. I have to say it’s so tiring trying to navigate all that stuff when we should be concentrating on enjoying, celebrating and being inspired by music and art, instead too much time is taken up with things like, ‘do I need to post a picture of my face to make the algorithm work?’. It’s such bullshit.”

S13: You’re also in the band A-Sun Amissa, which has a record out in February. Can you tell us about that?

RK: “Sure, it’s called Ruins Era and it’s coming out on Gizeh. We just released one track from it, the record is 70 minutes long and it’s certainly the longest amount of time I’ve spent on making a record. We’re really pleased with it though. It will take a fair bit of digesting as a listener, but the point is that it’s a full body of work that we’ve been developing for a couple of years. If you have a short attention span you are gonna hate it!”

For more information visit Gizeh Records and Richard Knox’s website.