Behind the Beat Records
Launched in 2015 as a record company to foster and promote original Melbourne based artists
Phill Calvert. With 40 years of experience in the music business as a musician, writer, arranger, engineer and producer, Phill felt it was time to tackle a label. With the established version of how the music business works in total disarray it seemed like the perfect time to launch a label and see if a small operator could make a difference.
The aim of the label is to seek out young Melbourne artists and give them the opportunity to record and release their work in a meaningful way and resource the release properly. As this is entirely funded by Behind the Beat, or a combination of the artist and the label, the selection criteria is very precise and initially only 2 – 3 projects will be released per year.
The only other criteria is that Behind the Beat have to believe that the band / artist has all of these qualities and Phill, in particular, must like the music and be excited by the potential of the music.
Behind the Beat currently has national and international distribution through MGM facilitating digital as well as vinyl and CD release and placement on MGM’s web store, as well as release globally on all digital platforms.
Behind the Beat believes that Melbourne is and remains to be the music capital of Australia. However, the aim of the label is for the artist to take the music beyond Australia and venture into the wider world where the true potential for success lies.
The quest for the label is to establish a Melbourne band / artist as a true international entity. Just as when Phill boarded a plane to the UK in 1980 for the first time to see what his band could do, he wants to see others following those footsteps and send the next Birthday Party or Nick Cave off to some foreign shore to show them how it really should be done. Behind the Beat wants to be the label behind the Melbourne sound of tomorrow.
Interested artists, who believe that they have what Behind the Beat is looking for should contact the label at phill@behindthebeaterecords.com"
Why Behind the Beat
The record industry as it was in the past tore down teenage culture in a “rock’n’roll” sense and it no longer exists. The only place it does exist is in magazines, or on reissues, or in documentaries.
Here’s the tragedy and here’s the hope. There are still rock’n’roll bands and there are still rock’n’roll dreamers and there are still rock’n’roll stars and heroes – they’re harder to find than ever before, but they’re still out there. But the people reading this magazine and going to revival shows and reissuing this and that don’t think it’s there anymore, so they don’t support it and they don’t look for it. Granted some of the rock’n’roll has changed. It’s a different attitude. Maybe the amps are different. Maybe the recording studios are different. Maybe the haircuts are different — but it’s still rock’n’roll.
People might say, “Well, there’s no more Elvis, there’s no more Doors and there’s no more Faces and there’s no more Clash out there.”
Yeah! But there may be a bunch of people who can give you the same emotional feeling. If you spend the time on a Tuesday night to go to the clubs and hear music, you’ll see. It’s still there. You have to find it again, because you can only recycle these stories so many times; you can only reissue these songs so many times and eventually everybody’s gonna have these records in their homes. You’re going to have all the versions of all this stuff on bootlegs and tape and vinyl. After a while though, you’re kid’s gonna eat them, you’re dog’s gonna shit on them and your second wife will throw them out. So why don’t you guys go and form your own bands, or why don’t you go find some? Then you’ll find some hot girls and get laid and you’ll have a good time.
It’s still there. It’s not in fashion. It’s very different from my time, but it’s still out there. It may not be what you think rock’n’roll is, but it tells you things about what it’s like, and it’s a natural extension of the past.
Kim Fowley
The People
Phill Calvert
Probably better known for his role as drummer in The Boys Next Door, Birthday Party, Psychedelic Furs and Blue Ruin, Phill has more recently been involved in recording and producing young artists in his hometown of Melbourne.
In his purpose-built studio in Port Melbourne, Phill has everything at his disposal to produce world class quality recordings.
Through working with some amazing artists and seeing the apparent apathy towards many from the established labels has led to Phill establishing Behind the Beat Records as a label.
The aim being to create a conduit for unsigned young Melbourne artists, that Phill believes have what it takes, to be recorded produced and released in a manner that gives them the best chance of succeeding in the international market.
Ben Ling - The quiet achiever.
Whilst you will always hear the noise when a drummer is about, you often don’t have to look far to find the man behind the sound.
Nothing Happens at Behind the Beat without Ben Ling. Whether it is the guitar part a song is screaming for, or some piece of sonic distortion….you can barely hear. Another pair of ears on a mix, or a “cheesy” organ part. A custom guitar or amp that brings a sound, or the guts to say “That’s not the take!”. Well, that’s Ben.
You will never know if that is a Ben on one of our records or not. But, let me tell you there would be no records from Behind the Beat without Ben.