Tom Kerridge rallies the RAMP troops: Tokimonsta, P.U.D.G.E. and Shortstuff

For someone who professes simply to follow his own ears, Tom Kerridge has a habit of being uncannily on the money.

His label RAMP Recordings helped precipitate the past few years’ surge of interest in post-J Dilla hip-hop beats, as well as servicing a growing taste for the startlingly coloured synth fantasias of the likes of Zomby. Moreover, the catalogue is as good an emblem as any of where so much of the promise in UK dance music presently lies – namely the blurry hinterlands between dubstep, UK funky and garage. Zomby aside, Shortstuff, Hot City and Slugabed have all been on the books, as have like-minded counterparts from overseas such as Desto and Falty DL.

If the the label’s relatively diverse cohorts seem somehow to be chipped from the same block, it isn’t by design, according to Kerridge. All the same, that set of ears makes for a distinctive and personal approach to signing and releasing music. The RAMP man kindly agreed to let FACT find out more, supplying insights on topics including his shadowy network of side-projects, the pros of working with Zomby, and why net-labels suck.

“RAMP really started as an albums label…”

First of all, is it fair to say 2009 was a pretty good year for RAMP? Are there any highlights you’ll look back on particularly fondly?

“Indeed, we had a great year in 2009! Hard to pick out real highlights, I get so much from every release I put out. I am still genuinely as excited when I get a new test pressing – or when I hear a new tune I want to sign, or when I first see artwork some terribly talented individual has put together for me – as I was ripping open boxes of Transformers on Christmas Day when I was five. RAMP@Lightbox was a blast, but a bit of a blur thanks to everybody buying me shots every few minutes. Going to Loop festival in Brighton with Zomby was great fun too.”

Tell us a bit about what’s in the pipeline for you this year. We hear you have some albums in the works, which sound exciting – does it feel more ambitious than anything you’ve done so far?

“Not really: RAMP really started as an albums label, and we did put out the Skweee Tooth and Zomby CDs last year too. Still by far the biggest thing I have put out was our second release, BEGBORROWSTEEL by Count Bass D, closely followed by the Kankick album. I only really started doing singles seriously when I branched away from hip-hop. I’ve always been very album-driven, but I think how everything has been, we needed to release some 12-inches before people were really warmed up to what we are doing. I was very conscious of this when I did change up what RAMP was putting out, because at the time everything was so segregated. I am not interested in just knocking stuff out, I want to get everything right, it’s not just a case of throwing another release on the pile.

“We have full-lengths coming very soon from P.U.D.G.E., Maxmillion Dunbar, Computer Jay, Clouds, Ras G, NOCHEXXX, and a few more I won’t go into just yet.”

How do you tend to come across the music you release? Are there particular aims or principles guiding what you decide to put out?

“If I like it, I put it out, there is no science to it. Looking back (and forward) on the music I have signed, I’ve noticed that I do have quite a distinct ear, and have been able to draw a line between the music from an artist like Shortstuff to somebody like Ras G. There is a certain messiness to the music I sign to RAMP.

“How I come across stuff varies. Sometimes I hear somebody dropping it in a set or a mixtape, sometimes people approach me, sometimes it’s when I’m bored and surfing through MySpace or something. Sometimes I hear a random little release that grabs my attention, sometimes somebody will tip me off about a new artist – sometimes just in conversation with an established artist – and a release works itself out. Again, no science, it just seems to happen.”

Have you noticed a pattern of RAMP artists subsequently being picked up by bigger labels? Do you mind that?

“I can’t really say that happens a lot, as I can’t think of too many artists who have really signed to a significantly bigger label after releasing on RAMP, but I certainly don’t mind if somebody is destined for bigger and better things. It must say I’m doing something right! The whole concept behind RAMP was to not push the label brand down people’s throats, I’m much more interested in pushing the artists I work with instead of the branding of the label. Some RAMP releases don’t even have a logo on them.

“I do know there are other labels watching what I do, inside and outside of our scene, and they step in on my artists. I am pretty close with everybody I work with and help a lot of them on the management side of things, so I hear all of the offers that come their way and we discuss what the best plan of action would be. I’m certainly not going to stop somebody doing something that would be beneficial to them, but we have a great set-up here. I can give a release the same service a much bigger label can, without ridiculous overheads. We are also 100% completely and totally independent – I have had not help on any level from any external companies. You would be surprised how common it is nowadays for “independent” labels to have a much bigger company in the background pulling the strings.

“I am actually very happy with the people I am working with right now. I don’t want to release music by an artist who isn’t excited to release on my label, as I wouldn’t release music by an artist who doesn’t excite me, so as soon as that excitement stops on either side, so do the releases.”

Are you consciously giving a platform to music that’s on the fringes, so to speak, rather than bang in the middle of a genre or scene, or just doing what you feel?

“Like I said before, there is really no science to it. I am not consciously trying to do anything “genre breaking” or anything like that, it just so happens that the music that I like is not awfully shit dubstep or formulaic hip-hop. As long as I have been listening to music I have enjoyed stuff that doesn’t sound like anything else, and therefore my taste is constantly changing. In that way, RAMP is a complete and total reflection of my own fickleness and low attention span. If I was a different person who was into very generic and boring music, then RAMP would be a very different label.”