Word on the street is that Leeds isn't the new London, or just behind Manchester in the urban cool stakes. It's not "picking up speed" to become a generic British high street, and it certainly isn't part of the new breed of European super city, swallowed in a gulp over a weekend and then left behind.
If you follow my blog or other adventures in cyber space, you'll know that, up until May, I worked in Leeds for a good 18 months, embedded in the creative community at Leeds College of Music and the surrounding bubbling pot of the cultural quarter. In June I was ecstatic to take up a role with Scottish Labour (more on that in a future post) to work on campaigning for the referendum. Before I left, I knew I wanted to interview someone I hadn't yet, someone who would provide my readers with an illustration of why I think Leeds is so ruddy great.
After some rumination, the ideal person suddenly popped into my head, and I was chuffed when he agreed to take part.
I'm excited to take my blog to Scotland, and I'm very much in love with my new job role. But there is something about Leeds that will always lie dear in my heart. I knew it as a child as my nearby cosmopolis, and I know it as an adult as a city that pushes creativity and experimentalism above all else.
The booming independent scene in Leeds is like no other. From Village to LS6, it hurdles over those barriers of traditional urban life that push a city in pretentiousness rather than encouraging natural trends and welcoming collaborations.
Calverley born Joe Cox is an embodiment of the spirit of Leeds - an entrepreneur, musician, press aficionado, family man and all round good chap – there are few people on the Leeds' music scene that don't know him. In a city that cherishes originality, collaboration and being down to earth, it's not difficult to see why Joe has thrived. I'll let the interview do the rest of the talking:
So, you work for I Like Press, for the Belgrave, for Leeds College of Music, you’re starting a new band and you have a pretty exciting drum restoration business on the up. How did it all get started?
A lot of it started with I Like Press. I started interning for them in 2009, so that led to work with Leeds Guide and links to other business and projects. I always planned to get involved in as much stuff as I possibly could. When I was younger I was always like "how I am going to get work?" because I wanted a job that I actually would want to do. I knew it was tough to get a job in the arts and in music and I guess that's why I've had to poke around and get involved in a lot.
How did the drum business start?
I just graduated last summer, bought a drum kit that was really old, did it up, that was great. Had loads of time because I'd just graduated, so I bought another. And then another. So I just had loads of kits, and I was like "I don't need all these kits!!" And so I started selling them and it just snowballed from there. So it started off me just collected them for myself and boredom, and then it quickened up suddenly and led to in-out, in-out with the kits.
Would you say there’s a niche for drum restoration at the moment?
Everyone always says it's amazing how such a small thing can work. The way I see it, though, is that with all music shops shutting, no-one’s buying new gear much. Those people are looking into second hand stuff, and then from that they're getting into the older stuff. Everyone loves retro throwback: clothes, cars, gear. There's always a market for it.
Do you think you could do what you've done here in another city?
It probably wouldn't be as easy in another city, and that’s just because – even though it's a niche business, it's amazing how much people support it on the independent scene in Leeds even though they have nothing to do with it.
I've never thought of it as such – that everything else I've done in Leeds has contributed to my business, but it has, in a big way.
Do you have a favourite venue in Leeds?
It’s tricky to narrow it down, but I guess I’d say the Brudenell and the Belgrave both have amazing sound and stages. A lot of venues will sound good offstage but not on stage, and both of them have that.
Why do you love Leeds?I don't think there's one scene - you don't just have a music scene, or one kind of art scene. Everything's just connected – so, for example, you've got your coffee scene with people like Laynes, and then they're collaborating with people like The Belgrave and popups so that brings them together.
The street feasts across the city with The Belgrave and Canal Mills bring so many independent pop-ups together.
There's this gig that goes on in Shipley at Golden Cabinet; they bring all these weird and wonderful bands together and then The Print Project does a print especially for it - and then exhibit them at The Sparrow and at Leeds Print Festival, which was hosted at Leeds College of Music. And then Colours May Vary sold a few.
That's just a great example of how the music and art come together because, I haven't been to one of those gigs yet, but I've got two of those posters and I went to the gig sound check to buy the poster. It’s a really good example of how everyone kind of helps each other, because if that gig wasn't around then there wouldn't be a reason to make a poster for it. So it's all interlinked. I think that's just great.
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