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The Meaning Of Mute
Johnny Black, Masterbag, September 1982
Not emitting articulate sound:
NOT THAT YOU could blame him if his utterances were totally inarticulate, because Daniel Miller has been having a hard and exhausting time. The amiable, deliberately shambling Miller is the head of Mute Records and he's staring into the muzzle of a double-barrelled shotgun where both cartridges are inscribed with his name.
To Daniel, one cartridge is financial success, fame, security, and ulcers for life. The other is integrity, fun in music, much less success and a simple life. He's uncertain which trigger will be pulled first but, either way, he's the target.
The success of Depeche Mode and Yazoo has lifted Mute Records onto a plane of operations where Daniel claims to feel a little uncomfortable, but it is tempting to think that behind the façade of the lamb lying down amongst the lions, the modern Daniel will fare as well in the lion's den as did his biblical counterpart.
(2) A person dumb by nature or as a result of mutilation:
If Daniel Miller is dumb, it's through choice, not nature, although mutilation becomes an interesting word in this context. Mute Records began in his bedroom.
"I'm not sure if a label starts when you have the idea to put out a record or once you achieve that aim, but I was twenty-five and I'd played with tape recorders since I was a kid. In the early seventies I listened to German groups, and when punk happened it reactivated my interest in music. Punk meant different things to different people and to me the synthesizer was the ideal punk instrument because anyone with ideas can do interesting things without being a great musician."
He saved £250 for a second hand Korg 700S and a tape recorder and promptly immersed himself inside his headphones, "working for hours on end, with the volume up to the pain threshold."
Mute's first release, in March 1978, was 'TVOD' by The Normal and it was also his first move towards obscurity behind a façade of fame, because The Normal did not exist. "There was only me. I liked the word normal because a lot of people who try hard to be weird are really very ordinary, whereas other people" (who can he be talking about?) "who seem boring and normal have lots of good ideas inside of them." 'TVOD' was a slice of genius, an electronic oddity tailored perfectly to become a cult in its no deposit, no return life cycle.
At the same time, Miller recorded a number of cover versions of pop standards which later surfaced as mini-hits by the Silicon Teens, yet another front for Daniel to hide his light behind. "I invented a teenage – two girls and two boys – synthesizer pop band. We even went so far as to fake interviews with them but it seemed to be going a bit too far..."
He had also been made nervous by the good review of 'TVOD', and it was almost as if The Silicon Teens (the mould from which Human League were later remodelled) frightened him more by threatening to have real success. Nevertheless it gave Mute some financial stability and enabled him to work with DAF, the distilled essence of Teutonic adrenal-pumped electro-spasm. As any fool knows, DAF is Fad backwards and Fad Gadget was the first real act to appear on Mute. Can this be mere coincidence?
(3) To deaden or subdue the sound of a musical instrument.
Things started going seriously right (or wrong, depending on which trigger is pulled first) when Daniel took a liking to the support band at a Fad Gadget gig in Canning Town. They were Depeche Mode and they were the ones who eventually inflicted G.B.H. on the notion that independent labels can't have real chart success.
"They were being looked at by all the major companies," recalls Miller with relish, "but they seemed intimidated by the big offices and I was just an ordinary bloke. We did the single, 'Dreaming Of Me', and all the big companies were ringing up saying we would never get it into the charts. When it got into the Top 60, I stopped hearing from them, except Muff Winwood at CBS, who phoned to congratulate me. I respect him for that."
'New Life', 'Just Can't Get Enough', 'See You'... the Depeche roll of honour goes on and the hits come in from Germany, Australia, Portugal, bringing more money to Mute than any of the members of The Normal or Silicon Teens had ever dreamed possible.
When Vince Clarke quit Depeche Mode to form Yazoo with a plumpish female blues singer name of Alf (or sometimes Genevieve) Daniel Miller must have breathed a sigh of relief. Here at last was an act doomed to obscurity, something to reduce Mute back to the chaos of the early days. Unfortunately, the curse of success is not easily cast off, and Yazoo warbled into the charts with 'Only You', followed up with 'Don't Go' and are currently scoring well in America too.
To the record buying public it looks like an unbelievable success story, but what really happens when a small label is inflicted with the Midas Touch? One of the first things is a cash flow problem. The money generated by a hit single (or five) can take some time to filter back into the company. Royalties can take eternity. Meanwhile, the company has to borrow money to be able to afford to press up and distribute sufficient quantities of new releases to meet an increasing demand. Borrowed money incurs high interest charges and suddenly "It's like a crash course in how to become a record company. You have problems of staffing, problems of organization, problems just making all the decisions."
In the beginning there was only Daniel, but now there's a full time staff of three, "too much for everybody to do" and plans to employ a book keeper. They've moved office once, and will be moving again before the year is out. "We're permanently on the edge of being totally disorganised but we don't have time to train any new staff."
Mute now has seven acts. Apart from those already mentioned there's Robert Rental, Liaisons Dangereuses, Non and yet another new German act, Die Doraus Und Die Marinas. As far as Daniel is concerned, he doesn't want to grow much more. "I originally had no intention of becoming a successful record company, which is a personal problem as much as a business one for me."
(4) A kind of mule:
A mule is a lazy animal which, under the right circumstances, can be made to carry heavy loads and perform useful work. Miller has been described as a workaholic but, he insists, "I'm fundamentally lazy, which forces me to work twice as hard because I know I'll get nothing done otherwise. People worry about it and try to get me to take holidays but I never get the time."
Is he a workaholic? Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode thinks he is. "Definitely. About 95% of his life, including sleep, is devoted to work. He told us he was even dreaming about doing the mix on our single one night."
One potential disaster area for Mute must be the possibility that both Depeche and Yazoo might be lured away to major labels by offers of lucrative, long-term deals, but according to Gahan, "We don't really consider it. We have no firm contract with Daniel but it's good to be able to deal direct with one man all the tine."
"I think Depeche were reasonably financially aware from the beginning," says Miller. "I've always tried to explain to them in detail the way our finances work, the cost of pressing, or why we can't pay royalties every week because we only get them once a month. They seem to appreciate that. When Vince formed Yazoo, he wasn't under contract to me, he could have gone elsewhere but he decided to stay. I don't like to have a heavy contract. When DAF went to Virgin, I was very upset, but it was better that they should go than be stuck on the label with bad feelings."
Apart from the business problems he has to contend with, Daniel is also the producer of records at Mute, a state of affairs which suits Depeche Mode very well. "We're a bit lazy and apathetic, and he drives us a lot. If he doesn't like the sound, he just refuses to mix it and he's usually right. He made us totally remix the new single and put new drums on and it sounds much better."
Martin Gore, who took over song writing chores when Vince quit Depeche, says, "When we finish recording we just want to go to bed, but Daniel stays up and reads computer manuals until he knows them from back to front."
"Where it might take us half an hour to create a particular synth sound, Daniel can usually get it in thirty seconds," adds Andy Fletcher. "He's also mad keen on photography. Sometimes he'll stop in the middle of a mix and start taking pictures. It can be pretty annoying but I think it's an escape for him."
(5) A pack of hounds; also the cry of hounds while working.
It becomes obvious that, although he no longer actively records his own music, Daniel contributes considerable amounts to the sound of both Depeche and Yazoo. "It is difficult, working with electronic music in a studio, to decide at which point you stop being a musician," he says. "Half of synthesized music is creating the sounds and I still do a lot of that."
The rivalry between Depeche and Yazoo could be another weight on Daniel's shoulders, but it has the benefit of keeping both outfits sharp. Although Depeche have been around longer, it is Yazoo who appear to be cracking into the vital American market, where 'Situation' is number one in the disco charts and bubbling under the national chart.
"They took the master over there and Americanized it by adding bongos and an awful jazz-synth break in the middle," reveals Andy, cringing visibly.
"We were surprised Vince agreed to that because Daniel was against it. The Americans tell us to write dance records, but we're not prepared to do that just to get a hit," says Martin.
The sentiments are echoed by Daniel, saying, "It may be true but I don't want to push them that way. Depeche have a good following in America, they play to 2,000 people a night but because 'See You' wasn't disco-oriented, it didn't help.
Quite apart from business problems, success brings a share of personal agonies. "We were signing autographs in the dressing room after the Hammersmith show. Outside the window was all these blokes trying to crash in, shouting, "We put you there and now you just ignore us". That kind of thing really hurts us, because we try to sign as many as we can."
Like Daniel, Depeche are still having problems adjusting to success. They still like to travel to London on the train, against Daniel's wishes, even though it has involved them in unpleasant scenes with some of BR's less savoury drunken commuters. They were amazed by a chauffeur who apologised for the size of the car he picked them up in until they had discovered Mute had ordered a large limousine. "If you start riding around in limousines, people go off you," says Andy. "Every time we come back to Basildon now, our friends seem a little more distant and we're away so long that we get out of touch."
On the other hand, Daniel is genuinely concerned for their safety and, to him, the increased money coming in enables him to afford better transport for his artists, so why shouldn't they get what they've worked for?
If Daniel doesn't have a nervous breakdown, if the cashflow can be regulated, decent offices found and the right staffing level can be achieved, Mute could become the ideal small label with a sound financial base. If Depeche don't lose all their friends, or succumb to the temptations of the disco hit, or end up feuding with Yazoo, Mute could become the happy family Daniel claims he'd like to have.
"We've had a good year. Maybe next year won't be so good, but I want to still be in business. It would be easy to get a flash office and lots of staff, but I want to keep it under control. If everybody left and we had no more hits I'd still want to keep releasing the music I enjoy even if I knew it wouldn't make a lot of money."
The Mute man has spoken.
© Johnny Black, 1982
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Johnny Black, Masterbag, September 1982
Not emitting articulate sound:
NOT THAT YOU could blame him if his utterances were totally inarticulate, because Daniel Miller has been having a hard and exhausting time. The amiable, deliberately shambling Miller is the head of Mute Records and he's staring into the muzzle of a double-barrelled shotgun where both cartridges are inscribed with his name.
To Daniel, one cartridge is financial success, fame, security, and ulcers for life. The other is integrity, fun in music, much less success and a simple life. He's uncertain which trigger will be pulled first but, either way, he's the target.
The success of Depeche Mode and Yazoo has lifted Mute Records onto a plane of operations where Daniel claims to feel a little uncomfortable, but it is tempting to think that behind the façade of the lamb lying down amongst the lions, the modern Daniel will fare as well in the lion's den as did his biblical counterpart.
(2) A person dumb by nature or as a result of mutilation:
If Daniel Miller is dumb, it's through choice, not nature, although mutilation becomes an interesting word in this context. Mute Records began in his bedroom.
"I'm not sure if a label starts when you have the idea to put out a record or once you achieve that aim, but I was twenty-five and I'd played with tape recorders since I was a kid. In the early seventies I listened to German groups, and when punk happened it reactivated my interest in music. Punk meant different things to different people and to me the synthesizer was the ideal punk instrument because anyone with ideas can do interesting things without being a great musician."
He saved £250 for a second hand Korg 700S and a tape recorder and promptly immersed himself inside his headphones, "working for hours on end, with the volume up to the pain threshold."
Mute's first release, in March 1978, was 'TVOD' by The Normal and it was also his first move towards obscurity behind a façade of fame, because The Normal did not exist. "There was only me. I liked the word normal because a lot of people who try hard to be weird are really very ordinary, whereas other people" (who can he be talking about?) "who seem boring and normal have lots of good ideas inside of them." 'TVOD' was a slice of genius, an electronic oddity tailored perfectly to become a cult in its no deposit, no return life cycle.
At the same time, Miller recorded a number of cover versions of pop standards which later surfaced as mini-hits by the Silicon Teens, yet another front for Daniel to hide his light behind. "I invented a teenage – two girls and two boys – synthesizer pop band. We even went so far as to fake interviews with them but it seemed to be going a bit too far..."
He had also been made nervous by the good review of 'TVOD', and it was almost as if The Silicon Teens (the mould from which Human League were later remodelled) frightened him more by threatening to have real success. Nevertheless it gave Mute some financial stability and enabled him to work with DAF, the distilled essence of Teutonic adrenal-pumped electro-spasm. As any fool knows, DAF is Fad backwards and Fad Gadget was the first real act to appear on Mute. Can this be mere coincidence?
(3) To deaden or subdue the sound of a musical instrument.
Things started going seriously right (or wrong, depending on which trigger is pulled first) when Daniel took a liking to the support band at a Fad Gadget gig in Canning Town. They were Depeche Mode and they were the ones who eventually inflicted G.B.H. on the notion that independent labels can't have real chart success.
"They were being looked at by all the major companies," recalls Miller with relish, "but they seemed intimidated by the big offices and I was just an ordinary bloke. We did the single, 'Dreaming Of Me', and all the big companies were ringing up saying we would never get it into the charts. When it got into the Top 60, I stopped hearing from them, except Muff Winwood at CBS, who phoned to congratulate me. I respect him for that."
'New Life', 'Just Can't Get Enough', 'See You'... the Depeche roll of honour goes on and the hits come in from Germany, Australia, Portugal, bringing more money to Mute than any of the members of The Normal or Silicon Teens had ever dreamed possible.
When Vince Clarke quit Depeche Mode to form Yazoo with a plumpish female blues singer name of Alf (or sometimes Genevieve) Daniel Miller must have breathed a sigh of relief. Here at last was an act doomed to obscurity, something to reduce Mute back to the chaos of the early days. Unfortunately, the curse of success is not easily cast off, and Yazoo warbled into the charts with 'Only You', followed up with 'Don't Go' and are currently scoring well in America too.
To the record buying public it looks like an unbelievable success story, but what really happens when a small label is inflicted with the Midas Touch? One of the first things is a cash flow problem. The money generated by a hit single (or five) can take some time to filter back into the company. Royalties can take eternity. Meanwhile, the company has to borrow money to be able to afford to press up and distribute sufficient quantities of new releases to meet an increasing demand. Borrowed money incurs high interest charges and suddenly "It's like a crash course in how to become a record company. You have problems of staffing, problems of organization, problems just making all the decisions."
In the beginning there was only Daniel, but now there's a full time staff of three, "too much for everybody to do" and plans to employ a book keeper. They've moved office once, and will be moving again before the year is out. "We're permanently on the edge of being totally disorganised but we don't have time to train any new staff."
Mute now has seven acts. Apart from those already mentioned there's Robert Rental, Liaisons Dangereuses, Non and yet another new German act, Die Doraus Und Die Marinas. As far as Daniel is concerned, he doesn't want to grow much more. "I originally had no intention of becoming a successful record company, which is a personal problem as much as a business one for me."
(4) A kind of mule:
A mule is a lazy animal which, under the right circumstances, can be made to carry heavy loads and perform useful work. Miller has been described as a workaholic but, he insists, "I'm fundamentally lazy, which forces me to work twice as hard because I know I'll get nothing done otherwise. People worry about it and try to get me to take holidays but I never get the time."
Is he a workaholic? Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode thinks he is. "Definitely. About 95% of his life, including sleep, is devoted to work. He told us he was even dreaming about doing the mix on our single one night."
One potential disaster area for Mute must be the possibility that both Depeche and Yazoo might be lured away to major labels by offers of lucrative, long-term deals, but according to Gahan, "We don't really consider it. We have no firm contract with Daniel but it's good to be able to deal direct with one man all the tine."
"I think Depeche were reasonably financially aware from the beginning," says Miller. "I've always tried to explain to them in detail the way our finances work, the cost of pressing, or why we can't pay royalties every week because we only get them once a month. They seem to appreciate that. When Vince formed Yazoo, he wasn't under contract to me, he could have gone elsewhere but he decided to stay. I don't like to have a heavy contract. When DAF went to Virgin, I was very upset, but it was better that they should go than be stuck on the label with bad feelings."
Apart from the business problems he has to contend with, Daniel is also the producer of records at Mute, a state of affairs which suits Depeche Mode very well. "We're a bit lazy and apathetic, and he drives us a lot. If he doesn't like the sound, he just refuses to mix it and he's usually right. He made us totally remix the new single and put new drums on and it sounds much better."
Martin Gore, who took over song writing chores when Vince quit Depeche, says, "When we finish recording we just want to go to bed, but Daniel stays up and reads computer manuals until he knows them from back to front."
"Where it might take us half an hour to create a particular synth sound, Daniel can usually get it in thirty seconds," adds Andy Fletcher. "He's also mad keen on photography. Sometimes he'll stop in the middle of a mix and start taking pictures. It can be pretty annoying but I think it's an escape for him."
(5) A pack of hounds; also the cry of hounds while working.
It becomes obvious that, although he no longer actively records his own music, Daniel contributes considerable amounts to the sound of both Depeche and Yazoo. "It is difficult, working with electronic music in a studio, to decide at which point you stop being a musician," he says. "Half of synthesized music is creating the sounds and I still do a lot of that."
The rivalry between Depeche and Yazoo could be another weight on Daniel's shoulders, but it has the benefit of keeping both outfits sharp. Although Depeche have been around longer, it is Yazoo who appear to be cracking into the vital American market, where 'Situation' is number one in the disco charts and bubbling under the national chart.
"They took the master over there and Americanized it by adding bongos and an awful jazz-synth break in the middle," reveals Andy, cringing visibly.
"We were surprised Vince agreed to that because Daniel was against it. The Americans tell us to write dance records, but we're not prepared to do that just to get a hit," says Martin.
The sentiments are echoed by Daniel, saying, "It may be true but I don't want to push them that way. Depeche have a good following in America, they play to 2,000 people a night but because 'See You' wasn't disco-oriented, it didn't help.
Quite apart from business problems, success brings a share of personal agonies. "We were signing autographs in the dressing room after the Hammersmith show. Outside the window was all these blokes trying to crash in, shouting, "We put you there and now you just ignore us". That kind of thing really hurts us, because we try to sign as many as we can."
Like Daniel, Depeche are still having problems adjusting to success. They still like to travel to London on the train, against Daniel's wishes, even though it has involved them in unpleasant scenes with some of BR's less savoury drunken commuters. They were amazed by a chauffeur who apologised for the size of the car he picked them up in until they had discovered Mute had ordered a large limousine. "If you start riding around in limousines, people go off you," says Andy. "Every time we come back to Basildon now, our friends seem a little more distant and we're away so long that we get out of touch."
On the other hand, Daniel is genuinely concerned for their safety and, to him, the increased money coming in enables him to afford better transport for his artists, so why shouldn't they get what they've worked for?
If Daniel doesn't have a nervous breakdown, if the cashflow can be regulated, decent offices found and the right staffing level can be achieved, Mute could become the ideal small label with a sound financial base. If Depeche don't lose all their friends, or succumb to the temptations of the disco hit, or end up feuding with Yazoo, Mute could become the happy family Daniel claims he'd like to have.
"We've had a good year. Maybe next year won't be so good, but I want to still be in business. It would be easy to get a flash office and lots of staff, but I want to keep it under control. If everybody left and we had no more hits I'd still want to keep releasing the music I enjoy even if I knew it wouldn't make a lot of money."
The Mute man has spoken.
© Johnny Black, 1982