LABEL OF LOVE ALBERT'S FAVOURITES

Where are you based, what do you do, and why?

- Charles Donovan

We're mostly based in South East London. I'm in Crystal Palace and most of our operations happen from here but our co-founder/designer Jonny Drop is out in Ipswich. We're an album-focused label and we love making them. The whole team are artists and the label was originally created, in part, to give us a home for our music. My aim was always to create the fait, kind environment I would want for myself as an artist.

Why the name, Albert's Favourites?

My grandad, Albert, used to make mixtapes for our holiday trips to Wales when we were kids (a tradition he started when my mum was a kid, too). He would buy everyone's favourite songs of the moment on vinyl and record them to a 90-min cassette tape to go in the car on our trips to Pembrokeshire. The cassette tape was always called Albert’s Favourites. Cue plenty of singing and backseat wriggling-about.

When was the label launched and how have things changed since?

We started in 2015. It's hard to believe, like a lifetime ago. When I look at promo campaigns from back then there's almost nothing that's the same. So many publications, blogs, online magazines have disappeared. Thriving spaces disappeared, especially through Covid. Tech companies have largely taken over the delivery of music to people, cutting out the middle man and it's a huge shame; the middle men were knowledgeable, interesting, opinionated lovers of music around whom communities and scenes grew.

What labels inspire/influence you?