In too deep: When signing to a major label goes very, very wrong

Talking about how his experience working with independent labels differed, Alexkid said: “There's a bit more freedom of choice, and at the end of it all having some freedom is quite priceless. When someone puts a lot of money on the table for you then there's a whole group of people having an opinion of how you should do it, and one way or another you end up being influenced by peer pressure and some of the decisions eventually are not yours.”

In his Resident Advisor Exchange, Artwork noted that although happy with Magnetic Man’s major label deal, the amount of money thrown at them did have a destabilising effect on the production initially. Artwork reveals that they hired a mansion in Cornwall to work on the LP, and his collaborators Skream and Benga went “fucking stir crazy” in the remote location. After a full six weeks a group of big wig executives came to check on their investment. The trio had made one song that had the lyrics: “Ketamine, check. Cocaine, check. Ecstasy, check. Let’s party.” They quickly returned home to Croydon and made the album in earnest.

For other artists, the money on the table from majors has resulted in more sinister and controlling outcomes. Kissy Sell Out, who has worked with multiple major labels, has been on the receiving end of executives trying to forcibly impose creative decisions on his music.

While Kissy was recording his first album in Bath he was visited unannounced by a member of the major’s marketing department. “He very rudely demanded that the studio engineers, singers and studio owner stepped outside to leave me and him alone,” Kissy recalls. “He pulled me out of my chair and sat opposite me on a table. He took off his tie and suit jacket, rolled up his sleeves and then, I promise you, he said: ‘Look Kissy, let’s cut the shit ok! I wanna chat man-to-man. I don’t care about your music right now, but listen. I’ve had a nervous breakdown and my wife has left me.’ Being only 23, and painfully shy in those days, I had absolutely no idea what to say. He continued: ‘You’ve got a lot of money to make this album, so let’s spend it. You’re going to work with the songwriter for Britney Spears, and that’s final!’ He stormed off back to his car, and I licensed my album away from the major label a few weeks later. I never did work with the songwriter for Britney Spears.”