6 days Ago
James Brown’s motto is ‘make it funky’, but Myles Burke’s is ‘make it weird’. The Farnworth producer and multi-instrumentalist’s small home studio is a trove of rare analogue equipment – from 70s delay pedals to theremins. And it is the beating heart of his record label , Flatland Recordings FLR.
Here, he’s put out genre-defying albums from bands like jazz-tinged Manchester collective Outside Now – which he’s dubbed “Radiohead meets Chet Baker” – and lo-fi beatmaker Sunn. Myles, 31, a primary school teacher by day, has played music for most of his life. He said: “My dad used to play the Beatles and the Kinks in the house all day and always had a guitar, but it took me until I was 14 to fall in love with the guitar myself.
“It’s corny, but the song that made me want to learn it was ‘Hey There Delilah’. I remember hearing it on the radio and thinking, ‘What’s this?’ “I told my dad about it, and he began to teach me guitar. Not long after I started playing it, I started learning how to play the drums by myself.
” Over the years, he would teach himself to play eight instruments including the piano, mandolin, banjo, bass guitar, ukulele and sitar. Myles Burke (Image: Public) As a teenager, music brought out Myles’ natural Do-It-Yourself (DIY) work ethic – which he reckons he got from his father. He said: “At 14, not long after I started playing drums, I began making and selling my own modified drum kits.
I don’t know how or why it started. “I would buy one on eBay and add some better-quality parts then sell it. In about six months, I had my own part-time business.
“My dad had always worked for himself – as a taxi driver and then in his own removals business. I think that’s a trait I got from him.” At age 16, he formed his first band, the Autonomy, which toured all over Cheshire.
Flatland Recordings studio (Image: Public) He said: “It was the early 2000s, the heyday of radio-friendly British indie. I was heavily influenced by Pete Doherty and Babyshambles. “By the time I hit 18, I’d been in a lot of indie bands that were inspired by the Cortinas.
” In university, his music taste began to take an eclectic turn. He said: “I went to De Monfort and met an Argentinian guy there named Max Cooper who showed me a whole other side to music. “He introduced me to Miles Davis, Indian music and others.
We started playing sitar together and formed a psychedelic band called The Elephant Machine and we still record to this day. Myles Burke and Max Cooper in The Elephant Machine (Image: Public) “After I graduated, the first thing I did was move to Greater Manchester . "I wanted to be around great bands and do more than I could find in my hometown, Northwich.
“I didn’t know anyone and had never lived there before, but I wanted to put out music. I began to think, ‘Why don’t I just release it on my own label?’ “I started Flatland Recordings after watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos. The name just came to me.
It name was based on an 1884 book of the same name that taught children about other dimensions. Myles Burke (Image: Public) “In the beginning, I’d go to a lot of gigs and early Manchester psych festivals to meet bands I might want to sign or play music with.” He looked for North West bands with a unique sound.
He said: “Sound was everything to me. I would put any kind of music on Flatland Recordings, the weirder and more obscure the better – as long as it spoke to me. It wasn’t genre specific.
(Image: Public) “The first group I approached was called Pomona XV in 2015. I put them on the label and played guitar in their band. “When I started, I wanted to champion physical media.
Even now, a lot of the music I release is on cassette. “It’s cheap to sell and a cassette recorder gives vocals a great overall tone. I’ve also recorded bands using a 1950s Hi-Fi.
” Over time, he’s built relationships with more artists and added them on to Flatland Recordings. Now, he manages and produces eight bands – Hiena Albina, STORM XERO, The Hombre Invisible, Pomona XV, The Elephant Machine, Myles, from School, Outside Now and Sunn. And he’s set up his dream studio in Farnworth where he is always looking to develop new North West talent.
He said: “I get involved in most of the bands and projects I sign. Sometimes I master their record or produce it, other times they might ask me to play music on the album or do the artwork. “The studio’s a relaxed space where they can get their best take and do something different.
“Most of the equipment here is second-hand or given to me. A friend from Bolton gave me my analogue tape delay and mixing board when he was about to skip them. “I use everything in here to get something new and strange out of bands, something that they haven’t done so far.
“I produce and cook albums up with them, but I’m also there to put a different edge to things and help the band paint with new colours, so to speak.” To learn more, visit http://www.flatlandrecordings.
com/ or email [email protected].
