Launchpad: Louis hoping that grime pays
Louis Serrano. Photo: Rowland Hobson/Peterborough ET
A TALENTED teenager from Peterborough is hoping that a life of “grime” pays and will be the perfect launchpad for a career running his own music record label.
Eighteen-year-old Louis Serrano is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Richard Branson, after forming Launchpad Records with his friend George Quann-Barnett last year.
Louis grew up in the Ortons and left Orton Longueville School’s sixth form last year after studying for a media A-level.
But he is now climbing the music ladder, with his Launchpad venture already making money.
After their first release, Radio Kid, by grime superstar Wiley received airplay on BBC Radio One, the young music mogul looks set for a long career in the industry.
Louis is currently back in the studio helping Manchester rapper Blizzard produce his first EP, which is expected to be another hit for the fledgling record label.
He said: “It started when I was doing some design work for an online media channel SBTV, when I met George, who, like me, is a big grime music fan.
“We talked about setting up our own label and there was an opportunity for George to go to Wiley’s video shoot. He got Wiley’s number.
“When we formed Launchpad Records, I got in touch with him and he said he had a single which we could release – as long as we got it out within a week.
“I got in touch with Radio One and it got a lot of airplay during that week.”
Since the first release at the end of 2010, the record firm has worked with Wiley – who is known as the Godfather of Grime – again, as well as a number of other artists, including Manga from the chart-topping group Roll Deep, and the debut single from Tre Mission, a Canadian rapper, which raced into the Top 20 in the iTunes Hip Hop chart.
Now the teenager, of Bramble Close, Yaxley, near Peterborough, is planning big things for the record label’s future.
He said: “The biggest challenge we have faced is getting our names known out there. It is a challenge, but it is getting better.
“Our age can be a setback, as people sometimes don’t take us as seriously as they would with older people.
“Now I try to deal with them by email, so they don’t know how old I am.
“The people who I look up to are Jack Foster and Archie Lamb, who are a couple of guys from Norwich who set up their own label, and have gone on to become Tinchy Stryder’s manager.
“Long term, I would like Launchpad to be part of one of the major labels, like Island Records, or be a very successful independent label.
“The grime scene is one that is growing in Britain, and has launched the career of artists like Dizzee Rascal and Tinie Tempah. It is getting bigger all the time.
“I am already commuting to London every week and I think eventually I will have to move down there.”
For more information about the record label, visit www.launchpadrecords.co.uk
Factfile: grime scene
GRIME music is a style of urban music thought to have originated in London in the early 2000s.
It mixes elements of UK garage music, dance and hip-hop.
Two of the pioneering artists who have brought grime from the underground into the mainstream are Dizzee Rascal, who won the Mercury Music Prize in 2003 and has had a number of number one hits, and Wiley, who has seen his records receive extensive air time on national radio stations.
Grime artists have also appeared at traditionally guitar band-based festivals, including Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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Grapesmuggler
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 03:51 PMGrime beats are just fierce chucked together samples nicked from various sources, funny how the grime mcs voices change with the jumped up attitude about how society has affected them or ream how society owes them. Hats off to the guy for pushing the Grime though , but keeping it underground is the best thing, once commercialised it becomes over played and worn out bit like how dubstep is going which is a shame.
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