New single released through Chichester’s new label Novium Records

Josh Hazelden has released his first single through Chichester’s very own new label Novium Records.
Josh HazeldenJosh Hazelden
Josh Hazelden

The label has been set up by Chichester band Dutch Criminal Record in the hope of passing on all the experiences they themselves have gained in the business.

The idea is that others won’t have to waste their time learning all the lessons that Dutch Criminal Record have learnt themselves over the years, often the hard way.

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Bognor Regis-based Josh was delighted to be approached by band member Joe Frampton to sign up for the new label.

His first single through the new label is called Transparent.

As he explains: “It is a song about someone that is scared of opening up and scared of vulnerability, and it is about helping them through that.”

It comes as Josh is building momentum – thanks to his iPhone.

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“Last year I self-released my first album which I actually recorded on my iPhone. People always go for studios and laptops, but on your iPhone you can actually do pretty much everything.

“If you really work on it, if you really know what you are doing, you can make some great recordings.

“The first album was called Without Balance and came out in May last year.

“I started recording it in January before anyone had any knowledge of the pandemic.

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“The album came out two months after it started, but I couldn’t do anything to promote it.

“I couldn’t do any gigs or anything. But I was writing so many different songs that I just wanted to get it out there. It just felt like the right time.

“I am just finishing up some tracks for the next album. If it all goes to plan, the release schedule is that it should be out around about May, though I am not quite sure at the moment.

“I just got an Instagram message from Joe, and he pitched to me the idea about the new label and asked if I was interested. I thought it sounded a brilliant idea. He told me that it was a label based around the Chichester area, and he said that there was not really a big scene for music in Chichester at the moment and that he wanted to change that.

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“And now the label is already helping me to promote things so much more.”

Josh added: “I would say that the music is an indie alternative sound.

“There is a lot of guitars, but it is quite dark sounds.

“If you are aware of shoegaze, it is quite atmospheric. It is full of guitars with quite a dark, ambient sound. At the time, shoegaze was with the guitarists that use pedals on the stage to change effects with the guitars and were using so many effects that they were continuously looking down at the pedal boards and so it became shoegaze. I use quite a lot of effects, like reverb and distortion.”

As for the content: “I am usually just writing about stuff that is going on in my life.

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“The new album is very personal. It doesn’t really touch on the pandemic.

“I wanted to steer away from the cliché of writing about the pandemic.

“I thought that writing about it would be really easy to steer aware from.

“But I am sure there is something on there that is linked to it somehow.”

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The new album is called Salt For The Wound – “the idea that by putting salt on the wound it hurts but actually gets better.

“It’s the name of one of the tracks, but I came up with the title for it ages ago.

“It just popped into my head… But maybe it makes sense in terms of what we are going through.”

Anyone interested in getting in touch with Novium Records should email Joe at [email protected] for more details.