Teenage Fanclub Reminisce About Creation Records Era

It's no secret that the music business has always been about control. It's recently come to a point where everything's about what commercial or TV show your song's in, how many digital downloads scan in a week or which artists are working together in what studio. But for defunct British label Creation Records, whose roster included My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream and Teenage Fanclub, money was the least important thing to them.

"The great thing about [founder] Alan McGee and Creation Records was they understood making records wasn't a perfect thing but you have to let people do what they want and it'll come out," Teenage Fanclub's Raymond McGinley tells Spinner. "They didn't do it on the cheap as well. They gave [My Bloody Valentine's] Kevin Shields as much money as they wanted to go into the studio. No one else would've done that. When we made 'Bandwagonesque,' we didn't have any discussions with Creation about it. They just said, 'How much money do you need?'"

While Creation was eventually gobbled up by Sony, which struck commercial gold with Oasis' debut 'Definitely Maybe,' the early, independent years yielded early work from the Jesus and Mary Chain, Swervedriver, Ride and Slowdive along with My Bloody Valentine's 'Loveless' and Primal Scream's 'Screamadelica.'

"People think you put so much money into something ,you have to control it and then ruin it," McGinley says. "Alan understood you have to let things happen. The cool thing about them, was it was all their own money. For 'Bandwagoneque' or Primal Scream's 'Screamadelica' or My Bloody Valentine's 'Loveless,' it wasn't some venture capital money or label money. They did the record themselves, on their backs."

Aside from 2000's 'Howdy!,' Teenage Fanclub's career has been blessed with the freedom indie labels provide. They've recently found home in the US with powerhouse indie label Merge, who earlier this month released 'Shadows,' their latest foray into classic 60's California power pop.