It can take blood, sweat, and tears to run a label—literally, in the case of Michael Kasparis, who made so many mistakes when establishing Night School Records that he later delivered a seminar to university students called “How Not To Run A Record Label.” Among the catalogue of blunders was the time he accidentally sliced his finger open when assembling sleeves for a 7-inch by the noise-rock band DIVORCE.
“I don’t know why,” says Kasparis, “but instead of guillotining them, I was using hand scalpels on a cutting board in my room at the time. I hadn’t printed enough sleeves to go with the records, so with two or three of them I decided, ‘Well, the screen print’s red anyway…so we’ll just have to use them.’ It would not pass the health and safety test now but there are a couple of those that have my blood on them.”
Kasparis launched his label in 2011 during a premature midlife crisis. He’d just turned 30. A relationship had ended. He felt stuck in a rut. “I sold half my record collection to put up the money,” he remembers. “I did two 7-inches and it snowballed from there. It was a mixture of feeling a responsibility to the music I thought was important to document and also the personal shit.”
Most labels, reckons Kasparis, tend to have an “ideas person” and a “spreadsheet person.” He counts himself firmly in the former category and, although he has improved at the admin side, the label remains a one-man passion project, balanced against Kasparis’s day job at Glasgow’s Monorail record store.
Night School has gone from strength-to-strength with Kasparis retaining the impulsive spirit he had when it started, releasing music to which he feels a deep personal connection, regardless of genre or era, without any grand label mission statement.
“I am the worst future planner,” he notes. “I’m good at doing stuff right now and maybe planning one or two months in advance. I was quite disorganized [at the beginning]. Everything was whatever was exciting me at the time, and then moving on to the next thing. I feel like it’s still the same. I don’t have a plan for where I want the label to be five years from now and I didn’t back when I started. It grew because I happened to put out stuff that people liked. I also put out things that people didn’t like. And I still do!”
In his selections below, Kasparis discusses the key releases that help to demonstrate the eclecticism and ethos behind his label.
Strawberry Switchblade
1982 4-Piece Demo
7" Vinyl, Vinyl LP
“There was an obsessive Strawberry Switchblade fan site, which had Rose [McDowall] and Jill [Bryson]’s approval, and it had all these rare recordings on it—BBC sessions, practice tapes, live gigs, demos. The one I really loved was this recording, which was the only time they recorded as a four piece. I was introduced to Rose via my colleague Stephen Pastel. They were quite excited about this weird corner of their lives being out there. We tried to be as faithful as possible to the time with this release. It was early zine culture. The Xerox punk era. Recently, one of the songs has gone viral on TikTok which is just insane. Those recordings are almost 45 years old. You could probably write a whole thesis on the journey music takes these days compared to back then.”
Molly Nilsson
Zenith
Vinyl LP
“I think she’s a genius songwriter and there are amazing songs on all her records. I picked this one because I think it illustrates my approach to the label. When she sent me that record, I obviously loved it instantly. But there was that one song, ‘1995,’ that I broke down in tears listening to. I didn’t even know the context of it or what it was about. I just had such a visceral connection to it. I was honored that I’d be able to share this with people and also proud that she trusted me to work with her on that record—and with her whole career, too. She’s one of those artists who is bigger than the label and have helped the label grow by introducing people to other parts of it. It’s really nice when people are fans of the label but I’m quite happy for the artist to be center stage. I kind of feel like that’s the point of a label.”
Karl D’Silva
Love Is A Flame In The Dark
Vinyl LP
“This is a record that I would be happy to lose money on, because it’s just so fucking good. Maybe if it had a bigger budget, like it was on Mute or something, he would be everywhere. There are shredding guitar solos. There’s wailing sax on it. There’s oboe. There are no presets. He’s made drumkits out of resampling stuff. He’s got this really distinctive voice because he was incubated when he was younger. There’s scarring on his lungs, I guess, so he’s got this amazing tone. When talking about influences, he’ll say everyone from Cabaret Voltaire to Sophie. You can hear that in the production. He’s one of those artists where I cannot believe this person is real because his talent and vision is incredible. When I listen to it, it’s like constant layers of ecstasy or something. He’s an absolute wizard with sound and he’s managed to marry that to these amazing songs.”
Special Interest
The Passion Of…
Vinyl LP
“Molly [Nilsson] and I saw Special Interest in New Orleans, which is their home city. It was a phenomenon. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt old in a crowd. There were loads of young people. Everyone looked like they were from some queer cyberpunk novel. They were all beautiful and I felt like a peely-wally troll. The band came on, and they were like a steamroller. I was really proud to release this, because I was a massive fan of the band and they came to me. I think we did a good job with it and now they’re on Rough Trade, so all power to them. I don’t mean that in a sarcastic way. Albums like this one throw up the limitations of an operation like Night School. A few artists I’ve worked with have gone on to bigger labels. If it’s something I can’t do, I’m totally made up for them. That’s brilliant.”
Jackie Leven
Straight Outta Caledonia... The Songs Of Jackie Leven
Compact Disc (CD), Vinyl LP
“I’ve got a sort-of second label called School Daze which focuses on reissues. I discovered Jackie Leven’s music five or six years after he’d passed away. He was this legendary but very cult Scottish artist who was prolific but people of my generation didn’t really know who he was. Again, I had this instant reaction to it so I deep-dived into as much as I could. Then I started to pick out a narrative through his work that would recast him as an almost unwilling godfather to the underground music we’re experiencing now. I wanted to make an alternative greatest hits which charted him as some kind of power-ballad outsider troubadour, which is one of the things he was. Again, I was prepared to lose money on it but it caught fire, within relative terms. I didn’t buy a yacht off it or anything.”
The Space Lady
The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
“In 2011, I discovered The Space Lady’s music on a mix somewhere. I tracked her down on the internet and read lots about her. I had no money, no resources, and I didn’t know what I was doing. But I thought it was so good that I emailed her and she got back to me two years later (!) saying that she was interested in working with me. Basically, she was a fish out of water. She and her husband at the time wanted to get her music out there but didn’t really know how. I did a proper archive job with rare photos and an interview for the sleeve notes. Everyone I sent it to initially didn’t know who the hell was going to buy it and they thought I’d lost the plot. I did it, again, out of blind faith. That record was the first big success on Night School. I had to up my game a bit to do it justice. She basically earned a living from her music for the first time ever so that record means a lot to me.”
Mope Grooves
Box Of Dark Roses
2 x Vinyl LP,
“Mope Grooves was led by Stevie [Pohlman], a trans woman, who was also a real activist in how she approached everything. The idea was to release this record, which is two hours long, and tour it. All the proceeds would go to this charity in America called Survived And Punished, which raises money for women who have been incarcerated for defending themselves against abusers. The best way I can describe it is Trout Mask Replica meets avant-indie pop, but that’s doing it an injustice. Some of it’s really dark. Some of it is playful. There’s a lot of heartbreak. It was meant to come out in May but then Stevie passed away so the whole nature of it changed. I already felt honored that she wanted it to come out on Night School. Now she’s not here, it has become way more important because it’s like her final legacy. I hope we do justice to her memory and vision.”
