Thick Boy Records: Unity, community and body positivity wrapped up in one record label

Founded in April 2021, Thick Boy Records is a business born out of passion and love, with the ethos of unity, community and body positivity. The record label began as a way of taking ownership of who you are; “The name was brought about by me being bullied at work,” Mark tells Bristol24/7.

“It was people saying I was fat, it wasn’t the nicest thing to go through but the mindset became let’s take charge of this and own it. It soon shut the person up but it wasn’t just about that, it was kind of like, let’s take ownership of who we are and that’s what the label’s about.”

The record label isn’t only about unifying people but also unifying different genres of music. Although it focuses primarily on Drum and Bass, UKG and House music, the label will be broadening their list of genres in the next few months.

“We’re trying to be a bit more encompassing and so there are a lot of genres that are going to be coming out in the next six months. We’re diving into more liquidy D’n’B with one artist and another artist is more like sexy base, house music and then we’ve got an artist who will be releasing a disco track as well,” Mark tells us.

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Bringing a more modern and fluid approach to the music industry, the record label doesn’t have anyone signed exclusively to them; ” I haven’t really looked at signing anybody because I like the idea that people can pick and choose what they want to do and not have me or anybody else telling them who they can and can’t work with,” he tells us.

“I think on one of our compilations there are 10, maybe 12 artists on there. And then we’ve got five artists that are going to be releasing more regularly with us and and some people that were just dropping a few EPs. So I’d say overall, we’ve worked around 20 to 25 musicians so far.”

As well as working full time, running the label and DJ’ing and producing his own music, Mark and his team also put on Thick Nights with the three nights, held at The Jam Jar and Attic Bar, already being huge successes.

Thick Nights have been hugely successful since launching this year

With the success of the Bristol nights, Mark is looking to broaden his scope and hold some events outside of the city with the first one being held in Froome on August 26.

The reason behind this venture? “I want to go to smaller venues, promoting and establishing the brand and the artists in different cities, because I noticed a lot of them only tend to play in Bristol. And I think there’s a bit of a risk of just getting known as a local DJ.”

Even though Thick Boy Records have plans to spread the word throughout the UK, Bristol will always be a special place for them; “We’re lucky to be in Bristol, and born in Bristol, but have also moved around quite a bit. We’re lucky to be here and to have all of the venues and a network of promoters that help us,” Mark tells us.

Letting your hair down and taking ownership of yourself is the message spread throughout Thick Boy Records and with compilations, new single releases, events and takeovers, the label isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

You can check out some of Thick Boy Records latest releases here: https://soundcloud.com/thickboyrecords and https://thickboyrecords.bandcamp.com/

Keep up to date with them via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thickboyrecords/

All photos: Courtesy of Mark Camps

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