big interview Kainne Clements

rail and your work in the music business? Technology. I’d spent 20-odd years trying to work out what a consumer needs, work out what technology can do and then bridge BACK ON TRACK that gap. So I looked at this collection of studios, looked at what the music industry He may have started off in the railway technology sector, but Kainne Clements has helped was doing and worked out it was in a state Metropolis Studios transition to the modern age and the Academy Of Contemporary Music of flux. Whenever that happens in any industry, for as many risks as that creates, reboot modern music education. But his plans don’t stop there. He tells Music Week what’s next… it creates as least as many opportunities. Technology can be very disruptive, it can STUDIOS change things, but often for the good. So ■ BY MARK SUTHERLAND I thought, What is it that we might be able to do here that will a) save the dinosaur side from Rod Stewart’s well and b) try to create a new music company? known love of his train set, the UK We’ve noticed that, whereas 80% of our music industry and the nation’s business [in Metropolis] five years ago was Public Enemy’s Live From Metropolis Studios gig (above) and subsequent album (below) A railways don’t often intersect. with majors, that’s down to less than 20%. But maybe they should. After all, they’re The power balance has shifted towards the what we’ve found, is massive artists don’t both industries with a proud heritage artist. What I wanted to do with Metropolis always stay with one producer. They want attempting to transition to life in the modern was transition it from being an iconic to work with different songwriters and age. Both have been known to suffer terrible set of studios known for its recording, producers. We often have a situation where delays. Although the sandwiches tend to be mixing and mastering into a really vibrant Grammy Award-winning artists are here in better in the music business. creativity space for an artist, around which the studio, with a whole team of different Kainne Clements, however, has experience we might have services and facilities for songwriters and producers occupying the in both sectors. Now executive chairman of them to tap into. We’ve been able to build entire building – and bear in mind that’s 19 Metropolis Studios, in west London, and the great relationships with brands, great rooms. What they’re doing is walking around Academy Of Contemporary Music (ACM) in access points to digital. We’ve got our own how much money we were losing by how from one room to the other. You can hear Guildford, he started off as an apprentice publishing department, host an international fast it was disappearing. And then work out them practicing, singing, hearing the latest at electronics firm Solartron-Schlumberger. sync and licensing summit every year and how to plug those holes. I renewed every idea from one room and cross-pollinating He went on to work in product manufacture have our sync division and our own label system in here. I stopped doing things that it with ideas from another room. Some of and ended up developing a monitoring services. So if you imagine what an artist we were clearly not expert at. I stripped the most successful records you hear today system, similar to a black box recorder, that needs now – all of that is under one roof. things back to the core and my objective have been created in exactly that way, here. helped railways maintain their networks via was to see if we could make that stable and I can’t see another format other than this condition-based monitoring. Ultimately, he Apparently, Metropolis hadn’t made a profit in then look to place our bets very carefully which would achieve that, and the results ran his own company CDS Rail, exporting the 10 years before you bought it. So why did in terms of where we could add strategic speak for themselves. technology to railways worldwide. you buy it? revenue streams. I was worried initially that At the same time, he was playing in a (Laughs) It wasn’t the most objective we’d get diffused around the necessary task You’re also overseeing the launch of a brand couple of bands on the London circuit. decision that I’ve ever made. But, then of making money. It’s like owning a beautiful new super studio, Katara Studios by Metropolis. When one was offered a record deal in again, we’re all wired as emotional animals hotel where you can’t quite sell the rooms in Qatar – that’ll be a challenge, won’t it? the late ‘90s, however, he decided against and that was a lot of that in there. I had at the price you would want to, so you end The origins were aligned with the [Kevin pursuing music professionally. this belief that there was an opportunity up selling garden fêtes and so forth to try Costner film] Field Of Dreams: if you build it, “I thought, Well, this would’ve been the for this to become something much and make up the difference. I didn’t want they will come. It’s the most technologically dream but I’m actually earning money at more meaningful to a new generation Metropolis to be that. So I studied where advanced and largest studio on the planet what I’m doing,” he says today, sat in a of consumers and artists. Because long the gaps were in the industry and where our – it’s larger than Abbey Road, there’s a screening room in the sprawling Metropolis gone were the days when Led Zeppelin core competencies would best suit those. 120-piece Philharmonic orchestra on the complex. “I love music but I saw it as oil were spending four months recording payroll, there’s a phenomenal Dolby Atmos and water – it felt as though they weren’t an album. These days you have to weave system, it’s really set up for orchestral and compatible, partly because I didn’t really Kainne Clements into an artist’s touring schedule and be film, whereas in London, we’re set up for “Massive artists don’t always stay with know how the industry really worked. I of music services. Superstars still record and maybe a new type of artist”. agile, facilitate the recording, mixing and rock and pop. So it does extend our reach one producer. They want to work with decided to stick with what I knew and just there – it’s where Adele worked on both 21 In person, he fizzes with ideas about mastering. You need tech for that, you need and span. In terms of its location, if we take different songwriters and producers” stay in love with music, rather than make it and 25 – but the complex also buzzes with a his various businesses, whether already to make life really easy for them to be able to one side any geo-political considerations, KAINNE CLEMENTS, METROPOLIS my must-go-to-work thing.” host of smaller projects, while the complex established, brand new or yet-to-be created, to access your facilities, and that’s what we it’s well-positioned for artists on their But when he sold CDS Rail in 2012, music stages numerous events, including intimate music or technology-related (one of his do. We’ve preserved this iconic studio for touring schedule. Dubai and Abu Dhabi came calling once again. Ian Brenchley – live concerts by acts such as Public Enemy companies is involved with developing a what it was originally intended for: the host high-end gigs throughout the year. the former drummer in one of Clements’ and George Clinton that are then released in hemispheric camera). It’s a long way from high-end artists. That’s still at the core of That’s clearly worked. But, with so many Qatar is a 30-minute flight away, it’s six star bands, now CEO of Metropolis Group – beautifully packaged physical form. Rod’s train set, let alone a real railway but what we do but we’re also now able to plug closing, is there still a future for super studios? treatment, stars will get the anonymity they asked him to get involved with what was, Later in 2012, Clements also took on then, as Clements explains: “I don’t dream on so many other services that are useful to Or will everyone ultimately just record music wouldn’t necessarily get in London or LA by then, a legendary – Queen recorded the Academy Of Contemporary Music in about level crossings, I think and dream the artist or label or manager. on a laptop in their bedroom? and it’s dripping in world-class facilities. Put many of their albums in Metropolis – but Guildford, where generations of musicians about music.” Part of the force for the demise of the [big] the service and the facilities together, and struggling studio. and music business executives have been Music Week sat down with him to chat You’ve said you had it back into profit within 18 studios came when artists would follow you can put a price around that that’s much Clements set about transforming its educated. He now runs the two businesses studios, education – and trains… months – how did you do that? producers and producers would build their more attractive than what can be achieved business from high-end recording, mixing in tandem as he attempts to build “a new The first thing I had to do was put a studios. But then that inextricably links the in London. If we can bring the quality and and mastering to a more broad-based range music company for a new type of consumer Are there any parallels between your work in wheelbarrow full of cash in and work out artist to that producer in that studio and, service expected in a world-class studio in

MARCH 21 10 MUSIC Week MUSIC Week 11 MARCH 21 Big interview Kainne Clements

Hollywood, but [with] the prices of eastern Europe then you could easily see why it makes sense to bring people to somewhere like Qatar.

Why did you decide to get involved with ACM in the same year that you bought Metropolis? If Metropolis was going to strive to become a post-millennial new music company [I thought] it would be great to underpin that with education and bring through young people who can make a difference. The best ideas that emerge in 10 years time will come from people who are still at school. So I thought, For everything we become successful at, we should be able to teach that and give students a live and immersive view of what this beautiful but brutal industry really is doing.

Was the fact that music education had become much more credible in terms of producing successful artists a factor? It’s amazing what a few well-publicised successes can achieve in terms of George Clinton talks to Ace from Skunk Anansie at his ACM masterclass changing people’s perceptions. But I go any educator who is serious about what very broad petri dish called creative and that back to me as a twentysomething, faced it does, has to acknowledge that it’s not can take so many forms. I’m really proud to with an opportunity to change direction utterly responsible for producing any of be part of a movement which is now seeing and become a signed artist, and electing this world’s finest talent. Most of it comes some of the country’s best entrepreneurs not to, because I didn’t understand what down to the individual. Our job is to inspire, consider themselves first and foremost as the industry was or where it was going assist and support. We have a part to play, creatives. [For] every company that needs and, more importantly, how to carve a but the best we can do is try to match the to be creative to distinguish itself from sustainable career from that. I felt it was character and competence of the individual others, you’re going to be a very attractive no longer the case that artists had to view with what ACM is trying to be and help proposition to that company. their potential career as an all or nothing them discover their own talent. It’s not all [scenario] ie, sign to one of the majors or about a moonshot, it might be a sensible Apparently you’re planning to open a London one of the best indies or nothing. I could option to really understand how publishing ACM campus as well… see very clearly a strong symbiosis with what works and write music to a brief. I’d never You don’t have to be based in London Metropolis needed to do to survive and how claim we have made, or could ever make, a to become successful and Guildford we should teach that to young, aspiring God-given talent, that’s within them. We just has produced many graduates that bear artists and people who wanted to occupy need to help them bring that out. That’s why testament to that. This year, we’re 55% leading positions within the business. I could we don’t particularly shout about individual up for demand for places at a time when see a big gap between what education was names, though we hope they have their UCAS is presenting a flat zero-sum game doing and what industry really wanted, and quiet moments of reflection and appreciate with students in the sector. It’s a measure the music industry exemplified that, the some of what they got from us. for me of how well we’re doing things and gap was massive. That’s why education we can’t fit everyone in Guildford. Because [previously] wasn’t seen as credible, it was Metropolis is in London, it seemed natural churning things out that were outmoded for us to think of that next. I was a bit sad and not compatible with what industry “We should be able to give students a to turn away 400 students in the past two needed now. By the time people qualified, live and immersive view of what this years. It’s demand driven by the students the industry had moved on. So if I could beautiful but brutal industry is doing” and I’m just going with it. address that gap by making the experience KAINNE CLEMENTS, ACM real, relevant and up to the minute, the And where do you see your business in five academy could produce not just world-class years time? talent but talent that was fully conversant You have a lot more students at ACM these days In the next five years, I see us creating whole with what the industry was all about. – are there enough jobs in the music biz for all new companies based here in Metropolis. of them? I see us with global superstars that we’ve Ed Sheeran went to ACM, though he doesn’t It’s true that, for every three individuals helped to create but who own more of talk about it much. Is it important for a college that are successfully educated within the themselves as their own asset brand than to have artist success stories like that? creative arts sector, two will move into other they ever could have done by signing with It is and it isn’t. Ultimately, it will be a sectors and take that creative underpinning another company. That makes Metropolis natural measure of what people perceive with them to make a positive difference. We and ACM part of a new movement and, to be the success of the institution. But shouldn’t think of it as, Well, you’re in a box ultimately, a new music company for a new whilst we’re very proud of those things, called musician or film producer. You’re in a type of artist and a new type of consumer.

MARCH 21 12 MUSIC Week