What HOW is

This is the first thing on the journal. It seems right to write it about what the label is doing here.

HOW is a cultural label. The remit is music, objects, and writing, all under one inquiry: how things are made. Not a marketing slogan. The actual question.

What that means in practice:

When we put out a record, we put out the working notes alongside it. Where the recording happened, what was on the desk, what the artist abandoned before arriving at the take that got released. The notes are not for hype. They are for the people who are interested in process, because most of us have been that person at some point — wanting to know how, not just what.

When we put out a garment, we tell you where it was printed and who did the printing. Whether the cotton came from a recycler in West Yorkshire or a mill elsewhere. Whether it will fade.

When we put out an essay, we mean an essay. Not a content piece. Not a "thought leadership" article. A piece of considered writing that took longer than the average reader will spend on it.

The conviction underneath all of this: that the practice of making things carefully, in conversation with the people who do the work, is itself a cultural position. We are interested in that position. We are not the only ones holding it. We hope to find more of you over time.

This journal will move at the pace of the label, which is to say: when there's something to say. We will not be filling space because the space is there.

If you want a letter from us occasionally, the newsletter is at the bottom of the home page. If you want to hear the first releases as they go up, Bandcamp is the place.

More soon.