Record

Record
Karl Henkell
17 Oct 19

The Magazine Club kicked off with Karl Henkell, founding editor of Record Culture Magazine, a biannual publication that focuses on niche music communities around the world and their intersection with the worlds of art, fashion and culture. Margherita and Karl talked about indie magazines, music and of course Record during the event.

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Record Culture Magazine is a biannual publication that focuses on niche music communities around the world and their intersection with the worlds of art, fashion and culture. Led by in-depth interviews, image portfolios and photography that gives a unique view into homes and studio spaces.

Record
USA / Spain / Australia
Since 2016
Biannual (2 per year)
6.3 x 9 in / 160 x 228 mm
248 pages

“The perfect interview doesn’t exist”
—Karl Henkell

MV: Before Record Culture Magazine came out, you felt like a lack of this kind of publication?
KH: When I was in New York I kept going to the same shop in Nolita called McNelly Jackson looking at magazines and there was like nothing in the music section: there was Rolling Stone, those kind of things, and especially the artists that I really wanted to talk to, they weren’t represented in print at all, or maybe there was one interview in other kinds of magazines, fashion magazines, and with the persons like them I wanted to make a magazine, just about them. The thing is that all these people are somewhere between well known and not very known, so traditional music media, like Pitchfork, not necessarily talk about them, they just talk about bigger bands, mainstream stuff which is interesting as well [...] but nothing focused on that kind of niche communities which are actually very active and alive.

MV: Who is the typical reader of Record Culture?
KH: Often deejays themselves, and people very passionate about music… I wasn’t sure who the reader would be when I started it but it turns out a lot of the artists themselves are super-fans of the magazine.

MV: What about the learning process in the making of?
KH: I guess at the beginning making Record Magazine was a bit of a mystery and for the first, I think, two issues, we didn’t have a subscribe option because I wasn’t sure there would be another one, on one hand people pay in advance so you have money but also you have to make things with pressure. Only at issue 4 I was comfortable, now I know how to make this. I made the ones before, obviously, but you don’t understand the process, maybe, and even until this current issue you start understanding the process a lot more, and even though we come out every 6 months, I’ve learned that you actually need 8 months to make a magazine and they’re like crossover and it’s not just like when you start making a magazine that you do one, you take 2 months off and then, you know, “let’s do another one”…