Tru Thoughts

Our record label Tru Thoughts was formed in 1999 in Brighton, on the south coast of England, by Robert Luis and Paul Jonas. Initially run from underneath Rob’s stairs, the label was originally started as a home for some of the exciting music being produced by the regular guests at our Brighton club nights, at which Rob was the resident DJ (these nights included phonic:hoop, Etch, Sonic Switch, Shake Yer Wig, and Vibez Express).

After a run of eclectic 12” and 7” singles, the first artist album was Bonobo’s debut, ‘Animal Magic’, and it was immediately well received by critics and fans, as well as the music being highly in demand for adverts and compilations. As the club nights continued to be packed out, any income was reinvested back into the label. With Brighton the hub of a buzzing leftfield music scene, it wasn’t long before more of these great artists were snapped up, with Quantic, Nostalgia 77, Alice Russell and TM Juke forming the backbone of the roster. Other long-term signings followed from further afield, including London trio Belleruche; Lance Ferguson from Melbourne, Australia (with his various guises including The Bamboos, Lanu, Menagerie and the production of Kylie Auldist); New Orleans’ Hot 8 Brass Band; and Edinburgh’s Hidden Orchestra.

In 2007 Quantic moved to Colombia and began working with numerous amazing artists from Central and South America, which opened up an exciting new stream of musical styles into the label. Spreading our net wider as time has gone on, we have proudly released music from all over the world, and gradually come to reflect the label’s fanbase, which has always been very international from day one. It has been our absolute pleasure to release the wonderful music of Moonchild, Space Captain, Youngblood Brass Band, The Seshen and Lost Midas from the States, Kinny, of Native Canadian and Jamaican heritage and based in Norway; Brazilians Drumagick and Saravah Soul; Japan’s Anchorsong; and of course lots of acts from the UK, including Maddslinky aka Zed Bias, Flowdan, Titeknots, Hint, Zero dB, Omar, Wrongtom, Riz MC, Harleighblu, Ty and Rodney P/London Posse.

Still running from Brighton, but now with a sister office in LA, we have released over 260 albums and are still 100% independent, with Rob being the man picking the tunes and Paul putting together the team that now handle all aspects of releasing the music internationally, as well as working the publishing to movies, TV and adverts. Our policy is to look to sign music of all styles by artists that are interesting and creative, from downtempo instrumentals to heavy club tracks, through reggae, dub and hip hop to the wonderful voices of folk, jazz and soul-influenced singers and songwriters. We aren’t the sort of people to get stuck on genres; we hope you agree that good music is good music.

Our publishing company Full Thought Publishing (www.fullthought.co.uk) works alongside the label, whilst also attracting a wide catalogue of non-Tru Thoughts music. An example of some of the uses we have achieved for our artists is here.

We have also had the pleasure of working with a fantastic list of collaborators and remixers over the years including the likes of Skream, Stevie Wonder, Daedulus, Cut Chemist, Aloe Blacc, MJ Cole, Beth Rowley, Toddla T, Prins Thomas, Clark, Sam Sparro, Falty dL, Flux Pavilion, Rizzle Kicks, Washington, Tim Rogers, Roy Ayers, True Tiger, Tawiah, Common, Angie Stone, Maxi Jazz, Adrian Utley and many more.

We appreciate you coming to check out the label and thank you for your support. Our own shop is the best place to buy the tunes, with more money going to the acts to make new music. Feel free to get in touch with us on info@tru-thoughts.co.uk.