About Us
Full Time Hobby came into life in 2004, set up by Nigel Adams and Wez. They had met while working for Mushroom Records / Infectious Records and decided to start a label when it was clear that Mushroom was going to sell out to Warners. Inspired by labels like the original Jac Holzman era Elektra Records, Creation Records and Rough Trade Records they wanted to start a label that championed original and creative new music that they loved and did not see finding a home elsewhere. The label is and always has been wholly independent.
Of their signing process, Nigel says : ‘we have to love the music, if we can’t hand-on-heart say we’re besotted with it, we can’t commit to getting involved. It’s such a long process to help develop an artist you have to have that blind love to carry you through when things aren’t maybe going to plan. Once you have that love, you then decide if it’s peculiar to you, or can you see that taking hold with others. We always try and walk the fine line between art and commerce. If we can’t get our songs streaming and sell records we can’t exist to help artists get heard and carry on making more music, so it’s important we think we can do that and we have a duty to any band we sign to be ambitious for them. We didn’t get into this with money as a focus, it has and always will be about loving the music ; White Denim, Michael Nau, Sylvie, Tunng or any other act on the label have all turned our heads and made us fall for their songs before we ever thought about how we could sell their music’
The first release on Full Time Hobby was the fittingly titled EP ‘Alive With Pleasure’ by Portland, Oregon based duo Viva Voce, followed swiftly by the debut from LA’s AUTOLUX, but 2005 saw the label make a pivotal signing with the band Tunng. FTH had known Tunng known through their involvement with Full Time Hobby's Tim & Jeff Buckley inspired compilation ‘Dream Brother’ (which included covers by Sufjan Stevens & King Creosote amongst others). Tunng have so far released seven albums plus compilations for the label as well as spawning side projects The Accidental, Cheek Mountain Thief, Throws and The Accidental. The bands eighth album ‘Love You All Over Again’ is set to be released in 2025 – marking the 20th anniversary of the band and 21st anniversary of Full Time Hobby.
In 2006, FTH started working with The Hold Steady through a connection with Vagrant Records. They went on to release the band's third album Boys and Girls in America, followed shortly by the re-release of the band's first two albums. An early critical and commercial hit for the label, ‘Boys and Girls in America’ helped the label quickly cement its profile in the UK and beyond.
2007 saw Full Time Hobby sign White Denim, a then unknown Texan trio, having been sent demos by the band's manager. They went on to work with the band on the debut album Workout Holiday released in 2008 prior to any US release and follow up album Fits a year later. In the same year the label started working with New York based trio School Of Seven Bells, going on to release all four of their albums, including the final release ‘SVIIB’ in 2016, released following the untimely passing of the bands co-founder Benjamin Curtis.
In 2014 the label released "Hot Dreams" by Canadian act Timber Timbre, their third album for the label. The Guardian awarded the album five stars, praising the "surprises and delights on this smoky, Lynchian retreat" and the band went on to sell out high profile shows at the Bataclan in Paris and Berlin’s, Astra Kulturhaus.
Having spent a decade recording, releasing and touring albums in the US under the guise of Page France and Cotton Jones, Michael Nau’s Mowing was his first truly solo album. Full Time Hobby licensed the record from US indie Suicide Squeeze and were enamoured with a little known 7” single-only song titled Love Survive and asked if this could be included on the European edition. Released in 2016, the song quickly became Michael and the labels highest streaming track. Michael released two further albums and an EP for the label.
The label is more than proud of all the artists it’s had the pleasure to work with over the years – from the maudlin, affecting humour of Malcolm Middleton, the melodic charm of The Leisure Society, or the conceptual and highly evocative work of the Erland Cooper – Hannah Peel – Simon Tong collaboration The Magnetic North, the label has always championed creativity and points of difference. Recent years have seen the likes of Bananagun, Sylvie, Dana Gavanski, Spencer Cullum and Ghostwoman join the fold and herald a new era of musical obsession.
Alongside championing new music and developing artists, Full Time Hobby plays an active role in causes it cares passionately about. Environmental causes are particularly close to the label’s heart, and it partners with Music Declares Emergency to use the platform of the music industry to speak out about the climate crisis.