Metal, Sobriety, and Coffee: Behind the Scenes at Camden’s Raven Records

0:04 Hi, you love done too? Yes, cruee Wow for you. Young, it's the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio and I'm here. With Chlorite from Raven Records and Ben from Riven Records. Nice. Actually, before I kind of put the connection together in my head, I had walked the grounds. I was like, that's a cool booth. I'm gonna have to visit. So tell us a little bit about Let's start with what your booth's like here at Bloodstock and then we'll go deeper.

0:46 Sure, So I mean the booth here, we got Bloodstore, We're selling records, we've got puzzles, we've got books, heavy metal variety books, we've got heavy metal coloring books. We've got patches and pins and yeah, just here to to have a great time, you know, with the fans as well. We're a heavy metal record shop based in Camden and we're coming out to festivals to give people the fan experience that they get in Camden when they visit the shop. Nice and so tell us a little bit more about your shop. Like, one of the things I found really cool is that you have an alcohol free bar and I don't drink. I'm not it's not like I'm sober because I have a problem. I just don't drink. So I go to bars and it's like I go to socialize, but then I kind of feel weird because I'm there and I'm not drinking. And like, if I go to there's a place by where I live, they have live music, so I go for the live music, but I always feel like bad that I'm not spending money on drinks.

1:48 So your kind of place would be my kind of place. Yeah, well, that was one of the things we saw looking at everything was going on in the in the metal scene. You know, I'm in recovery myself, so I'm nearly nineteen years without a drink. Good for you, thank you. I started my own recovery group. And one of the things I noticed with alcohol free bars that existed everywhere in the world. Most of them were white walls, whale music. It was all about mindful drinking and didn't fit our aesthetic as a metal head, you know. So one of the things we wanted to do was create a bar. There was a proper metal bar that just sold alcohol free drinks, and then we saw some of the best alcohol free drinks that we could find so we've got alcohol free whiskeys, RUMs, beers, ciders, we've got Guinness zero on draft. And it's been an amazing experience to be able to do that and to create something that had the proper metal atmosphere just without the booze, so you can socialize and hang out and not feel different or a part or not a part of the full group.

2:57 And I think it was important for us as well not to sort of make everyone else change and make all the other bars in the local area have more zero zero options for people that didn't drink, but to create a space where if you didn't want to drink, you had somewhere where you could go. But as a ripple effect, all the local bars now are doing more zero zero options. So that's amazing and it means more people that are either in recovery or choose not to drink can still experience the whole metal atmosphere without having to compromise. See that that is amazing. And you know what I thought was really cool about you what you said A couple of things. One is that it's alcohol free, but it doesn't mean you're just getting a juice or a soda.

3:43 You can kind of have the experience without the negative parts of it, you know, and the metal part because as somebody that was very active and the Sunset Strip scene of the eighties, and ma'am that today it's so much more straight edge for metal heads, Like there was a lot of debauchery that I was doing from thirteen on and walking with Motley Crewe into the Rainbow to hang out with Lemmy and like, you know, it was insane, you know. Thank god, there's no proof. And you know they say that if you remember the Sunset Strip in the eighties, you weren't actually there, you know, you know, so, but nowadays it's cool. Like even as to impress all my friends will be like, hey, man, can you get me backstage? I'm like, it's not what you think it is. Man, Like back in the day, yes you wanted to go backstage that I'm like, it's actually kind of boring. We're seeing around showing pictures of our kids and doing nothing.

4:49 You know. So thank god that you have had this brainstorm to come up with this idea that not only allows people to be in a safe place, but great, it's the same atmosphere so they don't have to feel like, oh great, I'm a metal head and I can't go to a place where I can enjoy that atmosphere. Yeah, absolutely, I mean that was really really important for us to create that and to create a space where people could come and just hang out. You know, we do. We also do cocktails as well, so we've got a heavy metal themed cocktail menus so you can have all of your you know, standard cocktails, but in an alcohol free version. So we do you know, an express of martini and lots of different types of things which change regularly.

5:33 So yeah, it's really about creating that experience within the store. And I love too. I was just thinking about, because I go through this all the time, a place where you can meet people, like in a romantic way, like a relationship, because you know, I have the problem that I'll go out on dates and I'll order water after they order a drink, and then all of a sudden they're telling the server, oh, like change it to water, and they feel uncomfortable because I'm not drinking, which I think is utterly ridiculous, Like I don't give a shit if they have a drink, but now you're making me feel uncomfortable that you know, I'm making you uncomfortable.

6:17 Yeah, I mean that's something that we've talked about a lot, isn't it. Then? You know we see that all the time, you know, we've you know, the fact that I'm not drinking shouldn't make anyone else uncomfortable, right. It tends to It tends to do that, doesn't it. Yeah, definitely, I experienced it quite a lot. I've had friends. I find it really funny. One of my friends when we were at a slack gig, was wearing a Tanker T shirt and apologized and I was like, that's not even alcohol, and the issue is not you drinking, it's me drinking. So you know, if you're drinking, fine, If I'm drinking, run. It's funny you should mention Tankard too. Because I was covering them at a festival in the States, Like they go, hey, can you do it as a favor. We didn't bring our crew over here. Can you just come on stage take pictures for us and hand us beer during the set, And like they can they live up to their name? Okay, those boys can seriously drink. Dad re tall refrigerer filled up front and they kept bringing beer there. They went through at least a case during their set on stage.

7:26 I just thought they were funny. I didn't give a shit that they were doing this, and I hung out with them all night. Well they got tankered. It doesn't bother me if you're not a dick. Like there's some friends I have their fun drunks. Okay, enjoy yourself if you're a dick or your psycho. My British ex wife, she was a psycho. Drunk might be a Brittish thing. Well, I'll tell you a funny story about that. So a lot of British women they come over to the States and they act like they're royals and like they're better than American put their nose down to us. And she was like that. She was like, oh you Americans, you have new class and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, and she spoke the proper queen's English, so it was believable. Then she would drank fifteen margaritas every night and she would turn into that shit crazy that I figured out was her hometown, real her, because I didn't never knew where she was from. And this is where the laugh comes from. Newcastle there you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, And people are like, you mean you recognize the Jordi accent.

8:35 I'm like, no, she spoke the proper queen's English, like I could understand her totally, and she spoke so well. She was exactly what US Americans think, Oh what a great accent. But yeah, I mean like somebody like her, Oh my god, like she would try and get me into fight and she would just batshit crazy. Those are the drunks I don't want to hang out with. But the ones that are irritating, I don't care. And even when they're like, you want to drink, you want to drink, that's your business, and they all, here's a problem with somebody like me, like you're in recovery. I'm not. But people always think that I have a problem and that's why I don't drink, and that annoys the shit out of me, Like why does it have to be that label? Listen, you don't drink. I don't drink. To me, that's all that matters. It doesn't matter you know what your label is supposed to be. And they're always like, oh my god, blahla blah blah blah, I'm gonna cause you to go back to drinking, Like, no, I didn't drink to begin with.

9:39 Shut up. Yeah, I mean, obviously I'm in recovery. Chloe's Chloe's not in recovery. But Kloe doesn't drink either, So you know, we can see both sides of the coiners. Exactly right, you know. And see I love that about you too, because you can understand each other. And and so I do ask when you first got together, did you have any of that kind of experience when you first met, like any uncomfort on either side worrying about the other? I guess not from me. I mean Coe was drinking when we first met. I didn't have an issue with that at all. You know, it's difficult being sober and obviously going outdating, especially when you're in your late thirties early forties. Yeah, you know, as tough as it is, you know, out there and being alternative as well, you know, alternative and not drinking is it can be a bit weird, but I mean it's amazing there's so many sober stars out now that are actually making a point of it.

10:37 Mortis has been talking about, you know, being out on the road and what he's drinking. Obviously you've got we had Lamb of God yesterday, Randy Blyve fifteen years without drink, and I think other substances as well. Loads of the guys from Slipknot don't drink anymore. You've got Rob Halford, Alice Cooper. You know, they're all actually promoting that now. And I think you're seeing a bit of a change in the metal scene any way, where there's more fitness based things, there's more things where people don't drink, and it is getting sort of more health and mental health based as well, and I think we tap into that market at the same time as well. We do heavy metal therapy meetings in the shop, which is mental health pier to pier support. We do obviously the Satanic recovery meetings in the shop as well, which is the addiction recovery support, so we're kind of helping that along at the same time, as well as creating the alcohol free space.

11:27 And obviously you know the amazing coffee we do in there as well. So yeah, so that's the next thing I want to talk about, the coffee, because like people around the world are obsessed with coffee and so I love that. That's also like your record store is like that record store, it's just a full metal experience. So tell us about the coffee. Yeah, so we stock we stock two brands of coffee within the shop. So we stock Concept Cafes coffee, which we import from America and we're the only stockist in Europe for that. So that is official band coffee, and they work directly with the bands to create their own coffee line, so the packaging, the type of the coffee, the roasting, you know, and also you know there's royalties that go back to the band as well from the from the coffee, so they're working directly with the artists, which is really important to us, no doubt. We also stuck another brand, black Coffee Worship, which is a Liverpool based company and they do Scandinavian style coffee.

12:27 Our strongest coffee, the Black Cross. Is by far, it's one of theirs and is by far, you know, one of our most popular coffees. In fact, people get upset when we take it off. I'd said something for sure, Yeah, yeah, And I was talking to the American Don't Be Incarceration just like a few weeks ago. So it's kind of cool to come to the UK and find it here too. Yeah, I mean, we don't we don't just sell the bags as well. We actually serve it so people can come in and try the different different types and see which one they like and then purchase it to drink at home. Nice and besides these cool things. As a record store, what else sets you apart from other record stores, which there's not as many nowadays. So it's cool you have one because listen, I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for that. Because when I was a teenager in nineteen eighty, I used to go to this little record store in the valley in Los Angeles called OZ Records, and there's this record store clerk there. He always would show me, like you're wearing a Venom bracelet, Like I remember when he goes, got check out this band Welcome to Hell he hands me, and that was my first introduction to Venom and pretty much every band. That's why we'd do. That's Brian Slagel, So like Metal Blade Records was born out of a record store.

13:52 Yeah, I mean we talking Venom. Had we had Venom in the shop doing signing earlier in this year. Nice, we've done eighteen and signings this year in the store. A broad range of artists, everything from cinematic to progressive to black to death to gore. So you know, it's really about creating that fan experience through the signing, giving people an opportunity to meet you know, the artists meet their heroes. Yeah, the Venom one was was was awesome, wasn't it. We've also got downstairs. We've got an area called the Lucifer Lounge as well, which has a six foot upside down cross which is backlitting red. There's a thrown down there in some like church pews, so you can hang out downstairs as well.

14:36 Venom actually did all their press for their new album in the loose for lounge, which was cool, and they got all the shots were taken by necro Horns, which is, you know, a really famous black metal photographer, which is awesome. And I mean going back like, we had Testament in the shop doing a signing session which actually came off the back of the coffee, so they were signing bags of coffee and I mean they had a hand in designing the packets and the roast and they took twenty five bags on the tour bus with them, so Testament are drinking their own coffee, which again is amazing. So you know that again adds to the fan experience. You know, if you can take home or you know, consume something that the band are consuming and enjoying, then you feel a lot closer and a part of that as well.

15:23 And I guess that's what we try and do in the shop. It's that bridge between the bands and the fans, and not just the massive bands as well. We have smaller bands in as well, So we're kind of promoting metal as a whole, like saying all the different genres as well, you know, thrash and we stop glam as well, which is cool, and it's like, it's great to have stuff in the racks that you know, upsets people as well as as well as makeson go wow. I've never seen that before. I've never heard of this band like we stick bon Jovi in their actions to upset a few other I love it death metal fans, which is great. And I'll tell you why I love that too, because I was gonna make a comment next being from the eighties and the gatekeeping bullshit. The first club show I ever went to in my life was Motley Crue at the Roxy, and they weren't even they didn't have an album yet, so they weren't glam yet. They were horror punk.

16:18 They were more like Wednesday thirteen, and it was like cool and they were lighting up everything on firing the Roxy, bring Satan in. But then I was like at Metallica's first show ever, Slayer's first show ever. And then all my friends were like, you got burn all your Motley Cruise shit. Now you're a Slayer fan, And like you'd go to Slayer gigs and somebody walk in with Motley Cruise shirt and then you'd rip it off their back, throw it up to Tommy with burning on stage. So one of the first things I noticed that I was going comment on is she's wearing a Motley Cruise shirt. You're wearing Bathory and Venomo and you're a couple. And then you add it on top of that that you do that at a store. And that's the beautiful thing about twenty twenty six, that gate keeping bullshit is almost completely gone. And you know what, just like the music, you fucking like, who cares exactly?

17:08 You know, metals metal at the end of the day, exactly. And it's hard enough as it is sort of being alternative and being a metalhead because you're you know, you're different from everyone else. But embrace it, enjoy it, you know, enjoy what you like. I don't use the term guilty pleasures either, No, I don't feel guilty over anything that I enjoy exactly exactly. That's a stupid term, exactly, you know. And I always saw it was stupid too. I talk about it all the time, Like I'm also punk, but I can never go punk shows when I was a teenager because I was a long hair and the punks couldn't come down, even suicide tencies. If you went to a suicide show as a long hair, they'd had dudes in the pit with switchblades and it was like fucking bad, you know.

17:52 And it was stupid because we were a very small community, not like now, and the jocks were always the ones buoying us. So why were we fighting each other? Why weren't we just banding together. It's so similar music, like Slayer. Lombardo was a punk, Jeff was a punk, Curry was a metal head, and Tom didn't even know what the fuck metal was. We joined Slayer, So like that's the way it should be. Who cares what area? I don't even say, in your area? Of music, like what you like and have respect for each other, and we can all like different musics and just be fucking cool human to each other. And that's why I love about the metal community.

18:36 Yeah. I mean, we were in Vegas in September, which was insane. We actually went to see Tom Keith of Cinderella Clothes, a massive Cinderella fan. Then we went to the Metal Blade Museum, interviewed Brian Slagel. He dropped us off at the Rio so we could play Kiss Crazy golf, and then we went and saw Motley Crue on their residency, you know, and then we come back to the store and we're doing stuff with like Venom and Mayhem, and it's like, you know, because we just love the music, you know, exactly love being part of the metal scene. It's what we grew up with, and you know, it is who we are as individuals, and I think it's important to showcase that and to showcase we like all different types of metal. You know, I've got stuff that I was brought up with prog rock, so I was into all the kind of the weird stuff, you know, Emerson Lake and Palma King, Crimson Dryer Heap and that kind of stuff growing up and then hit Metallica and Sabbath and Zeppelin and you know, so music has always been there and been a crutch and something that I can lean on when I need to. And I've noticed with my kind of mental health, I can notice how I'm feeling through the music. You know, if I'm listening to a bit more doom than I normally look, might be a little bit depressed, you know, if I'm bouncing around and probably listen to.

19:47 A bit more glam. And you know, black metal's almost sort of been everywhere within especially since I got into recovery. You know, black metal has always been there for me, which is you know, hence the bathroom and the venom and you. Know, I've got a pseudor hoodie and nice. I love all that kind of stuff, the esthetic and the darkness that goes with it, and that taps into other things I'm interested in as well, like the ceremonial magic and the occult based things that I do as part of my recovery. And I love that because I come from the same school, like I listened to my older brothers albums, Elp and The Association and all those bands, and I've actually interviewed the rascals and grassroots and stuff like that. Sure I'm a metal head, but that doesn't mean that's all we ever like. And for people at our stage, there wasn't certain things, so it was an evolution. You can't like Venom without having liked bands before that that weren't even close to metal. It all evolved to that. And like nowadays, it's like you can only like death metal and stupid.

21:00 I like death, I like black metal, I like every metal, I like every rock. I even like Latin music and like hippie music and fucking reggae and like And it does depend on your mood and music is the best therapy in my opinion absolutely. I mean we have in the store we have the heavy Metal family Tree on the wall which showcases from all of the different genres within metal itself, and we try and stop a bit of everything so that we're representing everything within the scene. I love it. So tell everybody all your contact information of the store, so if they you know, are here in the UK visit the UK, that they need to stop into your store.

21:45 Yeah. So we're based in Camden, so in Camden Town we are one hundred meters away from the legendary Underworld venue and the World's End right by the Tube station. Yeah, and in the kind of a triangle of all of the metal bars and pubs in the area. Nice and tell them your like, your website, your socials and all that. Sure, so our website is Ravenrecordshop dot com and you can follow us on Instagram which is Raven Records Underscore Camden, with the same on Facebook and then TikTok is similar as well. Nice. Well, I'm glad you're here, a bloodstock. When I get a break today, I'm gonna come back and look at all your merch here and I suggest anybody that ever sees you have a festival do the same. And thanks a lot for being on the Adventures of pipe Man.

22:30 Thank you very much, Jeers, thank you, thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipelin. I'm w for CUI Radio.