It started in September 1997, when a bunch of young guys grinding metal in the unlikely sounding Raw Meat From The Balcony, got together with some dance party-going mates and decided to create an independent record label. They planned to release the kind of music they liked and their friends were making.
Kog Transmissions was established as a talent collective, primarily an independent record label that wouldn't need to pay others for services because of the range of skills that existed within the organisation.
Musically it was to be an outlet for the building wave of Kiwi boffins creating electronic dance music on computers and keyboards in their bedrooms and home studios. The philosophy was to license tracks (in some cases albums), from artists rather than signing them to the label, so avoiding the bureaucracy and bullshit of a traditional record company.
It worked. While Sony recorded the homegrown pop, Wildside our rock, and Dawn Raid developed the local hip hop market, Kog turned us on to Kiwi techno, trance, breakbeat, drum'n'bass and dub. Obscure names like Protean, epsilon-blue and Chumbwa begat the now familiar Baitercell, the mighty P-Money and cover stars of the last NZM issue, internationally lauded drum'n'bass duo Concord Dawn.
They staged multi-media album launch gigs where those attending got a copy of the CD free on admission, and threw multi-act parties where entry was by koha and gift eccentricity was actively encouraged! It was fresh, innovative, savvy and successful.
Kog's Kingsland headquarters, in the early years also home to at least two of the founders, was increasingly turned into a slacker-style multi-media production facility with recording and mastering studios, a video suite and offices.
Others were drawn to the collective - musicians and their associates, working for little or no money in the spirit of enterprise and musical creativity. The fledgling dance label added several 'imprints' or sub-labels in order to represent the fast broadening Kog roster: Reliable, Low Profile, RCNZ, Syncline, dirty and Midium.
Some were ideas brought to the organisation and run by dedicated label managers, others originated within and were run more loosely.
In 2000 we learnt that Kog now had a UK office and were ready to take their music to Europe. This learn-as-you-go independent was releasing as much as 10% of local albums per year. Kog Transmissions, it seemed, could go anywhere it wanted.
Alas no - early in 2003 rumours that this great experiment in digital-age collectivism was troubled started to surface publicly, as parts of the organisation began to peel away.
Kog Transmissions had become a victim of its own success - a classic future Business Studies 101 case study. A vibrant small business entity built on enthusiasm and specialist knowledge that grew too fast in too many directions, lacked coherent management, decision-making or financial structures and inevitably lost focus and stakeholder confidence.
Those in charge had seen the signs and endeavoured to make changes. The various cost and revenue centres, they had acknowledged, needed to be split up so that they could account for themselves. Kog mastering, Kog video, Kog recording, Kog design, Kog international and Kog domestic all needed to report separately, and in some cases needed to be owned separately. Unfortunately, because of the amorphous accounting history, no one really knew the value of anything, and figuring it out created more work, more stress and friction among personnel.
By March 2003 the process was well under way but it was already too late to save Kog Transmissions. Unravelling the unstructured has proven difficult and it is only now, at the end of the year, that some of the separation arrangements are being finalised.
Meantime, what had become one unhappy organisation has spawned half a dozen excited and highly charged newcomers, instantly successful labels and a promotions company amongst them.
Kog Transmissions continues in the person of Chris Chetland (aka Baitercell), the breaks/dub label Kog (which has just released 'Return Of The Boom Shwack') and recording/production facility. The Kingsland premises have been re-organised to provide two audio studios, plus two recording areas including a new live room. David Holmes has taken up the rock engineer's stool while Chetland specialises in ad production, electronic music, hip hop and CD mastering.
Some financial reparations, mostly with external creditors, remain unresolved and there is a general reluctance to talk on record, much less 'tell the Kog story' - though most are keen to see closure so they can proceed with their own plans. A conciliator was briefly employed to help them be honest with each other, the result described by one as "an uneasy peace".
Commonly those I spoke to say that Kog was an amazing success and they are proud of what was achieved; that they benefited enormously from the experience and bear no ill will, despite the difficulties of separation and the issues which led to it.
Of the founding Kog collective members only Chris Chetland and Bruce Ferguson remained closely involved for Kog Transmission's five years. Chetland is known for his recording, production and mastering engineer work and was the organisation's regular spokesman. Ferguson has specialised in multi-media work, VJing and video production, and earlier this year branded his own operation as Kog Video. Their specialist skills attracted corporate fee-paying clients which were key to Kog's survival, especially over the early years before a revenue earning back catalogue was established.
"A lot of the money from the commercial work was going back into the label," says Ferguson. "It was supposed to be a certain percentage but quite often it got a bit murky - though it was always the label doing better out of it than me!"
As Kog expanded more people were drawn into the vortex to run the business day to day. While the board of four originals guided the way, it is three newer names; Hamish Walker, Callum August and Mark Kneebone who set the recent pace and direction of Kog's development.
"It was never a planned scenario," explains Andrew Manning, a Kog original and director who has continued to work 9-5 for a musical instrument distributor since the Kog beginnings.
"We were still a group of people who were hanging out there in the evenings and others started helping out in the days. When we started taking it more seriously, as a result of getting those skilled people involved, then we knew we had to knuckle it down a bit more."
Hamish (H) Walker, the first of the newcomers, had no music industry experience and few other qualifications for his role as label manager when he started with Kog in 2000. Following an SAE course in 1997 he had spent time in Europe before returning to Auckland. His part in electronica act Avotor introduced him to Kog and the offer of a job.
Early in 2001, having been in the industry a whole six months, he was given a plane ticket and address of the lawyer for Pinnacle Distribution in London and despatched to the UK to secure a contract and start establishing the label in Europe.
Simone Fougere was employed to run the London 'office', essentially a phone line at her home, and Walker set about developing networks. He credits Fougere with providing many of the vital club-level contacts that made his efforts successful. Back home his role became strictly internationally focused. On the side he helped establish imprint label Midium, home of what he describes as "indie experimental" music. Kog, the dance label, was now also home to freaky guitar bands, the Midium roster including Avotor, Meterman, Jakob and Dayone.
Walker would often work overnight to communicate with the UK and says his bonus was getting to work (unpaid) on Midium in the day! His last European trip was to Midem in January 2002, and in April 2003 he resigned. He took with him the Midium label, including the artists above who are signed to the label, and rights to the back catalogue. First handled locally by Zomba, Midium only recently moved distribution to Universal. Future releases will be distributed by FMR.
Callum August, now co-owner of the former Kog hip hop imprint Dirty Records, was Walker's domestic counterpart. After completing the same audio engineering course at Auckland's SAE, August got a job as audio technician on a Hamilton radio station.
An electronic dance music DJ with a long interest in hip hop, he was also "briefly" in Avotor as a scratch DJ.
"Through that I met them all, and when they needed someone to help out in the studio I moved back up. The thing with Kog is that everyone that goes there finds their niche, what they want to do and what needs to be done."
August also did a brief stint in the UK, variously handled the daily accounting and a typically wide range of other roles, but most notably took over the key one of labels manager. Those who work with him laud his insight, understanding of the way the music industry works and his marketing instincts. He is a good deal less effusive himself, hates being interviewed and describes himself as a "behind the scenes worker".
"What we tried to do at Kog was bring more accountability to the systems. When it got to the point of doing seven releases a year things really had to be done in a certain way - and I looked after that function for all the labels involved."
Kog started Dirty Records in 2001 as a hip hop sub label. Pete Waddams (aka P Money), shopped his plans for a beats-plus-guest-emcees-album around both major and indie labels before choosing Kog. He came up with the name and the branding, the A&R and how the label was to sound, but ownership was with Kog Transmissions.
Dirty was initially for NZ hip hop audiences, with an eye to the US rather than UK. August shifted his personal focus to the new imprint label and 'Big Things' which in mid 2002 was the biggest thing yet from Kog, their first gold record. That the electronic dance music collective got its biggest break from a hip hop release indicates how the new personnel had changed the way that Kog was perceived.
Quite coincidentally August tendered his resignation to the board on the same day as Walker did.
"When I left we agreed that I could continue the Dirty brand with Pete, keep the logos etc. It is now set up as a company, Dirty Records Ltd. Pete looks after the music and I do all the crap!
"I just wanted to focus on Dirty and do fewer releases, work with fewer artists and concentrate on projects. I always felt we did a bit too much, seven album releases a year - that's a lot for an indie label. Personally I wanted to spend more time with my artists, in development and working the album for six months after the release. I'm working on one release at the moment, with a lot of people helping me, and it's hard work, I'm tired!"
Of course that one release is Scribe's album, the double platinum selling hip hop phenomenon. 'Crusader' will be released across the Tasman early 2004 by FMR Australia, and August is quietly expecting more success.
"We spent this whole year doing Scribe's album - all of us with no money, slaving to put a record together in the hope of making our money back - and it's done phenomenally well, which is good.
"Every label makes mistakes, and we are lucky to have seen a few, not just Kog's, and we try to be aware of what you can do. We compete for the core 5000 people NZ hip hop market - the challenge for us was to crossover to more mainstream media and awareness." Bingo.
As part of his Bachelor of Communications degree at AUT, Mark Kneebone made a 10 minute television documentary on Kog Transmissions. Kneebone is half of drum'n'bass outfit Paradigm, the other half being Damian Vaughan who coincidentally also used to play in Raw Meat For The Balcony and subsequently also joined Kog. The pair were also part of their very own artists' collective with a studio in Kingsland and a label called Tardus Music. (See NZM June/July 2002.)
Tardus launched with the compilation 'Moniker'. The day Kneebone finished his degree in October 2001 he did a mastering session for it with Chris Chetland at Kog.
Before long Kneebone was a full time Kog employee, charged first off with establishing a promotional department. Media communication until then was limited to the few publications that had a strong interest in local music. With lots of coffees and fast talking Kneebone expanded the email list to over 100 contacts.
His next major assignment was to do something similar in Australia in order to establish Kog's electronic artists as a presence in that rock-loving continent. That task was understandably less easy but required the same skills of persuasion with almost as little money to back it up.
Australian distribution was arranged with indie distributor Inertia for all Kog sub labels including Tardus.
The promotional experience he accumulated in just a few years with Kog make Kneebone, now 24, valuably skilled. He says he has been offered promo roles with just about all the major labels - any one of which would have earned him far more money than Kog was able to pay.
But as for all Kog operatives it wasn't about money but the music (and being able to go to work bare footed), and besides, he had his own musical agenda. Part of the arrangement was that Kog would look after distribution of Tardus releases through their own flexible take-one-take-all P&D arrangement with Universal Music, of whom he has nothing but praise for their support and training.
Dejusa released their debut album on Tardus via Kog in March this year, about the same time his Paradigm mate Damian Vaughan left Kog to travel. That left just himself and August working the local scene with Walker doing international.
"The pressure was really starting to mount in the last year. Look at the release schedule over the last six months if it was still around; a Concord Dawn record, Scribe's record, Pitch Black were coming back with another record, Shapeshifter... We knew we had the best local talent roster in the country and the sales since have proved it. Scribe's done 35,000 in just a month now! Concord Dawn is 500 short of going gold already within a few weeks!
"The roster was too big. It became very apparent that there weren't enough resources to handle it, and that's when the cracks, which were always there, became more apparent. We were working ridiculous hours each week and it took a physical toll on individuals."
The stresses and frictions long evident became even greater as the workloads continued to increase and Kneebone describes Callum August leaving as like taking the cornerstone out of a pyramid.
"When it was obvious that the hip hop empire was going with him, you could see the tower of cards swaying, and slowly everyone else started to leave. I agreed to stay for three months to totally strip Kog back and restructure it, close down Australia, and put out 'Boom Shwack' - and I was gone by September."
Kneebone was starting Isaac Promotions Ltd as he was finishing up at Kog. The company provides music publicity, radio plugging and promotions services to artists and independent labels.
"My first clients were Concord Dawn and Scribe! Whaddaya know? That was a good start! It was kind of cool that the first single we pushed (Scribe's Stand Up) went to number one for 12 weeks!"
Despite his own business success, Kneebone maintains that if Kog had been restructured and gone on another 12 months then "the sky was the limit".
"The constant financial pressure was too much. The infrastructure was completely flawed. It was no one's fault, it just hadn't been set up right."
"It was perhaps naïve, but we all had a trust in what the others were doing, that we were all doing things for the right reasons," says Andrew Manning. "That is why those people who weren't in the original group chose to be involved - they liked the goodwill factor they saw."
Joost Langeveld echoes those thoughts. He first met the Kog crew at The Gathering in 97/98 where he was performing live drum'n'bass as Trigger X, and provided the opening track for the breakbeat compilation 'Textyles'.
After helping with the first 'Algorhythm' compilation in '97 Langeveld became more proactive in the production of 'Algorhythm 2'.
Imprint label Reliable Recordings was established in '99 with Langeveld as label manager and brand owner. He handled the label's A&R, artwork and branding, leaving the production and distribution to Kog/Universal.
Langeveld's own act Subware (with Jason 'Rockpig' Hall), made up three of the 11 Reliable releases. 'Algorithm 2' was the label's biggest, topping 2000 units.
Since mid 2003 ownership of Reliable has passed to Langeveld with distribution and back catalogue moving to In Music.
"We are doing a lot with Roger Perry (his partner in Reactor Music), who has become active in an A&R role. We are going a little more grass roots and a little more independent in our approach - we feel that dance music has become rather corporatised and quite boring."
"Reliable works in a similar sense to Kog, no signings but we will license tracks for comps and 12" EPs."
On the question of economics he echoes Walker and Midium. "There's very little money in it, if we sell 1000 copies a comp will pay for itself. It'll be great if we can license a track to a massive selling US compilation."
Langeveld initially got involved with Kog because it was independent and a collective.
"I liked that people of different musical styles could mix and mingle and I got to hang out with people like P Money and the guys from Concord Dawn."
"I think one of the problems was that because there were so many people involved and claiming a little bit of ownership," he relates. "There was no forum to resolve issues of responsibility. No board get togethers until much later and in my opinion they never worked very well."
"We were always about having a creative community, working together and for each other - the breakdown was in the business relationship between those things," concurs Manning. "If it came down to devoting time to music making or devoting time to looking after finances it would be music making! Things started breaking down at the beginning of this year when problems developed with the superstructure of the organisation. We tried to resolve them but in the end lack of agreement between all parties meant people didn't want to be involved any longer.
"There were certain things that you could never change, and certain things that should never be changed," says August. "If there was a problem you could get a consensus to make change but sometimes it was hard to change the habitual culture aspects."
Realistically Kog Transmissions had needed a major investment at the beginning of the millennium - in order that staffing levels and systems could have been increased to match the aspirations and opportunities. One reckoned as little as $200,000 would have solved their problems . The board talked about it but realistically music collectives are not attractive propositions for investors!
The venture into the UK market is variously described as a frustrating financial disaster and a visible success. Those on the positive point to the overseas profile and sales of Concord Dawn and the international licensing and recognition of other Kog acts.
The negatives acknowledge that a lot of money was lost when their chosen UK distributor Pinnacle Distribution, then (drum'n'bass specialist) Vinyl Distribution went bad on them.
"They were really, really hard to deal with," says Chetland. "Basically they'd not return calls. The label manager was too busy and couldn't represent what he was doing for us. A lot of labels left Pinnacle. Same with Vinyl, they just disappeared off the face of the planet."
This is a tender spot for all concerned, nobody after all, likes seeing good work wasted by the indiscretions of others. They found it "incredibly" expensive getting their music promoted in the UK. With only Fougere manning the London office most of the time, they had to contract everything out, employing a variety of costly (and often ineffective) middle people. This ran contradictory to the Kog ethos of keeping things in house and having enough talent within to look after everything.
Illustrating the problems encountered in Britain, Langeveld says he is unsure exactly which Reliable projects were even released there.
"I know a lot of copies went to the UK but don't know if they were used for promo or actually sold. The deal with Pinnacle in the UK was flawed from the outset, because the intent was to use the Kog brand across all labels 'the motherlode' so to speak, whereas I felt we needed to brand things more individually there."
"From the board's point of view the problem was trying to run something from the other side of the planet," acknowledges Bruce Ferguson. "Particularly trying to get money out of companies that knew we were on the other side of the planet - and especially in London which is a hard as nails kind of place. So we were way down the payment priority list and had a lot of hassles there. A lot of naivety I think about how co-operative people over there would be. Also delays with some people we entrusted having met only a few times and who turned out to be hopeless."
"About the middle of last year we were getting uneasy about how that was going. We always knew it would be a long haul to see results and things looked okay on paper but the reality is that actually getting the money out of there was the hardest thing.
"The board was always the one driving the UK thing. We were doing quite well and wanted to take it to the next level. In retrospect it wasn't as necessary as we thought then it was. You can get too big. It was a gamble and didn't pay off - a good example of us over-reaching"
Kog Transmissions was the little label that could. It carries on, but has moprhed dramatically. The acts involved have generally now got new deals, most with the label they were already under.
"A lot of people ask me why it failed and my response is that it didn't," finishes Mark Kneebone. "I think it was one of the greatest success stories in New Zealand music in the last 10 years. It defied every business model - but if you look at what it achieved and at what everyone who worked there is doing now you can't call it a failure."
Indeed. Change, as they say, is good.
Quite coincidentally August tendered his resignation to the board on the same day as Walker did.
"When I left we agreed that I could continue the Dirty brand with Pete, keep the logos etc. It is now set up as a company, Dirty Records Ltd. Pete looks after the music and I do all the crap!
"I just wanted to focus on Dirty and do fewer releases, work with fewer artists and concentrate on projects. I always felt we did a bit too much, seven album releases a year - that's a lot for an indie label. Personally I wanted to spend more time with my artists, in development and working the album for six months after the release. I'm working on one release at the moment, with a lot of people helping me, and it's hard work, I'm tired!"
Of course that one release is Scribe's album, the double platinum selling hip hop phenomenon. 'Crusader' will be released across the Tasman early 2004 by FMR Australia, and August is quietly expecting more success.
"We spent this whole year doing Scribe's album - all of us with no money, slaving to put a record together in the hope of making our money back - and it's done phenomenally well, which is good.
"Every label makes mistakes, and we are lucky to have seen a few, not just Kog's, and we try to be aware of what you can do. We compete for the core 5000 people NZ hip hop market - the challenge for us was to crossover to more mainstream media and awareness." Bingo.
As part of his Bachelor of Communications degree at AUT, Mark Kneebone made a 10 minute television documentary on Kog Transmissions. Kneebone is half of drum'n'bass outfit Paradigm, the other half being Damian Vaughan who coincidentally also used to play in Raw Meat For The Balcony and subsequently also joined Kog. The pair were also part of their very own artists' collective with a studio in Kingsland and a label called Tardus Music. (See NZM June/July 2002.)
Tardus launched with the compilation 'Moniker'. The day Kneebone finished his degree in October 2001 he did a mastering session for it with Chris Chetland at Kog.
Before long Kneebone was a full time Kog employee, charged first off with establishing a promotional department. Media communication until then was limited to the few publications that had a strong interest in local music. With lots of coffees and fast talking Kneebone expanded the email list to over 100 contacts.
His next major assignment was to do something similar in Australia in order to establish Kog's electronic artists as a presence in that rock-loving continent. That task was understandably less easy but required the same skills of persuasion with almost as little money to back it up.
Australian distribution was arranged with indie distributor Inertia for all Kog sub labels including Tardus.
The promotional experience he accumulated in just a few years with Kog make Kneebone, now 24, valuably skilled. He says he has been offered promo roles with just about all the major labels - any one of which would have earned him far more money than Kog was able to pay.
But as for all Kog operatives it wasn't about money but the music (and being able to go to work bare footed), and besides, he had his own musical agenda. Part of the arrangement was that Kog would look after distribution of Tardus releases through their own flexible take-one-take-all P&D arrangement with Universal Music, of whom he has nothing but praise for their support and training.
Dejusa released their debut album on Tardus via Kog in March this year, about the same time his Paradigm mate Damian Vaughan left Kog to travel. That left just himself and August working the local scene with Walker doing international.
"The pressure was really starting to mount in the last year. Look at the release schedule over the last six months if it was still around; a Concord Dawn record, Scribe's record, Pitch Black were coming back with another record, Shapeshifter... We knew we had the best local talent roster in the country and the sales since have proved it. Scribe's done 35,000 in just a month now! Concord Dawn is 500 short of going gold already within a few weeks!
"The roster was too big. It became very apparent that there weren't enough resources to handle it, and that's when the cracks, which were always there, became more apparent. We were working ridiculous hours each week and it took a physical toll on individuals."
The stresses and frictions long evident became even greater as the workloads continued to increase and Kneebone describes Callum August leaving as like taking the cornerstone out of a pyramid.
"When it was obvious that the hip hop empire was going with him, you could see the tower of cards swaying, and slowly everyone else started to leave. I agreed to stay for three months to totally strip Kog back and restructure it, close down Australia, and put out 'Boom Shwack' - and I was gone by September."
Kneebone was starting Isaac Promotions Ltd as he was finishing up at Kog. The company provides music publicity, radio plugging and promotions services to artists and independent labels.
"My first clients were Concord Dawn and Scribe! Whaddaya know? That was a good start! It was kind of cool that the first single we pushed (Scribe's Stand Up) went to number one for 12 weeks!"
Despite his own business success, Kneebone maintains that if Kog had been restructured and gone on another 12 months then "the sky was the limit".
"The constant financial pressure was too much. The infrastructure was completely flawed. It was no one's fault, it just hadn't been set up right."
"It was perhaps naïve, but we all had a trust in what the others were doing, that we were all doing things for the right reasons," says Andrew Manning. "That is why those people who weren't in the original group chose to be involved - they liked the goodwill factor they saw."
Joost Langeveld echoes those thoughts. He first met the Kog crew at The Gathering in 97/98 where he was performing live drum'n'bass as Trigger X, and provided the opening track for the breakbeat compilation 'Textyles'.
After helping with the first 'Algorhythm' compilation in '97 Langeveld became more proactive in the production of 'Algorhythm 2'.
Imprint label Reliable Recordings was established in '99 with Langeveld as label manager and brand owner. He handled the label's A&R, artwork and branding, leaving the production and distribution to Kog/Universal.
Langeveld's own act Subware (with Jason 'Rockpig' Hall), made up three of the 11 Reliable releases. 'Algorithm 2' was the label's biggest, topping 2000 units.
Since mid 2003 ownership of Reliable has passed to Langeveld with distribution and back catalogue moving to In Music.
"We are doing a lot with Roger Perry (his partner in Reactor Music), who has become active in an A&R role. We are going a little more grass roots and a little more independent in our approach - we feel that dance music has become rather corporatised and quite boring."
"Reliable works in a similar sense to Kog, no signings but we will license tracks for comps and 12" EPs."
On the question of economics he echoes Walker and Midium. "There's very little money in it, if we sell 1000 copies a comp will pay for itself. It'll be great if we can license a track to a massive selling US compilation."
Langeveld initially got involved with Kog because it was independent and a collective.
"I liked that people of different musical styles could mix and mingle and I got to hang out with people like P Money and the guys from Concord Dawn."
"I think one of the problems was that because there were so many people involved and claiming a little bit of ownership," he relates. "There was no forum to resolve issues of responsibility. No board get togethers until much later and in my opinion they never worked very well."
"We were always about having a creative community, working together and for each other - the breakdown was in the business relationship between those things," concurs Manning. "If it came down to devoting time to music making or devoting time to looking after finances it would be music making! Things started breaking down at the beginning of this year when problems developed with the superstructure of the organisation. We tried to resolve them but in the end lack of agreement between all parties meant people didn't want to be involved any longer.
"There were certain things that you could never change, and certain things that should never be changed," says August. "If there was a problem you could get a consensus to make change but sometimes it was hard to change the habitual culture aspects."
Realistically Kog Transmissions had needed a major investment at the beginning of the millennium - in order that staffing levels and systems could have been increased to match the aspirations and opportunities. One reckoned as little as $200,000 would have solved their problems . The board talked about it but realistically music collectives are not attractive propositions for investors!
The venture into the UK market is variously described as a frustrating financial disaster and a visible success. Those on the positive point to the overseas profile and sales of Concord Dawn and the international licensing and recognition of other Kog acts.
The negatives acknowledge that a lot of money was lost when their chosen UK distributor Pinnacle Distribution, then (drum'n'bass specialist) Vinyl Distribution went bad on them.
"They were really, really hard to deal with," says Chetland. "Basically they'd not return calls. The label manager was too busy and couldn't represent what he was doing for us. A lot of labels left Pinnacle. Same with Vinyl, they just disappeared off the face of the planet."
This is a tender spot for all concerned, nobody after all, likes seeing good work wasted by the indiscretions of others. They found it "incredibly" expensive getting their music promoted in the UK. With only Fougere manning the London office most of the time, they had to contract everything out, employing a variety of costly (and often ineffective) middle people. This ran contradictory to the Kog ethos of keeping things in house and having enough talent within to look after everything.
Illustrating the problems encountered in Britain, Langeveld says he is unsure exactly which Reliable projects were even released there.
"I know a lot of copies went to the UK but don't know if they were used for promo or actually sold. The deal with Pinnacle in the UK was flawed from the outset, because the intent was to use the Kog brand across all labels 'the motherlode' so to speak, whereas I felt we needed to brand things more individually there."
"From the board's point of view the problem was trying to run something from the other side of the planet," acknowledges Bruce Ferguson. "Particularly trying to get money out of companies that knew we were on the other side of the planet - and especially in London which is a hard as nails kind of place. So we were way down the payment priority list and had a lot of hassles there. A lot of naivety I think about how co-operative people over there would be. Also delays with some people we entrusted having met only a few times and who turned out to be hopeless."
"About the middle of last year we were getting uneasy about how that was going. We always knew it would be a long haul to see results and things looked okay on paper but the reality is that actually getting the money out of there was the hardest thing.
"The board was always the one driving the UK thing. We were doing quite well and wanted to take it to the next level. In retrospect it wasn't as necessary as we thought then it was. You can get too big. It was a gamble and didn't pay off - a good example of us over-reaching"
Kog Transmissions was the little label that could. It carries on, but has moprhed dramatically. The acts involved have generally now got new deals, most with the label they were already under.
"A lot of people ask me why it failed and my response is that it didn't," finishes Mark Kneebone. "I think it was one of the greatest success stories in New Zealand music in the last 10 years. It defied every business model - but if you look at what it achieved and at what everyone who worked there is doing now you can't call it a failure."
Indeed. Change, as they say, is good.
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