UK indie label Young has been a beacon for boundary-pushing musicians from FKA twigs to Sampha. With their new base of operations, Young Space, just completing its first lap around the sun, we took a peek inside
This story is taken from the autumn 2023 issue of Dazed. Pre-order a copy here.
Like many of the greatest adventures – and some regrettable ones too, perhaps – Young (formerly Young Turks) started life in the dankest corners of a Shoreditch rave. The story began with a 19-year-old Caius Pawson, who coined the name for a series of all-night parties he ran in the mid-00s. After police interference saw equipment and booze being confiscated, Pawson’s rave nights ended abruptly. “I thought it was the end of my life when the police shut everything down,” he says. “[Then] I crossed paths with Richard Russell, the owner of XL Recordings. He really saw something in me, and he told me to start a label.”
Pawson took an A&R job at XL, and before long he’d launched a label of his own. “I used what I’d learned to launch Young Turks,” he says. “It started as an imprint of XL before we fully came into our own.” Operating under UK indie powerhouse Beggars Group, XL and Young became a joint venture. Anchored by a shared philosophy, they made it their mission to spotlight artists with something unique to say.
Having got up and running with Jack Peñate's “Second, Minute Or Hour”, released in late 2006, the label notched up a string of well-received releases from the likes of Holy Fuck and Gang Gang Dance in 2007/8, but it was the debut album by The xx, released in the summer of 2009, went on to become a Mercury-winning sleeper hit whose influence was felt everywhere in the early 2010s.
The idea for Young Space can be traced as far back as 2019, somewhere between the third John Wick movie and Instagram’s ‘world record egg’, when Sampha was seeking out a new base of operations. The Young team looked to emulate the magic of historical organisations like the Black Mountain College (a pioneering North Carolina arts institute founded in the 1930s) and Kompakt Records in Berlin, famous for its unifying, social kitchen space.
“It’s all about the three Cs: conversation, communication, community. A lot of Cs, but that’s where everything truly great starts,” says Milo Cordell, the label’s head of A&R. “At the end of the day, we’re about social interaction and community. Many of the people we work with were friends before they were collaborators. Sampha is a great example; he started as an intern.” Young now houses an expansive rollcall of artists including Sampha, FKA twigs, John Glacier, Kamasi Washington, Romy, Koreless and Ethan P Flynn, as well as The xx and their various solo ventures. To truly grasp the label’s influence, look no further than the scores of dedicated Subreddits online, cataloguing all the leaks, rarities and unreleased cuts from their vault.
After scouting 33 buildings before finding the right one, the Young Space officially opened its doors in Haggerston, east London, in July 2022. British architect (and Caius’s dad) John Pawson designed the crystalline, pearlescent space as a liquid canvas for creation. The building was crafted from two distinct late 19-century structures, formerly part of a millinery factory. Imagine Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios with a Tron: Legacy spin. “We wanted a building where artists, people and businesses of different mediums wouldn’t just work together but talk and spark conversation,” says Caius. “That naturally leads to collaboration. We’re proud to say the studios are run by the artists themselves.”
Like all creative endeavours, it starts with a fuel source. That’s where Mafruha ‘Maf’ Ahmed, the culinary lead at Young Space, comes in. “The food I make is rooted in home dining,” says Maf. “Everything here is casual; the tables are long and encourage conversation among everyone in the space. My menu changes every day. Everyone eats the same food here, meaning everything has to be tasty and suitable for all palates. For example, learning to cook without onions really sparks innovation.”
With the infrastructure and nourishment firmly in place, the fun begins. At the studio’s grand opening, musical polymaths Kamasi Washington, Saya Gray, Sampha and Valentina Magaletti held a freeform jam session for those in attendance. An A5 zine, Cookin’, featuring sonnets, sketches and anecdotes was produced in tandem with the festivities.
In the year since its opening, the Young Space has continued to evolve as a shared workspace, establishing a healthy roster of neighbouring talent. From Rave magazine’s third-issue launch party this summer to housing Adult Education’s poetry workshops, the space morphs into a new endeavour each day.
“We wanted a building where artists, people and businesses of different mediums wouldn’t just work together but talk and spark conversation” – Caius Pawson
Starting downstairs, the undercroft of the space is full of weird and wonderful cultural fossils. Amid towering crates and boxes you’ll find everything from merch caps to time-warped tickets, posters and scattered bits of vinyl. Venturing further into the storage cupboard, more and more of Young’s storied history becomes apparent. Jessie Ware and Sampha’s “Valentine” single lies atop a shelf, gazing down at its younger siblings while various posters and pieces of equipment enter cryo-sleep. Walking around the space's central chamber, you’re presented with work benches by day and – if you’re lucky – a nightlong musical meditation session from Touching Bass founder, DJ and producer Errol. Binding everyone in the room by record crackle, genre-less rhythm and freeform expression, the sessions encapsulate what the Young Space is all about.
Kwes Darko's studio is a musical labyrinth. The moon-swept space features very little natural light. Despite this, the studio's aesthetic profile is bolstered by kaleidoscopic antique lighting, a jungle of wires supporting various sound systems and a bedrock of antique-style cushions. “At Young Space, we try and inspire people to be themselves,” says the producer, artist and label A&R. “If you have an idea, you can execute it here. Next to my place, you’ve got a low-lit studio where you might find Sampha recording from time to time. Around the corner there's Foundation FM, one of the UK's coldest music stations.”
Foundation is the women-led station with a dynamic roster of turntable talent repping for London’s underground scene. They host takeovers at Young Space every Friday, and have recently stepped into the fashion realm. “Back in August, we hosted a pop-up at the Bone Soda space to celebrate our merch drop,” says Rebekah Knox, one of Foundation FM’s producers. “We took inspiration from haute couture and the conventions of runway fashion for our creative direction. Most of the drop was black or white. Our Foundation bomber jacket is one of the centrepieces – it's sleek and multi-purpose. Our graphic tee looked striking in lime green; it’s a great stand-in for what we represent.”
The Wales Bonner team recently styled, cast and fit their two most recent Paris shows at the space for their regal and earthy autumn 2023 collection, with music courtesy of Sampha. The brand also made use of Young’s resources to shoot their most recent lookbook, with Jebi Labembika behind the camera. Since June, the brand is based in the space full-time, kitting out their offices with an extensive bookshelf, sprawling library and a towering mood board for day-to-day operations.
It’s just one example of how Young Space operates as a living, breathing work of art on a grand scale. Across the pages of this story, we hear from those who know it best – and follow a breadcrumb trail of treasures the space plays host to.
MAXINE PENNINGTON, MUSIC CURATOR AND DIRECTOR
“I do music curation and direction for various brands such as Wales Bonner in the Young Space. I work with a composer called James William Blades, who accompanies Grace [Wales Bonner] on most of her campaigns. Having my own personal music sessions – Intentions, a night of music, sketching and food – and my Wales Bonner work under one roof is special.”
MAFRUHA ‘MAF’ AHMED, CULINARY LEAD
“It’s fun because I get to meet so many different people. In my eyes, I see the best side of people, because they're hungry. At the same time, a great thing about working here is that I get to create something meaningful, which in turn powers a larger picture. I want to think I give creatives the headspace to do more, through the food itself and dinner table conversation.”
WORMS, PUBLISHING PLATFORM
“We’re an open-access social enterprise curated to help discover how to reap the benefits of reading and writing. This May, we launched our first course at Young Space. The ‘Write What’s RIGHT’ course invited participants to establish a personal writing practice to help explore and expand their creative selves. It was a seven-week intensive course that aimed to bring clarity to its students’ lives via establishing personal writing practices.”
KWES DARKO, PRODUCER, A&R AND ARTIST
“A bunch of musicians have been through and recorded in our space – it’s got a real spiritual foundation. Our very own John Glacier was the first. Sampha rehearsed for his Satellite Business shows here. Tems, Obongjayar, Joe James, Bar Italia, Liv.e, Jim Legxacy, Dev Hynes and Meekz have all come through.”
JAMES MESSIAH, POET AND CREATOR OF ADULT EDUCATION
“I’ve recorded, eaten, hung out and hosted Adult Education here. It was born out of a desire to connect more intimately with poems and people in a way that the format of the sister event, Adult Entertainment, doesn’t necessarily allow. With Adult Education, everything is at a slightly slower pace. It’s less about performance, delivery, mastery or technique and more about each person’s experience and relationship to the poems and the theme for the day. Friends have jokingly compared it to group therapy, Bible study or AA, and I can see what they mean. It does feel quite therapeutic. We spend about an hour discussing and dissecting the poems. Afterwards, we let the group go off and write on their own. We always share what we’ve written at the end. Long may Adult Education continue.”
This story is taken from the autumn 2023 issue of Dazed. Pre-order a copy here.
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