When I first started Glasgow Podcart I was lucky enough to be pointed in the direction of The Line Of Best Fit by A Badge of Friendship co-founder Claire Lim. The Line Of Best Fit (TLOBF) has been one of the most influential music sites since I started on this music journey.

 I therefore decided it was time to start highlighting the other sites that we source a lot of new music from and The Line Of Best Fit is one of the biggest resources for new music and my most loved established artists. Rich Thane, founder of TLOBF has gone on to become someone that I respect highly as his ethos and passion for what he does is exemplary. Not only this, but he illustrates his commitment to what he does which is the reason TLOBF has gone on to become one of the most respected music sites out there. With one of the best podcasts out there, curating events and their finger firmly on the pulse of great music, it comes as no surprise that they have become our first recommended site.

I was lucky enough to catch up with Rich Thane for an in depth and highly motivating chat about the history of TLOBF, what they have in store for their public and lots more!

Hey Rich, how are you?

Hey Halina! I’m very well thanks – the end of a busy day so looking forward to getting home. hooked on Wonders Of The Universe at the moment. I used to be fascinated by space when I was a kid so it’s finally nice to find something out about it. 

We know you from the excellent The Line Of Best Fit music site, can you tell us about your background and how you got into the curious world of music and journalism?

Ah well it’s a funny old story. See, I’ve always obsessed over music, I guess from about 7 or 8 years old. I began playing the piano at about 9 then moved on to the guitar as a teenager. basically, I just wanted to be Slash. I played in bands for years and years to varying degrees of success, misery, failure – the usual. In 2006 I became a dad, and at that point I’d had just about enough of playing in bands that never went anywhere. So I took a break to concentrate on enjoying our wee baby boy.

It didn’t take long before I got itchy feet though. I just needed *some* sort of musical output. Listening to it just wasn’t enough. So I was in a shitty job and one dinner time I just thought, “fuck – I’m bored. think I’ll start a blog” – it was as simple as that. I signed up to blogspot and the field where it said ‘enter site name’ flashed up…. I was listening to Death Cab For Cutie on my iPod at the time and the song playing was ‘Line Of Best Fit’. I ‘blogged’ (badly) for a while but it wasn’t something I enjoyed. I needed someone to bounce off. That’s the great thing about being in a band – the camaraderie y’know? So I was chatting to Rich Hughes, to a friend of mine who also ‘blogged’, about how we always got excited about the same music and that we should perhaps join forces to form something bigger…. so we did.

And so it goes – people listened, people read, people enjoyed and suddenly the Line Of Best Fit wasn’t just a Death Cab song, it was this *thing* – a being. Something that people suddenly started to give a shit about. I still can’t really get my head around it. we always just did what felt right, tried not to pander to anyone – did our own thing. It worked y’know?

Tell us about The Line Of Best Fit, how many of you are there and how long have you guys been running for?

Rich Hughes and I went our separate ways in November 2010. I’d love to tell you that we had a huge fight but it was purely down to the old chestnut *musical differences*. No, really!! We found our musical paths veering in different directions to the point where the site started to suffer. Rich was heavily into majorly avant garde experimental stuff and it never really sat too well on TLOBF. Plus he needed a break. He’d just got married and was enjoying his new life (and indeed wife). He needed to regroup and refocus on why he was doing all this in the first place. He needed to get his mojo back and it wasn’t until he left that I think he realised that he should have made the decision a while back.

He now co-runs an experimental music site called The Liminal and I wish him every luck with it. The editorial team now stands at myself, plus Paul (Bridgwater) who is live editor, Lauren (Down) the news editor and Josh (Hall) who is new music editor. They’re all amazing and make my life a lot easier. In terms of contributors we have about 60, plus a fairly healthy supply of photographers. Then there’s Emily Mules, our wonderful podcast presenter who took over the role in the new year after Jen Long became a presenter on Radio 1.

You are based in London and we are en Ecosse, do you find there is a massive divide in terms of the music communities we both share or do you find that more and more artists are starting to infiltrate one another’s cities?

There’s a London *scene*. Of course there is, and I think sometimes you can get swallowed up in the whole thing. You know bands that have moderate success in the city – selling out 300-400 capacity venues – go on to do a nationwide tour and play to 10 people. It happens. But of course, there are bands from up and down the country that break through and geography becomes irrelevant. And more importantly perhaps, and especially with the rise in popularity with twitter, individual scenes are being broken down because suddenly you’re mixing, sharing your views, interacting, arguing, recommending, bonding – whatever – with people from all over the place. Suddenly you’re taking the views and taste of some kid who probably lives in the outer Hebrides seriously. I couldn’t care less where you’re from. Do you like music? Good. Let’s talk about it.

What is the best thing about doing The Line Of Best Fit?

I just love talking about music with people. Always have done. Running The Line Of Best Fit allows that but on quite a large platform. I’ve always loved making mixtapes for friends. Turning them on to new bands, arguing with them when their opinion doesn’t match mine haha. This is just an extension of that. A lot of kids want to get into journalism for the free CDs and concert tickets. That’s honestly the least important thing to me. It’s immaterial. I get my joy from seeing a band form, play their first show, get a deal, and go on to (sometimes) have success. It never happened for me – so the next best thing is to see it happen for other people.

And then of course, I get to meet incredible pop stars. Highlight this year was hanging out with Lykke Li in a taxidermy shop in east London. That wasn’t a bad day at all. We filmed a session with her. Somehow we were the sole site to be commissioned a live session for this particular album campaign. When it went live we had over 1.5 million loads of the video in 24 hours. That also, was a bloody good day.

You have helped highlight a shit load of artists. Who have been some of your favourite that you have seen go onto bigger and maybe better things?

Well two current favourites who I’ve been in love with from the very second I first heard them are Echo Lake and Still Corners. With Echo Lake, I believe we were maybe the second site to write about them. They only formed last year, had a couple of demos, made a Myspace and all of a sudden they were on Gorilla Vs. Bear. This is where I found them. I emailed them straight away and hours later we gave them a ‘Song Of The Day’. They’ve gone on to sign a deal with No Pain In Pop, sell out of their EP even before their launch party, have a giant fuck off viral hit with their debut video and basically rule the fuck out of the current resurgence in shoegaze. I love them dearly and couldn’t be prouder.
Same goes for Still Corners. They’d released an EP maybe a year or two ago with a different singer and it had sunk without a trace. Nobody paid any attention – me included. Then last year they released a 7″ via Great Pop Supplement. It embodied everything that I was loving at the time. again, we started shouting about them immediately – as did everyone else. They’ve just signed a deal with Sub Pop, played about a million shows at SXSW and are currently on a tour of the States with Papercuts.

Obviously there’s no way I’d even take an ounce of credit for the success of either band, not in a million years – but seeing them go on greater things is an absolute joy. One of my favourite moments last year in fact was when I had both bands play on the same bill at my club night at The Social.

Your podcast is quite possibly my favourite out of any out there. How do you go about selecting the music you play and how can people submit music to you? Also, how difficult was it to find a replacement for Jen Long?

So kind of you to say so! we’re thrilled people seem to like it. We were blessed with Jen, that’s for sure. The industry is filled with far too many self-serving arseholes and Jen Long is like a breath of fresh air. The amount of respect and love I have for that woman holds no limits. She was the perfect candidate for the presenters job – I mean, you can just tell she absolutely *adores* what she does. Once she came on board with the podcast we knew it was going to be a success. Once she got the presenters role at the BBC we knew that her days with us were numbered. Conflict of interest and all that. So her last show was in December of last year – even though she still writes for us from time to time.

Big shoes to fill of course, but for me there was only one candidate that applied that mattered and that was Emily Mules. the girl is utterly brilliant yet completely different to Jen. Where Jen was bouncing off the walls like an excited puppy waxing lyrical about new and emerging bands, Emily comes at it from a different angle. She’s authoritative, knowing; you feel obliged to check out everything she recommends. She feels more like a facilitator of the music rather than a presenter y’know? Very natural. I could listen to her talk all day long in fact. it must be the Scottish accent…. Oh Hi! Halina!

Myself and Emily choose the music and often end up arguing about what goes in. I normally lose. That girl can kick my ass. I’m whipped to the max. We like to choose stuff that hasn’t been featured on the site before. We like to mix it up.

Drowned in Sound and Pitchfork still remain two of the biggest sites out there, we feel that sometimes they seem to concentrate on bands that are the next big thing as opposed to the music that they produce. Why is The Line Of Best Fit different?

They’re both very different entities. DiS nowadays is more of a community whereas a few years back its editorial was equally as important. I don’t see them as early adopters anymore. I don’t think it’s the place you visit to find out about new bands. In that sense it’s changed a lot over the years. Nowadays the strength and popularity of DiS comes down to power in numbers due to their forums. They’ll always have that over any other music site in the country and fair play to them.

Pitchfork…. Well, you know, people hate on Pitchfork a lot. Seeing it as some sort of hipper-than-thou publication. The fact is, it’s the greatest music site in the world. And they know it. And I fucking love them for it. I find their editorial stance a little bit skewed at times. Some of the bands they miss for no reason whatsoever is completely baffling to me. An example: Niki And The Dove. I mean, absolutely fucking incredible pop music – one of the most exciting new artists to emerge from Sweden in years. 100% pitchfork friendly on every level and even after signing with sub pop – still, nothing. Not one mention.

Why is The Line Of Best Fit different? I don’t know. Are we different? You tell me… We champion the bands that we fall head over heels in love with. Sometimes we get it wrong (very wrong), sometimes we get it right – but we’re always honest. I think people in the industry tend to respect us for that.

What other areas of music do you work in and do you ever get anytime to yourself??!!??

Well running the site has given me lots of opportunities to work in other areas of the industry.  Music from Scandinavia (mainly Sweden) has fascinated me for years and I’ve been lucky enough to work with some incredible artists – whether from a consultancy point of view, product manager, PR, concert promoter – whatever. I sincerely love helping bands and musicians out – it makes me happy. Which is why I try and turn my hand at everything that comes my way. It’s worked so far y’know?

What are your opinions on the UK music networks at the moment? We find in Scotland that people are working more closely together than before and there is a lot of camaraderie. Can the same be said about where you are based?

Like I mentioned earlier – I honestly think twitter has brought the music industry together over the past few years. Its a platform where fans can talk to other fans, journos to journos, celebrities to celebrities. When you put all of those people in a giant blender out comes a clusterfuck of incredible communication. Nobody is more important than anyone else. You’ve either got something interesting to say or you haven’t. I’ll never forget the day when Edwyn Collins tweeted at me. I mean – imagine that happening in the nineties? Getting what would be the equivalent of a letter through the post from a pop star. It’s just crazy. So the camaraderie thing stems from the communication barriers being lowered. Everything and everyone is contactable. From an internet point of view anyone. But considering I spend 90% of my working day in front of a computer it’s become pretty important to me!

What does The Line Of Best Fit have coming up? Any secrets you can let us into?

We’ve got a great feature coming up called Ham On Why? Once a month Jen Long is going to take a pop star out for a sandwich. She loves sandwiches, does Jen and likes to talk about them whenever she gets the chance. So we thought we’d give her a column. the first instalment is with Cold Cave.

We’ve also got some pretty special sessions lined up too. But you’ll just have to watch this space.

What is your one wish going forward…..it can be anything you like?

For the site? Just for people to carry on reading it and giving a shit about it. As long as people interested in what we do then long will it continue. Everything has a shelf life, I just hope we’ve got a few more years left in us.

I’d also like to have Katy Perry and Robyn film a Session for TLOBF. If we got the call from either of them, I would probably die.

Halina Rifai

You can find The Line Of Best Fit here: http://www.thelineofbestfit.com