I was in Ennis at the weekend. It’s a lovely place full of interesting shops and battling to keep its identity amongst the homogenous towns and villages throughout the country. While there, as I ambled along through the side streets I was marveling at the many independent businesses selling their wares. There were plenty of shops selling books, clothes, food and bulk items. I wandered down a side street that had a car park. At the end of the car park, nestled nicely at the back was a shop selling records and coffee. What more could you ask for. I got talking to the proprietor Sinead about her story and she told me the building was for sale. Her plans for an archive of Irish music, a place for people to come and hang out (the shop has many seats and quirky corners) might ne cast aside, depending on who buys the building.
So she has set about with a dream. A vision for the Record Break in Ennis. Somewhere where bands can do small gigs, launch their records. A place for poets to hang out and do spoken word evenings. A place that thrives on activity and art and inspiration. Like when Gugai bought the Roisin Dubh in Galway as a place he can put on gigs the Record Break could be that centre for Ennis and Clare.
SIneasd has set out with a dream to buy the building. This is a grassroots race against time to buy the physical bricks and mortar of the shop at Upper Market Street here in Ennis before property developers can step in. But the real heart of this campaign is how they are doing it.
The Record break has deliberately turned their backs on the multinationals. They didn’t set up a GoFundMe, and walk the walk by not using Spotify, Bandcamp, or any corporate third-party platforms that skim fees or exploit artists. Instead, they are running an entirely independent, self-hosted campaign off their own backs via their website.
They have a plan. They are asking people to buy a single “virtual brick” by downloading my track “Snow Moon” for €3.50 directly from the site (therecordbreak.com). 100% of it goes straight into securing the foundations of the shop. In a world where musicians are under the thumb of corporate streaming giants and barely make a cent for their craft, they bwanted to create a world where independent music genuinely funds and protects an independent space.
While I was talking to Sinead she was telling me that the momentum is really building. They have had incredible shout-outs and backing from across the music community. Early on, Imelda May shared the video explaining the campaign to her Instagram stories multiple times to rally national support. Liam Ó Maonlaí (Hothouse Flowers), Kevin Crawford (Lúnasa) and industry legend Dave Robinson (Stiff Records) alongside Richard Dyal have provided support. The shop needs support and needs people who want independent businesses to survive. Maybe this is where you can step up. Pass the word around, buy the song, make a donation, buy some records.
They are currently tracking at just over 13% of our final goal on our live site tracker. It’s a mountain to climb, but doing it completely independently means every single download pushes that percentage up in real-time. So support it, and if you have any contacts outside then please help spread the word. Let’s get ourselves to work like hell for the living rather than mourning for the dead. As Joe Hill would say – Don’t mourn! Organise.
