About FOD

I believe firmly in the power of music and the role it plays in peoples’ lives. It takes them to different places when they want to escape and I feel passionately that it allows them to articulate their thoughts when they need to.”

Dean Manjuris, President, FOD Records.

There’s a theory that the men and women who end up running record companies start out as drummers. The theory goes like this: when you start playing drums as a teenager it’s hard to cart them around on the tube or on the bus so you have to get a car. Consequently, the first person in a band to get their driving license is the drummer. He’s also the one who ends up booking the rehearsal studio next to the railway sidings and inevitably he’s the one who picks up the guitarist and the singer on the way. Naturally the keyboard player has to make his own way (the car’s not that big) and already, almost unwittingly, the drummer is making decisions and becoming the catalyst for any progress the band is going to make.  And already he is beginning to understand the machinations of the music business.

Dean Manjuris is an investment banker with the kind of passion for music that is as un-tethered as it is genuine and heartfelt. He is also a drummer. In 1963 he fell in love with the Beatles after hearing She Loves You on his sister’s transistor radio and so began a love affair with music that now features a close kinship with Ringo Starr and Julian Lennon and a unique relationship with Bob Rose, a legendary record producer who’s groundbreaking knob-twiddling duties include countless sessions with Lennon, George Harrison and the incomparable Roy Orbison. Dean may have started drumming with “big sticks on a telephone book” – with Van Morrison’s Gloria as a template! – but he sure knows a good song when he hears it and he sure knows who can stretch this song to its limit.

Which brings us to FOD and why it’s so special. Toronto-based and reassuringly old-fashioned, FOD is a record label that believes in developing artists over a number of years and it has such a wealth of talent it’s already beginning to make waves all over the world. First off are Lunik, the cat that took the cream and a Blondie-esque four-piece (fronted by the incomparable/incandescent Jael Krebs who “might have to get used to being idolised” – The Times) that just happen to be the biggest band Switzerland has ever produced. Pure Pop For Now People, yes, but it’s not all about pop at FOD where Gregory Darling – a rebellious Californian who’s spurned countless major record label deals prior to Dean’s patronage – comes across like that dream you had about Elvis Costello/Neil Diamond fronting the Beatles. Next up is Marti, an Italian cinematically-challenged three piece fronted by the effortlessly suave Andrea Bruschi. And then, of course, you have the Blow Monkeys (no introduction required) who just happen to have recorded the best album (Staring At The Sea) of their career. And not withstanding FOD’s latest signing, Gus MacGregor, an erstwhile West End star as Buddy who recently upped sticks and decided to make his mark as a singer/songwriter in the mould of a Paul Simon or a Bob Dylan And yes, he’s that good.

Dean still bangs drums in a band that plays 4-5 times a year around the Toronto area in support of various kids’ charities. I reckon he should give that keyboard player a lift now.

FOD Records – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC