Following the emergence of a wealth of new talent within the Coventry music scene, and their own growing alienation from an over-ironic and dispassionate music scene, local media graduates Ryan Taylor and Stephen Pietrzykowski have founded a new independent label. Tough Love Records is built on a desire to release music which displays the values Ryan and Stephen themselves appreciate and too often find lacking: humour, passion, energy and simple good fun. And to help unsigned bands record, manfacture and release their own music in the process. They say:
We are an army of two, trying to win hearts and minds, whoever they may belong to. There’s no grand manifesto, because we don’t want to contradict ourselves at a later date, but we hope that our site can be a refuge from the increasingly yawning crowd. You can come here to look at what we are doing, talking about doing, or have not yet done. If you like what we’re aiming towards, pop into our house and make it your home too. This website can do stuff for you. We’re interested in breaking down walls, not building new ones. For us, it’s a case of rising above apathy, taking glazed-over eyes off reality TV and sharing an ear for passionate, heart swelling, spirited music. This is not an exclusive club, or a self-congratulating clique. We want as many people as possible to get involved, whether that be helping to put on sending us your contributing to the site , buying our records or simply just telling your friends.