Following our recent interview with Boltfish Records, we decided to catch up with another favourite label of ours, Type Records.

Since it's formation a few years back, Type have given us countless outstanding and timeless classic releases by the likes of The North Sea, Mountaineer, Deaf Center, Khonnor and many more.

The label's ever-changing sound has flirted with everything from post-rock to ambient, drone to library music and even the gruelling acoustic doom of Svarte Greiner's epic Knive - a huge favourite at AngryApe that has rarely left the stereo.

We were fortunate enough to catch up with Type Records co-counder John Twells, who you may know as the musician Xela.

Hi John, you've been making music for a few years now as Xela, so what made you decide to start a label?

Well I was meeting a lot of artists and sort of soliciting their demos to other labels... it felt a bit weird, then Shlom Sviri (who runs Boomkat, Modern Love and co-runs City Centre Offices) told me I should do a label myself, so I did. I kind of had a need for it really, I just didn't realise it at the time...

When did you launch and who is involved in running Type?

Errr maybe 2003? I can't really remember now, but we had about a year of preparation (maybe more) before the first release 'actually' came out. It's a partnership between me (I do A&R, label management, art direction and the like) and Stefan Lewandowski who does the business side of things and maintains/designs the website.

Scanning through your back catalogue, there's been a lot of variety and different genres - was this your aim from the start or have things just evolved that way?

Yeah the reason we picked the name Type is because it didn't really tie us to any genre. At the time when we started it I really wanted to release spooky sounding electronic music, but within a couple of months I wanted to do something else - that's the kind of way I work... random cohesion, for want of a better phrase. I have a sort of weird musical background; punk, metal, indie-rock then moving into all sorts of experimental stuff, hip hop, pop music... I'm into all sorts so it's hard to tie myself to one thing.

Do you give your artists total artistic freedom?

Not really, it's more of a collaborative process for most albums... it all depends on the release and the artist though - sometimes I'm sent things that just make perfect sense, sometimes not!

I heard about a new Helios mini-album and a Zelienople full-lengther set for the Summer, what else do you have planned this year?

Far, far too much to mention! We have albums from Sylvain Chauveau, Letters Letters, Skallander, Peter Broderick (I know most of these names mean nothing to you but check the digital-only compilation on Boomkat and you'll get the idea!) and there's loads of limited edition goodies slipping through the cracks too.

Looking back right from the start, all of your releases have had beautiful sleeves - is artwork and packaging important to you?

Yeah sure, I went to art college for way too long than should be healthy so art is very important indeed for me. I like that excitement when you buy a record and it looks so good that you want to frame it and look at it every day...

Without a sleeve then, do you feel the downloads you release lose some of their appeal?

Hmmm... it's an odd one because part of me is screaming 'it's just the music that counts' but definitely part of the reason I spend so much on decent packaging is to give the people who still buy physical product a reason to carry on!

What have been your personal favourite Type releases so far?

The Sanso-Xtro album 'Sentimentalist' is a long-time favourite, maybe pipped to the post by Zelienople's 'His/Hers' (read more details on that album here) which is just mind-melting. They're all my babies though!

Which other labels do you like?

At the moment I'm obsessed with Carlos Giffoni's label No-Fun, Dominick Fernow's Hospital Productions label, Load records, Kill Rock Stars, Kranky have had a great year so far too! I buy a lot of random vinyl... if a label just releases CDs I tend to forget it exists until I boot up the MP3 player.

Do you have any advice for someone considering starting their own label?

If you don't love, live, die music, don't bother - there are too many labels run by people who don't really give a shit already. If you do love music then you'll find a way! This and a good tolerance for alcohol consumption is always useful... oh yeah and don't forget the vinyl buyers!