Over the past half-decade, The Quietus has taken to the barricades to fight the cause of music that would otherwise be ignored
"I'd just been sacked from a corporate communications company," remembers John Doran, of the dark days just before he began The Quietus, the online hub of crackling, opinionated music, film and literature journalism that celebrates its fifth birthday this month. "They'd replaced the office kitchen with an empty 'thinkspace', called 'The Imaginarium'. I fired off an indignant and drunk email to my bosses, calling their language-mangling ways into question."
Fortuitously, shortly after Doran collected his P45, he was contacted by Sean Adams, founder of music site Drowned in Sound. Adams had been approached by the advertising team at BSkyB who, impressed by his work's web traffic, offered to finance a series of sister-sites, including a classic-rock-themed site aimed at the mythic "50 quid man" then keeping chains like Virgin Megastore and HMV afloat.
"I told Sean: 'I can do something better than that,'" says Doran, who teamed up with friend and journalist Luke Turner for a website that would cover "good new music, and forward-looking music from the last 40 years". Taking the 1974 release of Kraftwerk's Autobahn as their "Year Zero", The Quietus aimed to "cover music that was being ignored by the monthly music press in favour of the endless parade of Dylan and Beatles covers," says Turner. "Post-punk, hip-hop, good indie, disco, electronic music, experimental music, metal, industrial…"
"We wanted it to be plain-speaking, urgent, evangelical and full-blooded, not unctuous, impenetrable, bland or timid," Doran says. "When we launched, most websites were full of Flash animation, short, capsule reviews, filmed content, garish design, aimed at the youth market."
"We knew that was nonsense," Turner says. "People needed and wanted experts writing eloquently and at length about music. We didn't want to be writing puff pieces, to be in thrall to the 'industry'. We didn't want to let strong opinions die out."
It was a brave notion. It was almost immediately scuppered by the 2008 recession, and the collapse of BSkyB's promised funding. Almost.
"Two months after we launched, we were cut loose [from Drowned in Sound]," says Doran. "But it was a blessing in disguise. A month before, I'd given up drinking. I had a very serious, life-threatening alcohol problem, which I needed to deal with. This gave me the impetus; The Quietus was my 12-step programme, this massive project to throw all my energy and newly acquired free time into."
The duo swiftly reconceived The Quietus as a no-budget operation, fuelled by their sweat, toil and passion, and the efforts of their writing team – a rag-tag mixture of pop-crit veterans searching for the freedom to wax critical, and a new generation of similarly hungry, opinionated youthful writers. They found plenty to write about. "It was the fag end of the NME's 'New Rock Revolution', the Libertines and all that rubbish," Turner says. "Leftfield acts weren't getting exposure." Now, thanks to The Quietus, they would.
In the five years since, the site has championed a riot of fabulous new noise, including Factory Floor, Perc, Vatican Shadow, Arabrot, Teeth of the Sea, Grumbling Fur and Sunn O))), while also offering acerbic, thought-provoking features on their own sacred cows, artists such as David Bowie, Michael Gira, Public Enemy and Throbbing Gristle.
Alongside its music coverage, the site writes about film and literature, has spawned its own offshoot record label, and is about to debut its first ebook, an anthology of classic pieces from The Quietus that showcases contributors including Carol Clerk and Steven Wells, who were crucial to shaping the site's voice but have since passed away, alongside writers like John Tatlock, Emily Bick, Taylor Parkes and Jude Rogers who, Doran says, "are part of the fabric of the site. It reflects our varied interests, a primer for what people can expect from us. It also says: 'The Quietus needs some digital refurbishments, please buy a copy so we can afford to pay for them!'"
Finances remain a frustration. "John and I calculated how much we'd earned from the site since 2008, and it worked out at under 40p an hour," says Turner. "The real problem is monetising online content. We have no backers, and are totally independent. Our ad revenue is rising all the time, but we're exploring other ways of bringing in funds. It's unfortunate, really, that the 'free' culture took on so quickly – if 10% of our regular visitors paid a quid a month, we'd have the budget to pay everyone well and expand the site."
For now, then, The Quietus remains its own reward. "When you love your job, and your job is also your only hobby, and some of your job includes going to rock concerts and nightclubs and listening to albums while eating biscuits and typing about it, it is possible for you to 'work' for a stupidly high number of hours per week," grins Doran. "The rewards are manifold. When one of the writers puts in a stellar performance, it really makes me happy. When people come up to you at gigs and tell you how much they like the site, that's good."
"The feeling that we're helping keep opinionated music journalism alive is satisfying," adds Turner. "It is a job, and it's a stressful one. But it's also hugely rewarding being able to sit in an office that's falling down around your ears and listen to the Bug full blast at lunchtime."
• The Quietus hosts a fifth birthday party at Corsica Studios, London, on Friday 6 September. Details here.
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