New signing: Mat Hook

Mat Hook

So here it is. That hyper exciting moment when we announce the arrival of our first actual bona fide artist. This has taken a lot of planning and general faffing about to get the label to this point (who knew that making records would be apparently so complicated) but we are finally ready to hit the ground running.

The first proper release on ForgeMaster Records will be the fist ever slab of vinyl from Sheffield based singer-songwriter

. Some of the eagle eyed, and eared, amongst you might recognise Mat as the former frontman of indie rockers Kartica, but after ten years out of the spotlight, he’s back with a whole bunch of new songs that simply need to be heard.

When this whole project was just a random idea to be daydreamed about, we always felt that we wanted to help bring back not just music on physical media but also a bit of that indie swagger that seems to be lost these days. OK – the return of some lads from Burnage might just help inject that bit of danger back into rock and roll, but we’re here at the vanguard.

And Hooky slots easily into that ethic. Someone who not only loves music and performing, but also has a musical worldview that is very much aligned to ours. The first time we spoke we spent most of the call bemoaning the state of the music industry with it’s fragmented live circuit and algorithm driven streaming platforms where the average rises to the top because it pushes no boundaries and takes no risk. To be fair we ended up sounding like a couple of grumpy old men. But some kindred spiritship was forged.

So – we are now on the road to releasing our first proper single with Mat at the helm. We haven’t finalised the track list or release details yet but hopefully it will be available at the start of 2025. As soon as we have more details you can bet we’ll be shouting about it.

We’d like to get it out next week but unfortunately the timescales for actually getting records pressed these days means that the new year seems the most feasible drop point.

So we are literally beyond excited.

Change is coming. Change is here. This is a cult.

Mat Hook