FDM studios (it stands for Folk'n'Deadly Music) was built at the bottom of our garden in 1998. Kieron had returned from California after recovering from a long term illness (12 years if you're interested) with the intention of putting together a studio that could cater equally for 'world music' and mainstream music.

During a lengthy coffee drinking session at a pavement café in Paris, the name 'Folk 'n' Deadly' seemed to float its way into our consciousness as if sent directly to us from our very own muse (the god, or goddess, of caffeine) and thus was born FDM recording studios.

For the techy people out there, the first desk was the very wonderful Yamaha 02R, with a cream coloured Mac running Logic Audio and a lovely Drawmer 1960 valve compressor. An AKG 414 and Rhode Classic mic were the principle mics at the beginning, come to think of it, they still are. June 2006 saw the departure of the 02R, to be replaced by a Mackie control surface and a nice shiny G5 Mac (dual core processor) and a very sexy Focusrite ISA 428 pre-amp unit (check them out on the webcam). We also have a collection of what most people call 'ethnic' instruments and we call, well, just instruments actually.

A number of small projects were recorded at the studio and then Luke Concannon and John Parker returned to the midlands to concentrate on the phenomenon that is Nizlopi. The studio became their rehearsal, development and demo base. Their first recordings in our studios were collected together under the breathtakingly original name of 'Nizlopi - The Demo'. Many of the songs that would later form their debut album 'Half These Songs Are About You' had their very first acoustic outings on this recording. Lucky you if you have a copy, it's become a collectors item!

And the rest, as they say is history. Number 1 the week before Christmas 2005 (some would say we were the 'official' Christmas number 1 but apparently the rules were changed that year for some strange reason?????). We sold around half a million records, went gold in the UK and platinum in Ireland. Nizlopi's gigging throughout 2006 has seen them sell out venues like London's Shepherd's Bush Empire, and play to thousands on September's 12 night UK tour.

The future's looking promising: A mini-album from the Nizlopi boys entitled ExtraOrdinary was released this September, and the second album is coming at the beginning of the new year after Nizlopi spend the rest of the year recording, and gigging around Europe. FDM studios is gonna play host to more musical creativity, and the label is gonna continue to strive to send out the right messages.