Mando MD releases EP for Haiti appeal
Mando Group's managing director, Ian Finch, has released an EP to raise money for the Haiti earthquake appeal.
Finch has long been involved in music outside work and was guitarist in the band Supervision before putting it on the backburner to concentrate on running his own digital agency.
He now records in his spare time as Finchley and has released The Love EP as part of Mando's '£100 challenge' - Finch and business partner Matt Johnson have challenged the agency's staff to raise as much money as they can for charity using an initial £100 loan each.
"I play and record in the evenings and at weekends now and I thought these particular songs would work really well as part of the £100 challenge," Finch said.
"When your band get signed and you think you've 'made it' you realise things don't actually change very much, you're still working very hard touring and playing gigs and there's still a million other bands trying to get the same bookings as you at festivals.
"Eventually I had to make a career choice and put my time into Mando but I find making music now I'm not dependent on it a lot more fun. Hopefully this EP can make back three or four times what it cost to produce to help out the appeal."
As MD of the Liverpool digital agency, Finch is of course an advocate of all things online. But even with his musician's hat on he thinks the web - often maligned for devaluing music thanks to free downloading - is a great tool for new bands.
"Because bands like Radiohead can give away their music online now it makes it very hard to make money from record sales, so bands make their money from touring.
"But the likes of Last FM and Spotify introduce people to bands they wouldn't have heard otherwise and Myspace can help you get noticed."
Naturally, Finch's EP is available as a digital download from the iTunes store and is accessible via streaming services such as Last FM. You can also check out his music on Myspace.