IT WASN'T PART OF THE PLAN

We never intended to start a record label.

In August 2025, we were trying to make a record.

What began with a set of lyrics, a melody and memories of Ibiza gradually became Garlands (Made Us Do It), bringing together a remarkable group of vocalists, producers, engineers and remixers along the way.

But somewhere during that process, something unexpected happened.

One record became several very different records.

The original Beach Club Edit captured the slower, sun-soaked Balearic side of Benirrás Beach Club. Richard Earnshaw took the same song somewhere altogether different, bringing his unmistakable musicianship and soulful house sensibility to the Extended and Dub mixes. Then SILAS (UK) pushed it firmly towards the contemporary dancefloor with the Dig Deep remix.

Same song.

Same vocal.

Same creative starting point.

Three very different destinations.

And that presented us with a problem we hadn't anticipated.

THE PROBLEM WITH BOXES

Genres are useful things.

They help DJs find music. They help listeners discover it. They give record shops, streaming platforms and labels a way of organising an almost unimaginable amount of sound.

But they can also become boxes.

As we began considering where Garlands might live, it became increasingly apparent that finding the right home for one version didn't necessarily mean finding the right home for all of them.

The Beach Club Edit belonged somewhere different from the SILAS remix. Richard Earnshaw's mixes occupied another space again.

We could have separated them.

We could have changed what we were making.

Or we could ask a different question.

Why should the music have to fit the label?

Perhaps the label should fit the music!

BUILDING THE HOME WE NEEDED

The idea of creating our own label didn't arrive as some grand entrepreneurial plan.

It arrived as a solution.

We wanted the freedom to release a chilled Balearic record alongside soulful house, contemporary club music or something we hadn't even thought of yet, without having to explain why they belonged together.

Because to us, they already did.

Their connection wasn't necessarily tempo.

It wasn't a genre dropdown menu.

It was something less tangible: atmosphere, emotion, groove, musicianship and a sense of place.

The same things that had drawn both of us towards Balearic music in the first place.

Not Balearic as a narrowly defined genre, but as an attitude towards music: the freedom for records from different worlds to sit alongside one another because, at that particular moment, they simply feel right.

And from that idea came Salt & Sand Records.

Different tempos. Different moments. The same Balearic DNA.

MORE THAN A RECORD LABEL

Once we'd decided to build our own home for the music, another question followed.

What kind of home did we want it to be?

The experience of making Garlands had already provided much of the answer.

That record hadn't been created by two people operating in isolation.

Tommy Jules gave it its voice. Lawrence Lord captured that performance. Mitch Jones shaped the mix, preserving its character, space and emotion. Stuart Hawkes provided the final mastering. Richard Earnshaw and SILAS took the original idea and reimagined it through their own musical identities.

Every one of them changed the record.

That became fundamental to how we wanted Salt & Sand to operate.

Collaboration wouldn't be something buried in the small print. The people who contribute their craft to a record would be recognised as part of its creative story.

Everyone is respected for their craft. Everyone shares in the credit.

And the same thinking extended beyond the music.

Artwork, photography, storytelling, the website, the way a release is presented and the world that surrounds it are not separate pieces of packaging added when the record is finished.

Together, they create its identity.

Salt & Sand gave us somewhere to bring all of those things under one roof.