2012 will see NRK going 15 years strong, Nick Harris tells us what it's like to be the boss...

What do you do?

I am owner of NRK Music, record label and publishing company, established 1996. I also don the headphones to DJ whenever someone will have me, and twiddle various knobs and faders when making music under my own name and a few aliases

Whats a typical day like?

I try to balance my career with two small children, so each day is abruptly awoken with screams, laughter, tears etc. Get them off to school then head into the studio. A typical day will start with large consumption of caffeine and checking through emails, working on various projects for the labels, accounting, design, press and PR, all the usual stuff that needs to go into running a company. Towards the afternoon I might get time to concentrate on music production, depending on how much there is to do on the label side. I try to do a couple of late stints a week, and the other days it's off home to get kids to bed, then I'll probably get back online and get immersed in emails and dicking around online, checking new music etc.

Worst part of being the boss?

Running your own company is becoming increasingly more difficult, we all know there's a recession on for the last couple of years, but being your own boss can bring its fair share of stresses and worries, especially in this music industry where the turnover for a record label nowadays is pretty slim.

But I have always been my own boss, so have nothing to compare it with. I think working for someone else, while may be an inevitability, might come as a bit of a shock.

The best?

Well, you control your own destiny really. What you put in, you get out. But it's not as though being your own boss affords you to lie around in bed late, or swan around on the jolly. I do enjoy being fairly disciplined in my career, and I guess you could say I'm a bit of a workaholic, but I enjoy that I make the decisions to where the labels and my own career is going, and every disappointment only spurs you on to work harder to achieve your goals.

How many people do you manage?

Right now, I don't manage anyone, unless you count my responsibility to artists on the label, which I have to do the right thing for them and their careers. I used to manage up to 3-4 people a few years ago, but since the arse fell out of the industry, NRK had to slim right down to a one man operation in order to survive.

How do you see your industry changing in the next five years?

That's a tough one, because I don't want to sound too negative on the matter, but the truth is that I don't think there will be much of an industry left in five years time. Labels are already getting squeezed out of the picture, as artists find a way to promote and sell their music direct with digital vendors like Beatport and iTunes, and more and more labels are cropping up just to support the main artist who runs the label.

The music scene is incredibly healthy right now, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in house, techno, electronic music, which I think certainly supports the top DJs out there and certain nightclubs.

As for labels, I'm not so sure that there will be a particularly positive change in years to come, but you will see certain labels really trying to beef up on what they do, maybe acquiring other labels, moving into management and publishing, having a DJ agency, basically signing up their artists to the whole 360 degree model where the label or company owns a slice of absolutely everything that the artist does, DJing, sales, publishing etc.

How do you unwind?

The sofa, the TV, it's got to be said that this is one of the best places to end up at the end of a day or a heavy weekend! I like the regular stuff, going to the cinema, running, just anything to clear the head and recharge the batteries.

What type of boss would you say you are?

I'd say I was a fair boss, I have a lot of time to sit down with people and discuss things, I'm always generous with my time and advice. If anything I can probably be a bit of a control freak sometimes and not delegate to others, but considering that I'm no longer a boss to anyone then I can indulge in my control freak of nature and do it all myself.

Where do you go from here?

Lot's going on in 2012, which will officially be the 15th anniversary of NRK, so prepping a big compilation 'Best Of' album for that and working with my agent on getting some tour dates together....The Lab will return after Seth Troxler's amazing double disc in October, with Paul Woolford at the helm of this one. NRK will release Ed Davenport's debut album which I think is absolutely stunning, plus a couple of new labels launching in January.

My own productions are forthcoming on NRK, Stoned Immaculate and Poker Flat, but some secret alias stuff that I do will have releases out next year also. So business as usual really, you can't keep an old dog down and all that..

NRK Sound Division