Mother era-defining labels, was very much the vision of its founder. Oxford-born James Lavelle was a self-confessed fanboy, obsessed with pop culture, focusing particularly on graffiti, street style, hip-hop and Star Wars. His childhood dream of working in the music industry saw him commuting into London in his teens to work at hip record stores Bluebird and Honest Jon’s. At the latter, he began his ascent, building up a personal clientele, making valuable artist contacts in the fertile West London scene and really expanding the range of music sold. The driven teen combined this work with a burgeoning DJ career and writing a column, Mo’Wax Please, in influential underground magazine Straight No Chaser.
At this point, his ambition was to work at Island Records as an A&R, but when his…
