Moment 192: The Fire In The Booth That Would Have Destroyed My Brand: Charlie Sloth

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Here's Charlie.

When it comes to building a brand that has integrity,

what matters?

You know, this is a brand.

And I think-

It has integrity.

But I think because you have integrity,

I think because you have integrity,

you install your morals into the brand. And this brand is a a reflection of you I think like pretty much everything you do speaks about you as a person because I feel like I'm the same I feel like if it challenged my morals I wouldn't want to do it because I'd be like well that's that's not a real reflection of me why am I going to invest my time or my money, my energy into something that doesn't represent me? And I feel like my team, you know, I have an amazing team, do an incredible job of managing the expectations of all of the brands that I'm involved with.
And I don't even have to say it no more. If I feel like something's wrong or it's not going to work, it doesn't look right for the brand, they know before it's even come to me because they know what my morals are.
They know what I stand for, what I don't stand for, what I feel is right. So it's got to the point where I don't even have to have those conversations because I have such a great team who have those conversations for me and they protect the brand.
I feel like if something goes wrong with one of the brands, it's a reflection on me. And something that I've always believed is one of my biggest assets is my reputation.
I feel like you may not like me. You may hate me.
You might find me annoying. But one thing you can't challenge is my reputation.
I've never done anyone dirty, ever. I've never backstabbed anyone.
I've never said I'm going to do something. I've not done it.
And my brands have to hold up that same ethos. In order for your team to know what decisions you'd make before, you know, it even comes to you as it relates to the branding, the positioning of it and all those things.
That must first start with you being really, really clear. And what I've got from all of that is because you're so clear in your head and non-negotiable about what this brand is, you've been able to kind of like install that in all of the people around you.
So now they are like disciples of the values. For sure.
Well, we actually have a Bible. Oh, really? We actually have a fire and a Booth Bible, a handbook to do's and don'ts.
And especially now, because, you know, the vision of Fire in the Booth has gone from being a feature on a radio show to being a global brand. You know, obviously now we're of Apple, you know, one of the biggest companies in the world who I believe share the same ethos as we do in terms of vision, in terms of content consumption.
And I feel like now the brand really is going global. Everyone wants to know what's in that Bible.
What kind of things are in there? I mean, it's, you know, it goes from camera setup to edits, colors to use, right through to how artists are treated once they arrive, communication with teams. One of the things I found really interesting is I read that you deleted potentially hundreds of episodes of Fire in the Booth that just didn't cut it.
Yeah. Which, which I think a lot of people would be surprised by because, you know, a rapper, an artist comes down, they perform, they might think it's gone off.
They might think that, you know, they killed it. And then you're sat there thinking this doesn't meet the standard.
Yeah. I feel like, you know, I feel there's times when I've not released a Fire in the Booth and an artist later on has gone on to thank me because you know it's a big moment in an artist's career and I feel like if it doesn't do you justice it's not about me it's not about why I think this is going to do well for the fire in the booth brand like anytime I have a conversation with an artist and they say to me do you think it's good I can't sit there and lie to the artist's face and say yes it's okay I'm gonna be like you could do better if you want to come back and go again we can if not let's just park it off for now and come back to it at a later date and there's been so many that have not gone out but that's because I felt it's not a good reflection on them not on the brand because going to, you know, attack the brand as much as they would the artist.
There's one of the biggest artists in the world right now, Stephen, one of the biggest globally, right, who come in to do a finer booth. And I can't tell you how excited I was for this moment, even though it was a few years ago.
They were still a big artist then,

but they weren't because they are now.

And they came in and done their finer booth.

And, you know, everyone was excited

and we were prepared for it.

And they came in and it was possibly

one of the worst finer booths I've ever recorded.

And I could see that the artist was quite excited by their performance. And, you know, there was like, oh, when are we going to release it? And in my mind, I'm thinking, is this just me? Is it because I expected here and they delivered here that I'm judging this? And they're talking to me and their mouth's just moving and I'm processing all this information in my head because I'm like I don't want to lie to the artist I don't want to be disrespectful to the artist all this information is swelling in my head and I was like I'm going to go back and listen to the final booth uh give me 10 minutes So I went back into the studio, replayed it.
And this is garbage.

This is garbage this is garbage so i chatted to the producer at the time i was like how how's best to handle this situation i don't want to go out and say that this is not going to go out but at the same time i want to give them the opportunity to redo it while they're here while while they're in the country. And regretfully, I didn't do that.
I didn't go out and give the artist the opportunity to do it again. I was like, you know what? I'm just going to say that it's not going out.
And for me, that was a bad decision. I look back at that now and it was a bad decision um but it just weren't good enough it weren't good enough and there's so many artists that have come through and not performed but again like i said some that have called me i later said you know what i appreciate you not putting that frying the booth out let's go again why do you regret that decision because in hindsight i could have given them the opportunity to record it again there and then but because i had no faith in the situation i was like i'm not going to waste their time and i'm not going to waste my team's time i just think it's best that we kind of keep it moving but now on reflection i should have given them the opportunity to do it again.

You know,

and there's comments all the time.

I've spoke about this before where people are like,

release it,

release the fire in the booth.

This person is huge right now.

We've got sign off on it.

We can release it,

but I just wouldn't,

you know,

I don't,

I don't do things for that reason.

I'm not going to shit on the artist.

Now we put something out that I thought was shit back then and put it

Thank you. I just wouldn't.
You know, I don't do things for that reason. I'm not gonna shit on the artist now, put something out that I thought was shit back then

and put it out now for views.

It's counterproductive.

It goes against everything that I say and stand for.

So it will never come out.