Love Noise Freedom Festival is coming to The Dome!
For over 25 years, Exile on Mainstream has been releasing strange, heavy and uncompromising music that major labels wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. This September, the label is bringing Love Noise Freedom Festival to London for the first time ever.
Andreas Kohl grew up in East Germany and was deep in the underground by his twenties booking shows, writing fanzines and doing all the unglamorous work that keeps our culture going. He eventually became the German PR representative for some of the most important underground labels on the planet including Southern Records, Dischord, Constellation, Touch and Go, Thrill Jockey and Alternative Tentacles. When the company he worked for folded, he started his own agency with his wife, kept the clients and in April 1999 he founded Exile on Mainstream Records.
What started as a simple desire to press vinyl for overlooked bands grew into a full booking agency, backline rental, amp repair, van hire and eventually a festival. More than a label, Exile of Mainstream became an entire infrastructure, and have now released over 115 titles touring bands across Europe and beyond.
On 19th September, Exile on Mainstream brings Love Noise Freedom Festival to London as well as bringing the EOM Roadshow to Leeds, Nottingham and Brighton featuring crushing heaviness and noise-rock experimentalism from across the label’s roster. Featuring Might (Germany), Bulbul (Austria), Confusion Master (Germany) and Noisepicker (UK), Love Noise Freedom Festival is a low-cost, must-catch heavyweight for anyone who can’t stand the mainstream.
We caught up with Andreas to find out more:
Hi Andreas, you seem to have done a million job roles over the years, so how would you describe what you do?
Can you tell us about what it was like working as a distributor for independent labels in the pre-internet days?
What made you decide to start your own label?
The catalogue spans from noise rock to doom to folk to post-rock and beyond, and is obviously defined by quality rather than genre. What makes an album worth putting out?
What are some of your favourite records that you’ve put out over the years?
Can you tell us more about the bands who you’re bringing on tour?
We discovered you through Harry Armstrong of Noisepicker, who put out our favourite blues-sludge-doom-punk album of 2025. Can you tell the readers about why Noisepicker are on your roster?
Why should people come to Love Noise Freedom Festival?