Imperial Recordings is a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 record company, which notably have José González

José González

José González is a Swedish-Argentine indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist from Gothenburg, Sweden.González is also a member of Swedish band Junip, along with Elias Araya and Tobias Winterkorn.- Biography :...

 and Melpo Mene

Melpo mene

Melpo Mene is an independent band formed and headed by musician Erik Mattiasson from Stockholm, Sweden. Their 2008 album release, Bring the Lions Out, included the single "I Adore You", which was used in a 2008 Volvo car commercial...

signed.

History

Imperial Recordings was founded by Joakim Gävert and Magnus Bohman in 2002. Previously Gävert had overseen Grand Recordings, a sub-label of Virgin, and Bohman worked for the Scandinavian branch of Zomba Records. To help raise funds for the project the pair did consultancy work, and Gävert sold a part of his record collection and Bohman his car.

The original idea for the label was an independent focused on Sweden and Nordic territories but that "had an eye" on the world market. To this aim from the very start they had small partners worldwide. However, according to Bohman, they chose not to rush their international plans, prefering instead for the quality of the music to be the first thing to reach people.