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InHouse Records is an award-winning record label for change focusing on what's strong and not what's wrong. We recognise how music can create a safe space for creativity, expression and self-development, and the value that this can have in the justice system.
InHouse Records delivers music workshops in UK prisons and offers artist development opportunities after release. We present artists with the opportunity to develop both professionally and personally, and to ultimately reduce the rate of reoffending.
As the world's first fully-functioning prison record label, regardless of genre, we just ask that our artists be open to change.
"I walked into InHouse, pretty much with arms folded, expecting to just turn away, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me. You felt so accepted, so validated. It's given me a new passion for life outside of prison and a new passion for music."
- C.Roots, InHouse Graduate
A RECORD LABEL FOR CHANGE
The Origin Story
From prisoners drawing up logos in cells and taking the stage at festivals, to launching a magazine during the pandemic, InHouse Records has always focused on what's strong and not what's wrong.
Before there was a record label, there was a crossroads. By 2016, Founder Jude Armani had spent a decade working with those experiencing homelessness and was studying Service Design at The Royal College of Art.
During his course, Jude became aware of an appetite, "to go into prisons and explore co-creation". So, where did this need for collaboration find its place? The answer: HMP Elmley, located on The Isle of Sheppey, Kent.
"I didn't really know what this was gonna be... I wasn't at all sure what I could offer these guys [in prison]" - Jude Armani.
In September 2017, Jude entered HMP Elmley for a series of conversations that unfolded into the realisation that,
"A lot of the guys were interested in music so, together, we decided to make a record label."
It took some time before this music label came into focus, and in those early months, the name, logo, artists and even the ability to record, were all challenges to iron out together.
Originally titled, 'We Wrote This Together Records', Huey Morgan, from Fun Lovin' Criminals, visited a session at HMP Elmley and suggested the title, 'In Da House Records and Cassettes'. Finally, SP - an inmate and architect of the label's initial crystallising - put forward the title...
INHOUSE RECORDS
With restrictions enforced on what materials could be brought into the sessions, one of the first things InHouse created was its own notebooks, along with navy blue logo t-shirts. These possessions, albeit small, were a symbol of:
COMMUNITY
RESPONSIBILITY
HOPE
InHouse brought people together for a shared goal: to create music that inspires people and keeps them on the right track.
OUR PARTNERS
