Independents Plough their own Furrow – Castle Face Records Interview
“We have a lot of crazy ideas but really I think what it comes down to is carving out our little part of the music-sphere, one killer record at a time, making sure that the art stays bangin' and the tunes keep clangin’, meet more artists and musicians, and just keep on doing our thing.”
“We have a lot of crazy ideas but really I think what it comes down to is carving out our little part of the music-sphere, one killer record at a time, making sure that the art stays bangin' and the tunes keep clangin’, meet more artists and musicians, and just keep on doing our thing.”
–
Matt Jones (Castle Face Records)
The glory days of independent record labels, for many, are a
distant memory of a bygone era. Major
labels have monopolised the industry and continue to do so to a large
extent. But there has always been a
place for small labels. There is
sometimes a romanticised notion of them; it is the struggle against the all too
often insurmountable power of corporate behemoths. But there is no mistaking the contribution
independents have made to the record industry over the years.
These labels are usually run by like-minded individuals;
where musicians, record company and fans come together in a bond of mutualism. Therefore, current trends or aiming to please
popular opinion is deemed irrelevant. It
is this single-mindedness and whole-hearted belief in what you are doing that
allows creativity to flourish. At times
those forming the labels enter into it naively with little or no business
experience, but a wealth of conviction.
This was well documented in the case of English labels like Rough Trade
and Factory, which after a promising start and signing top acts, eventually
imploded. Rough Trade would return in
2000, with their marquee signings since then being The Strokes and The Libertines.
Over the years the origins of many music industry trends can
be traced back to independent labels. In
the 1950’s American independent labels were responsible for developing a market
for early rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm ‘n’ blues, prompting majors to follow
suit. In Britain punk was the catalyst
that gave rise to many independent labels, including those mentioned above. Artists and those involved in the scene at
the time decided to adopt the D.I.Y. punk aesthetic, setting up their own
labels to release the style of music, in which they believed. The same attitude has led to the formation of
many garage rock bands in the U.S. since the mid-2000’s, the most notable being;
The Black Lips, Jay Reatard, Deerhunter, King Khan and the BBQ Show, as well as
the Californian contingent in Ty Segall and John Dwyer, among others.
He’s a man possessed, releasing an astounding amount of
material, and along with others keeping the D.I.Y. approach alive. In his spare time he’s an artist, and has
actually created a lot of his own posters for shows. Even Mark E. Smith, a prolific artist in his
own right, who has released a record almost every year since The Fall’s
inception, would struggle to keep pace.
Dwyer’s seemingly irrepressible creativity and work ethic has allowed
him to release records year on year, sometimes several each year, as well featuring
in various compilations.
As if the man wasn’t busy enough this year he decided to set
up his own record label – Castle Face
Records – with friends Brian Lee Hughes and Matt Jones. He is next in the line of musicians who have
gone on to establish their own record label, but it isn’t a label financed by a
multi-million pound recording artist, such as Jack White’s, Third Man
Records. This is a project on an
altogether smaller scale, and therefore has to make the most of limited resources
and has to carve out a niche in the market for itself.
It didn’t take long to discover the beating heart of their
business and what makes the collaboration work.
When asked what type of brand they are trying to create, their ethos in
terms of band selection, Matt said. “There are no real rules to what we will or
won't put out. John just told me last
night that he listens to everything people send him at least once, which kinda
blew me away. That's a staggering amount
of stuff.” It is a trait lost on corporate moguls, an honest, grounded attitude
that can only be found in people with an unflinching determination to create
and release music they love. I decided
to talk with Matt to find out more about the label and what makes it tick.
First of all, how was
the label formed, what is the background of each of the owners?
Firstly, Brian and John started up the label; I believe the
way that it went down was that Brian worked on the Coachwhips film, of the
final performance (which I was at and had forgotten about until years later)
and a bunch of other footage of the band all put together, which was part of
the Double Death release. One way or another Brian fell in love with
John's work as a musician and an artist and offered to help him finance a label
to be able to put out his stuff, which coincided with an unnamed middle to
large label dropping the ball on putting out “Sucks Blood”, so that was the
first Castle Face release. I coincidentally was at a party around this time doing
drugs and I met John, we hit it off, started talking about records (my day job
is manufacturing vinyl with Pirates Press) and I offered to help John with
getting the layout and production end of it together. We became friends and I continued to work with
them for a few years, one release at a time, and eventually they asked me to
become their “third”.
I’m aware of John
Dwyer and a fan, how did it materialise that he would be part-owner?
As I said above, he was the catalyst. I think we all realise
that the label is as a result not only of John's style, drive, and astounding
amount of love and support for what he digs, but also his desire to do things
right; by the bands, and to be able to control his own stuff. The label is really a result of his creative
restlessness coinciding with his tireless advocacy for people whose work he's
into. Frankly I'm honoured to be a part of it.
Is there an ethos
behind the label, would you only sign a particular style of band, or what does
the selection process entail?
Well as I’ve said, we wouldn't put out anything that John
wasn't into. It would defeat the purpose
of the label and why people are paying attention to what we do. Other than that, while there are common
threads, there's no real rules to what we will or won't put out. John just told
me last night that he listens to everything people send him at least once,
which kinda blew me away. That's a
staggering amount of stuff. That said,
we have a bunch of great friends that are really talented and no shortage of
stuff that we're already committed to doing or want to do or are pushing to do
already...it would take a long time to get all the stuff done that we want to
do right now...but typically it's John getting psyched on something and I help
him figure out the brass tacks.
From my limited
knowledge of independent labels, it seems as if it is often a labour of love,
where money comes second to your passion for music, would you say that’s a fair
assessment?
Yes. There's not a ton of money in it even if you are
successful. We've done a couple of good things but the fact of it is that it's
been an insane amount of work and it's often pretty crazy how much time and
brain drain I put into this...and it's certainly not paying my bills.
Does Castle Face
finance recording as well as distribution of its own records?
No, not yet at least. We do pay for mastering, artwork and its
attendant costs (like photo developing, etc), and manufacturing though.
What do you believe
to be the main difference between major and independent labels?
Paperwork.
Is there someone
within the label who designs the sleeves or is this left to each artist?
We work with a bunch of visual artists for the artwork on
the releases. John's done a few, we work
with William Keihn a lot, Joe Roberts has done a few...Tim Presley did his own
art for the White Fence record and it's fantastic. David Shrigley did an awesome job with the
Velvet Underground & Nico covers record. It really depends on the release but I think
people are kinda used to our “look” even though it's kinda varied. Once we get the artwork, I do the layout
stuff. It's calming, I think.
I notice that you
release limited edition coloured vinyl, as a record collector myself I think
this keeps it interesting and brings out the inner child in a sense, that makes
you want something new or different. Do you think it is important to do
this to keep the fans interest? And is it something that makes
independent labels unique?
Yeah, I've always loved coloured vinyl and since my day job
is making vinyl it's kinda hard for me to get too stoked on black vinyl. These days I keep all the coloured vinyl to
our website, rather than selling it through distributors, so that there's a
reason for people to buy them through us. Frankly they need it as we're not exactly
stellar at running a shipping business. It
often takes a while to get the orders out and it's always a bit chaotic, but
it's a labour of love.
That said, major labels definitely do coloured vinyl, it's
not just for us little guys...they definitely “get” that people are into it. I'd say that smaller labels are certainly
doing a lot more of the limited editions of stuff that people go nuts for though.
It makes sense if you're only able to
afford to do 250 records to play up the limited availability of something.
And at the same time,
I imagine this makes the printing process more expensive?
Since I can speak from the manufacturing end of things, not
really. It's fairly inexpensive as far
as custom stuff goes. Gatefold jackets,
now there's a hit to the bottom line...they cost about twice as much and can
you reasonably charge that much more for a single LP just cause there's a
gatefold? Good on ya if you do but I feel that it's harder to justify. I kinda feel the same way about 180 gram but
there's a time and a place for everything...
What has been the
most satisfying aspect of working for the label?
This is a great question. There's a million things that I
love about the label, but I think what I like the most about it is that I feel
like we're actually able to turn people on to something that they don't know
yet and that we're excited about and that we've worked so hard to put in the
best light possible. I get to listen to
stuff months sometimes before it comes out...I get to play with the track
order, I get to make suggestions if I think something could work better one way
or another...lay out the art, make decisions about what colours of vinyl and
finishes for the jackets etc....and after all this push and pull where we're
trying to key something in to the highest pitch, to make something as radical
as we possibly can, it comes out and people actually give a shit. We put it up on our site and they buy it, dig
it, talk about it...It's insane and magical and I'm humbled and honoured to be
a part of it.
Some of the garage
bands seem to be breaking through these days, Thee Oh Sees are talked about a
lot more in Europe along with Ty Segall. Has any of this led on to
commercial success for either the bands or label?
The short answer is yes. They say a rising tide lifts all
the boats, and it's certainly been the case here. Thee Oh Sees just got to the
top of the CMJ charts (the college radio charts) and we didn't even have to
bribe anyone! ha. (That's a joke). Ty's done great but I'd really put that
squarely on his shoulders as the kid just don't know when to stop, he's
constantly working and constantly coming up with great shit. Have you heard Fuzz yet? It's killer. Both the
bands are doing well and making money and maybe it says something about the
state of our world that they're such the exception, but it's not easy to make a
living off of this stuff and it seems as though they're both doing OK.
The label on the other hand, while technically making money,
is a long way away from paying all of our bills. We're definitely breaking even
and making a bit here and there but it's not an easy hustle. USPS just raised
their rates and made shipping a ton more expensive, ESPECIALLY overseas. We've grown so fast in the past year that we
need to find a new place...we've been existing out of my office/warehouse with
Pirates Press but it's gotten so out of hand that we're moving soon, so that's
an added expense. All that said, we've
got so many killer releases coming up and more and more people keep hearing
about us and wanting to check our stuff out that I think the momentum is going
to pull us through...we don't put out anything we can't stand behind, there's
no real reason to. It's going to be a
crazy labour of love every time we put anything out, so why muddy the pool with
something that we're not crazy about?
Where do you hope to
take the label in the future?
We have a lot of crazy ideas but really I think what it
comes down to is carving out our little part of the music-sphere, one killer
record at a time, making sure that the art stays bangin' and the tunes keep
clangin', meet more artists and musicians, just keep on doing our thing. We're moving into a new office, and as I
mentioned we’re all really excited about that.
Getting the new space worked out and running smoothly will be a huge
load off of my mind. There's a part of
your brain that goes “what if I could do everything right here?” and there's
something appealing about having everything in one place at first, but for me,
I just get disorganized and shit gets lost if I don't have established zones
that are just for one thing. So more
zones. More drones. More tones.
And
finally, do you think there will always be a place for independent record
labels within the music industry?
There will always be a place for innovative
ideas when it comes to anything creative, so the agility with which individuals
and small companies can pivot to people's tastes will always be more
nimble than these established companies. There's also seemingly a sea-change going on
as to how much of a bureaucracy this industry can support as
well, so low overhead will always be in fashion, in a way, and we may see
significant changes to how the dinosaurs hunt. We'll see.
