Who started the label and what were your general aspirations?
Swerve: Lucas did to release his A Kombi album (Music To Drive-By), I joined when I got back from O/S and wanted to go on the dole so needed to put the money I had in the bank somewhere so I could get the dole. General aspirations were to release different non-genre specific music at a decent price.
Lucas: The label started in 1995, I was having a hard time finding a home for my Kombi album, it was recorded in 1994 and the only experimental music labels in the country at the time were in Melbourne and seemingly uninterested. Good friends HISS were having the same problem and decided to self release so I thought if these stoners can do it so should I. The disc didn’t come out til 1996 and was strangely successful, becoming a minor cult hit abroad. I didn’t want the label to be a vanity concern so I teamed up with Swerve and started looking for other music in Sydney that desperately needed a home starting with drone disco outfit Alternahunk as our second release.

Where is the label’s homebase?
Swerve: Sydney, Australia. I have a workspace in my house at the moment. We have offices in Chinatown but have someone living there at the moment to cover the rent.
Lucas: We were operating out of sort of Squat in the city but more recently as Swerve is a father are working independently from home.

What kind of distribution do you have?
Swerve: Ask Lucas, this is his bag.
Lucas: I trade a lot and consider it the best way to get wide ranging international distribution for DIY product, I also self distribute to stores here in Australia so trading gives me the opportunity to distribute a wide range of shit from all over the shop, instead of having 500 CDs of one title under your bed you have a shitload of different titles on shelves at Repressed and Red Eye which collectively will sell better than locally than your own titles which you’ve now spread across the globe.

How can a band get signed?
Swerve: No talent scouting. People contact us saying they have album we might be interested in or friends recommend people. Or you know, you read about someone who sounds interesting, or hear an mp3 on a blog. We are a small part of a bigger thing I think a lot of the time. And the fact that we run a CD manufacturing business means I get to hear a lot of stuff from cool labels and artists.
Lucas: Stand out and we might notice you. I think that’s the way we have come across most artist we have released, they all are different to the norm in some way.

What are the biggest challenges you face as a record label owner right now?
Swerve: No money, disinterested public, etc. – same old shit. Independents are always in a better position, I am all for small business models, as they are more flexible and create something altogether more human than big faceless entities. Bleak commercial times are always going to impact on businesses that are set up to try and rake as much cash as possible out of the punters. Although, the whole thing is starting to change shape. mp3 is a more widely accepted format and pirating music is having less of an impact as I think people started realising they were killing their favourite artists ability to make a living. Most of the majors have their back catalogues and licensing deals for all sorts of stuff. Music is not just sold in shops anymore, it’s online, in movies, in commercials – music is used more now in all points of media so things like album sales are not the biggest earner. Also there is more music around than ever before so people tend to have this whole throwaway ideal with music now. Someone said to me they used to play albums many times, now most albums are lucky to get a second play.
Lucas: The glut of bad music coming out from the myriad of bad labels that have sprung up over the last decade as CD burning and cheap CD manufacturing became widespread is a bigger challenge than anything the majors can throw at us. Independent music has always lived in a separate world anyway but now there is too much of it, and as a result it’s simply to overwhelming to keep up with. The expense of pressing a disc used to be a good filter for labels really had to consider what they pressed (although the international tape underground was a great predecessor to the CDR revolution it at least was more a tape swapping phenomenon). Don’t get me wrong I love that this has happened but on the downside getting your releases good or bad noticed in this environment can be tricky, if you’re a good live band you have a chance as the majority of independently released music is moved at shows, the rest need luck or some style masters to champion it or something, people tend to follow the opinions of blogs and music sites than individual labels these days.

Why do you do it?
Swerve: All the hot girls, cocaine and good times (I really mean men who live with their parents with an encyclopaedic knowledge of obscure ‘80s Jap noise bands and the odd Serapax to be brutally honest). Seriously, because I love music, especially anything out of the ordinary.
Lucas: Sharing the music you love with others.

What else do you do?
Swerve: I work three days a week as an art director for some porno mags. I also run a creative company Cardboard Robot which has a lot of my self published stuff, zines and shit. I write music under the moniker Bambi & the Bambis and play in a band called Winner occasionally. I also have started up another couple of musical projects, Wizard Bong, which is super primitive black metal inspired by lots of Australian black metal and Super Blues which is simple 12 bar blues with stupid vocal effects. Neither of the new projects may see the light of day but who knows. I also have a son Gene who is 10 months old, we have a band called the Black Skull Band and we rock!
Lucas: You can occasionally see me glass myself for the amusement of backpackers at Scruffy Murphy’s for beer money.

Favourite holiday destination?
Swerve: Holiday???? Ha ha ha ha. Well, if I actually had a holiday it would be either Tahiti or somewhere in the south pacific or Indonesia. I would like to go to Japan too one day but I will settle for some sun, sand and a low fuckwit count.
Lucas: Binalong Bay.

What’s your most recent release and what’s on for the short-term future?
Swerve: We have Zoo almost ready for release, an Indonesian Naked City type band. Dokaka, who is a Jap beatboxer but not in the hip-hop sense (all instruments are multi-tracked). Rice Corpse, which was Lucas’ album, and The Purple Duck, who is awesome.
Lucas: We just released a fucking gem of a band from Yogyakarta, Indonesia called Zoo. Think a more primitive version of the Ruins (Jap 90’s not Tas nows).

Long-term future?
Swerve: I dunno really. This has been going for 14 years now and I didn’t expect that! I think I wanna publish more stuff maybe put some of my own stuff out and probably keep working towards a decent mp3 download site which is just minority music – same as independent record shops but more tailored to people who care about music that a faceless iTunes type shop.
Lucas: We are going to press more vinyl as the digital revolution buries its first success story. The masses don’t want physical copies anymore and the rest (well those who can afford) want the tangible experience of an LP record. I think it’s a shame although CDs aren’t cool they certainly aren’t bourgeois in the way Vinyl is now. CD’s are cheap to produce and distribute I can make 500 CDs or 100 7” records for the same amount of money, but for some reason the kids think its cool to pay $10+ for a 7” but wont fork out the same amount for an album on CD. Is it the music or the format you love?

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