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Music Shit / check out this interview we did for the "fader" everyone wooo blah blah
« on: March 25, 2009, 09:39:01 AM »
Students rock record label
by Eldis Sula
?You want to hear about a typical day at the Fan Death office?? jokes Sean Gray, junior sociology major.
Fan Death Records is the music label he recently co-founded with Chris Berry, senior history and sociology double major.
?I don?t shower, Chris comes over,? Gray says. ?We sit around and talk about girls and baseball. We play Madden for about two hours. Then we figure out, ?Do we want to eat or do we want to actually do some work???
?Usually we want to eat,? Berry chimes in.
?Then after we eat,? Gray resumes, ?we figure, ?Well, we should do some work.? So what happens is, I say, ?All right, let?s do some work.? And then I watch Chris do all the work.?
The two students take a relaxed approach to their project, which they created as a means for releasing a live 12-inch EP of the Philadelphia-based hardcore band Clockcleaner.
At the Southpaw music venue in Brooklyn, N.Y. in May 2008, Clockcleaner played with legendary hardcore punk group Negative Approach at one of several special reunion shows, opening with a fifteen minute rendition of Negative Approach?s minute-long classic, ?Ready to Fight.?
Gray, corresponding with Clockcleaner, for whom he previously released a 7-inch EP through his last label, the now-defunct Hit Dat Records, made an agreement that he would release the recording of the band?s performance. Gray then told Berry, ?I have the rights to that record. I?m gonna put it out.?
Berry, who also had previous experience releasing music through his own now-defunct label, Voyager Sound Research, liked the idea. The two friends, eager to release music again, though not wishing to resurrect their own individual past projects, created Fan Death Records, and in January 2009 pressed their first release: 300 copies of Clockcleaner?s performance, titled ?Ready to Fight.?
Though created and run under considerably informal conditions, the fledgling label has gotten off to a commendable start and nearly sold out of ?Ready to Fight,? with two upcoming releases in the works, including a 7-inch single from New York?s Drunkdriver slated for February, and a 12-inch single from Austin?s Ringo Deathstarr, set for March.
Gray and Berry are confident they can maintain the momentum, based not only on the modest success of their first release, but also on the harmony of their opposite, but compatible, personalities.
?I wouldn?t want to work with anyone else,? Gray said. ?I like to do things sporadically, whereas Chris is very methodical. The reason the Clockcleaner release did so well was because we took the time to organize and make sure everything was ready.?
"We?re going to try to do limited pressings of everything,? Berry said. ?Or, at this point, at least, not press anymore copies than we think we can sell. The idea is to sell out of everything.?
As to whether or not there is some intended underlying thread to the Fan Death releases, the two friends are not worrying themselves with parameters. ?We?ll put out anything as long as it?s good, as long as it?s stuff we like,? Gray said.
As seamlessly and successfully as Fan Death Records may operate, Gray and Berry do not get ahead of themselves, maintaining their hopes, but keeping the project fun and engaging.
?It?s going well so far. It could only go up or down from here. I think it?s going to go up for at least a little bit,? Gray said. ?Or, who knows? It could just crash and burn,? he added.
HAR HAR HAR
by Eldis Sula
?You want to hear about a typical day at the Fan Death office?? jokes Sean Gray, junior sociology major.
Fan Death Records is the music label he recently co-founded with Chris Berry, senior history and sociology double major.
?I don?t shower, Chris comes over,? Gray says. ?We sit around and talk about girls and baseball. We play Madden for about two hours. Then we figure out, ?Do we want to eat or do we want to actually do some work???
?Usually we want to eat,? Berry chimes in.
?Then after we eat,? Gray resumes, ?we figure, ?Well, we should do some work.? So what happens is, I say, ?All right, let?s do some work.? And then I watch Chris do all the work.?
The two students take a relaxed approach to their project, which they created as a means for releasing a live 12-inch EP of the Philadelphia-based hardcore band Clockcleaner.
At the Southpaw music venue in Brooklyn, N.Y. in May 2008, Clockcleaner played with legendary hardcore punk group Negative Approach at one of several special reunion shows, opening with a fifteen minute rendition of Negative Approach?s minute-long classic, ?Ready to Fight.?
Gray, corresponding with Clockcleaner, for whom he previously released a 7-inch EP through his last label, the now-defunct Hit Dat Records, made an agreement that he would release the recording of the band?s performance. Gray then told Berry, ?I have the rights to that record. I?m gonna put it out.?
Berry, who also had previous experience releasing music through his own now-defunct label, Voyager Sound Research, liked the idea. The two friends, eager to release music again, though not wishing to resurrect their own individual past projects, created Fan Death Records, and in January 2009 pressed their first release: 300 copies of Clockcleaner?s performance, titled ?Ready to Fight.?
Though created and run under considerably informal conditions, the fledgling label has gotten off to a commendable start and nearly sold out of ?Ready to Fight,? with two upcoming releases in the works, including a 7-inch single from New York?s Drunkdriver slated for February, and a 12-inch single from Austin?s Ringo Deathstarr, set for March.
Gray and Berry are confident they can maintain the momentum, based not only on the modest success of their first release, but also on the harmony of their opposite, but compatible, personalities.
?I wouldn?t want to work with anyone else,? Gray said. ?I like to do things sporadically, whereas Chris is very methodical. The reason the Clockcleaner release did so well was because we took the time to organize and make sure everything was ready.?
"We?re going to try to do limited pressings of everything,? Berry said. ?Or, at this point, at least, not press anymore copies than we think we can sell. The idea is to sell out of everything.?
As to whether or not there is some intended underlying thread to the Fan Death releases, the two friends are not worrying themselves with parameters. ?We?ll put out anything as long as it?s good, as long as it?s stuff we like,? Gray said.
As seamlessly and successfully as Fan Death Records may operate, Gray and Berry do not get ahead of themselves, maintaining their hopes, but keeping the project fun and engaging.
?It?s going well so far. It could only go up or down from here. I think it?s going to go up for at least a little bit,? Gray said. ?Or, who knows? It could just crash and burn,? he added.
HAR HAR HAR
