As I mentioned, over the last several months Andrew has been starting his record label! It’s SO exciting! This is something he’s been thinking about for years (and years and years).
What follows is a fun, insightful interview about starting his label. I thought it would be a great look at what it means to achieve your goals and exactly how much work that can be.
What is Ghostbot Records?
Ghostbot Records is an independent record label started by myself and co-worker/friend, Nik Karpen.
Nik and I work at a studio together (dayjobs) and decided to form a small label to put out some of the music that I’ve been recording and hopefully expand it into putting out albums by bands that we like.
I’ve been wanting to start a label for a long, long time, maybe since my senior year of high school (1999) and finally found the inspiration and money to do it. I always had joke labels and joke bands though growing up. Ethan Panic Records was one of them, and I would make mixtapes and give them catalog numbers such as EPR001. I think Nik was inspired to put out records by reading the recent Merge Records oral history book, “Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records“.
Tell us about your relationship with music growing up.
I’ve been a music lover and fan since I was young.
I’m sure it comes from my dad who is also a collector and music lover. He is one of the only people his age that I know that still enjoys discovering new records or old gems that he didn’t hear in his youth.
For me, music has been a lifelong obsession.
I don’t really play an instrument (I’ve owned a guitar since 6th or 7th grade, but I don’t play much more than just powerchords), but I’ve always been obsessed with collecting music and finding songs to complement my moods. When I was in grade school, I was obsessed with Michael Jackson and Madonna and The Beach Boys, and I would listen to the radio and tape my favorite songs when they came on. I’d fantasize when I was driving in the van with my mom that people would hear the Michael Jackson tape I was listening to and think it was the coolest radio station and ask us about it. I must have always equated musical taste with being cool.
Before I had my own CD player, my dad would get me CD’s for Christmas or my birthday, but he’d put them on cassette for me so I could listen in my room. And he’d add other non-album tracks to the end of the tape. I think the first proper tapes I ever owned were the Ghostbusters 2 soundtrack and maybe an MC Hammer tape. The first CD’s I owned (that my dad bought) were the Ninja Turtles soundtrack, Michael Jackson “Bad” and maybe the Kris Kros debut. The first CD’s I ever bought myself were Metallica “Ride The Lightning”, Red Hot Chilip Peppers “Bloodsugarsexmagick” and I think a promo copy of Nirvana “All Apologies” single.
Even when I was in junior high, my dad listened to stuff that teenagers were in to. He loved the band Tool and owned some Marilyn Manson and Nirvana and all the Pearl Jam singles, even all the import singles. I would definitely say I get the music bug from my dad.
How did you go from just being a music-obsessed teenager to actually being part of the music industry?
I still feel like a music-obsessed teenager, especially around my peers and people my age. There aren’t a lot of people my age still obsessively seeking out new and young bands. My peers typically don’t care about a new group unless it’s something they listened to when they were young or if it was featured on Pitchfork.
It also took a long time for me to become a part of the music industry. In 2006, after talking about it with my wife, I decided to apply to audio engineering school in Phoenix AZ. I had been living in Phoenix for a few years and one of my friends had recently graduated from the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences. I had been learning a little bit about the role of a recording/mixing engineer and a producer from studying the sounds on my Steve Albini recorded albums and the school sounded intense and interesting. My wife and I decided that we could get by on one income while I attended trade school to pursue something I really loved and was passionate about. The program was a 5-day-a-week program with evenings and weekends dedicated to studio time. I applied and was accepted in 2007. I graduated in January of 2008 and moved back out to Southern California to begin an internship in the audio industry and hopefully turn that into a successful career at a studio.
What is the difference between what you do for your “day job” and running a record label?
The difference between how I view my day job and running a record label is that the label is a reflection of the music I love and the music I work on. My studio day job is a very good job and I am very grateful to have it, but at the end of the day, the clients aren’t there because of me or my name. They come to my studio to be associated with the studio owner and have him work on their projects. With the label, hopefully people will be coming to me because of who I am and because they like the work that I do and agree with my aesthetic choices as a label.
The difference between what I do at the studio and the label is that I’m an assistant engineer/runner at the studio. My job consists of editing audio files and keeping the studio clean, taking care of clients, maybe recording some vocals and getting the room set up for recording. I work at a very busy studio, usually 50-60 hours a week, so there is always plenty to do. We have a small staff too, which keeps everyone on their toes.
For the label, I so far have done all the recording and mixing for the releases that I have scheduled to come out. With Nik, we are designing the website and he’s helping me keep track of the budget and make sure that I don’t put out every song just because I’m in love with it.
How/Why did you decide to jump into the record-label aspect of the music industry?
I hesitated putting out records for a long time because other than collecting albums and going to shows, I didn’t really have any ties to the industry. I didn’t personally know a lot of bands on a friendship level or contribute to the music world in any way other than buying records and paying for shows. Now, I feel like I can help a band shape their sound in the studio and then give them an outlet for their music as well.
I decided to jump into the record-label aspect because I had the opportunity to do a split release with another label that I admire, Lauren Records. Lauren Records is based out of Corona and run by Aaron Kovacs, the drummer for Summer Vacation. I recorded Summer Vacation’s full-length debut Spring of 2011 and it will be out on LP before the end of 2012 on Recess Records. This was a great opportunity because it allowed me to share the cost of putting out a record as well as learn from Aaron’s experience and kinda have a helping hand on how to go about all of this.
I was also really encouraged by the fact that one of the bands I’ve been recording and mixing for almost 3 years is starting to get a lot better exposure. I have been recording bands for three years now, but finally in November the pace really started to pick up and I had become a lot more confident in the product I was turning out.
I’ve also been super excited about the music that I’ve been recording, and excited about the particular scene that I’ve found myself immersed in because of it. These reasons, combined with the fact that I have a lot of ideas for records that I’d like to own, the type of records that have a creative type of packaging and a fun collector type aspect to them.
I don’t think that the label will make me a lot of money, really I hope to at least make enough to continue to put out records by bands that I really believe in, which is what the Ghostbot 2012 release schedule should reflect. I also figured that if not now, then when? All the above factors seemed to come together at once. I also spend a lot of my time reading music biographies and record label history books. All of these books give me ideas for the types of products I’d like to put out. Especially with a scene like the garage/punk/pop scene that has been growing over the last few years in Southern CA, there are so many good bands that are waiting for a chance for their music to be heard by a broader audience. I’d love to be able to help them as well as create a product that I myself would buy.
Once you had definitely decided to go forward with starting your record label – what were the first steps?
The first steps to starting the label were basically to come up with a name and try to get the word out on Facebook and Twitter and amongst my band friends that we were doing this. Once we decided on a name, I made sure to get the web address and twitter handles for it. We are actually still in the process of setting up the website and getting all that in order. We already knew which release we were going to do because we were co-releasing it with Lauren Records. And since Lauren was also putting it out, the price and shipping were already dictated for us by what he was charging.
Nik and I spent a few weeks just going back on forth on different names for the label, I definitely wanted something with the word “ghost” or “phantom” in it, but we didn’t want anything too serious either.
Your first release is set to come out in a few weeks. How much work has it been getting to this point?
Our first release, Pangea “Killer Dreams” 4-song 7″ EP, comes out mid-January.
It has been a ton of work, and it still continues to be a ton of work. It’s fun work, but there’s a lot to do. We talked to Aaron at Lauren Records about putting out the Pangea recordings as a 7″ format in September I think, maybe earlier. We were shooting for a December 2nd release for the Pangea & Peach Kelli Pop show at VLHS in Pomona.
Everything just ended up taking a little longer than expected. Pangea and I had to finalize what 4 songs would go on the release, then we had to re-record a few vocal and bass parts, mix the 4 songs and then send it off to mastering. I had never mixed anything strictly for vinyl before, so once it got to Dave at Lucky Lacquers we ran into a few problems. First was the length of the two sides, the maximum length of true stereo recordings that should fit on a single 45rpm 7″ side is 4.5 minutes. Anything over that needs to be more mono and way quieter so you don’t get inner groove distortion. I had Dave do some pre-mastering tweaks to make the Side B a bit more mono, and then he sent over a reference lacquer. I listened to it on a bunch of different stereo systems and once it was approved he made the master lacquer and mailed it to the manufacturing company in Canoga Park, Rainbo Records. That’s where it’s at right now. I got the test pressings from Rainbo for approval on Dec. 20th and approved them on the 21st. It takes about 20-25 days for completion once the tests are approved.
Luckily, Rainbo Records is local for me, so once the records are completed I can drive about 5 miles to Rainbo and pick up all 500+ records. Then Aaron, Nik and myself will have a packing party. Aaron took care of getting the sleeves made, so we will all get together and put 500 records in 500 artwork sleeves in 500 plastic sleeves and add all the goodies and then get ready to mail them out.
There’s still a lot to do, such as figure out if we can distribute it through other music websites or sell it on consignment at record shops etc etc. I have high hopes that it will sell pretty well though, Pangea is doing a handful of shows in NY opening for Ty Segall and they are playing South by Southwest.
They are also one of my favorite bands, and I feel lucky and thrilled that my first release is one of theirs.
How has the starting/running of a record label been different than you expected? How has it been the same?
It’s been different in that when I first started thinking about doing this there were still a lot of mail order catalogs included in records. I would buy a 7″ or LP and there would be a single sheet of paper with the labels releases that you would fill out and mail in. Now everything is basically online, which is great because it’s easier to reach a wider audience, but a romantic part of me still wants to offer the mailorder catalog thing! It’s also a lot more tedious than I thought, getting a site up, trying to generate talk about the release, thinking about what I will do with the release once I have 250 of them on my hands to sell.
It took me forever to send in the paperwork to set up the company as a DBA and once I get the approval on that I have to setup a separate bank account so it’s easier to keep track of funds.
It’s been the same as I thought in that it’s keeping my brain occupied by thinking of what else I want to release. And in the particular niche that Ghostbot is going for, the fans still wear buttons and t-shirts and stickers etc, so it was fun designing buttons and thinking up cool designs for future releases. I also want to try to get a lot of my friends involved in the different aspects of it. Stuff that I’m not so great at like web design and marketing and things.
What do you have planned for Ghostbot over the next year?
Over the next year I’d like to release at least 3 more records. The Pangea 7″ comes out in January, our second release will be the full-length debut by God Equals Genocide on CD, I have a big end of year project planned which will include multiple bands recording live to 8-track reel-to-reel tape, hand screened artwork, goodies, multiple vinyl release. I also hope to do a seven inch series with Pangea. We are recording 10 songs together on January 3rd – 5th, which they plan to release on cassette and over the span of multiple 7″s. I’d like to do records with Cheeto Champ and maybe a 7″ single with my friend Matt Hart. I tentatively have a split 10″ release with Charlyne Yi on Side A and Wil Donegan on Side B.
Nik and I plan on getting our site up this week, and then in February getting my friend Michael to redesign it. He works for Fender Guitars and is a great designer. Mostly it would be nice to streamline the process so we aren’t finishing things up last minute and rushing releases out. It would be great to have the releases for a couple of weeks in hand and then start generating a buzz about them.
What else?
For me it would be great to be able to put out a handful of releases a year and find some new bands to work with. I’d love to be a label like Recess Records or Burger Records, putting out great music by bands that I love. This has been learning experience for me, and I look forward to getting better at it.
You can follow Ghostbot Records:
I loved reading about your family love of music. Some of my fondest memories growing up involve listening and dancing to records with my parents. Now I like to share my love of music with my own children. Best of luck with your new business!