http://www.kittymagik.com/interviews....asp?artist=24
Has getting older changed your approach to music?
Yeah, I'm sure it has. I mean, certainly when listening to records that we made 10 years ago it sounds to me like I was playing with gloves on. (Laughs) You know, I can't believe some of the decisions that were made; or some that [make me cringe, i.e. lyrically]. It's funny. So yeah, in a way it has changed a bit--I don't know. I think if we never really had any acceptance, if we were kept to be a really fringe thing, in the sense like, a group...I'm trying to think of a group that's been around for as long as us that's still super fringe, but that's way more hardcore (laughs). I just don't know if we would have continued as such in a way, because our profile always got larger in a way--and with just our association with what happened in the early '90s with the whole Nirvana thing--that really changed our value to a lot of people. We weren't so much a radical fringe group that was just in the underground, but we never really 'won the lottery' on it. We never had anything that blew out past what we had as a fan base or anything. There was no R.E.M. kind of sound that could have crossed over so much. It's funny, because this summer we're doing this tour with the Flaming Lips--together--and that's a band that certainly has in a way. They're a band that's existed almost as long as us. Actually, maybe we've been around a little longer; but just by a few years; but I remember going to Norman, Oklahoma in the '80s at their gig at the VFW Hall, and I would have never had any kind of future vision for that band like, well, 'some day these guys are gonna be this Warner Brothers act that'll really have some Grammy presence' (laughs). I mean there's no way. But they do. And they exist. They're the kind of band, with the right kind of song, or whatever. They could almost join the ranks of the White Stripes, as far as cracking into this thing that 'everybody goes to see this band that don't generally go to see anything that's at all an alternative to the mainstream'. So in a way, they have this propensity to break into dealing with a mainstream audience. It'll be interesting to tour with them in a way. Kind of curious to see how we'll do out there.
Do you still buy a lot of records?
I don't buy records so often anymore. I really can't afford it so much anymore. I really want to start selling records. I'd like to sell a lot of the records I own. I get sent a lot of records, now more so than ever before, because I started writing a column with Byron Coley in
Arthur. So we get stuff and that's great. I still order records through certain distributors like Eclipse and sometimes Forced Exposure. There are a few small distributor people that (have) really arcane underground vinyl that I like to get, and I will still buy that stuff just because I like them as artifacts, you know? The more over-the-edge the better. As far as more rock and roll stuff... I don't really buy it. It comes to me fairly readily, so I get access to it, in a way. Our column is so weird because we write about such weirdo stuff most of the time. I feel bad because a lot of people send me stuff saying 'please write about us'. Well, I don't know. We don't have a real focus on what we do. It's just like, when deadline is a week away, Byron and I just go through the boxes (laughs).
You can kind of tell.
We play the 7-inches and I just start typing while I play them. Or we talk about something else entirely besides records. One issue I just started talking about this festival in Minneapolis and all the bands. A lot of times it's like writing paragraph after paragraph about somebody who has one cassette out in an edition of ten. There's something I really like about that. It's like this cassette is actually really good; it's as good as anything else I've heard; so why not expand upon it--even if the guy only made ten copies (laughs)?
Are you still doing Ecstatic Peace?
Yeah. Right now I'm setting up ecstaticpeace.com and I'm just gonna sell stuff on the site, as opposed to selling to the distributors. I want to see how that works because I've never had anyone work for me at all. It's always been me, and I don't really have the time to do a one-man operation like that. I've gone through different situations: I dealt with Steve through Smells Like; I dealt with Forced Exposure for a little bit; when we were on SST, I actually dealt with New Alliance Records, which was Mike Watt and D. Boon's label for a little while. There's this label in Vancouver called Scratch Records that I've done things with--so I have always done things through other people and I've always wanted them to do the accounting--but it still doesn't work for me in a way, because-
It's a pain in the ass.
It's a pain in the ass! I try to tell artists that there's basically no money. You're going to get the identity of being on this label, the benefits of being on this label; to have your own identity or whatever; but they understand that. But I'd rather have it be something where I can just set it up and draw people to the site and they can PayPal for it, and then I can actually pay for the records and split the rest of the money with the artists. I want to see how that works. It's much more direct in a way. And maybe just hire somebody up where I live to just oversee that.
Get an intern.
Yeah, I'll get an intern. We have like five universities up by us so it shouldn't be too hard.
Yeah, mail order isn't enjoyable.
Yeah, I know. Someone said, 'well how many would you make of a record?' and I said I'd only do like 500 to a 1,000. So they were like if you sell 500 records that means you're gonna have to go to the post office 500 times. (Laughter)
Mmm-Hmm.
I was like, 'oh yeah, you're right' (laughs). No, I'm dealing with it. I have a couple people up where we live in Northern Massachusetts who are willing to get involved with it, so I haven't been that active with it too much. I put out a few things, but I'm just more into doing these artifacts, I'm not really into being a competitive record label in a way. That goes against the best wishes of some of the musicians. I think they would like to see their stuff have a little bit more of a profile, so I try to make that known to them. I call them and say, "you know, I really like this tape... I want to put it out... I just want you to know that you're not going to see it--you'll be lucky to even see it in Other Music." (Laughter)
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