STEFANIE REINES of DRIVE THRU RECORDS TR: What differentiates your label from a major label? first and foremost...we really care about our bands and love their music. we don't sign bands based on buzz (which even a lot of bigger "indies" seem to do), or what we think is the next trend...just out of love of their music. we're 100% involved in every aspect of the band's careers and they all know that they can come directly to us for anything at all and we will be there to help them. majors don't give a shit if you're not selling records. a lot of majors will put out a record and give it a 4-6 week window to start catching on. we know that it takes A LOT longer to build a base and build a career for a band, so we're MUCH more patient. put it this way, more heart, less money. TR: What is the most difficult aspect of your job that a typical music fan wouldn't be aware of? there's lots of stuff. first, kids don't think of the process that it takes from siging a band to arranging the recording to getting it distributed and promoting the record. for the first 3 years that our label was in existance, we had shitty distribution. it was a STRUGGLE every single day to convince record stores and distributors to carry our cds. even when riverfenix were added to the radio in los angeles, we still couldn't convice stores to carry the record. the only big chain store that sold the riverfenix cd was hot topic! with the little distribution that we had, 9 times out of 10 we wouldn't get paid on the cds. we're STILL owed money from distributors!!! even with good distribution, we still have a tough time getting our releases into stores. when you go into a store and they have cds on display, those spots are paid for by the record label. the more money you spend buying space in a store, the more cds they'll buy from you. i look at all of the endcaps that vagrant bought for saves the day and i'm shocked. it costs like $6,000 just to do endcaps in best buy in southern california! we can't afford to spend $50,000 to get our records in stores! that's why it's SUPER important to ask for a cd if a store doesn't have it. it helps more than you know! TR: What is the hope your website? Is it merely a place to find info or is it an organic location where visitors can add their voice? Our website is really a place for people to hear and learn about our bands. we don't do message boards because i have yet to see one where kids don't act like assholes and talk shit about bands, labels, and everything else in the world. i think that's disrespectful to the hard work that people put into what they're doing, and we like to keep a positive vibe. we are planning on starting a "stop the negativity" campaign where people submit writings about the scene and how positivity and negativity effects them. we've been tossing around some ideas and i think it will actually be cool. we're expanding our site to include cds from our staff and bands' favorite bands. when you go to our store, you can check out what the drive-thru family is listening to, get our reviews, and order the cds. it will be awesome. TR: How important is it to be in a major market city, for a band and for a label, vs. being in a smaller market? there's just a lot more opportunity and a bigger potential audience in a major city. if we started this label in new jersey where we grew up, i don't think we would have ever gotten as far as we have as quickly as we have. as for bands, there's more opportunities to play shows and play infront of different crowds. plus, in major cities, there are more places to press cds, get artwork, stickers and posters made...all of that kind of stuff. TR: What is your favorite label? drive-thru! all of my favorite bands except for 5 are on my label (1.jimmy eat world 2.glassjaw 3.nofx 4.blink182 5.less than jake). i feel pretty lucky about that. if i had to pick a label other than ours...i think equal vision signs a lot of good bands. i like saves the day, the stryder and fairweather. they definitely have good taste. TR: How did you get into the music biz? we've always been involved in music in one way or another. when i was 13 and richard was 16 we did a fanzine...this was 15 years ago! richard managed a band called eve's plum who he got signed to sony (the singer is now known as vitamin c). we started doing music videos (richard directs and i produce) for jimmy eat world, bloodhound gang, goldfinger, knapsack, less than jake. then when we moved to los angeles we started a public access show called sideshow. we were making up our own videos for cool bands that didn't have videos and doing insane interviews with bands about all kinds of shit like fist-fucking--we were just raunchy. we got to meet and discover so many awesome bands that we knew could be huge, so we decided to start our own record label. TR: Do you believe that the "record" is going to become obsolete in favor of structures like the subscription system that some labels are toying with, and how do you think this change in music delivery changes the way the public looks at bands.? i don't think it will become obsolete, but new technology DEFINITELY effects our industry in both positive and negative ways. new bands that have never toured can get their music out to people all over the world for free! that's insane. but, it majorly effects record sales...every one of our interns has cases of cds that are all burned from napster and audiogalaxy. every single cd is burned off of the internet! now that there are regulations and standards being made on copyright infringement and issues like that, i think the record industry will be more willing to experiment with the internet. i know we are! it's definitely a little strange, though. i grew up on 8-tracks and records, then got a cd player for my 16th birthday...what's next??? whatever it is, we'll have to embrace it. TR: Do artists lose credibility the more music becomes easily downloaded? i don't think an artist would lose credibility over that. i've always been from the mindset that is HAPPY when a band becomes popular and sells a lot of records. i love seeing tiny bands that noone gives a shit about. there's a sense of ownership that is really special. knowing that you love a band hardly anyone else knows about and you don't have to worry about not being able to watch them from the front row or getting your head kicked in from someone fucking crowd surfing. but, seeing a band become successful and being able to make a good living at something they love is amazing to me. i'm very proud of bands like blink. i saw them play to 15 people and now look at them! i think it sucks that people are so quick to call "sellout" and talk shit when they have no idea about what's behind it all--the hard work, the struggle, the passion. people think that just because someone is in the "public eye" they have the right to rip them apart and dissect their every move and i think that's gross. TR: Why bother running an indie if it seems there is never a way to get your head above water? that's not true at all. look at epitaph, fat, victory, revelation... they're all doing okay! it is a hard road and sometimes you can't "get your head above water," but it all depends upon what you're looking for and what sacrifices you're willing to make. if you want to be a really small label that just puts out records and that's it, then great. it should be relatively easy. if you want to make a real name for yourself and be able to support your bands and buy them vans and promote them, then it's a different, harder situation. are you willing to sacrifice "credibility" for major distribution, or a percentage of your company for money??? you better believe that all of the bigger indies have either or both. and i'm not involving victory or rev in that statement because i don't know their situation, but i know that epitaph, fat, vagrant and us have all done distribution deals and if you think they're not with "major" labels, you're wrong! it's a stupid game of hide the major. we don't care. WE'RE DISTRIBUTED BY MCA!!!! who gives a shit??? it's better than not having our records in stores and at least we have the balls to admit it! TR: Can't bands these days produce their own albums, get them printed, and get their own booking agents? Why should a band go to an indie label rather than DIY? again, it depends on what the band is looking for. in some cases i'd say diy, because there are some shitty labels that will promise you the world and deliver nothing, but let's be honest, getting distribution is not an easy task. is the band going to tour, or are they going to sit home and promote their record, make sure it's in stores, are posters being done, stickers, flyers, internet promotions, did the distributor pay us, who's coordinating the guest list, what about the interview requests, the list goes on. i think good indie labels have TONS to offer, but if a band can't get signed right away...totally DIY and don't wait around! that shows a lot of organization and initiative! TR: Do you believe that every band has to have a hit single in order to make it? no way. nofx went gold without a hit single. fucking hootie and the blowfish and tons of hippierock bands sold crazy amounts of records without radio. i think you have to be a good band, hardworking, 100% committed, and NEVER GIVE UP! TR: Do you believe that the independent music industry is becoming more inclusive or exclusive? i think it's pretty exclusive. people and their fucking trends are annoying. punk to ska back to punk to rap to rap metal to emo to hardcore. each scene doesn't accept the other. fuck, good music is just good music. hardcore kids need to accept the fact that bon jovi is god! TR: Are indie bands even the underground anymore? And if not them, who is? it's always been cool to like what the masses don't consider cool. but you're following a trend anyway. the new underground is ninja penguin, tokyo sound lab and cowboy communist. TR: What bands did the general music public miss out on in the 90's (a band that had small town popularity but big town potential)? 1.goldfinger could've and still should be huge. they're one of the best live bands ever. 2.this is more 2000, but i think glassjaw are the fucking second coming. they could be INSANELY HUGE. 3.jimmy eat world. you think they're huge, but they only sold 40,000 records on a major label. that's considered a flop. they are so amazing though and MUCH MUCH MUCH better than radiohead. TR: Don't you wish that the majors didn't have such a hold on the industry? yes, it would be great. there would be a lot more bands getting a lot more exposure rather than the tiny percentage of bands major labels force on radio and on mtv and on us. and a majority of them suck. TR: Why LA and not NYC? when we moved to la, the thought of starting a record label hadn't crossed our minds. richard (my brother, co-owner) moved here in january of 1994 because he was directing music videos and found it really hard to get work on the east coast. on a whim, he and his friend from nyu moved out to see if they'd have better luck. i was still in college planning on going to grad school to become an english professor. when i heard richard was loving la, i said "fuck it" and moved out two weeks after my graduation. we started a public access video show first, because there wasn't one in la--the biggest market! we interviewed blink, the ramones, nofx, the descendents, oasis, goo goo dolls, duran duran, weezer...the list goes on. this was back in 1994, so it was before some of these bands became popular. we decided to start a label because we were finding so many amazing bands that no one cared about! at the time, the scene out here was much different from back east. no one i knew back home knew who nofx were. the whole fat wreck punk movement wasn't happening out there. it wasn't until later that all of the awesome new york/new jersey bands like THE MOVIELIFE, GLASSJAW, MIDTOWN, SAVES THE DAY and THURSDAY formed and started a scene out there. at the time, la had much more of a community which i think made it a lot easier to start a punk label. TR: When you were growing up in NJ did you ever get to the Anthrax in CT to see shows? we hardly made it to ct to see shows at all. we mainly did ny, nj, pa, dc, boston. i remember bob dylan played a show at some club in ct and i wanted to go so badly, but no one would drive me! i was 16 and fucking pissed off about it! TR: Are labels becoming, through their websites, becoming their own entertainment gateways? In other words are indie labels and their bands cd's, band interviews, maybe live shows, staff pics, etc have the potential to become like a small uhf TV station on the internet? Like their own ABC? Their own ABC i'm not too sure of, but entertainment gateways, definitely. I can't say that i'd sit and watch a computer over tv, but it is a different form of entertainment. For example, tonight instead of watching tv, i went to the roadrunner website and was looking through all of the glassjaw links. the problem with stuff like this is that for internet un-savvy people like me, being entertained more than frustrated is difficult. i tried to download the glassjaw video, but it won't work. i'm missing a plug in, but have no idea what it is or where to get it! i think that sites that do more than just your typical reviews are cool. articles, videos, songs...stuff like that, but i don't think that anything could ever take the place of watching "that 70s show" on tv. TR: Do you believe the coming broadband capabilities via cable, DSL, satellite will encourage small labels to add more live and interactive stuff? totally. we're working on it right now. we're going to do live feeds with our bands playing acoustic sets from our office. it's going to rule! people get really creative when it comes to utilizing technology and i'm all for it. it's just that someone has to show me how to do it! TR: Will fans catch on? if i heard that one of my favorite bands was doing a live show via the internet, i'd definitely watch. fans will catch on because the whole new generation of kids were brought up on the internet. this stuff is all normal to them. all of our 15 year old interns know way more than me about the web. it's crazy! TR: Or should the Internet stay static and leave what we think of as TV for the TV? nothing should stay static! i think that people will make their own decisions as to what interests them. just like the progression from records to 8-tracks, to cassettes to cds. tons of people still collect records and there are some 8-track purists out there! some people will be all about the internet, and some people won't be bothered. i think it will be a generational thing. you know, my parents can barely figure out how to send an e-mail and it took them SO LONG to figure out what the hell call waiting was. Learn more about Drive Thru Records at their website http://www.drivethrurecords.com