Smalltown Supersound interview
with Japanese magazine Afterhours. My name is Joakim Haugland, I`m 29 years old. I was born in a smalltown (thats why the name Smalltown Supersound) called Flekkefjord in the south of Norway. 2) What kind of music have you been listening to from teenagers to present? When I was very young, like 4-5 I was into Kiss, later I was into a lot of metal and especially trash and death metal. In my teens my love for Sonic Youth and Pixies started, and I was very much into American alternative music with bands like Pavement, Mudhoney, Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr, Beck etc. I have also always had a love for noise and I was very much into bands like Einsturzende Neubauten, The Jesus and the Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and of course Sonic Youth. Later I came into electronic music and free jazz. So in many ways you can say that the foundation of my label is my love for electronic music, free-jazz and disharmonies/noise. 3) Could you tell us your career detailed until you started your label ? I started the label when I was quite young, around 16, so I was in school when I started Smalltown Supersound. Before this and during the time I started the label, I ran a local rock venue and a festival in my hometown. Running the label was some kind of a sub thing to the venue. 4) You knew that if you start to your own label, you have a hard time of it, please tell us the reason? I didn`t have any thoughts about running a label when I started, it just happened, actually without any plans. I just released tapes with friends of mine, and after a while I released some stuff on vinyl and later on CD. Things started to get more serious 6 years ago when I moved to Oslo. I started working for a distributor/record label called Voices Of Wonder (home of both Motorpsycho and the first wave of Norwegian black metal). After having worked there for a little while, Voices of Wonder took on distributing and manufacturing the label, and from then on everything has been a dream. I`ve had the opportunity to release the music I love without worrying about the economic side of things, at the same time as I have been 100% independent. 5) Was there any label you made a model of when you started your own? To start with I was very inspired by SST, Amphetamine Reptile and Sub Pop as well as Norwegian labels Voices of Wonder and the now defunct T23. Later I was into Drag City, Thrill Jockey and WARP. I was also very inspired by James Lavelle and his Mo Wax label, and although I was never a huge fan of the music, I liked his ideas and the way the label was presented in both style and attitude. The last couple of years I`ve also been very much into classic labels such as Impulse, Factory and Creation. I really love the punk attitude and the madness of both Creation and Factory. 6) How did you get the fund for starting your label? How much was it? I started with nothing, just making tapes at home. When I made some money, I put it all into the next release. I have of course put a lot of my own money into the releases. 7) Is the office & warehouse in your house? I have a home office in my apartment where I`m working from my laptop. I also have my own office at the distributor where I work. My warehouse is in the same building as this office. 8) How many staff is your label? I run it alone. I don`t have anybody employed. I`m not even employed myself. But Kim Hiorthoy (both designer and musician on my label) is very important for my label, so in many ways you might say that we run it together, but I do the day to day work and takes most decisions, but I always seek advises with Kim. It feels safe to have him onboard as we have the same taste, not only in music but in general as well. 9) Do you have any other jobs except your label? Yes, I work for a distributor called Voices of Wonder. 10) What labels are you familiar with especially(include foreign labels)? I feel familiar with WARP, DFA, Thrill Jockey, Output, Chocolate Industries, Telle Records, Domino, Stones Throw, Def Jux, Mego. Labels that are independent and are following their own paths. 11) I think it is difficult question, but could you tell us your standard of choice about your release? Its quite easy; I follow my gut feeling. If I feel like it fits Smalltown Supersound, I release it. So there is a lot of thinking and feelings involved with running a label the way that I do. But I believe that this is the only way it can be done. The label is all based on my taste in music. It is also important that I get on well with the artists socially as I like to have a personal relationship with my artist rather than a business relationship. 12) You make a special request to the sounds the musician made? No, I trust my artists 100%. Most of my artists are my personal friends and I hang out with them all the time, so I pretty much know where they are heading musically at all time. Also we pretty much have the same taste in music. But I often give my artists advises of what I think would be the best, and I`m often involved in the making of a record by giving hints and thoughts. 13) Please tell us about the artwork. Do you have any policy for artwork especially? From day one I have always tried to make the records look good without costing to much. I want the label to be stylish, but I also want each release to have its own identity. If you put all my releases next to each other, you will probably see a red thread, at the same time as they look different. I have 2 in-house designers; Kim Hiorthøy and Rune Mortensen. They have total different styles, and that is why I use these two because they both have individual style, and they differ from each other. Another important aspect is that they are both close friends of mine. 14) How do you make efforts for the cd & lp costs will be cheaper as possible? Not much you can do about that really, but we have a good deal as we press a lot of records. 15) Please tell us the dissatisfaction with distributors. Do you also feel it difficult to deal with them? Is it difficult to collect money from them? To be honest; I love my distributors. It may sound like a joke, but I have very good and close relationship with all of my distributors. They are the ones who pushes my music to the press and to the shops, and I love them for putting effort in doing this. So, I can`t say any negative about any of my distributors. 16) How is the promotion? How do you promote to record shops, magazines, radio stations, etc? I promote a little bit from my Oslo office, but most of the promotion is done by my distributors in the different countries. In some countries I also have a press agent working for the label. 17) The show is important promotion, we think. How do you book the tour? We love to put up label nights with a couple of live acts plus DJs, and most of the label-nights I book myself. Either people are contacting me asking me to put up a label night, or I contact people in territories that we want to tour. For example are we planning a Japan tour in the autumn of 2004, so if you or anybody wants to help us, please let us know. Most of my artist have agents as well, so these agents also puts up shows and tours. With Jaga Jazzist we definitely needs help as they are such a big band, and there is a lot of organizing sending them out on the road. 18) How is income and expenditure of your label ? It goes well? If you will say frankly, we appreciate. The label goes well, I can put out whatever I want, whenever I want, and having this freedom is pure luxury for me. But keep in mind that I also have another job, and that I don`t live out of the label. 19) What is your plan for your label in future? If you already have concrete plans, could you let us know them? There is a lot of plans and new releases. First of all I have split the label in two; Smalltown Supersound and Smalltown Superjazzz. Supersjazzz is my definition of jazz. Supersound is I guess my definition of a supersound. When it comes to releases there is lots of new stuff coming; a collaboration album between Swedish sax player Mats Gustafsson and Sonic Youth titled “Hidros 3”, a solo album by Lars Horntveth of Jaga Jazzist titled “Pooka”, a reissue of Jaga Jazzist`s 1998 album Magazine, three new releases by Kim Hiorthøy (a new EP, a live album and a collection of field recordings), the debut album by new Japanese artist Yuichiro Fujimoto, a brand new album by jazz group The Thing, a new duo album by Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love, a new album with Norwegian electronic music pioneer Per Martinsen and his Mental Overdrive project. There is also new albums by Sir Dupermann and Martin Horntveth (the other Horntveth brother in Jaga Jazzist) coming up. And; Kim Hiorthøy, Sir Dupermann and myself will tour Japan 2004. So we hope to see you there! 20) How do you imagine the musical scene will be change from this time on? Difficult to say with the download and everything, but I hope and think people in the long run would like to have a physical product and not just downloads. It would be a sad thing if your whole record collection is in an Ipod. What is Neil Young`s “On the Beach” without the artwork? It is sad to think that everything will be in a computer. There is nothing like a new record by one of your favorite artist; the excitement, the smell, the artwork etc. I hope that this feeling won`t get lost in cyberspace.
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