Wasted State Records

It would appear that this blog idea hasn’t really grabbed me that well and the sparse postings seem to revolve around Record Store Day. With this in mind, I would be remiss if I didn’t voice some frustration at how much Record Store Day’s Black Friday event truly boiled my piss. The idea of it gets to me. Another cash in.

Granted, it didn’t seem to get the fanfare of the regular RSD, but still, the premise of it gets me.

Alas, this post will not be about RSD, or any of it’s spin offs. Music Media, here we go!

Last night (19/12/16) Team Rock went into administration, taking with it Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Prog magazines amongst others. Also going down with the ship will presumably be the self-serving Golden Gods & Classic Rock awards. (Lets not kid ourselves, all music awards, and in fact most of the industry, is about slapping people on the back and telling them how great they are. There’s a fellatio joke there I’m not going to make incase my mum reads this….)

Team Rock heading into administration has had the knock on effect of making 73 people redundant, less than a week before Christmas. Don’t get me wrong; I sympathize with every single one of them. My bar tab balloons at this time of year too! There will no doubt be knock on effects on artists, advertisers and what not too.

However, like many aspects of the industry, printed music media has been in its death throws since the proliferation of the Internet in people’s homes and, more recently, people’s pockets. 

Failure to adapt and innovate has hit printed music media in the same way it has hit major labels and retailers. It is extremely easy to start a music blog and tout yourself as a music journalist. Almost everyone out there has the technology in their pockets to make this happen. The down side of this is that the quality in general has been in a steady decline for at least 15 years. In the same way that promoters, labels etc have popped up all over the place since the dawn of the Internet, so have music blogs. 

Digital content delivery needs to be improved for magazines to stay relevant. Yes, there are still people like me who would much rather have a printed book or magazine than a digital copy, but publishers have to cater to all readers, if they want to succeed. 

The quality of writing also has to be kept to a higher standard than it has been of late. Job titles are banded about at random these days, and ‘journalist’ has taken a complete thrashing. Between unbalanced, biased reviews and write-ups and some absolutely terrible writing. Magazines on all topics are starting to get dwarfed by nobodies in their bedrooms with a far superior grasp of language and prose. 

There was a new music magazine launched a few years ago, I won’t name it, but it was named after probably the most covered Motörhead song in existence. Anyway, I bought the second issue. Halfway through reading it I started to wish I’d spent my £4.99 on something more worthwhile, toilet paper for example, or a bag of nails. The writing was disjointed and riddled with mistakes, both spelling and grammatically, but fact wise as well. Poorly edited, poorly written, poorly laid out. 

Here I must point out that I do not consider myself to be a journalist, or a blogger, or any kind of writer of note. I write because I enjoy it and have not intention of trying to pass myself off as anything other than a music fan with an opinion. 

While I admire this particular magazines owners for having the balls to start a niche music magazine, the execution was, in my opinion, sloppy. 

There seems to be a great deal of apathy and mediocrity in music and the arts in general at the moment. I’ve said it before, but it’s easy for anyone at all to start a business as a musician, artist, journalist or what ever else with out any quality control. The knock on effect of this is that it devalues other professionals in the same field. 

I’m at pains trying to remember when the last time I read a decent article in a UK music magazine. Now defunct US publication Punk Planet was one of the best magazines I’ve ever seen, in terms of its layout, editing and quality of content. Articles in magazines now are cookie cutter, all you would need to do to write a review on a great deal of occasions would be to take an old review with a similar theme and change the names. 

It seems like in a lot of instances, all that changes month to month are the photos of overly trendy wankers. Advertising is also an unholy mess, with magazines offering favorable reviews in exchange for advertising space. Rocksound magazine managed to fuck Wasted State with that one about 8 years ago and I’m still pissing vinegar about it. 

I’m not saying music journalism is dead, far from it. Echoes and Dust, the Obelisk and various others are a pleasure to read. There are of course many more, with writers who are part time. Part Time. These people have day jobs, families, pets, children and crippling debt, yet they still manage to trump so called professional journalists at their own game. Most of the time, these people are writing for free! 

The advantage of these websites is that they are accessible from any phone, tablet or computer. They might not exist in print, I wish they did, but they (and many others) offer far more balanced, well-written and enjoyable reading. With that available for free, and in a format I can access and read on the toilet, why would I, or anyone else shell out for mediocrity?

Some actual label news to break up the monotony of Toni’s rants (fret not, there will me more soon!).

It’s been an up and down year so far here at Wasted State. Firebrand Super Rock have unfortunately called it a day and will be playing one final show in Edinburgh at the end of March. We’re sad to see them go, but have no doubt that they will pop up in different bands at some point soon! Firebrand’s Born For The Gallows album will remain available through ourselves for the foreseeable future, so get your copy before they end up a collector’s piece on the Antiques Road Show!

Good news tends to follow bad though, after much patience and work, Black Talon’s debut album ‘Endless Realities’ is back from the pressing plant and already in the hands of our distributors Code 7. The album will be released (on CD & digital) on the 11th of May, so get down to your local record shop and get it ordered. It’s an album we’ve been looking forward to for quite some time and it doesn’t disappoint.

Gareeda have also been in the studio over the last few months finishing off their second album. It’s a progression from their debut, but will get the blood flowing. There will be more details on release dates and what not in the coming month or so, but we can tell you that it will be released on vinyl.

That, ladies and gentlemen, scumbags and lady scumbags is all we have in the pipeline at the moment. There’s a couple of wee bits and pieces we’re working on behind the scenes but details of the will emerge in due course.

This leaves us with something the will quite possibly open the floodgates to a different kind of hell, but here we go:

DEMOS! Yes, we’ve shunned and ignored demos for the past couple of years, especially during the times where the label’s future looked questionable, but, good things come to those who wait.

We’re not looking for singer songwriters, hip hop, dance or any kind of indie or electronic music. No way. If you’re reading this you know what we’re into and what we have released so we probably won’t release your Stone Roses inspired nonsense.

That said, if you’re band are willing to put in the effort to tour and understand that we probably aren’t going to make you rich over night, get in touch at [email protected] and let’s see where we end up eh?

So that is that for the moment. We’re three years behind in our accounts, so that’s next on the list.

Until next time, take it sleazy.

It would appear that this year’s record store day has ignited a few concerns from labels, distributors and shops alike.

Mostly, record shops are of the mind that, although Record Store Day is a great idea and is indeed raising the awareness and support of independent music retail, however labels and bands should be trying to keep this going through out the year. I’ll come back to this later, however it is a valid point. Record Store Day as a concept has grown legs and is coaxing record collectors away from the Internet and into the real world.

There are stories of record collectors rediscovering life and human interaction after venturing out to a record shop after almost a decade of online only shopping. Revelations of meat bag to meat bag interaction, recommendations of further listening coming from an actual homosapien, not some egomaniac’s blog.  Tactile purchasing of aural treasures, fresh air. You see that woman over there browsing the second hand 45s? If you go over and speak to her there is a high chance you can cancel your adult friend finder account and re-enter society.

[It should be noted that live music could also be witnessed in real life, see your local venue for details]

So Record Store Day has had its benefits. The major retailers are in their final death throws with HMV floundering around the high street with the grace of an elephant using chopsticks. The independent shops are once again rising, not only the existing established ones, but NEW shops are opening. There are people who are closing shop unfortunately; whether things are just getting harder or failure to adapt has finally stricken the final nail remains to be seen.

It would be great to think that the independents are adapting, indeed, some visibly are. Others remain stuck in old ways, lamenting change and the advent of the big game changer, Ms Internet, longing for the old days. The Internet has changed the way we shop for everything, embrace it and prosper, or ignore it and perish.

Record labels and distributors are having their own trials and tribulations in the wake of Record Store Day’s popularity. The collectable element of one day only releases has raised interest in bands, shops and labels as well as pulling smaller artists and labels from relative obscurity.

The downside? The big boys have cottoned onto the annual event and are exerting their strength on a manufacturing industry that was on the decline until around 2006.

The major labels, still trying to claw their way out of the hole they dug during the inception of MP3s in the late 1990’s/2000’s, have been handed another way to increase revenues through sale of physical media. Record Store Day has given the majors an opening to release ‘limited’ runs on a scale that dwarfs an independent labels ‘normal’ run. While this is great for the artists connected with the majors (the revenues from these ‘limited’ release will offset any artist advance, or some one would assume), it has a knock on effect on smaller labels with less buying power.

During the rise of the CD in the late 80s/ early 90s, (vinyl) pressing plants the world over started to scrap or sell their pressing machinery. A bulk of the UK pressing infrastructure was sold to Eastern Europe, which is where most record pressing is done today. Due to the reduced number of plants pressing vinyl and the higher demand following the major labels’ recent bandwagon joining, pressing times have almost tripled for smaller runs.

This has affected Wasted State Records two years in a row now. Last year the Paper Beats Rock 7” was fraught with problems due to high pressing demands and incompetent middlemen. This year, despite master recordings and artworks being sent away at the end of January, Dune’s 12” has been delayed ‘until further notice’ due to the large quantities major labels are pressing. 20 years ago you couldn’t get a CD pressed in the run up to Christmas because the majors were busy making Christmas Compilations, ‘Best Of’ albums and ‘That’s what I call dad rock 1995’.

We’ve come full circle again.

There have also been murmurings from (independent) shops recently about labels and bands selling directly to fans through the internet. While this is becoming more popular it, I admit, is detrimental to independent retail. A Scottish independent recently (temporarily, so I hear) closed it’s doors for this, and similar reasons.

 While I concede that selling direct to customers is hurting bricks and mortar shops, the extra revenue from sales that don’t have distribution fees and markups attached is helping some labels grow. The retailers could negate this if there was a little more support pushing products from smaller labels, which would in turn lead to a better retail presence for both smaller bands and labels, although this could stem an entirely different avenue of musing, best kept aside for another time.

All in all, Record Store Day has been great for an industry that was one flush away from relegation to a niche market, restricted to the 1s and 0s of the World Wide Web. How it will continue remains to be seen, however the great up shot of it all is vinyl is coming back as a medium to challenge digital downloads, and for a change, the larger labels are lending a hand to help support the smaller shops.

What does the future of music hold? Will vinyl continue to grow? Will it ever out strip digital music? Will Dune’s record arrive before I go on holiday next week?

Only time will tell.

http://www.bone-yard.co.uk/wasted-state-records-interview/

Wasted State Records – Interview

Interview by Adam Holt

Wasted State Reords, was set up by Toni Martone, and has been a family to many bands throughout Scotland. We sat down with the man himself to find out how WSR came to be.

When was the idea for Wasted State Records conceived?

The idea for WSR came about while I was working in a now defunct high street record retailer, owned by a wealthy gentleman who looks like Ralf from The Muppets. You know the one? The piano playing dog?

Anyway, I worked there from 2001-2004, and surprisingly really enjoyed the whole experience. Part of my job was to plan the displays for new releases, so I was always skiving off in the stock room with a bit of paper pretending to work, when in actual fact I was talking to my mate Neil about what ever gig we were going to that night, or how sore my head was. The time required to complete the pedestrian task of planning the new releases was about half an hour, but as no one was on my back about it, I usually managed to stretch it out to about 3 hours (depending on the magnitude of my hangover). I was damn good at my job, which I think is why no one gave a shit. Anyway, at the time my buddy Neil and I went to just about every decent gig that was on in Glasgow, and I got to know a lot of touring as well as local bands.

Then, while unpacking new releases on a Sunday I came across a pile of coloured 7” singles. That pretty much set me off; ‘I want to put out records’ I declared to my colleagues, none of whom gave a shit.

However, the idea to put out records stopped there for a while as I decided that further education wasn’t for me. I moved back to Edinburgh and ran a restaurant for a year while, saving money to travel to Australia to molest marsupials.

While in Melbourne I worked in an internet café. As well as the perk of meeting a lot of people, who would tell me about gigs and events (the Trash-O-Rama horror film festival was a favourite), I also gained unlimited access to the internet. As a result my mind began to drift back to the idea of putting out records.

I was basically paid, for 6 months, to research the music industry, read magazines and talk to dickhead backpackers. When the time came for me to leave the land of road kill I had a head full of ideas and a bag full of notes and print outs.

The name Wasted State came from a song I wrote for the first band I was ever in. I can’t remember the band name, all I know is that we never played a gig and were beyond shit. There were a couple of false starts, but our first proper release was in 2008 when I released Taking Chase’s debut EP ‘Have A Good Time All The Time’.

What’s the ethos behind Wasted State Records and was there a goal from day one that you wanted to achieve?

There’s no real conscious ethos behind the label to be honest. Until recently it was just me running the label. Being in bands myself, the main thing is to make sure that the artist is happy. As lame and cheesy as it sounds it is very important not just to me, but for a successful release.

I have also never wanted money to be a motivating factor. Obviously breaking even is a good thing and I don’t want to be throwing what little expendable income I have down the drain of some disillusioned ego maniac’s latest ploy to get laid. The main thing for me is that I never want to ‘sell out’. That in itself could spark an essay as long as the M8, but what I mean by that is doing things for the right reasons, not just to make a quick few quid.

I will only put out records that I genuinely think are good, by bands who have enough savvy to know that one idiot putting out a record does not mean that there will be a six figure cheque in the post next Tuesday.

The goal for the label has changed from what it once was. As I have gotten older my priorities have changed. My main goal is to expand beyond being a local label and introduce bands from further afield, signing The Sawyer Family was the first step in this, and the hiring of PR & Gin guru Ewen is the second. I’m realistic about what I can achieve with WSR. I’ve got a lot of respect for labels like Small Stone, Bridge 9, No Idea & Relapse. You can pretty much be sure, that if you like one of their releases, you will like at least 75% of the rest of the stuff they put out. I would love to get to that point with WSR, and it is happening, albeit slowly.

What was it like getting Wasted State up and running?

Getting Wasted State from its initial idea to the first release took 4 years. I was working full time and went through an extremely traumatic time in my personal life that delayed things a fair bit. There were also a few stumbling blocks along the way. The first CD I ever pressed didn’t get a proper release and ended up being a total joke business wise. I was basically learning how to run a business by trial and error, an expensive way of doing it, but still cheaper than chasing a degree in business studies or one of these ‘music business’ courses.

Although I had done a load of research on record labels, I had missed out the business side as well as important things like distribution and royalties. I got there in the end though.

Getting the first release out was a big thing for me; the Taking Chase EP marks the start of Wasted State as far as I’m concerned. It was also the release that earned the label its distribution agreements, which was a huge milestone for the label. Getting approached by The Tyrant Lizard Kings to put out their second album was another huge event and it was their album ‘Six Shooter’ that opened up a lot of doors not just for the label, but for me as well.

The most recent milestone was at the start of April this year when we released Bacchus Baracus’ first album on coloured vinyl. Releasing an album on vinyl has been something I wanted to do from the start. Getting that album out was a box ticked in the ol’ ‘life to do list’.

What was the first band to be released through the label? Tell us about the process of getting the record released?

As I mentioned before, the first release was Taking Chase’s ‘Have A Good Time All The Time’ back in 2008, I still love that record, which is a good thing I think. The process of a release can vary depending on all the factors involved, but usually they go along the lines of: a) find a band, talk to them and sort out what kind of release they want to do b) recording c) artwork d) pressing e) promotion f) release

This is an extremely watered down representation of the process, but to go in depth would require an entire book to be written.

What qualities make a Wasted State artist, and how do you go about getting them on the roster?

That’s a good question. If you look at the roster as it stands, there are a lot of different artists, spanning a few genres. The main thing is that the band can’t be a bunch of dicks, because I have to be able to get on with them on a personal level in order to get the release done properly. It’s a working relationship so it makes a huge difference if the egos are left at the door. That goes for both sides.

Getting a band on the roster is sometimes as simple as saying ‘I like your stuff, want to put out a record?’, the process of making it reality is a lot longer, but that’s the basics really.

Wasted State, as well as offering digital releases, put a lot of effort into the package that comes with releasing new material, the art work, CD, Vinyl and merch. In a digital world, how hard is it to push this to the public and why is it important for you to keep the physical side of things alive?

I’m of the opinion that things in the music industry are revolving back around to the old days when independent labels and shops were in control and bands had to tour to get noticed. Yes, the digital side of things is gaining momentum and I won’t deny that it is very important, but from what I have seen and heard, the physical format is re-gaining popularity.

I think that people are getting back to the ‘I want something to show for the money I have just spent’ instead of a couple more 1s and 0s on their computer. As the industry becomes more transparent with the proliferation of the internet, fans are realising that bands make the bulk of their income from physical products, CDs, Records and merch, and as a result of this, are more willing to buy merch to show their support.

Mail order is getting stronger and more popular, I am finding myself posting orders out to places I wouldn’t have dreamed we’d hit at the size we are. Russia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, America and more, it’s great to know that the word is spreading.

The main thing though, is having something decent to sell. You can have the best sounding album in the world, but it still needs promoting and it still needs to look good. I’m a huge fan of album artwork and good looking, well-presented merch.

I have written about this at length for The Dog: Link to- http://blog.reddogmusic.co.uk/2012/11/25/theres-no-school-like-the-old-school/

Tell us about the bands on Wasted State, who’s the bands to look out for? And within the Scottish scene are there any bands that you are impressed with?

The Bacchus Baracus album is one I think that folks should check out, it’s been getting some great reviews from all over and satisfies a lot of tastes. The Sawyer Family will be back in Europe at some point next year I hope, we were talking about doing another album, which I am really excited about.

Gareeda have just released an EP but are planning to record at the end of the year. There is some of the Tyrant Lizard Kings back catalogue that I have been looking to release for a while, I’m hoping to have that sorted by the end of the year.

Black Talon are one to watch, their single last year was amazing and they have been writing for an album which I have no doubt will be great. Johnny Steel is possibly the best front man in Scotland, no joke.

Keep an eye on Tommy Concrete too, as well as his work with the Werewolves his second book will be out soon.

As for other Scottish bands, I was impressed with Dundee’s Isak when I saw them a month or so ago, I’ll be keeping an eye on them. Robot Death Monkey are worth checking out too, fingers crossed they get a guitarist back in the band. Lords of Bastard are another cracking local band, I was lucky enough to join them on a short tour last year, good guys, big hair, bigger riffs.

Big respect to The Murderburgers too, they just got signed to Asian Man Records in the states and have been doing some intense touring. They’ll go far I think.

What’s your views and opinions on the Scottish music scene?

The scene in the UK in general is in a shocking state with far too many folk moaning about how nothing is happening but not actually being proactive and trying to make a change. Scotland is the same but there are more and more people starting to make a difference.

Deeker & Make-that-a-take, Kev and the folks at Anti-Manifesto and the BOBFest lot are making good head way for the Scottish scene. Deeker & Kev have had a lot of experience and are taking a really positive approach to things, which is making a difference. Club nights like Hellraiser are a good idea, but need more effort in the execution, but are certainly making a good difference. Kojak at Bannermans is getting some great bands coming through from the touring circuit, which is also doing wonders for the scene, as are Pisschrist promotions who have taken some huge gambles.

It is really heartening to see people make a positive impact instead of whining. Back when the label started there was very little going on that had much substance or staying power. Things are starting to change, which is good.

There are some promoters that book a band and expect there to be a sell-out crowd on a Sunday night with no promotion. The tip there is in the name. PROMOTE. If you don’t tell people that a gig is on, how the fuck are they going to know when and where to turn up.

What’s in the pipelines? What’s your future plans and ambitions for Wasted State for the rest of 2013 and beyond?

We’re having a real pain in the dick with suppliers at the moment, the Paper Beats Rock 7” that should have been here 2 months ago will be arriving next week (so I’m bloody well told). So it will be good to finally get that out there.

The rest of 2013 will see our first venture into book publishing with the release of Tommy Concrete’s second book, which is fucking brilliant. On the subject of Tommy, there are plans in motion for a Tommy Concrete and the Werewolves album, which will be spectacular. I’m also planning on writing a book myself, but I’ll see if I get the time!

I’m doing some work behind the scenes with Christian Sloan Hall and DeathLord. Christian is a great artist and has done artwork for quite a few of our releases. News on that will all surface in time.

Other than that Eagletomb, Gareeda and The Sawyer Family are talking about albums, which will be towards the end of the year, if not next year. Black Talon too have issued hushed murmurs of an album which, again, I’m really excited about.

Other than that, I might have a wee holiday and enjoy myself. I love putting out records and running the label, but sometimes you just need a wee break y’know?

Finally, if a band would like to join the Wasted State family or any label for that matter, what would be your advice to them?

Don’t be a dick and work hard are the main things. Don’t expect something for nothing. Don’t take opportunities presented to you for granted. There are people and bands I have tried to work with whose motivations have been so far from music it’s unbelievable. I you want to get involved in the music industry to impress your midlife crisis, water cooler mates, then please stay the fuck away from me. I’ve been brunt a few times by this type.

The same goes to those whose sole goal in being a musician is to get laid and/or stoke your own ego. Work hard, prove yourself and don’t be a dick, come and say hello at a gig, support the scene, the label, the bands, the venues and you will get noticed. People talk, being an arsehole at one venue can get you blackballed by promoters, venues and labels the world over. We live in an information age and news travels fast!

With the build up to Record Store Day and the now world wide event’s growing popularity, I have started thinking back to the time when I worked in a record shop in the middle of Glasgow while I was ‘at university’. Which record shop is not important, what is important was the atmosphere in the place, and ultimately the inspiration it gave me to start a record label.

  I started working there when I was 16, and to be honest, had very little knowledge of the music industry. The bonus of being young was that people I worked with took it upon themselves to take me under their varied wings and educate me in music beyond the mainstream. If it hadn’t been for these people, I would have a degree by now and be working behind a desk, joyless and overweight, probably writing computer programs that control tampon manufacture.

  Don’t get me wrong, as with any job there were the usual arseholes, jobsworths and mentally disabled members of the general public, but the experience as a whole was enjoyable and got me to where I am today. I met some great people who guided my musically uneducated mind and taught me so many different things that I would never have learnt in any flavor of education.

  That was almost 10 years ago now, and when I left, the digital take over of music was boiling over to invasion point. Home broadband was cheaper and Apple had released the iPod to a wider market of hipsters. The more forward thinking of us could already see the decline and knew the company we worked for would not embrace the impending changes quickly or with enough perseverance to survive.

  During the years that have followed my departure from retail sales I have been extremely fortunate to travel the world and meet some very interesting people and see some amazing places. During these travels I have been to some very random gigs and visited a vast array of record shops and markets in some very strange towns and cities. In the end I naturally gravitated back home to Edinburgh forgoing the opportunity to become a (paid) freelance journalist, as well as the chance to take up permanent residence in Australia with the vision of starting a record label.

  That was almost 8 years ago.

  Wasted State Records put out it’s first proper release in 2008, so I’m counting that as the start of the label proper, although it could be argued that it actually started in the internet café I was working in in Melbourne in 2005, although, at this point I really didn’t know my arse from my elbow in terms of the music business.

  I was recently in Germany to see a band and the day following the gig myself and my travel companions went on a wonder round the city, which started off in a record shop and ended up at a surf gig. All in all, you would agree, a more than pleasant way to spend a day. While browsing the record shop I got to thinking what a different kind of atmosphere it was compared to its UK counterparts.

  Other than the owner of a Stockport record shop, who seemed like he was in the middle of an acid flashback, I have derived very little happiness from record shops in the UK, with possible exception of the Punker Bunker in Brighton. Even in local shops in Scotland, the staff (generally the owners) tend to judge customers from the moment they arrive in the shop and meet well meaning questions with abrupt answers in a tone that would suggest you had been seen sodomising a stray puppy minutes before entering the shop.

  While chatting to the owner of one shop, who assured me that he wanted to support local bands and labels I was struck by his narrow mindedness at the label roster. It seems that unless you can say that The Smiths are on your list of influences and you are wearing skinny jeans so tight your testicles (if you are so equipped) get turned into pancakes, there is no place for you in the Scottish Music Scene. Turn on the local radio to affirm this, twee sound-a-like bands is all you hear about. Admiral Fallow and Withered Hand seem to be favorites at the moment, and everybody is fully invested in the bandwagon.

  While listening to BBC Radio Scotland these carbon copy droll pseudo hipsters moan along about never being kissed but the hot girl at school and loosing their keys got me to thinking that maybe this has become the definition of Scottish music. Don’t get me wrong, everyone has their own taste, but surely the record shops and radio stations could get behind something that isn’t going to cause mass suicide. Yes different genres go through phases of being popular, but there is such a wide verity of bands and labels in not just Scotland, but the UK that are being overlooked because they don’t fit the current trend.

  Even a national award ceremony has turned their nose up at supporting  the label, reinforcing the old adage ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’.

  Don’t get me wrong, this is not bitterness, Wasted State Records has never been better, this is an observation. I am not ashamed to say that I buy most, if no all, of my records either directly from labels, or from the bands themselves. Not because I don’t want the shops to benefit, but because my experience in independent shops in Scotland has been so piss poor, I can’t face the idea of stepping though the doors.

  Yes, some stock a token sample of the Wasted State roster, which I will always be grateful for but I don’t want people who dig what we are putting out to go through the same gag inducing experience I have had.

  I think it was before the first Record Store Day and one of my favorite bands announced they were releasing a limited edition live 7”. After changing my trousers I went to what was my local indie store and enquired about ordering it, which, as far as I can see is what the whole Record Store Day is about. Anyway, the dude at the counter looked at the list and located the release I was looking for and toddled off to double check something with the boss.

  He returned and informed me that they were not getting said record in, which didn’t surprise me as the band in question were not destined to support Biffy Clyro. I asked him if he could get it for me and even offered to pay what ever postal fees would be incurred in the procurement of this highly coveted piece of blue vinyl. He buggers off through the back to pow wow with the powers that be and comes out followed by what I assume is the owner/boss, who informs me that it would not be possible to get as it was an American release and they did not deal with [Distributor No. 2] the distributor in question, and buggered off again.

Boyo behind the counter seemed fairly embarrassed by this and apologized and wished me luck. Having had the experience of being the poor shit behind the counter when a customer looses the rag unnecessarily, I stayed polite and thanked the poor bastard for his tie.

  There are useless bits of information you learn at any job, something I learnt during my time in music retail was what distributors distributed what release. After accepting this excuse I turned from the counter and had a wee nosey through the shelves. Low and behold I saw at least 10+ released I knew for a fact were distributed by [Distributor No. 2]. I looked up to see the lying sack of shit boss, watching from his new position behind the counter, shot him a knowing look, and left.

  Was it because he couldn’t be arsed sending an email to order the record? Were my jeans not genital restricting enough? Was it my lack of asymmetrical haircut? I’ll never know, I’m not even bothered anymore. A former colleague of mine from the record shop lived in Brighton and managed to get me a copy, I’m still not sure if I gave him the money for it!

  There is a point to this rant, that could be followed up by another, and with out doubt, enough to fill a volume, but I’ll save that for the book if I ever get round to finishing it.

  There are so many posers that leach around the music business and musicians with little or no purpose other that to impress the opposite sex (or the same sex) or to seem ‘cool’ by association. Some of these sycophantic bastards actually believe their own lies and have no idea that they are being total idiots. Sometimes, their friends or people they are hanging onto don’t see it.

  This covers not just record storeowners but all sorts of others.

  The main point here really is that if you own a record shop (or anything else for that matter) and you pretty much refuse to help customers, don’t piss and moan that business is hard and you might have to close your shop because there aren’t enough people shopping in your store.

There’s no school like the old school

Posted November 25th, 2012by Toni Martone & filed under Music Industry.

7

One stand out memory was in 1998 (I was 14, you work it out). I worked weekend nights in my old man’s restaurant, and as a result, have a fair whack of expendable cash compared to my peers. There was a music magazine; I think it used to be weekly (it’s now s**t), that started doing a series of cover-mount CDs. I got totally hooked on a band’s track, so the following week I went out and bought one of their albums at random alongside the latest issue of said magazine, and no doubt some tooth rotting sweets.

During a house move at some point in the 90s my parents made the mistake of giving me their old hi-fi. It was as old as I was, but it was great. I got off the bus, wandered home with no real sense of purpose, went to my room and parked myself in front of the hi-fi with my sugary treats, magazine and CD.

One thing I never thought about again until I was punching barcodes on a label release is that there is a knack to getting cellophane off CDs. At 14, I didn’t know my arse from my elbow, so I no doubt made a dog’s dinner of it. Regardless, the CD was freed from its plastic prison and went into the CD player. As the first track started, I thumbed through the cover booklet looking at the photos and wondering (in my naive state) why a band would need an engineer. As the first track kicked in I was looking at a photo of the singer/guitarist (doing what I now understand as) laying down his vocal track. The look of energy and emotion in that photo, combined with the intense power and sonic brilliance in the song playing a foot away from me changed the way I listened to music. I didn’t know it then, but I sure as s**t know it now.

This is one of the things that I look back on and lament that the advance of technology and its social implications mean that future generations will never get the tactile experience that we got with CDs, or – for you older readers – vinyl. The Internet and music TV have cheapened music, along with other arts. “Back when I was a lad” was a quote I would often hear from my grandfather when I was young, and I don’t think I ever appreciated it, I just thought he was a lot older than me and could remember the war. But when I was a lad, we didn’t have instant access to songs, albums, biographies and countless information. It was coming, soon, and quick, but in the meantime, we had the excitement of the bus ride home with a bag of CDs or vinyl and the anticipation of getting back to our smelly teenage rooms to sample our wares.

Sometimes, we’d have to wait weeks to get an album, shops wouldn’t have it in stock, our pocket money had been spent on other teenage bulls**t, or we were at (or pretending to be at) school. This all added to the excitement of buying music. It meant something. Now, all people have to do to get and listen to an album is turn the computer on, type in a name, and four and a half minutes later you have a low quality album on your computer, or phone. Now, you can stream music from the Internet to your f**king TV!

Music, as I – if somewhat briefly – knew it, has been cheapened by the fast-food-I-want-it-now-and-if-I-can’t-get-it-now-I’ll-do-something-else culture – brought on by the proliferation of the Internet. I have bought one album through iTunes. It cost me £7 odd, took the best part of 5 minutes to download and felt like I’d been robbed. £7, for a compressed recording, no artwork, no sleeve notes, nothing to put in the CD rack, and I’ve got to listen to it on the f**king computer.

Now, don’t get me wrong – the Internet has its merits. Countless merits, and digital music is happening, so there’s no point in pissing and moaning about it. It’s such a big thing now, if you don’t embrace it, you will get left behind. The last 10 to 15 odd years has seen record labels of all sizes vanish into the ether or be amalgamated into one of the majors, because they panicked about how the technology was changing, what has historically been a very lucrative business, or ignored it as a technological fad.

It’s funny how things come full circle – vinyl record sales are on the increase, and labels, both major and independent, are taking advantage of this. The one recurring pattern being that the majors are slow off the mark. And who cares? The major players in the recorded music industry floundering at the starting post is giving the independent labels and shops more room to move.

Usually these retrospective 'what we gone did in the last year' posts come up about Christmas/New Year time, when everyone is in their new socks and wooly jumpers, farting off the after effects of an over indulgent celebration of some poor schmuck born in a fucking stable.

So, all things being normal, that's what we would do, but it's been a hell of a year, so we're jumping the gun.

It's no secret that running an independent record label is hard, the huge changes in the way people listen to and buy music is changing and bands seem to get jaded a fair bit earlier. Rightly so mind you, it is increasingly harder to get ahead as a band, especially in the UK, and coming from Scotland you might as well have two heads.

This time last year, while preparing to head to the Fest if Gainsville  and pay a visit to No Idea Records (our inspiration in a way), there was serious thought going into folding the label. There have been a few issues kicking about, and despair was setting in. On returning from Florida it was decided that Wasted State would release Gareeda's album the following year, then take some time out. Straddling the good (keeping the label going) and the bad (quitting like a loser). 

Then, like buses, opportunities started presenting themselves and things got knocked up a notch.

I met Kyle from the Sawyer Family when he was in Edinburgh a while back through his brother (artist supreme Christian Sloan Hall). Kyle gave me a copy of their album and it all really took off from there. With them being based in the States there was a lot of organizing to be done, but I can now say that the repressing of their album The Burning Times is at the pressing plant and the guys have booked their flights for a full European tour at the start of 2013.

Round about January I ended up working with White Mike from Black Talon at the then soul sucking day job, and we got to talking about music, bands and getting shit done. I had known Mike for a while, one thing led to another and we started working on getting a release done. Last night (18th Oct 2012 for those trolling the internet in thefuture) we finally announced the release of their first single, The Incinerator (which will be out 24th Nov 2012, for those in thepresent).

Proof that good things come in threes, after playing a gig with Bacchus Baracus at the start of the year, we started talking about an album. I went through to their studio in Paisley expecting to hear some demos and have a chat, and was presented with a full mixed and mastered album. So good is this album, that we have decided to put it out, on vinyl, coloured vinyl. Something I've been wanting to do for a long time.

But wait, that's not all. Following Tommy Concrete's departure from the Exploited, we can announce that the son of a bitch has already assembled a band and written an album that will be released next year alongside another book! If you are into music in anyway or any genre, I would strongly recommend reading his first book The Wages Of Metal.

So, there it is, the state of play. The label is busier than ever despite the problems and ball aches that have popped up. There is still more on the horizon, and Wasted State Records is far from dead.

Stay tuned folks!

More of the same pretty much, social networking overload.

We're going to try and put something different up here, but we'll see how that goes.