I was interviewed by State Of Sound about the labels and a few tidbits of it ended up in the final piece, but as about 80% was cut I thought I’d post the rest of interview below as it took me some time. You can read the “full” interview by clicking on this text.
I'd like to start by finding out a little bit about you, Dave. What do you do for a living, aside from
the label? What is your background, relationship with music and what led you to start your label?
My full-time job is doing Zegema Beach Records, Tomb Tree, and Softseed Music. This by no means pays all the bills but my wife has a full-time job so I get to be a stay-at-home dad and spend a ton of time being with my kids (currently 11 and 7 years old).
Hmmmm, I remember gravitating toward music very early by listening to some of my parents records when I was probably 5 years old. The early-to-mid nineties shaped my initial musical tastes with grunge (Nirvana, STP), mainstream punk (Green Day, Offspring), alternative (Everclear, Our Lady Peace), and then metal (White Zombie, Marilyn Mason, early Sugar Ray). Once I discovered punk in grade 9 my passion became supercharged and I became friends with my brother's friends who happened to go on to create Protest The Hero. This led to me finding out about At The Drive, followed by The Blood Brothers which eventually lured me down the screamo rabbit hole from which I hath not emerged.
I started Zegema Beach Records in 2013 after seeing a few amazing screamo bands without financial support (most notably Via Fondo, La Parade, & Amber), and then my grandpa died and left me three thousand dollars which I used to press my first release. It took over a decade to sell that first pressing of 300 copies lol
There has been a proliferation of micro labels such as yours, particularly since lockdown. Do you
have any thoughts on why these micro labels have started up at this time?
Since I've been around so long, I've seen many micro labels start up and then shut down - sometimes because of lack of sales and sometimes because the owner loses their passion for whatever particular genre they've committed to. Music seemed to be taken for granted pre-lockdown, so the proliferation of live music seems to have more than doubled post-lockdown, and I think this rise in popularity, amount of bands, and increased number of people being exposed to music has created more demand and supply.
When and why did you start your record label? For example, were you interested in creating a
community of like-minded people, making money…?
Being friends in the late 90s/early 2000s with Happy Go Lucky (aka Protest The Hero before they changed their name), I knew that I wanted to release their stuff but had no idea how to go about it. A few months after I had the idea they signed to Underground Operations and I didn't think much about it again until after 2012 when my blog got a bit of traction in the screamo community and then received said inheritance from my grandfather (whose face is the ZBR logo) and decided to do it purely for the love of screamo. I also started putting on shows so I quickly fulfilled ZBR's mission statement of "a community rooted in promoting honest / passionate / inspiring music - usually with screaming". ZBR is my passion project/hobby and hobbies cost money, so I consider this a hobby.
How would you describe the genres you cover?
Screamo, emo-violence, metallic hardcore, grind, and mathcore are our primary genres. They all come with a lot of screaming which is generally what I look for in music...or at least did until Nicole Dollanganger changed my life and now I have a separate label called Softseed Music that I use to tap into my ethereal, beautiful, angelic, folksy, bedroom pop, singer/songwriter music.
How do you discover the artists you sign?
Firstly, I don't sign artists, I come at it from the DIY punk perspective and essentially agree to pay for a single pressing and give the band a % of the pressing for free. I think transferring the punk/screamo ethos to the Softseed Label has been a strong root of its success as the artists see me for my love of their music and not for profit. There's a lot of releases that I don't even break even on, but if I love the music I couldn't care less. As for the discovery process, it used to be me combing through screamo blogs. Once I started my own blog I started getting submissions from current bands that I hadn't heard of, and by the time ZBR was off and running I was also getting email submissions for that. Nowadays I mostly go off friend recommendations and a few choice Facebook groups.
Is there a standard deal which you tend to offer artists, and if so what is it? (For example, do you
focus on one particular physical media e.g. cassettes, 7 inch vinyl? Do you tend to make 300-500
pressing? Do you and the artist share in the production/distribution costs?)
I briefly discussed our basic "deal" above in terms of how we share copies with the artist (and the band can buy additional copies at cost, which might push us into doing a larger run), but in terms of which kind of media and how many copies, it's mishmash of the following: 1st release? EP or LP? Was it previously released digitally? How many labels are involved? How many copies do you need at cost after free copies? Are there planned tours? and finally and most importantly how much do I love this?
Is it possible to make money running a small garage label?
Totally, it all depends on how popular the artists are and if they link to your stores. Smaller bands and little promotion will not lead to sales, but sometimes you have to start at that level to reach the more popular artists and/or grow with the smaller bands.
Can you give an insight into what it is like on a daily basis to run a small record label?
I definitely feel like I spend the most time responding to emails, prepping stores for drops, packing up orders, and dipping/stamping cassette tapes. The early days had me running around trying to find places that would push the releases, and I kind of eventually gave up...and when I did I started getting approached by places that pushed the releases of their own volition, but that took nearly a decade of work.
What are your relationships like with your artists? What kind of roles do you have to play with your
artists? (For example, do you feel you provide pastoral care, are you like some kind of parental
figure, are you friends who go drinking together, or is it more professional and distant than that?)
Honestly it can a mixture of those, but primarily I release stuff that makes me excited, and my instinctual preset is "lemme show you this sick band they're so good" so it's a pretty natural outpouring of support, love, admiration, and friendship. If a band tours near me, or plays ZBR Fest, or just comes and visits then the auto-PR changes to hang-out mode and I just try to have fun and be kind to my friends. We also help with layouts, do fest documentaries, release revisits (aka "Out Past the Rings") on youtube, and tons more that I literally cannot remember right now.
Have there been any spine-tingling moments since you started your record label? Has there been
something that has happened, a phone call, an email, a moment in a studio, a moment between you
and one of your artists that have made it feel all worthwhile?
It's just one spine-tingling moment after another. First it was releasing stuff by some smaller bands that I loved. Then it was having bigger bands asking me help out, and that led to some monumental early screamo bands releasing their discographies on ZBR. Besides those, I've interviewed countless heroes of mine and ZBR Fest is the culmination of all of our work - 3 days of awesome chills with amazing people whilst getting ruined by some of the best screamo bands. Even the losses are worthwhile as they teach me something and keep me humble.
The music industry is obviously going through a technological revolution (AI, streaming services
dominating et cetera). Do you have any thoughts on the future of the music industry?
The outlook is not good with AI being pushed so blatantly, invested in so heavily, and has little-to-no restrictions/guidelines to adhere to. Spotify supports genocide so fuck them. Zuckerburg is a Trump cuck. Apple is a pandering piece of shit. Yeah...not good.
What does the future hold for your label?
Much of the same. I don't expect the label to jump genres or start signing bands/demanding contracts etc., but I hope it continues to grow exponentially and sick screamo bands keep hitting me up. However, I do hope that Softseed Music is able to grow way bigger than ZBR as the potential audience is much, much larger. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and if I keep doing it right the magnetic pull should continue to increase.
What do you think the future holds for micro labels in general?
I think with the global economic downturn and general uncertainty with freedoms and peace that micro labels will take another hit over the next 5 years. As long as things improve globally I expect new ones will swing back a few years later...but I'm not optimistic.
Is there a question you would like to have been asked, which I haven’t? Have these questions raised
any other thoughts / opinions / stories which you would like to share?
Just thanks so much for asking me these questions and giving my small label some light <3
