IndieHQ / Article Detail

October 13th, 2006

Interview with Sonny Kay of G.S.L.

I am very proud to share with you an interview I conducted over email with Sonny Kay, co-owner of G.S.L. I have had the opportunity of knowing Sonny since 1994, when he booked Club 156 on the CU Boulder Campus(the school I also attended). Sonny started G.S.L. in college partly funded by student loans but has taken the label to new heights by releasing records by bands like the Locust, Mars Volta, !!!, The Faint, and more. In 2001, Omar Rodriquez, of At the Drive In and Mars Volta, became co-owner and the label has continued to flourish. G.S.L. recently left Lumberjack Mordam shortly after the merger and has been working with Red Eye Distribution. They are big advocates of vinyl and are well known for working with artists that don’t fit the cookie cutter mold most labels are known for. I have nothing but respect for Sonny Kay and have since I first met him.

I highly recommend reading the interview as he articulates his thoughts on what he looks for in a band, marketing, and his thoughts on the merger of Lumberjack and Mordam. Thanks Sonny Kay!

IndieHQ : Please tell me your name and a brief history of G.S.L.?
GSL : My name is Sonny Kay, I own and operate GSL. The label began in Boulder in 1993. When I moved, it moved with me. First to Berkeley, then San Diego, and in 2002 to Los Angeles. In 2001, the label became co-owned by Omar Rodriguez. Some of the more popular bands we’ve released include The Mars Volta, !!!, The Locust, The Faint, 400 Blows, and Outhud.

IndieHQ : What does GSL stand for? I remember hearing that it stood for Guaranteed Stafford Loan which was rumored to be how you financed the label early on.
GSL : That’s true. But the name lost it’s appeal for me pretty quickly, especially after I finished school. But it was important to me to maintain a continuum and so I decide to come up with a new meaning for the acronym and Gold Standard Laboratories made the most sense. It’s a kind of tongue-in-cheek nod to the essence of the original name. I feel like every release is something of a gamble, or “test” of the money involved, and the name, for me anyway, encompasses that. And I’ve been told it’s kind of clever, too, in a smart ass way.

IndieHQ : You have been running GSL for over 10 years, how have things changed with regards to distribution and marketing since you first began?
GSL : Well, in terms of dstribution, the headaches are ever-present. We have a bigger catalog now and more releases to keep in print, so the problems have in some sense gotten bigger, but they never go away. “Marketing” is a word I’d never heard with regards to what we do, until around 2001/2002. Nowadays, it’s an essential part of any release we do. The internet and other media are basically a constant bombardment of peoples’ attention, and marketing is a way of penetrating that, at least in theory. There are still definitely bands and releases that are propelled by word-of-mouth along (which I guess is ALSO using the internet), but more often than not, labels these days really need to work to get their releases in stores, in peoples minds, etc. We are competing with an almost infinite amount of other stimuli, and adapting to that is difficult and very expensive.

IndieHQ : You recently left Lumberjack Mordam for Red Eye Distribution. Can you mention why it is you left and how things with Red Eye are going?
GSL : Things with Redeye have been fine. We left Lumberjack because they began destroying what Mordam spent 20 years creating, virtually overnight. I refuse to call them Mordam or mention it in their name - they are a pathetic, sad excuse for the flawless, integrity-driven Mordam, and simply buying a name does not mean inheriting the respect that name earned. We did not feel comfortable being associated with the generic filler that Lumberjack specializes in. We lost 50% of our monthly sales as soon as Lumberjack took over. The company is in bed with WEA which ultimately contradicts their supposed “independence”. Lumberjack is owned and operated by people who gladly pimp their own labels in order to sign brainless mall-rock and then proudly “upstream” them to majors for a finder’s fee. I could go on and on. We are cut from a different cloth, let’s put it that way.

IndieHQ : GSL are well known for really extravagant vinyl packaging, what is the craziest vinyl release you have done?
GSL : Let me see… Probably either the puddle-shaped Locust/Arab on Radar EP that was pressed in 5 different colors, or the Mars Volta’s “Frances the Mute” which was our first triple-gatefold jacket. I think in recent years, Three One G has kind of held the torch for the really crazy stuff, more than we have.

IndieHQ : What is GSL’s best selling vinyl release? CD release? How many copies of each have they sold?
GSL : Best-selling vinyl would be “Frances the Mute” which has done well over 12,000 copies. The Mars Volta also account for our biggest-selling CD, “Tremulant”, which is probably in the neighborhood of 60,000 or so by now.

IndieHQ : GSL is gearing up for the vinyl release of Mars Volta’s latest, “Aputechture”, what will the packaging and vinyl be like? Will it be limited?
GSL : Well, it’s taken me so long to complete this interview that the album is out now. But the packaging and custom vinyl we did for it are not limited. It’s my opinion that an album released one way should stay that way, within reason. Since the first pressings of an album are usually the largest, the idea of changing things for the smaller, later pressings and thereby creating “rarer” versions of something seems like kind of a slap in the face to everyone who bought it first, you know what I mean?

IndieHQ : What does GSL look for in a band?
GSL : Well, beyond the obvious being a sound which appeals to us, I’d say some degree of self-sufficiency is a big attraction. We don’t exist to provide handouts or cater to “artistes” who think they are something special. If you really ARE something special, it will manifest itself in your art and the way you conduct yourself. We work WITH bands, not for them. If we have to explain this to a band, they are not a band I feel we need to be messing with. More often than not, we release music by our friends, people we have developed relationships with outside of the commerce aspect of the label. I prefer to put my efforts into people who appreciate it and can reciprocate, and like to think of the label as something of a “family”. Which makes me the mom and Omar the awol deadbeat Dad! :)

IndieHQ : What do you see happening to the CD format? As digital formats become more prevalent, would you ever consider just releasing albums on vinyl and digitally?
GSL : I see CD’s disappearing pretty rapidly. Despite the obvious convenience of CD’s over vinyl, the format itself is redundant now in the age of ipods and downloads. I can definitely imagine a time when we only press vinyl for collectors and release everything digitally, and I think any label who can’t envision that is in serious trouble.

IndieHQ : What does GSL have planned for the future?
GSL : Well, for the immediate future we have a steady flow of new releases in the works by artists new to us (Crime in Choir, Big Sir, Attractive and Popular) and some maybe more familiar to our audience (The Jai-Alai Savant, Cut City, Tender Buttons). And we will continue to release whichever of Omar’s myriad projects he actually completes. Beyond that, we’re working on a new website and hoping to overhaul the shopping cart in the coming months as well. We’ve started releasing DVD’s and plan on expanding our catalog on that format in the coming year. I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but that’s most if it.

Written by Virgil Dickerson