IndieHQ / Article Detail

March 26th, 2007

10 Questions with Virgil from Suburban Home Records

Ok, I know that it is cheesy to do an interview with myself, but honestly, the purpose of this interview is to provide an example to the number of labels that I sent these 10 questions to. I sent out the following 10+ questions to 30 different labels and thought that they would be more likely to answer them if they saw how others had responded. If you know of a label that you think should be interviewed, please post it in the comments. I will hopefully be posting this 10 Questions feature weekly or more often depending on how quickly people get back to me.

Instead of writing an introduction about who I am and what Suburban Home is, I will just jump to the interview. Future interviews though will have a nice little introduction and a photo of the interviewee.

IndieHQ: When did your label start? What inspired you to start the label? Where is your label based? Do you do the label full time? What don’t most people know about you/your label?
SH: Suburban Home started in 1995 as a fanzine, a label in 1996. I was blown away by the punk rock and ska that I was exposed to in the dorms in college. My enthusiasm for indie music brought me out to nearly every show and inspired me to start a zine. The zine opened a lot of doors for me as I began to book shows on campus at Club 156 and in 1996, I started to put out 7″s for my friend’s bands. The rest as they say is history. Yes, I do the label full time. Most people don’t know that I got a Molecular Biology degree in college. I worked in a lab for a year and hated every minute of my life. Most people also don’t know that I worked at Hopeless Records from 1997 to 1998 as their label manager.

IndieHQ: What active bands are on your label? (please include myspace urls or website urls)
SH: Drag the River, Love Me Destroyer, Tim Barry, Ghost Buffalo, Stereotyperider, Josh Small, and unofficially On Guard.

IndieHQ: What do you look for in a band? Have you ever signed a band from a demo? What advice do you have for bands trying to get your attention? What band or bands would you kill to work with?
SH: For me, it is just as important to work with good people than how incredible their music is. My relationship with my acts is super important. I have yet to sign a band from a demo; in most cases I meet bands through our other bands or have some kind of rapport with an act before working with them. Other bands, I am super fans of and contact them on my own. Advice? I always tell bands to put out their own records, tour their asses off, and work hard. If bands do that, labels will knock on your door. I would kill to work with Lucero, Rocky Votolato, Cory Branan, Jenny Lewis, Neko Case, and William Elliott Whitmore!

IndieHQ: What one marketing/promotions tool do you find is your greatest asset? What vendor/manufacturer that you work with do you recommend the most?
SH: I would say that all of the opportunities on the web are our greatest asset. Between blogs, Myspace, Email newsletters, and our website, that is how we best reach fans. My favorite, most recommended vendor would have to be either RecordPressing.com or 29Centposters.com. Great folks and excellent service in both situations.

IndieHQ: What release is your best selling title? How many has it sold?
SH: The Gamits are our best selling act. We licensed their records to Japan and one of their titles sold over 15,000 copies just in Japan. We have sold anything near that range since.

IndieHQ: Music retail is tough these days, what steps, if any, have you taken to adapt in the post-file-sharing/post-Tower Records music retail landscape?
SH: We recently decided to move our operation back into our house and cut down on staff to cut our overhead. Our revenue definitely is not what it used to be. We are working with our distributors to lower our retail price from 13.98 to 10.98/9.98. We have also focused more of our energy on direct to fan marketing and sales. We sell all of our albums for anywhere between $5.00 and $8.99 on our site. We also have been focusing a lot on vinyl which you can’t download, at least right now you can’t.

IndieHQ: Who handles your distribution?
SH: Navarre handles our chains and one stops and a lot of mom and pops as well as Canada, but we sell direct to smaller distros like Revolver, Choke, No Idea, Very, Smash, Interpunk and to overseas distros like Green Hell, CR japan, Plastichead, and Sonic Rendezvous. IODA handles our digitial distribution.

IndieHQ: What do you see as the future of music sales?
SH: Read the Future of Music. They explain a concept called Music Like Water where music will not be owned in the future but rather everyone will have unlimited access to everything. Think of your utilities like Water, you don’t own all the water, but you use what you need and pay a small monthly fee for that access. The book details a future where whether you are in your card on your mp3 player or at your home, you can pull up any track anytime. You would pay a monthly fee for this access which would be a small amount like $3, $4, or $5 per month give or take and although that isn’t a lot of money, if you can get all of the millions of people who file-share and copy music, this revenue would go to support the entire industry. Labels and artists would be paid out based on how often your tracks were played kind of like how services like Rhapsody currently work.

IndieHQ: Are your releases available on Emusic? Why or Why not? Are your releases available for streaming on sites like Rhapsody, Napster, and Urge? Why or Why not?
SH: Yes, my releases are available on Emusic. I love that site as a music fan and as a label. I think the days of $13.98 or maybe even $9.98 downloads are going out the way and its place are great services like Emusic. For $10 per month, I get 40 free drm-free downloads. I figure that the people who purchase my music on Emusic will not likely purchase it elsewhere. I also have all of my music on sites like Rhapsody, Napster, and Urge. I subscribe to Rhapsody and love it. Although there isn’t much money it it, It allows fans to listen to our music and if they play our music a lot over the years, it will amount to some revenue.

IndieHQ: If you could tell the world to buy one release on your label, which one would you tell people to purchase? Why?
SH: That is a tough question. I would have to say Drag the River “It’s Crazy”. Drag are the hardest working band in the business and they just write incredible songs. The fact that they have two songwriters, I think it really ups the ante when each songwriter brings songs to the table. Yes, Drag the River play Country, but I honestly feel that their songs defy categorizing; they simply write great songs about life and the music is so good it should appeal to every fan of music. They have sad songs, fun songs, drinking songs, songs about girls; their is something for everyone.

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Written by Virgil Dickerson