IndieHQ / Article Detail

April 9th, 2007

Interview with Chris Wrenn of Bridge Nine

I am excited to bring you this interview with Chris Wrenn, owner of Bridge Nine. Bridge Nine has been for over 10 years documenting the very best in hardcore. They can boast a catalog that includes releases by Give Up the Ghost, Sick of It All, Terror, Champion, Slapshot, The Distance, Death Before Dishonor, and continue the put out the best new acts in Hardcore. Chris shares something you may not know about how he makes his living, his decision to stop producing CD eps, his love for the vinyl format, what one release on his labels that people should check out, and how bands can get his attention.

Thanks Chris for taking the time to do this interview. Please stop by the Bridge Nine site, check out some mp3s, and support what these guys are doing.

If you have a suggestion for a label we should do an interview with, please post it in the comments. thanks.

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?
Bridge Nine: Bridge Nine started in 1995, in my college dorm room. I had been going to school in VT, 2 states away from my local CT scene, and to keep myself connected to my hometown hardcore scene I decided to put out a split 7″ with some bands that I knew. Friends of mine knew people who ran labels where they were from, so they told me I should try and put out a record. They got me in touch with Scott from Bloodlink, who politely listened to my pitch for information, and he helped point me in the right direction in the manufacturing process. The label spent the first 2 years in VT, but in ‘98 I moved to Boston, spent the next 5 years there, and in 2003 moved 30 minutes north to Salem, MA. I started running the label full time in 2001, and in only the past 9 months have I started getting some real help in the major decision dept. What don’t people know about B9? Most of the early releases were funded by selling anti-Yankees gear to Sox fans outside Fenway Park, which folded into a second business called Sully’s Tees, which is how I make my living - I don’t take a paycheck from B9, instead I allow the money to go back into the label so that we can continue putting out as many records as we do.

IndieHQ: What active bands are on your label?
HAVE HEART
DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR
OUTBREAK
RUINER
AMBITIONS
CEREMONY
MILES AWAY
PALEHORSE
NO TURNING BACK
TRIPLE THREAT

IndieHQ: What do you look for in a band? Have you ever signed a band from a demo? Bridge Nine: What advice do you have for bands trying to get your attention? What band or bands would you kill to work with?
We look for a very strong work ethic in our bands. We HAVE signed a band from a demo but not in a LONG time. If a band wants to get our attention, the BEST way is to do it through a band that we’re currently working with. They have our ears. We want to work with people that can be vouched for. I would love to release a 7″ EP for the Bad Brains or 7 Seconds.

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?
Bridge Nine: Our website. If you’ve got the money, big ads in magazines and samplers and whatnot can be cool, but for labels on a budget, put your resources into your site before anything else. Do your own order fulfillment, have all of your bands’ MP3’s available for people to check out. Our messageboard, through good and bad, has been a huge help for the label. We’ve got literally thousands of kids that we can tell about new vinyl and upcoming tours right at our fingertips.

IndieHQ: What release is your best selling title? How many has it sold?
Bridge Nine: TERROR, “Lowest Of The Low” sold over 20,000 copies. CHAMPION’s “Promises Kept” was a big seller too - DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR’s “Friends Family Forever” is on a fast track over 10,000 copies too. I think their new album will be our best seller by the end of the summer though.

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?
Bridge Nine: We’ve eliminated CDEP’s. We’re only doing full length CD’s now - we’ll do EP’s, but they’re strictly digital / vinyl. We love vinyl, so I’m looking forward to a time where all of our releases are digital / vinyl only. Stores return CDEP’s way too quickly, and we’ve got a basement full of them, so moving forward hopefully going the digital / vinyl route will make our operation more efficient. We also try to focus on doing merch for our bands, because you can’t download a t-shirt.

IndieHQ: Who handles your distribution?
Bridge Nine: In North America, Caroline and Revelation. We’ve got a ton of other distro’s overseas, Karl (B9’s label manager) has been working with people in a ton of different countries.

IndieHQ: What do you see as the future of music sales?
Bridge Nine: I think this is a very unsure time right now, and labels are trying to figure out the best way to do business in a climate where people are so used to trading music and not buying it. At some point paying for downloaded music will become more accepted (hopefully) and the labels that can figure out how to keep their heads above water in the meantime will flourish. Like I said before I am looking forward to a day where we are no longer manufacturing CD’s and sticking to vinyl and digital sales. Lots of labels skip vinyl or just farm it out to smaller labels, which I think is a huge mistake, because once CD’s are gone, you’re going to want to have vinyl so that you can sell something tangible. If you don’t do it now, people might not think of you when they’re looking for vinyl in the future. We manufacture vinyl for most all of our releases.

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?
Bridge Nine: I’m actually not sure. Caroline Distro handles our digital sales - it’s my understanding that we’re on all of the usual places. (from what I can tell, B9 releases are available on Rhapsody but not on Emusic.-virgil)

IndieHQ: If you could tell the world to buy one release on your label, which one would you tell people to purchase? Why?
We did a CD last year called BRIDGE NINE: HARDCORE, which featured 21 bands and was sold for $4.99. I’d suggest checking that out, because you get to sample a ton of bands to see what you might like.

Written by Virgil Dickerson