IndieHQ / Article Detail

June 6th, 2007

Interview with Jacob Bannon of Deathwish Records

It is an honor for me to bring you this interview with Jacob Bannon of Death Wish Records. Jacob has to be one of the busiest people on the planet as he not only co-runs Death Wish, but he also fronts the legendary aggressive act, Converge, and does design work for many of your favorite acts and labels.

We recently wrote a post giving our highest praise for their newly designed website and when doing so, Jacob was kind enough to say thanks. I had been bugging his cohort, Tre, to do an interview and thought why not see if Jacob would. Much to my surprise, he took time out of his busy schedule to do this interview and if you decide to read on which I hope you do, you will see that he elaborates to great length on the label’s long history, his thoughts on the music industry, his feelings on the vinyl format, and what records everyone must hear on the label.

Deathwish is one of those labels that deserve to be the biggest indie label on the planet. They not only put out interesting acts, but they go through painstaking efforts with every aspect of each release from artwork to recording to the band’s branding. These efforts definitely do not go unnoticed to their many die-hard fans, but it is disheartening to see bands/labels with less than 10 percent of the integrity that Deathwish has continue to outsell them. It gives me comfort that these are things that Jacob and Tre do not concern themselves with as they continue to put out powerful and beautiful releases.

Do yourself a favor and stop by their website as it is one of the greatest label sites out there. Thanks Jacob for taking the time to do this interview.

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?
DeathWish: For us the do it yourself approach was out of necessity.

Past:
I’ve been involved in releasing music in some form or another for 15 years. I released the first Converge 7″EP by myself in early 1992. I was 15 at the time. In 1994, when I was 17, I released the Converge “Halo In A Haystack” 12″LP under the “Earthmaker” moniker with an old friend. After that, I focused on making art and playing music rather than releasing records. I never lost interest though. While I was in college, I was simply was too poor to pay my bills, never mind release records.

My partner starting Deathwish, Tre, was also in an area hardcore band in the early 90’s and that’s how we both met. Shortly after we met, he started travelling with Converge in a roadie capacity and we all became like family. After writing fanzines for a good while, his interests turned to releasing records. In 1995 he released the Converge “Unloved & Weeded Out” 7″EP on his label “Orion Quest” with a friend. They went on to release a 7 “EP for Atlanta’s Inkwell, before that partnership ended.

I started rethinking the label/brand concept in early 1998. At that time I just graduated college and was financially scraping by designing album packaging for record labels. At that point, I began interacting with labels on the back end of things as oppose to the “front end” as an artist. To me the evolving label world was interesting and flawed at the same time. I saw a lot of room for change/progression in the model that I was familiar with.

Tre was the only person I would want to start a business with, especially a new kind of record label. I approached him with the idea, and thankfully he was excited about it. Over a period of time we created a rough business plan and together started planning what is now “Deathwish”. He left his tour managing position with Boysetsfire to pursue it, and I’ve dedicated my life to it. We are equal partners in the label and both guide where this ship is going.

Present:
Our label is currently based in Beverly MA. We have a 3300 sq ft space that houses all things Deathwish, as well as The Kenmore Agency (agent for Converge, Bleeding Through, Job For A Cowboy, Nachtmystium, The Red Chord, etc). Deathwish currently has a staff of five people; four full time employees and one part time employee. We hope to grow more in the near future in that regard.

I do work at Deathwish full time but I do not get paid for my efforts. I pay my bills through design work and art projects.
In that respect, it’s more like I have two jobs during the work week; Deathwish and Design work (three if you count making music).

Deathwish has released music for a number of well known artists: 100 Demons, 108, A Life Once Lost, Blacklisted, Boysetsfire, Breather Resist, Converge, Cursed, Doomriders, First Blood, The Hope Conspiracy, Integrity, Modern Life Is War, Ringworm, Rise And Fall, Some Girls, The Suicide File, Terror, This Is Hell, and many more. It’s been an honor to work with them all.

IndieHQ: What active bands are on your label? (please include myspace urls or website urls)
DeathWish: Though many of the bands we have worked with are active (you can find that list @ www.deathwishinc.com), below is an abbreviated list of bands with releases on the horizon with Deathwish:

108 http://www.weare108.com, http://www.myspace.com/108music
Blacklisted http://www.myspace.com/blacklisted
The Blinding Light
Cast Aside http://www.myspace.com/castaside
Cold World http://www.myspace.com/thecoldworld
Converge http://www.convergecult.com, http://www.myspace.com/converge
Doomriders http://www.myspace.com/doomriders
Final Fight http://www.myspace.com/finalfight
The Great Deceiver http://www.thegreatdeceiver.com
Holyghost http://www.myspace.com/holyghost13
The Hope Conspiracy http://www.myspace.com/hopecon
Integrity http://www.theblackestcurse.com, http://www.myspace.com/integrity
Killing The Dream http://www.killingthedream.com, http://www.myspace.com/killingthedream
Life Long Tragedy http://www.lifelongtragedy.net , http://www.myspace.com/lifelongtragedy
Pulling Teeth http://www.pullingteethmd.com, http://www.myspace.com/pullingteethmd
Ringworm http://www.myspace.com/ringworm13
Rise And Fall http://www.myspace.com/riseandfall13
Shipwreck http://www.myspace.com/shipwreckmv
Trap Them http://www.myspace.com/trapthem

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?
DeathWish: We look for quality in our artists and releases. Though we release aggressive music, none of our bands are alike. There are parallels and some lineage between them, but they all have their own unique character and approach to what they are.

In the past we have worked with artists from demo recordings, however we no longer accept physical demos. Unfortunately none of us have the time to be able to give proper attention to every demo sent our way anymore. At this point we suggest artists to send urls, Myspace links, etc. It’s more efficient and there is less waste.

And we already work with the bands we would kill to work for.

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?

DeathWish:
Marketing tool(s):
The internet has essentially replaced print for the world and it is no different for independent music.
Knowing how to utilize and manage it is key. Mismanagement of this resource is one of the largest errors I see many labels making.

Manufacturer:
Wells @ Iconomnimedia has been a supporter of Deathwish and a great business partner to us for years.

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?
DeathWish: We both loathe it and embrace it. We feel it’s better to empower your supporters rather than reprimand them, and we take steps to do that everyday.

IndieHQ: Who handles your distribution?
DeathWish: RED and Revelation Distribution in North America.

IndieHQ: What do you see as the future of music sales?
DeathWish: What I find more interesting is what many bands perceptions of “success” are now with a release. If anyone is in the dark, it’s bands/managers who still subscribe to the “dead” label model. I see bands/management buying onto massive tours to “promote” their releases, only to come out with hundreds of thousands in debt and less credibility. Their well is exhausted and they don’t see it. It’s sad really.

All labels and bands are affected by this evolving music community, but it’s not dying, just evolving.

There is still life in both physical and digital releases, you just have to present your efforts in such a way that they are interesting to your supporters.

The labels who are getting critically wounded from the shift in the music community are the one’s who are unable to evolve with it.

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?
DeathWish: Our releases are available from most/all Digital sites. We encourage people to support Downloadpunk.com and iTunes, because as listeners/consumer of music, we tend to frequent these sites more so than others to acquire music.

IndieHQ: If you could tell the world to buy one release on your label, which one would you tell people to purchase? Why?
DeathWish: There are aspects of near every Deathwish release that would appeal to anyone. Many people involved in the aggressive music community quickly become jaded by the sheer volume of mediocre bands and releases out there. Our intent it to have a higher standard and to make jaded ears remember what they loved about aggressive music in the first place.

So yeah, our releases: Blacklisted “Peace On Earth…” gives me goose-bumps and the new 108 floors me everytime I listen to it. I encourage anyone/everyone to check out those releases now.

IndieHQ: One more question specific to you guys: Deathwish focuses a lot of energy into vinyl; how important is the vinyl format for your label and do you envision a future of your releases coming out in only vinyl and digital formats?
DeathWish: Above all we view Deathwish as a brand, not just a label. We’ve always had that approach to what we are. Being just a label by traditional definition would be suicide at this point. Both Tre and I have collected vinyl since our introduction to aggressive music and we both still do. With that said, we’ve always embraced vinyl even when people were looking at it as an archaic media. We love and appreciate its physicality and the subtle nuances that make each copy nearly one of a kind. It’s a welcomed approach to the world of mass replication. And in many ways, vinyl isn’t just a media, it’s a symbol of this counterculture that we are a part of.

We’ve also embraced Digital as well as it appeals to a wide range of listeners for various reasons.

The key is to be aware and flexible as the independent music world constantly evolving. You either evolve with it or get left behind.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Written by Virgil Dickerson