Please tell me, when, how and by whom Bloodshot-Records was started? And why a Country-label?

Bloodshot surfaced sometime between late 1993 and early 1994. It was started by three individuals, who were all involved into music business to some degree. At that time there were quite a few bands in Chicago, that played a mix of traditional country and punk, but that was a rather loose scene. These bands had a hard time getting shows and had no records released. Nan and Rob, the current co-owners of Bloodshot-Records spinned country-records every Wednesday in a bar called “Crash Palace. (Nowadays it is called Delilah’s but Wednesday night is still country-night.) After meeting a lot of bands and seeing a lot of shows, they decided that a compilation-CD might be a good idea. On it were all the bands from Chicago. That was actually all they ever wanted to do. Then came a few 7-inches by the Waco Brothers and Moonshine Willy, two of these bands from Chicago. From there the whole thing grew into full-length albums and they started signing contracts with bands from other places. There never was the desire to own a record-label. But it is still better than a real job. People reacted very positive to these first releases, one came to the other and now I am here retelling the story of Bloodshot. Moreover, there is something great about seeing a lot of nice promises go down the toilet.

The Waco Brothers in front of the Bloodshot-Logo

When did you start listening to Country-music? Who are your favourite artists (except those on the label of course)?

I have been listening to Country ever since I was a little kid. My very first record was “Encore” by Johnny Cash. With the age of 10 I was dressed up as Hank Williams Jr. for Helloween. Shortly thereafter all I wanted to do was to rock so I spent my teenage days listening to Metallica, Ozzy, etc. As I grew older I dusted off the old records and started searching out new ones. I personally prefer the old performers like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, etc.

Why is 95 % of all Country Music pure shite? How do you tell good from bad?

Somewhere in the time of Ronnie Milsap country-music lost its soul. The big hitmakers from the old days like Willie Nelson or Loretta Lynn grew old and didn’t get played on the radio anymore. Suddenly there were people like Randy Travis or George Strait. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but suddenly there were also people who copied that sound.

Earlier, a lot of those people who made country-music also lived their songs. They came from the country or the working-class and they sang about things that were important to them. Nowadays the only people who can identify with country are bored housewives from the badlands of Nebraska. As Robbie Fulks used to says, most country is “soft-rock feminist crap”. Just look at all the big stars: Shania Twain’s husband / producer is Matt Lange, who also produced AC/DC and Def Leppard. Vince Gill has a new hit and it is a duet with Barbara Streisand. That ain’t country anymore and that is why whatever is being called country nowadays is so shitty. Its not real anymore, it has no soul.

TWO MUST-HAVE RECORDS:

Waco Brothers - "Waco World" (BS43)

The Pine Valley Cosmonauts - "salute the Majesty of Bob Wills" (BS29)

How do people react when you tell them that you not only like country-music but also that you produce it?

Most are puzzled. I have to explain to them, that I am not talking about Garth Brooks, when I am talking about country. Most people don’t know any country-music, especially because there is no place where you can listen to it. You have to get up and search those records out. But when I explain to them how we combine Punk and Country and that our bands drink a lot and play very loud, they seem a lot more interested than before.

Are there other cool country-labels besides Bloodshot that we should know about (you don’t have to answer if that touches your vital business interests)?

Regarding our business interests, I’ll have to say the following: buy all our records! We are the best label producing this kind of music. There are a few good bands on other labels as well, but no other label has so many good bands, that make this music. But since you asked, a few of the bands I like, who are on other labels, are: The Handsome Family, The Bottlerockets and Johnny Dowd.

I get the feeling that Bloodshot a label with a punkrock-attitude is (which means DIY, fair trading, being cool, music more important than money…) Is that true? What are your principles of business? Do you have any “punk-roots”?

Our business principle: working with people we like to produce music we like. Sell. Repeat.

When we started, we didn’t even have contracts. We started with contracts, when we saw that some labels, who worked hard for some bands, where fucked over by them. So we use contracts to cover our ass. There are four people working full time here. The owners pay themselves the same they do us and they also do all the mind-numbing tasks such as putting together the catalogue, glueing CDs, etc. Nan and Rob, the owners, were punkrock-kids a long time ago. A lot of our acts have stories about punkbands that they used play in. Jon Langford and Sally Timms play with the Mekons, one of the earliest punkbands that are still around. We used to be located in a cellar with a single window. Up to six people were down there at times, together with all inventory, computers, desks, etc. I can’t remember how often I hit my head on some pipe or ventilation. Nowadays our offices are above streetlevel. That might not be as punkrock as before, but we still use it as a drug lab, so that is quite punk.

To me, the border between a major- and a minor-label in C&W doesn’t seem to be so big. I mean, some really good acts, like Steve Earle or BR5-49 (also Robbie Fulks likes them) are on major labels. So, what is a country-sell-out? Who would you call as such? Do you want Bloodshot to strike it big?

I think, you are right up to a certain point. At the same time there are vast differences. Regarding airplay on mainstream-country-radio, the differences couldn’t be greater. Some part of the underground does get some attention, due to its quality. Those acts you mentioned, Steve Earle and BR5-49, don’t get played on the radio, but they are mentioned in magazines like Rolling Stone. That doesn’t happen to Garth Brooks.

Two of our bands went to major labels. Robbie Fulks was dropped in the meantime. Old ’97 have released two records on Elektra. I don’t think that they have sold but they didn’t get on to well. If Old ‘97s sell 50.000 records on Elektra, the label is disappointed. If we sell 50.000 records by Old ‘97s, we’ll have to throw all the CDs out of our storage to fit the money-bags.

Majorlabels don’t really know what to do with that sort of bands. Not every band that signs with them is necessarily a sell-out, but it is often not a good move career-wise. We offered some bands contracts with Bloodshot, who preferred to go to a major label. Two of them made a record that is still collecting dust on some shelf. If the had signed with us, the record would have been released, they could have toured it and they could have made themselves a name. With this kind of music, you’ll get the same recognition on Bloodshot as on a major label. We might not have as much money to spend, but that also means, that the artists start seeing money earlier.

I know that everyone here would like to see Bloodshot really big, but we do have a certain responsibility. We had a few offers by Major-Labels, who wanted to buy, but that would have meant the end of Bloodshot rather than success.

What is the plan with the sublabel Bloodshot-Revival?

We had the luck to start cooperating with the soundies-label on that one. Now we have access to hundreds of hours of recorded transcriptions. During the 40ies and until the 60ies a lot of radiostations received these tapes and the artists had their airplay with them. Of course, the big houses had their own transcription-houses, but there were also some independent recording-studios. And now we have full access to the catalogues of two of the bigger ones of these. It takes a long time to find out what is on where, because we are talking about hundreds of recordings here. Not only country, there is Jazz, Blues, Polka and Pop. We will release music like that until it dries out. This year there will be four releases and maybe a boxed set.

Do you see analogies between country and punk? (I am only talking about the C&W-underground.) What are the differences, not musically but regarding attitude, production, etc.?

We live to bring out these analogies. All our bands are used to sleeping in vans, they carry their own equipment. They rock even harder live than on the records. In the studio most tracks are recorded live and our bands usually take only days to record an album instead of weeks.

How do people react to towards Bloodshot-Records? Are there local differences, maybe in Chicago, in Europe, etc.? What is the favourite act? Which one incites the most anger or is the most misunderstood?

We have some fans who own everything we ever released. Our releases do get reviewed and we have been mentioned in the Rolling Stone and the New York Times. Most of our fans are from the Midwest, where most of our bands are touring. Cities like Minneapolis, Minnesota or Kansas City, Missouri have a good scene for our kind of music. The only place that doesn’t work so well is Florida. Few of our bands have made it down there. It is hard to say, which one is the favourite act of listeners, so I won’t pick one. But I get up to say that Split Lip Rayfield rock harder than most other bands who use electricity as a crutch.

As far as anger is concerned, Robbie Fulks is way up on that list. Surprisingly, most people don’t understand his sense of humour. We received a lot of letters in which people complained about his lyrics or attitude. Some even sent back the CD.

Stacy at the Bloodshot-HQ

A lot of people say that country is only racist, conservative, nationalist and sexist bullshit. I tell them that there is an underground of cool bands with “real” music and that they should check it out. What would you tell them (except from get lost)?

Wow! Some people take music way too seriously. If you want to think about things like that, why don’t you visit some socialist meeting or go into some sort of museum. We don’t try to save the world, we only want to produce music you can enjoy. If you look at all the country-mainstream, you’ll find the music that is more real here. Because it comes from the heart it might be a little rougher and not as politically correct as some might be used to, but that doesn’t make the music worse, only more true. And that is what is missing in most music today.

Rick Rubin had a genius idea when he put Johnny Cash in front of an audience with nothing more than an acoustic guitar. Now he did the same for Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. Do you like these records? Have you considered doing something similar (I’d recommend Porter Waggoner or Kris Kristofferson)?

I am a big Johnny Cash-Fan and to me “American Recordings” and “Storytellers” are great records. You can hear the honesty of the songs and the performers. The problem of country-music today is, that it is way to much produced and polished. Those old records didn’t have the problem and that is why “Live at Folsom Prison” is such a classic .A Live-Setting is always good for country. Alejandro Escovedo had two records that were basically live-recordings. “More miles than money” was recorded over the years by a few friends of him all over the USA. Some tracks are even from Paris. Last year, Alejandro Escovedo was in the city and we organised a mobile recording studio for him. He came in, played a few songs and the result was “Bourbonitis Blues”. Even though there was no audience at that session, it has that live-feeling. It was one of our most successful records this year.

You have a homepage (www.bloodshotrecords.com) – does it work? I mean, do people use it to buy records? How important is e-commerce for you?

Our homepage works. With a credit card you can order all of our records. You can also print out an ordersheet and fax it. We had a fast mailorder, but ever since there is the homepage, people prefer to use that. E-commerce has reached an important place in our sales. Between our site and others like Amazon.com or CDNow, I’d say that 10% of our sales are a direct result to the internet. We also have agreements with some places where you can downlaod music track by track and we are looking at some others. I don’t think that anybody here wants to see CDs being replaced by computer-files. Nevertheless we have a sharp eye on the Internet, since it is a very powerful tool, to sell music and to get known by people you wouldn’t meet any other way.

Have you visited mp3.com? There are some great country-bands from all over the world (Eve Selis, Tumbleweed Trail, and others)?

We know mp3.com but we don’t use it as much as we should, maybe. At the moment we have more than enough troubles with our own homepage, so we don’t think too much about getting our music onto other sites. We want that, but if a business is run by people, who have made their degrees in literary sciences, technology always remains a little alien.