Are You In The Music Business?
Or Just Involved In Music?
Interview Series #1
Featuring Jordan Stamm of Drunk Dial Records
CC: Hello Jordan! Could you start off by telling the readers a little bit about yourself and Drunk Dial Records? Do you recall how you and I met?
JS: Hey! The long story short is that I’m a music fan, and there’s nothing I love more than discovering and sharing bands with people. When most people were learning to play guitar in their teen years, I was learning how to promote bands. Through reputation, I got a job at a local SF Bay Area label called Orange Peal Records when I was 16 and quickly began signing bands there. I started my first label (Darkwhite Records) when I was 17, and within a few years the reality of the music *business* started to clash with my idealism. I quit both labels and moved to Portland, Oregon.
Fast forward 10 years: my love for music never went away, and my desire to put out music came creeping back. I wanted to release music again, but I didn’t want to deal with money, contracts, or frontmen who wanted to get famous. One night at a bar, I came up with the idea for drunk dial -- basically getting bands drunk in the studio and forcing them to write a song on the spot, then releasing it on 7”. The idea stuck, and over the next few nights of drinking, it was refined into the label it is today. I cut back my drinking a few years ago, so I actually remember precisely how we met! Your band SPELLS was on tour with Drakulas, and you sent me an email inviting me out to the gig. Some combination of being broke and depressed kept me at home that night, but a few months later we had become friends, and I ended up putting out a Drakulas Drunk Dial a few years after that.
CC: Do you have an overall opinion of the music business? If so, what is it?
JS: The music business is such a huge thing to have a single opinion about. I think it’s evil and broken. Commodifying art is disgusting. But I also need it to exist to survive. I think grocery stores and fossil fuels are evil too. But I still need pizza, you know? If you ask me about smaller aspects of the music industry, I’m down to gripe. Predatory contracts, recouping costs, music festivals, vinyl variants, record store day… give me an hour and I’ll spit venom.
CC: What does punk rock mean to you and how do you apply that to your record label operations?
To me, punk means not bending on giving a fuck.
JS: This is such a funny question. Normally I find it so annoying when people discuss what is and isn’t punk. But I happened to have a conversation about this with the artist Zach Hobbs yesterday. He said that to him, punk means hard work. So cool right? So I spent a few minutes trying to come up with a good response, and I said “to me, punk means not bending on giving a fuck.” I apply that to everything in my life, including the label. I give a fuck about what I’m making. I give a fuck about the musicians and artists I work with. I give a fuck about coming up with deals that benefit everyone involved. I give a fuck about what’s going on in the world, so I use my platform to be politically active and raise money for causes that matter. Drunk Dial is never going to be widely loved or mainstream. It will never pay for itself, but I’m not going to bend on giving a fuck. Zach was right too… It’s hard fuckin’ work.
CC: Do you think that making money in punk rock has become less taboo as time goes on? It seems like the “sell out” moniker hasn’t applied to industry-successful punk-related bands since the mid-'00s.
JS: Maybe so. I don’t necessarily think it’s a good thing, though. It’s one thing to understand that musicians need to pay their bills. It takes money to go on tour, physical sales are down, and the slice of the pie that musicians get keeps getting smaller and smaller. But I still think it’s distasteful to charge $40 for a shirt, $50–$200 for concert tickets, and all the ridiculous cash grabs from bands like NOFX and Green Day make me sick. It’s all just symptoms of a broken industry though. Bands should be able to make albums and tour and afford to live without needing to “sell out.” I guess I agree that it’s become less taboo for bands to sell out, but maybe we should’ve redirected that anger toward the corporations getting fat off art and our dime.
CC: What are the financial realities of your label? As a mostly 7” label, is it getting more difficult to maintain your initial vision?
JS: Oh, running a 7” label is the dumbest financial decision ever. There isn’t a huge market for 45s, and there’s a limit to how much you can charge for them and still be “punk.” Plus, they keep getting more expensive to produce. I knew there was no money in the concept/format when I started it. I also give the bands who participate a large portion of the records to sell on their own. My initial vision was always about putting out something cool with bands I like. I can keep doing that and not make money forever and still be happy.
My financial situation, like everyone else’s, has gotten more precarious over the past few years, and it’s resulted in fewer sales and limited my ability to release things. The hardest part has been having to pass on projects I’d really love to be a part of. Hopefully money and interest will come back around again so I can pump out more nonsense. Either way, I’m not going to pack up the label anytime soon.
CC: Piggybacking on the prior question, do you see yourself expanding more into other formats? You’ve done a few cassettes and an LP. Has either of those formats stuck in your brain the way the 7” series has?
JS: I’d love to expand into other formats. I’ve got a lot of good (dumb) ideas for bigger projects. You and I worked together last year to put out a 12” full-length release with the band Night Court, and while I love the music and the finished product, it felt strange to release a traditional full-length album on 12”. I guess I crave the weirdness and oddity of the drunk dial 7” series and my cover song tape compilations. Maybe I feel safer making things nobody else is making, rather than competing with more established labels doing things the traditional way.
CC: What have you enjoyed the most about running a record label? What sorts of lessons have you learned or insights have you gained?
JS: I love making the product, but so much of the process is stressful because I feel a lot of pressure to do right by the bands who’ve taken the risk of participating and entrusted me with their music and their good names. I think what I most enjoy these days is the same thing I enjoyed when I started in the business as a 15 year-old: just getting online and sharing the music of bands I love with other cool people. The community of vinyl nerds, music snobs, artists, and musicians I’ve met through Drunk Dial means so much to me. It’s a big reason why I can’t imagine closing up shop.
As for lessons and insight? I dunno. I guess I’ve learned that liking ska shouldn’t immediately and completely disqualify a person.
CC: Finally, what’s next on the horizon for Drunk Dial?
JS: Next up for Drunk Dial is the third (and probably final) installment of the “Fakes” series on cassette. This is the series where real bands cover songs that only exist in fiction… songs like “3 Small Words” by Josie and the Pussycats and “Sugar, Sugar” from The Archies. This volume took a long time to put together, but it sounds great, and I’m really excited to finally share it. To avoid being sued by the copyright owners, we donate all the proceeds to charity, and this one will be no different. No charity has been decided on yet, but if there are any organizations out there who throw ICE agents into active volcanoes looking for some extra funds, hit me up.
There’s a chance a band I’ve been wanting to work with since day one will record Drunk Dial #14 this summer, so I’m saving up some money and keeping my dance card open for them. If anybody reading this has a birthday coming up, please use your candle-wish to make this happen and I’ll buy the first round the next time we hang out.
