LABEL SPOTLIGHT - DTRASH
RECORDS
Article by Erica
Cynicism,
extreme amounts of caffeine and heavy sound; it’s the stuff that
good labels are made of. I recently had the chance to chat with Jay of
DTRASH Records; a Kitchener-based label that employs all the above to
ensure that the boot stomping, shit-kicking hardcore you came looking
for is kind you’re going to find.
7TH: To start things off could you give some background on the label; how you guys started, who is involved with it now, sort of a general picture for those unfamiliar with DTRASH Records?
J: We started in about ’98, and at the time it was more of an internet collective started by a few bands, like CPUWAR, and DJ Rabies who were from Western U.S/Western Canada. They started it to basically promote each-others bands through the DTRASH name and through this started attracting attention from members on-line who were also involved with making their own music and generally had the type of ethic we had about youth making exciting electronic punked-out sounds. We started to make a lot of new releases of our stuff, really raw, awesome, cool-sounding music that we began getting attention for. At some point though, we began experiencing growing pains. We had all this energy but we didn’t know how to channel it in the right way, sort of with respect to the whole conventional stuff you have to do in music in order to take it to the next level. Around this time a lot of the original members involved with the label moved onto other things, but I had just joined and was really into it. I had put one CDR release out on DTRASH and I had a press release to press which was ‘All Things Are Connected.’ We started promoting Schizoid more and met up with Dan (UNITUS). He (Dan) had heard about us and was psyched about what were doing and put out the second press release. We actually have 2 labels within the label, there’s D-Trash Technologies that puts out the press releases and there’s the on-line releases done through the original DTRASH Records. Basically DTRASH Records, the on-line label, gives us a way to help kids have a vehicle through which to release and expose their ideas, art and sounds to the world. It’s cool because they get really excited about getting to take part in ‘the scene’ we’re helping to create and that eventually brings back more attention to the label and perhaps gets people interested in what we’re doing.
7TH:Is there a particular sound that is synonymous with DTRASH?
J: The label is similar in sound to a lot of heavier stuff involving industrial elements, electronic elements, punk rock, D.I.Y, heavy metal all sort of thrown into a blender together.
7TH: In looking over and listening to some of the bands on the label you quickly get that whole ‘anti-establishment’, ‘anti-authoritarian’, ‘anti-government’ vibe. Does DTRASH ascribe to a certain political agenda in regards to the type of bands on the label or the kind of music being put out there?
J: There’s not really a set ideology, although ideally we’re looking for the kids who are political because it’s something that all of us who help run things feel really strongly about. We do have some quirky one-off releases like Exist that have humorous elements but for the most part our stuff is somewhat serious and political in an unconscious way. It’s not really something that we go out of our way to say like, "hey we’re DTRASH and we’re a whole bunch of leftist anarchists, yadda yadda," ‘cause I mean it’s all pretty relative. However, I’d say that through what we do and how we do it and why we’re doing it, it’s political in the activity.
7TH: Are there other independent or underground labels out there that whether through ideals or practice you guys appreciate or take cues from in how you want DTRASH to function?
J: At least for me, labels like Relapse, Earache Records and Digital Hardcore are great. We draw a lot of from early 90’s industrial labels and heavy metal labels that started mixing industrial and hardcore...sort of like when Godflesh and other bands like that were coming out ....a lot of that kind of sound and imagery. Labels like Relapse Records and Earache Records which had this sort of p.c. agenda in a way with some of the stuff they were doing with Napalm Death and Brutal Truth....that’s the sort of thing we’re into.
7TH: Do you find that the large internet component of DTRASH makes it easier for you guys to function as a label or does it make it harder to work in a market of more traditional set-ups?
J: In terms of the Internet, it’s really easy to do what you want to do, like promoting a band or an upcoming show. I don’t think we would have got to where we are without the internet because it lets a lot of fringe groups, those with more extreme tastes sort of find each-other. You can seek out more specific types of music on the internet, and in terms of those who are going to seek out that kind of stuff and are finding us, from the feedback we’re getting, they are liking what they hear. As for being accepted, there’s always further to go, there’s always another distributor to convince that we’re real, or another magazine to send our stuff to and attempt to win them over. We get people saying ‘oh you’re getting lots of reviews, you’re really getting up there’, and it’s like we’re not even started, there’s so much farther to go. We’re are own biggest critics but we want to do this right.
7TH: Do you find you’re getting more acceptance internationally than locally in terms of how you operate and the type of music going out?
J: Yeah. What’s cool though is that in the process of getting stuff out there internationally we’ve sort of awakened a scene of digital hard-core kids across Canada. Now, if we ever want to do a cross-Canada tour we know where the different spots and people are who put on the hard-core shows. UK though is where we’ve received a lot decent attention, press and distribution.
7TH: Ten years from now what do you want to see DTRASH as having accomplished or what do ideally see DTRASH being able to do?
J: By that point I’d like to see us doing international tours, to do a lot more press releases, to where we’re in the hundreds in our on-line releases. Where we have a real network going in satisfying our original aims of the whole collective-type approach, where everyone is out attempting to help each other promote each other’s stuff. Its amazing in seeing what happens from here to here when something happens that you think wouldn’t happen for another few years or happens in half of a year instead of a year. I think if we’re still around in another ten years it’s going to be really something; it’s only been four so far and already it’s been an amazing progress to watch
Relevant Links: www.dtrashrecords.com
www.schizoid.org
http://blackh3ll1k0pt3r.com
<<<Back To The Features Section...
Article by Erica
Cynicism,
extreme amounts of caffeine and heavy sound; it’s the stuff that
good labels are made of. I recently had the chance to chat with Jay of
DTRASH Records; a Kitchener-based label that employs all the above to
ensure that the boot stomping, shit-kicking hardcore you came looking
for is kind you’re going to find. 7TH: To start things off could you give some background on the label; how you guys started, who is involved with it now, sort of a general picture for those unfamiliar with DTRASH Records?
J: We started in about ’98, and at the time it was more of an internet collective started by a few bands, like CPUWAR, and DJ Rabies who were from Western U.S/Western Canada. They started it to basically promote each-others bands through the DTRASH name and through this started attracting attention from members on-line who were also involved with making their own music and generally had the type of ethic we had about youth making exciting electronic punked-out sounds. We started to make a lot of new releases of our stuff, really raw, awesome, cool-sounding music that we began getting attention for. At some point though, we began experiencing growing pains. We had all this energy but we didn’t know how to channel it in the right way, sort of with respect to the whole conventional stuff you have to do in music in order to take it to the next level. Around this time a lot of the original members involved with the label moved onto other things, but I had just joined and was really into it. I had put one CDR release out on DTRASH and I had a press release to press which was ‘All Things Are Connected.’ We started promoting Schizoid more and met up with Dan (UNITUS). He (Dan) had heard about us and was psyched about what were doing and put out the second press release. We actually have 2 labels within the label, there’s D-Trash Technologies that puts out the press releases and there’s the on-line releases done through the original DTRASH Records. Basically DTRASH Records, the on-line label, gives us a way to help kids have a vehicle through which to release and expose their ideas, art and sounds to the world. It’s cool because they get really excited about getting to take part in ‘the scene’ we’re helping to create and that eventually brings back more attention to the label and perhaps gets people interested in what we’re doing.
7TH:Is there a particular sound that is synonymous with DTRASH?
J: The label is similar in sound to a lot of heavier stuff involving industrial elements, electronic elements, punk rock, D.I.Y, heavy metal all sort of thrown into a blender together.
7TH: In looking over and listening to some of the bands on the label you quickly get that whole ‘anti-establishment’, ‘anti-authoritarian’, ‘anti-government’ vibe. Does DTRASH ascribe to a certain political agenda in regards to the type of bands on the label or the kind of music being put out there?
J: There’s not really a set ideology, although ideally we’re looking for the kids who are political because it’s something that all of us who help run things feel really strongly about. We do have some quirky one-off releases like Exist that have humorous elements but for the most part our stuff is somewhat serious and political in an unconscious way. It’s not really something that we go out of our way to say like, "hey we’re DTRASH and we’re a whole bunch of leftist anarchists, yadda yadda," ‘cause I mean it’s all pretty relative. However, I’d say that through what we do and how we do it and why we’re doing it, it’s political in the activity.
7TH: Are there other independent or underground labels out there that whether through ideals or practice you guys appreciate or take cues from in how you want DTRASH to function?
J: At least for me, labels like Relapse, Earache Records and Digital Hardcore are great. We draw a lot of from early 90’s industrial labels and heavy metal labels that started mixing industrial and hardcore...sort of like when Godflesh and other bands like that were coming out ....a lot of that kind of sound and imagery. Labels like Relapse Records and Earache Records which had this sort of p.c. agenda in a way with some of the stuff they were doing with Napalm Death and Brutal Truth....that’s the sort of thing we’re into.
7TH: Do you find that the large internet component of DTRASH makes it easier for you guys to function as a label or does it make it harder to work in a market of more traditional set-ups?
J: In terms of the Internet, it’s really easy to do what you want to do, like promoting a band or an upcoming show. I don’t think we would have got to where we are without the internet because it lets a lot of fringe groups, those with more extreme tastes sort of find each-other. You can seek out more specific types of music on the internet, and in terms of those who are going to seek out that kind of stuff and are finding us, from the feedback we’re getting, they are liking what they hear. As for being accepted, there’s always further to go, there’s always another distributor to convince that we’re real, or another magazine to send our stuff to and attempt to win them over. We get people saying ‘oh you’re getting lots of reviews, you’re really getting up there’, and it’s like we’re not even started, there’s so much farther to go. We’re are own biggest critics but we want to do this right.
7TH: Do you find you’re getting more acceptance internationally than locally in terms of how you operate and the type of music going out?
J: Yeah. What’s cool though is that in the process of getting stuff out there internationally we’ve sort of awakened a scene of digital hard-core kids across Canada. Now, if we ever want to do a cross-Canada tour we know where the different spots and people are who put on the hard-core shows. UK though is where we’ve received a lot decent attention, press and distribution.
7TH: Ten years from now what do you want to see DTRASH as having accomplished or what do ideally see DTRASH being able to do?
J: By that point I’d like to see us doing international tours, to do a lot more press releases, to where we’re in the hundreds in our on-line releases. Where we have a real network going in satisfying our original aims of the whole collective-type approach, where everyone is out attempting to help each other promote each other’s stuff. Its amazing in seeing what happens from here to here when something happens that you think wouldn’t happen for another few years or happens in half of a year instead of a year. I think if we’re still around in another ten years it’s going to be really something; it’s only been four so far and already it’s been an amazing progress to watch
Relevant Links: www.dtrashrecords.com
www.schizoid.org
http://blackh3ll1k0pt3r.com
<<<Back To The Features Section...