Thanks to Nicole Hendrix (Artemis) for providing this. Message-Id: <03JUN96.10641848.0019.MUSIC@MUSIC.CC.UGA.EDU> Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 09:51:12 EDT From: Artemis Subject: JES interview (excerpted) N. How did you guys decide to start another label? J. Well, when no one is interested in the music you play, what do you do? Victor and I started Magnetic because that was the only way we could keep making records. N. How many bands do you handle? J. just two real ones, Jack and Jill and Great Laugh. The others are defunct or just recording units. This is really a vanity label for me and Vic--this is all for us. You know what's wierd? N. No. J. Off the subject, I know. N. It's okay, go ahead. J. Greg and Victor and I went to see Cracker a few nights ago. N. This is in SF? J. Yeah, at the Fillmore. N. was that strange for you? Do any of you talk to David? J. Well, it was a little weird. I talked to david some after i got kicked out of Camper and a little since then, but Greg and Victor haven't really talked to him in a long time. i'm sure it was awkward for them. He came over and said hello and talked a few minutes. not too long--it was crowded and he had other people to talk to. what 's wierder than us being there was that David's old girlfriend was there. she was his girlfriend the whole time that Camper van beethoven was together and now he's married to someone else. ------------------------------ Message-Id: <25JUN96.19450148.0031.MUSIC@MUSIC.CC.UGA.EDU> Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 18:00:33 EDT From: Artemis Subject: JES interview beware, everyone. the questions are becoming more and more cryptic, since they're not recorded in the main interview. N: Why choose to run your own label? J: Well, if no one else is interested, what do you do? We're very much in that position right now. N:How many bands does Magnetic handle? J: Just two--Jack and Jill and Great Laugh. We don't really even do our own booking, or at least AGL doesn't. j & J does nearly all West Coast bookings. We've actually had some problems booking J&J. No one really know us as you get up the coast and not that many people are interested, really. N: You don't seem perturbed by that. J: No, we're not, really. This label is basically a matter of vanity. Victor and I just want to put out our records and Magnetic is a way to do that. N: Do you see a big difference between P-a-T and Magnetic? J: Oh yes, definitely. Labels aren't really the same things now that they used to be. It's totally changed from the 80s to 90s. It used to be that you could establish a label and people would buy from that label. they'd discover a label that put out things they liked and say 'well, it's a little label out of chicago, so i'll buy it.' the ones [labels] getting distribution now are affiliated with the majors. people are less willing to take a risk on labels and albums they aren't familiar with. People impulse buy less now. We're dealing with the Northwest Alliance and even they will only deal with us on a per-CD basis. It's difficult. We feel like they ignore us a lot. We called them and they never got back to us about booking ourselves in the North and it's because we aren't important. You have to be important. >From 1986 to 1990, a lot of the little labels got sucked up by the major and a lot of artists left smaller labels. The little labels--a lot of them--went bankrupt. Our CDs and a lot of others that go through labels without ties to the majors--distributors don't even know where to get them. N: what do you do in terms of advertising? J: we advertise in _Option_ and some other bigger magazines, but mostly it's fanzines. Honestly, I don't know where to go. I can't really tell what good it does us, if the advertising helps or not. We do mailing to people on the mailing list and run a web page. With our distribution, we don't do well. We've sold maybe 500 copies of each CD. If you want to compare that to _Storytelling_, my album, in '89 it sold 5,000 copies It's all distribution. Of course we sold more when we worked through Rough Trade. [there's more, but it's all technical.] ------------------------------Date: Mon, 01 Jul 1996 18:44:33 EDT From: Artemis Subject: forgot hey, all...i just realized that I omitted JES's speaking of the untimely (temporary) demise of AGL because it wasn't part of the "real" interview Sorry. N: What is up with AGL? J: Oh, that's a a long story. After one of the shows, the band sent Jason home... N: Are you saying why or is that... J: No, he was just being too much of a junkie. They put him on a plane and mailed him home. Things were a little crazy. They all were at Victor's Uncle's in St. Louis taking pictures and John got hit by a car. the photos were of the band in front of Krummenacher's pharmacy, it's Victor's Uncle's, and John was crossing the street to get more film N: [undescribable oh no! noise] J: yeah, it was bad. They thought he was dead, saw him fly through the air and all that. He broke his leg and some bones in his face. He's slowly recovering. It gets worse, though. They had a tire problem some where near Laramie and Chris, that's Chris Xefos, went a little nuts, too. N: [more noises.] J: You know the worst part? N: There's more? J: Yeah. During the whole mess with the van, all the fun stuff they got >from [Poi Dog Pondering] fell out someplace. All the free CDs I was supposed to get got lost.