Interview: Soda Jerk Presents

bst interviews mike sodajerk. by eduardo moutinho A couple of days ago, I had the chance to interview Mike Soda Jerk, the man behind Soda Jerk Records and Soda Jerk Presents, two prevalent institutions in the Colorado music scene. I made sure to go over all aspects of what Mike does as a head of a record label and concert promoter. Here is a recap of the interview. This interview took place on Friday, April 4th, 2003 by phone and e-mail. bst: To start things off, could you go over what you basically do as the head of Soda Jerk Records and Soda Jerk Presents? mike: Um... I mean as far as the label goes I guess it's pretty obvious that we've slowed down. I don't spend much time on that anymore, and I'm looking to wind things down. The label is pretty much done, and that's a decision we recently made. We've done the label since '95 and it's become increasingly more difficult to do it. It's really hard these days to sell records. More and more retail stores are less willing to take in new releases on smaller labels. They only want to bring in the titles they know they can turn around in a very short amount of time. Used to be indies versus majors now it’s small indies versus huge indies (i.e. Vagrant, Fat, Victory, etc.) and it’s very hard to convince stores to stock a record by a new band unless you have the cash, and a lot of it, to market and support the release. Obviously, if you can't sell enough records, it's hard to keep the cash flowing. And you need the cash to continue to adequately promote the records and bands on your label. That's one part of the decision, and the other part has to do with (Soda Jerk) Presents. My focus has been drifting that way for a while. If I can't do something like my label 110%, then I don’t want to do it. That’s just the way I am. If I run my label half-assed it's not fair to the bands that have trusted me with their music, the distributors who rely on me to market the bands to make sure they sell a lot of records, and the stores, so that they don’t end up sitting on a bunch of dead inventory. As far as (Soda Jerk) Presents goes, there are a million different things I do all day everyday. Today for example, I’ve been up since 7:00 a.m., as I am everyday, went through e-mail, updated the website, put together the show update for the mailing list, confirmed a show, set up ticketing for some shows, got together ticket counts for an agent, dealt with and looked over contracts, got some flyers done, put some ads together, worked on ticket giveaways with radio stations, and I did a bunch of other things. I’m pretty sure I put in approximately 70 hours a week easy. bst: What are the most enjoyable parts of your job? mike: Um, I think the most enjoyable part of it, for me, as far as the shows go, is when it all comes together on the day of the show. For me, that's the biggest payoff, to see everyone coming together. It's like planning a party. Each and every show I book is like me throwing a big party. You know, you never want to be that guy that throws a party and nobody comes, but when you have these shows and the bands are clicking and the crowd is having a great time, that’s the best part of my job. I totally love to see people having fun. I think that’s why I do almost 100 percent all ages shows. The kids are the most enthusiastic, much more than the old fucks. I really like to put together shows where people can come together and have a good time. Some of the best memories I have are from when I was younger going to shows with my friends, the bands I saw, and the things that happened on those nights. Those memories will never leave me. It makes me happy to produce these shows and hopefully create some good memories for the people that come. bst: What are the least enjoyable parts of your job? mike: I would say that for the most part it's dealing with the agents. The agents represent the bands, and they're out to get the most money possible for their bands. I'm out to put on these shows for as cheap as I can. My biggest concern is always ticket prices, and to keep them as low as possible while still being able to cover all the expenses involved in doing the show. As you can imagine, these agents have pretty big egos. They're tough and a lot of them are total assholes. I mean, there's just a lot of busywork that goes along with promoting shows. Like dealing with the owners of venues, printing flyers, and lots of other mundane tasks, that I’d rather not have to do but needs to be done. I think sometimes people think these shows just happen or appear magically. There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into making a show go off. It’s all hard work, but it’s worth it. bst: What made you get in this business in the first place? mike: It started as the label. Music, punk rock, scene, you can say, is something that I've always been involved with since I've been 13, 14 years old. Over half my life I guess... It's something I've always been involved with, since high school. I was in a hardcore band through high school and into college. We put out a record and did some touring. I finished school, and moved out here. When I got here, I decided to start a record label, and that's what I wanted to do. I was friends with a lot of bands, and a lot of friends of mine were musicians. I wanted to get these guys heard, since nobody else would give them a chance. I wanted to continue to be an artist, without being in a band anymore. I felt that putting out records was or could be like my form of art. You know, I feel like this is my art, being able to do this. I can put out these records by bands I think deserve to be heard. I can have this collage or collection of work. As far as (Soda Jerk) Presents goes, that kind of sprung out of a need for me to book shows for bands on my label. I'd run into people that weren't willing to help my bands get shows, so I decided to book them myself. That way, I didn't have to worry about asking people to put a show on for my bands. That's what we did, and from there it evolved. I've been booking shows since '96 and it has obviously grown quite a bit. As with anything I guess, if you stick with something long enough, it evolves and hopefully in a positive direction. bst: What goes into signing a band and releasing records for them? mike: I think there are two different schools for thought. There are people like me who are pretty egocentric about it, you know. There are bands you really like and you want to put records out for them. Then there are people who want to make money, and tap into the "flavor of the month" type bands. All the bands we ever did records for are bands we knew, or bands we really liked that we became friends with. We really had no set standard on what we were looking for in a band we wanted to release. It was always very emotional or gut reaction. I would listen to bands or see them, they would affect me and I’d say, “I have to put this out!" I mean look at the label. We did a record for Cadillac Blindside, a total emo pop rock band, and then did three records with Crispus Attucks, a total old-school hardcore skaterock thrash band. No label in their right mind would put out records like that. But I liked both bands a lot no matter how different. I think the common thread in all the bands we dealt with, was that they had integrity and believed in what they were doing. When a band is faking it you can tell. We didn’t want to work with any fakers. We wanted the real deal. bst: Similarly, what goes into booking a show? mike: I mean, as far as that goes. Like I said, the bulk of the bands that I deal with are represented by agents. They'll get in touch with us, tell us when the band is coming into town, and they ask us to hold the date and send an offer. Every single show we're bidding on we go up against NIPP (Nobody In Particular Presents). They also send them offers, for their venues. As you can imagine, when we have to submit offers against NIPP, it's like battling a 600-pound gorilla. They have deep pockets. I think we're able to get a lot of the shows we do by virtue of our ethics and philosophy. I was in a band for six years, I ran a label for eight years and I’ve been booking shows for seven years. I know what bands want, I know how they want to be treated. I’ve been there. I think the larger promoters have no idea and treat the bands like shit or like a commodity. I know this for a fact. So, I dunno, as far as like booking shows, that's kind of the basic process. Agents contact us, we submit an offer, and we get it or we don’t. If we get the show, then it’s time to promote, and that's 80 percent of the battle, spreading the word and getting people to come out. bst: As you may know, you have some critics in the scene. Many say that you're in music for the money, or that you don't support the smaller bands around here. What would you like to say to those people, and everyone in general? mike: Oh, I dunno. I read something the other day, and it said something like "everybody talks but nobody knows." It's like that MTV show where they say "You think you know, but you have no idea." I mean, I dunno what to say to that. We do what we can. As far as smaller bands, I feel like we are supportive of smaller bands as much as we can be. People need to realize that shows are not cheap. Like doing a show at Tulagi's costs $2,000 beforepaying the bands. If Joe Blow in a small band, wants me to do a show for their band, they need to realize that I'm on the hook for a lot of money. It's not feasible to take that kind of chance on a smaller, newer, band. For a while, there weren't any small venues for us to do shows for smaller bands. Now, with Club 156, we can do that. It gives us an opportunity to work with smaller bands and try to bring them up. And I think we've done that. In reality, every big local band we've worked with, we gave them their first show. The Gamits, Fairlanes, Pinhead Circus, Planes Mistaken for Stars, we gave them their first show. We supported those bands when they were first starting. They didn’t just come out of the gates as a big band. We gave them the chance and we continue to do so. Look at some of the new bands like, Fear Before the March of Flames, One Dying Wish, and The Last Chance Diaries, we're supporting them. Out of the hundreds of fucking demos we received, we thought they were some of the better local bands. And now we're supporting them and working with them. We thought that they were good at what they did and would give people their money's worth. I don’t know about you but, I've been to enough shows where I'd have to sit through a lot of horrible bands, and I walked away thinking it was a fucking rip off. It’s my obligation to the people that pay money to go to our shows. We need to make sure that the bands that are performing are worth the money. I never want to hear someone say “All those bands sucked, Mike Soda Jerk suckered me and made me pay $10 to see four crappy local bands that probably should have spent some more time in the basement practicing before asking people to pay to see them practice.” You know what I mean? I think there are a lot of really good new bands out there and a lot more that are stuck in the basement that will get their chance. If you work hard and develop your music and your band, people will take notice. It takes time, and a lot of these bands need to know that no one owes them anything just because they started a band. They need to work hard. As far as us not supporting local bands, I think it's crap. I think that comes from some kid in some band that we turned down. That kind of talk usually comes from someone who's feelings we hurt. Sorry kid, life is tough and you can’t always get what you want. The other obligation we have is to the venues we deal with. The fact that places like Tulagi, or places with bars, open their place up for all ages shows is a feat in itself. We need to make sure that the shows we do there do fairly well. For us to bring smaller bands into a room like that is impossible, unless we add them to a show with bigger bands, which I'm all about. Another thing is, a thing that has changed over the last few years, are these packaged tours with three or four bands coming to town. There are no spots for local bands, and I fucking hate it. I argue with agents about it all the time. The joke is when they sell us their smaller, "baby" bands, and ask for strong local support to open or even headline for them. It's terrible, because how I am suppose to build big local bands when I can’t even add them to the big national shows and put them in front of a lot of people? That’s how bands can really build a fan base, by playing in front of 500 people instead of 25. bst: What do you think about the Colorado music scene in general? mike: I think it's good. A couple of years ago, things were in transition. The whole pop punk thing was winding down, and bands were breaking up. Things were in a lull. I see things taking a turn and getting better, and more exciting. I'm talking in terms of the newer bands coming up. I think there is some great talent coming up in the state, whether in Colorado Springs, Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, or whatever. I see all these local bands and the national bands, and I think that there are a handful of locals that can totally stand up to the national bands, and sometimes totally destroy them. I think that being in Colorado gives us the shaft (laughs). Bands like Vaux and Planes are doing really well. And new bands like Fear Before the March of Flames and One Dying Wish are getting a chance too. I think it's cool. These new bands are evolving and doing a lot of good stuff. bst: Let's be candid for a second. What are your favorite all-time bands? mike: (Laughs) I'm pretty old school. I grew up in the hardcore scene in the 80's. Most of my favorite bands come from that time, Verbal Assault, Poison Idea, The Cro-Mags, Dag Nasty, Minor Threat, Black Flag, too many to mention. bst: Are there any up and coming bands that you are getting into? mike: Um... Some of them, I don't know if you can call them up and coming. I'm a huge fan of the heavier music. I like Atreyu a lot, Hope Conspiracy, Blood Brothers, Unearth, Isis. I like this band Terror, a lot to, a hardcore band, I think they're really good. I've always been an American Nightmare fan. I really like a lot of the hardcore stuff. But then there's the stuff along the indie rock slant like Death Cab for Cutie, Hot Snakes, Dismemberment Plan, Les Savy Fav, Milemarker. Too many to note, it's too hard. My tastes are pretty varied, I'm all over the board. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of classic rock (laughs). I don’t know why, I always hated it, but lately I’ve been really into it. Weird. bst: What are your opinions regarding the Internet, and sites like blood.sweat.tears? mike: I think it's great, you know. I think that things have totally evolved. Just like five years ago, where the fanzine was king, everyone had a newsprint fanzine. Things like that are going by the wayside, and it really makes sense. It's a lot cheaper to maintain an online zine on the Internet. And the beauty of it is that all the information is super-current. I think it's great exposure for bands. It's completely changed music and the industry because these bands or labels are able to spread the word of these bands since the Internet is completely international. It's not a matter of subscribing to a zine and having to wait for someone to mail it to you. You can just log on and it's there. Without a doubt, the future is here. I think it's the only way to go now. bst: What do you think about mp3s, and how it's really easy to get free music that way? mike: I have two different viewpoints on it. From the label standpoint, I think it's a good way to promote your bands but at the same time I think it negatively affects record sales. I think it's one of the reasons things got a lot more difficult for the label. Conversely, from the side of being a promoter, I think it's great. I think these bands are getting the word out and their music is really getting out there. Way more so than when they exclusively distribute records; this makes it a lot more difficult for people to find their music. It forced people to take a chance. When I was growing up, there was not nearly as many records coming out as there is now and we used to buy them all, you know, take a chance. Luckily, eight out of ten records were awesome; the records that were coming out then were mind-blowing. Classics. Dead Kennedy’s, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Minor Threat. Now, there are so many records coming out, it's crazy. And many by bands that shouldn’t even have records out. Technology has made it easy for bands to release records and glut the market with crap. And unfortunately, people end up buying a lot of that crap by taking a chance. This is where I think the mp3 is a great thing. It allows people to preview bands before taking the plunge. It's easier now for kids to go on mp3.com or whatever, and download the music and check it out. I think it's creating a lot more fans. You don't have to spend like ten dollars to find out if you'll like that band. bst: There are many people out there, some that I actually know, who are exhibiting a do-it-yourself attitude by creating their own record labels and putting on shows in places like their homes and such. What do you think about this attitude that is spreading throughout the scene? mike: Um... I don't really know how to answer that since I have the same attitude. After what we just talked about, I mean, I did and do the same thing. bst: Well, let me reword the question. A lot of people look down upon the local labels and they prefer to do it their way. I can see this as something that makes the local labels have less of a choice when finding new talent. I mean, what do you think about people straying away from dealing with local labels to put out their music themselves? mike: I think it’s totally fine. It’s exactly what I did. If no one is gonna help you or they aren’t interested in what you are doing, do it yourself. That’s why I started doing shows, so I could get my bands shows. I think if bands want to put out their records themselves they should. More power to them. Virgil (head of Suburban Home Records) and I started our labels at the same time. Who was around at the time? GSL? I dunno. Virgil and I have worked closely with each other, bouncing things off of each other and helping one another out. I know what you’re saying and I don't know where that attitude comes from. I can’t think of anyone who has ever asked me for help from the label side of things. We simply cannot be everything to everyone. It's impossible. I think people take that the wrong way, and they become resentful, like I'm not doing something to help them. It's just not possible. As much as I would like to help everyone out, I can't do that. I've always been a big supporter of the local bands. If I wasn't I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. I saw a flyer once that said "Support DIY, don't buy soda from jerks." That's fucking stupid. That's exactly what I do. I’m as DIY as they come. Look at NIPP, they say they're an independent promoter, bla, bla, bla. They get $250,000 a year from Miller Genuine Draft to sponsor their shows. I don't get any fucking support like that. I do it all myself. I think people think that "DIY" means thrown together and shitty. Maybe I should be flattered, since they think Soda Jerk is something more than it is. Maybe I'm really good at what I do and people don’t think of Soda Jerk as being DIY. You know what I'm saying (laughs). DIY doesn't mean I have to do it in my basement. Yet, my office is in my basement, I don't have office space or anything. That's that. As far as people doing shows in their basement and renting out VFW halls, I think it's great. It's the scene I grew up in. Shows in bowling alleys, house parties, VFW halls, etc. That's what I went to. Bands like Fear Before the March of Flames played in basements to start; bands like Pinhead Circus and Planes did that too. It gets to a point where the fan base outgrows that. If a band like Converge comes, they can't play in my basement. They need a venue that can house all their fans. As far as people doing this and creating an opportunity for them to play, I think it's great. It's a chance for them to grow and work on their craft. bst: I guess we've covered a lot of this, yet I want to still ask this question. What are your future plans for Soda Jerk Records and Soda Jerk Presents? mike: Here is where the label stands. I can't really say we're closed. We're like taking a break. I don't plan on letting everything get out of print. I just don't have any immediate plans to release any records. It's not like I can say that I won't release another record. I'm an emotional dude. I can see a new band that blows me away and want to put out their record. As far as (Soda Jerk) Presents, I think it's going great. We're looking to expand in places like Colorado Springs. There are a lot of bands that come through that want to play in places like Fort Collins and Colorado Springs as well as Boulder and Denver. We want to give them that opportunity. As far as that goes, we're gonna keep plugging away. Like I said, we're going up against NIPP and stuff and it’s not easy. I personally love going up against them and making their life difficult. Those people are total assholes. They drive band guarantees up which drives ticket prices up and the kids have to pay it. It sucks. We have turned down a number of shows that we were competing with NIPP for because the ticket prices got way too high. We were working on that sno-core tour and the fucking ticket price went to like $19, I was like "no fucking way." No way will I attach my name to a show like that for $19! We want to try to continue to make music and shows as affordable as possible. Some people may not agree, but we are a street level promoter, we’re not big and huge, we just work really hard at what we do and I think it shows. We owe it to the bands that come to town that we’re promoting. We’re gonna keep doing what we do. bst: Thank you for your time. mike: I just want to thank all the people that come out to the shows and support the bands, I want to thank you Ed for taking the time and having the interest in what we do, and I want to thank everyone that continues to carry the torch for independent music. We’re in it together and we need to work together if we want to proliferate independent music and an independent lifestyle. Peace. soda jerk records official site soda jerk presents official site