June 17, 2009
Could you tell the readers a little about yourself?
Sure. My name is Max, I used to play in a few bands, mainly in the 1990s (which was a pretty bleak decade for hardcore-thrash). I have pretty much quit playing music since the early 2000s to focus on a PhD, but I am still releasing music on my label 625 (www.625thrash.com). I wanted to disconnect from the scene a little bit in order to gain a different/fresh perspective, and am leaving the option open of playing again - though my academic work takes up 150% of my time these days.
How long have you been running 625 Thrashcore, and what kind of label is it? Also, what was the inspiration behind the name of the label?
I started the label to release bands from my local area - which was the West Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. In the early 1990s the scene was fucking bleak - Gilman shows were small, all the late 80s pop-punk and ska-punk bands had moved onto majors, and Gilman was hesitant to book fastcore, grind or crust bands. By the mid-1990s though a small scene had emerged from San Jose up through San Mateo and beyond, so I wanted to release bands like NO LESS, ETO, AGENTS OF SATAN, GODSTOMPER, etc that were playing local shows at Pizza places, libraries, etc. That's all we had back then....but the label quickly took on a life of its own and I started releases international bands, etc. I still tried to focus on bands that had yet to receive the coverage I thought they deserved, or who were just down-to-earth honest people who played extreme music that I liked.
What formats do you release on (CD, vinyl, cassette, ect.)?
Come to think of it, I don't think I ever released a cassette under the label name, though I spent years and years in the late 1980s and early 1990s copying demo after demo, tape after tape, to trade out and distribute. Now I am focusing mainly on vinyl, though I release CDs as well. Its interesting, at first everyone thought that CDs would be the deathknell of vinyl - and they were for a while. But grind or fasctore was mainly a vinyl-only scene, and people were OK with the extra postage costs, etc. You could still sell 1500 of an LP from a relatively unknown band from Japan or something. Then it switched to CDs and it was possible to take advantage of the length of time, or multi-format capacities of CDs, so I started doing a lot of those. Now, the market has bottomed out, people do not like CDs (and I agree that its the shittiest format aesthetically) but also won't buy LPs at the necessary wholesale prices now. Its kind of a catch-22...we'll see how it goes in the next few years. But we have already seen a few labels stop (Sound Pollution, etc) and I've been thinking of stopping for a few years now as well.....
You're living in Japan right now, which must have been a huge cultural difference from America. What spurred this decision for such a change?
PhD research actually. Im hear because of the archives and university system - but I do get out to see shows every now and then. I saw SLIGHT SLAPPERS last night and they are just as good and crazy as they were the first time I saw them over 10 years ago. They are seriously one of the best bands ever.
How's the music scene there right now? What's popular?
Um, the scene is changing in a big way. Business wise its getting tougher, and what we think of "big" Japanese genres (stuff like what is called "Jap-core" - big mohawk, 80s style crossover punk, etc) doesn't actually sell that much and people don't really come out to the shows. You have some stores closing, some labels stopping, and not too many new bands coming up. All the shows I go to are the bands of friends of mine that have been playing since the mid-1990s. But except for bands like LOW VISION, ANGEL O.D., IMPARA, COMPLETED EXPOSITION and a few others, there aren't too many new bands.
Are you doing work related to 625 right now, or have you taken a break from signing/releasing until you get back to the States?
Well, the label has suffered for sure since I have been here. I have released a few records, such as the PUNCH LP, PARLIAMENTARISK SODOMI LP and EP, etc but because I don't have promo copies here I can't mail them out to zines, etc. Its been OK since the people who know the label and know these bands are still buying them, but I feel like I want to get back and put a lot of energy into advertising, promotions, etc. But I can't while I am here, and I will be here into 2010....
If you're in fact not 'working' right now, have you found any bands that you're tempted to bring back to the States anyway? Any names you'd like to share?
From Japan? Well I think there a lot of good bands - if you like grind, LITTLE BASTARDS are friggin great, SENSELESS APOCALYPSE is of course great - if fastcore - COMPLETED EXPOSITION, and SLIGHT SLAPPERS are still one of the best bands out there - if hardcore punk, BREAKFAST, UG MAN - if thrash, LOW VISION - fusion type stuff, then NICE VIEW, etc. Most people already know these bands, and I have yet to see some new bands come up.
It seems that there are new labels popping up every day, only to release a pair of CD-Rs, then call it quits. What is it, that you think, that keeps 625 going while many other indie labels fail? And do you have any advice for young startup labels for success?
That's just the nature of the game actually. Punk/hardocre/grindcore has always been something people get into for a little while, maybe do a band, do a label, put on shows, but then burn out. I mean, the scene hasnt really changed or developed, and recently it seems like the younger bands only want to rehash what occurred before they were even born, so it gets stale. I don't blame people for burning out. I think the exceptional thing is, is when I continue to meet the same people, year after year, who are still totally into it....Andy from THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE, Brian Stern from BAD SKULLZ shirt printing, the SLIGHT SLAPPERS guys, etc. I mean, especially in Japan, these bands are playing almost every weekend (I'm not kidding, bands play constantly here) and many of them have been doing this for 15 years. THAT is the exception. That is what needs to be explained.
Apart from just an honest love for this music, I don't think I would have kept on doing the label up till now or playing in bands for as long as I did. It's not necessarily my social network, nor my identity. If it was, I would have left when my views of the world and my own position within it kept on changing. My socio-political beliefs were challenged by the scene, and I became very disillusioned with what I thought DIY and an alternative, leftist-leaning music community was accomplishing, so I think I could have burned out just on that. Now I channel my political criticism into my research, and interestingly, Im running into the same issues that I found in the punk scene.
But everytime I listen to NAPALM DEATH's "From Enslavement" LP, its like the first time I listened to it. It just floors me, and somehow, it condenses all my anger, my confusion, but also my hope into these short bursts of energy, that, that is the reason why I keep on coming back. Its become a part of who I am, its what I turn to celebrate life, but also to get me through times of depression and anger. That's the only way I can explain it.....
Check Out the 625 Thrashcore site, and order something.
© 2009 Funeral Rain. Questions? Email.
