It was predicted record labels would become a thing of the past, but they’ve arguably become more important than ever to the dissemination of audio. Read The Label aims to uncover and document the circumstances of these prime movers, big and small.
I already knew Superior Viaduct was an extremely well-respected, talked-up label, but I didn’t realize Steve Viaduct also had opened a record shop called Stranded (with friends) in Oakland. Good to know! What’s more, he’s just getting started.
Steve Viaduct talked to Tiny Mix Tapes about Fantastic Planet, the glory of a well-done reissue, how to treat a record-store customer, and much more. Best of all, unlike most of the records he’s released, this column entry is here to stay; don’t worry about it disappearing from the shelf.
I noticed you opened the Stranded store in 2012 and the first SV release came in 2011. Which side of the business did you envision first, the label or the shop?
I was running the label out of my apartment in San Francisco when friends and I decided to get a store-front in Oakland. Basically, we needed a place to work on projects and opening a record store was more fun than sharing an office.
For most a label alone, or a shop alone, would be a huge undertaking. You did both; was there an event in your life that triggered all this activity?
About four years ago, I left a pretty grueling office job where I was working 60-70 hours per week for a few years. I must have gotten used to that schedule because when I got a new job (with normal hours), suddenly I had all this free time and energy to start the label. I still work seven days a week, but now I’m working on what I’m passionate about.
How about the choice to release archival music as opposed to modern music via SV: Did you see a gap in the market, do you personally prefer reissues, do you feel modern music is lacking in some way, etc.?
I had been researching San Francisco’s late 70s punk/post-punk scene, a pretty fertile period considering how many great bands there were and very few labels (even back in the day) documenting them. Bands like Crime, The Avengers, The Sleepers, Negative Trend, Noh Mercy, Pink Section, and Tuxedomoon.
The idea to do the label grew out of this DIY archival work. Our first 10 releases were all San Francisco artists, and we’ve done a few more since then. It is always nice to meet artists face-to-face whenever possible, and I’ve been pretty lucky because many of the artists on the label still live in the Bay Area.
Maybe someday I’ll do new records, but I think that people are more open-minded about reissues than they used to be. You don’t just find reissues from the music capitals like New York or Los Angeles or London. Now places like France or Australia or Japan are finally being recognized for having great music.
What are the differences between running a label and maintaining a traditional record shop (besides the obvious stuff of course)? Which do you enjoy more personally?
The biggest difference between running a label and a brick-and-mortar store is the audience. While the label reaches people around the world, the store is more about being local and getting to know what your regulars are looking for.
Personally, the label is more rewarding. I work directly with artists and other labels, and we put a lot of time into the artwork and mastering. There is a huge sense of relief when the finished record arrives from the pressing plant, like it’s your baby.
Would you consider one a labor of love and the other more of a necessity, or to put it another way, is either the label or the shop more feasible than the other in any way, from what you’ve experienced thus far?
Both started out as labor of loves and eventually turned into real businesses. When the store started, it was just my friends and I working at the counter every day. Now we can afford to have a few employees. Recently I was even able to quit my day job to focus on the label and store full-time.
In general how do you think these great artists you’re exposing slip though the cracks? Are you ever surprised that a record you’re reissuing hasn’t already been mined by others, like, ‘I can’t believe no one knows about this!’
Some artists on SV may have slipped through the cracks because their albums were originally released on small imprints that no longer exist or by majors who are not focused on deep catalogue titles. More than once, the company that I’m licensing from has asked me: are you sure that you want to reissue this? I’m happy to champion these artists, though. At the end of the day, I’m one of their biggest fans.
Yes, I constantly surprised when great albums are not available. Hardcore Devo, for instance. I’m sure a bunch of other labels thought of doing that one. There are just too many reissues to be done and not enough time.
I would say that Leslie Winer’s Witch was probably the toughest one to sign. I had been pursuing that one for years. Every time I played it at the store, people were always asking what it is and wanted to buy my copy. Finally getting the reissue out last summer felt great. It’s such a stunning album.
There seem to be two opposing forces affecting the industry: the rise of streaming music and the return of vinyl. Did you start Superior Viaduct with the rise of vinyl sales in mind? Did/does the popularity of streaming music worry you at any point from the beginnings of the label until now?
No, I would have started the label even without the return of vinyl. For me, it’s more about working on projects with a historical focus and making them available in the format that represents their era. Plus, I love vinyl. There’s no substitute for holding the physical artifact in your hands.
Streaming services don’t worry me because it’s a different thing than what we do. People who are into records generally don’t stream, unless it’s the only available format.
I’m still personally a record-shop guy and I’ve always felt the atmosphere of a store is extremely important. I’ve been to shops where I felt comfortable and I’ve been to shops where I felt like I was being stalked by employees… When you started Stranded did you have any ideas as far as how you wanted people to feel when they entered? Is the atmosphere something that can even be affected in the first place?
The stereotypical record store clerk is a cynical, know-it-all slacker, so we try to be friendly and greet everyone coming in the door. When we started the store, the idea was to have a clean, gallery-like atmosphere, with records that you don’t often see in stores. For instance, you might find a Half Japanese record on the wall right next to Ornette Coleman or Terry Riley. It’s fun to play records in the store, especially ones that customers want to hear. I’ve discovered some cool records this way. The best is to have someone come back the next week and say how much they love something that you recommended.
You’ve presided over some extremely well-received releases, a few of which I wanted to ask about specifically. First, Fantastic Planet is a film/soundtrack that have both been dear to me, also retaining sort of an underground presence that built up over the years (I remember sharing the full soundtrack on a blog four or five years ago never really considering that it might reappear on vinyl in the U.S.). I’ve talked to label owners about the acquisition of rights and it can be a tricky situation. In fact one label buddy called a guy he was trying to get rights from, “The worst person in the world.” How did the whole Fantastic Planet voyage come about for you? Was the process more difficult or more painless than you expected, considering the reverence so many have for the film and its music?
La Planète Sauvage is one of the iconic 70s sci-fi soundtracks. I was shocked to find out that it was never released in the U.S. (only in France and [the] UK). It took me a little while to figure out who has the rights. Once I did, the contract was signed the following week. Apparently, no one in the U.S. ever asked to license it.
What is your personal experience with the film and its soundtrack?
The soundtrack was in my personal collection for years prior to seeing the film. I don’t remember who first turned me onto it, but I loved the music right away and even more after seeing the film.
How about the cover art? There are so many iconic images throughout the movie, it must have been maddening attempting to choose one… Anything you can reveal about the process behind that?
We tend to keep the original artwork for albums, but I think there is more leeway with soundtracks. The idea for the cover image came to us pretty quickly. The spot-UV on the blue figure adds a three-dimensional quality.
I thought the Devo reissues were interesting because as a band they were all over the map, even breaking through commercially at one point. How did your collaboration with them come about, and why do you think people were ready to snatch up vinyl reissues of their records again when a lot of copies of their records were pressed back in the day (I could be wrong about ‘a lot of copies’; maybe the albums you reissued had smaller runs?)?
Actually, I grew up in Ohio and I’ve loved Devo ever since I was a kid, especially in college when I was playing these “Hardcore” demos a lot. I approached Jerry Casale about doing reissues, since the CDs from the early 90s (and one of the volumes done as a limited edition LP in France) were long out-of-print. The opportunity to collaborate with one of my favorite bands was the ultimate dream come true.
A lot of people think of Devo in terms of their debut album, or later for “Whip It,” but many people don’t know that they started as a conceptual art project in the mid 70s. When you consider what bands were popular then (like Grand Funk Railroad), it is amazing to think how far we all have de-evolved.
Soundtracks are interesting because they are collaborations with many layers. First, you have the artwork with imagery from the film. Who wouldn’t want a record with a great front cover? You have the music, of course, which reflects the director’s vision as much as the composer’s. Also, you have the film itself imposing its ideas onto the soundtrack.
Brigitte Fontaine is one of those artists that cool people used to include on mix CDs, I remember that distinctly, but other than that I think a lot of people were overjoyed to discover her work through SV. How had we all been missing out on her all along?
This is another case where I was surprised that the records were unavailable. In fact, Brigitte Fontaine was never released in the U.S. until our reissues came out. I think that a lot of people were missing out because she was on a small label in France. Nonetheless, she was influential [for] contemporary bands like Stereolab and Sonic Youth. She has such a distinctive voice. The first time you listen to any of her records, you know right away that it’s Brigitte.
Soundtracks have been of major interest to vinyl collectors in particular and you’re right on the cusp of that with the Artemiev reissues and the aforementioned Fantastic Planet. What is it about soundtracks and/or scores that people are connecting with, in your mind? Do you think the escape quotient of listening to a soundtrack is similar to that of watching a movie, or do you feel like it’s a different experience altogether that folks are latching onto?
Soundtracks are interesting because they are collaborations with many layers. First, you have the artwork with imagery from the film. Who wouldn’t want a record with a great front cover? You have the music, of course, which reflects the director’s vision as much as the composer’s. Also, you have the film itself imposing its ideas onto the soundtrack. Solaris, for instance, is a pretty existential film, so we made the package sparse and Dostoyevskian.
I tend to prefer original scores (as opposed to compilations of songs in the film) because they have a cinematic structure of tension, mood, texture, etc. The best ones (like by Ennio Morricone) transport you to another place altogether, even somehow distinct from the film.
What ended up being the toughest record to put out or get the rights for thus far in the SV canon?
I would say that Leslie Winer’s Witch was probably the toughest one to sign. I had been pursuing that one for years. Every time I played it at the store, people were always asking what it is and wanted to buy my copy. Finally getting the reissue out last summer felt great. It’s such a stunning album.
I’ve had people tell me they could only sell 35 records out of a batch of 500 in the first year, and I’ve found it discouraging to see so many in-my-mind quality releases fail to ‘move.’ Yet it’s heartening also to see, for example, the Black Humor record blow through 500 copies and a repress in the same year. In your mind what was the impetus for Superior Viaduct seeing so much success early on, with its first release no less?
Every week there are tons of new records coming out. It’s hard to keep up with everything. In general, I think that it is easier to do reissues. If a label takes the time to reissue something, people tend to take notice. Some artists really are ahead of their time, or victims of it. After 30 years, you hope that an audience has built up.
Besides picking interesting artists, I would say that a big reason for the label’s early success was knowing where to sell the records. Basically, I contacted all the cool distributors, and they picked up on SV stuff right away. The creative side of things is way more exciting, but who’s selling the records is super-important.
A lot of people think of Devo in terms of their debut album, or later for “Whip It,” but many people don’t know that they started as a conceptual art project in the mid 70s. When you consider what bands were popular then (like Grand Funk Railroad), it is amazing to think how far we all have de-evolved.
How about maintaining that momentum once it’s established? I’ve seen labels become prominent through a few early releases then burn out by flooding the market with too much product, or indulging in too many personal projects, etc. How do you nurture the following you’ve established once you have it?
With so many records coming out these days, we always try to keep the price reasonable and the quality very high. Most of these records have been unavailable for a long time, so it’s good to see them in record stores again.
There is definitely a curatorial path to SV releases. It’s nice to see some people are buying everything on the label. We have put out a lot records in the past couple years, but our selection process is actually pretty tight. I’m constantly questioning the timing of releases and what’s the best way to do them. It’s easy to buy records from a place that you trust their taste, so we recently started offering other labels’ releases on our web site. This is an extension of what we are already doing at Stranded, but with even more refined recommendations.
How important is personal communication with your customers, whether it be your newsletters, Twitter, or interactions in Stranded?
Email and social media definitely help spread the word, especially when we do limited-edition releases like color vinyl. The amount of information online can become a wall-of-noise at times, but it’s nice to be able to follow what others are doing and to have a line of communication with customers and our artists’ fans.
