A self-proclaimed "serial entrepreneur" and passionate music-fan, Jeff Matlow soon grew frustrated in his capacity as a young executive in the major label machine, and founded his own independent label, Crank!. Crank! boasts releases from a relatively small, but potent, roster of bands, including The Get Set, Fireside, Cursive, The Gloria Record, and Onelinedrawing. He is also a big fan of suicidegirls ("especially the girls part", his favorites are Elara, Leia, Elektra, Lucille, and Gwendolyn) and through his marketing company (he said he was serial!), Saulgoodman, has brought us some of the interviews you'll enjoy reading well into the future. Read his practical advice on getting started in the record business, how the future of the music industry is like Mad Max, and feel, as I did, like a total underachiever.[lj-cut text]"My Interview with Jeff Matlow of Crank! Records"
Keith Daniels:How long ago did you found Crank! records?
Jeff Matlow: The history of it all is that I was working for some major labels for a while. I was a musician for a bit, a dj, and a manager, and suddenly realized I had absolutely no talent whatsoever.[laughs] So I decided to work for record labels because that's where all the frustrated musicians go. Did that for a while, and then was getting frustrated with how some of the companies were being run at the time - which was the early '90s. I wasn't happy with what I was doing, working with a lot of bands that I didn't have the passion for as much as I felt I should've to be working with them. So I started my own label in '94 because I found this one band called Vitreous Humor that I thought was great. The label I was at wouldn't sign them. I shopped them around to other labels, and nobody wanted this band. September 4th, 1994, best day of my life. I quit my job, started a label, and released the record from Vitreous Humor.
KD: Did you turn out to be right about that band?
JM: Yeah. Six months later they're opening for Urge Overkill, Everclear, and the Offspring, playing in front of ten thousand people. All of a sudden I have every major label in the country flying me around, wooing the band and trying to sign them. Kindof ridiculous.
KD: What frustrated you about working for major labels?
JM: Well at the time there really wasn't any sort of focus on who the consumer was. The record labels really didn't care who was buying the records. To a certain extent it was "Just put out the record, and if people are buying it, great, and if they're not..." Nobody really cared who was actually buying it. So when I started my label I also started a street team, because I wanted to know who was buying the record, and what they thought of it. I wanted a personal relationship with the kids who were buying this stuff. So there was that part that frustrated me, and another part, as I briefly mentioned, is the passion for the bands. I got into the business because I love music. I'm really, really passionate about it, and to work with bands that I wasn't as passionate about... I figured "If I go on my own I will only work with bands that I truly love", and that's the way it's been since I started.
KD: How did you get the money to start the label?
JM: Hooker. [laughs] I had actually saved some money. I'm a serial entrepreneur. I started my first company when I was twelve.
KD: What did you do?
JM: Calligrapher. I was a calligrapher. I worked at the local country club. Every week I'd make the place cards for whatever event they'd have, and then I also made invitations and whatever else anybody wanted: weddings, bar mitzvahs, you name it. The funny thing, to digress, I was in sixth grade at the time, and I got my report card back and I got A's in everything but handwriting. I looked at that and thought, "This is ridiculous. I'm making more money on my damn handwriting as a sixth grader than my teacher's making!" [laughs] So I had a little money saved, and then I got a loan from my father after the first six months or so. Then my records started selling, and I've been profitable ever since.
KD: Now, you also do some work for Island Def Jam?
JM: Well, when I started the record label I also started a marketing company, and the marketing company has since developed into a completely separate entity than the record label. We work doing promotions and partnerships and marketing strategy for some record labels. Island Def Jam, do some Virgin stuff, a label called DKG, and then corporate, Nike, Mattel, Handspring, and some film, New Line, Sony Pictures.
KD: A lot of people that run indie labels have probably never worked for major labels. Do you feel that gives you an advantage?
JM: Absolutely. Well, it depends on what you want to do. I think some people start their indie labels as a means to flush their money down the toilet. [laughs]
KD: [laughs] Get rid of their trust funds.
JM: Yeah. As long as you want your money in the toilet you're fine. The majors are the people who have the power, [and] who get stuff done. Somebody like me, who was just starting, pushing 'em Vitreous Humor, who the hell cares about that? But if I can be friends with people at all of the major labels... then I could get the record right into their hands, and they could introduce me to the booking agents or whoever else I may need. So just from a contact point of view, hell yeah, it helped me a lot, and besides the fact that some of my closest friends still work in that world. Also, the knowledge I got from every aspect: production, A&R, marketing, promotion, press, gave me a wealth of knowledge. I highly recommend it. In fact, when people ask me for advice, and they say they're starting an indie label, I tell 'em "Go work for a major." Even if you're interning you'll learn a lot.
KD: One of the things that fascinates me is that lately the major record labels are complaining that they're not making money, and yet, for example, you run an indie label... you probably haven't had anybody sell a million records, but you're making a profit.
JM: Well they're spending so much money there, and the way majors are set up is that they need hit records. If they don't have their multi-platinum every quarter, or every month, whatever it is, then they're losing money. They'll make a record for three or four hundred thousand that only sells five thousand copies. I'll make a record for three thousand that sells ten thousand copies. It's economy of scale. Especially with the consolidations, it's really geared toward the independents. People have a lot more access to music, with the Internet, so they can learn a lot more. The average person can find out a lot more about music, and it doesn't cost us. I think any indie label can stretch a dollar much further than a major can.
KD: Do the bands do better on the indies as well?
JM: Hell yeah. I was just talking to some band... I was just down in Texas at South by Southwest and there was some band that sold, like, a hundred and twenty thousand copies, and their record came out on their own label. They're making a freaking killing off that. So yeah, if bands recoup after only selling three thousand copies, if you keep your costs down for recording, then bands do see some money. I don't think bands are making a fortune. Most of the indie bands aren't making a fortune, but they're seeing at least something. Still there are bands like The Get Up Kids or The Promise Ring or Hot Water Music who are touring around and making a killing on merch, and what they get for their shows. Look at Bright Eyes, for God's sakes, all the Saddle Creek bands, they're making a fortune on tours. That's good, in fact it was Bright Eyes that sold a hundred and twenty thousand, I'm told, of one of their last records, and they own their label.
KD: And a hundred and twenty thousand would get them dropped from a major.
JM: Yeah. Exactly. "Only a hundred and twenty thousand." Only. That wouldn't even be looked at. That would be a sad state of affairs for that record [on a major].
KD: What have you done differently than the majors to embrace the Internet?
JM: Well I think with a lot of indies and a lot of our bands, I can only speak for myself, downloading music has helped our sales because people will download and listen to the music, and if they like two or three tracks they'll go and buy the record. So I am not opposed to MP3s by any means. In fact, we give 'em away on our site, and with a variety of other sites. So, the fact that we do that is already different. At this stage I can't really say we do a lot of things different than some of the other labels. I started a mailing list as soon as I started the label, and so we have communication directly with the people who buy our records. Some majors do that, but surprisingly a lot don't. It's the best form of communication, online, these days. That's where all the kids are, and that's the best way to communicate with them. So I guess just using the Internet to communicate with everybody would be the answer.
KD: Plus even if someone downloads the whole album, they'll still go see the show.
JM: Absolutely, and they'll buy some t-shirts or they'll tell their friends. We get emails everyday to the bands saying "I'm a huge fan." and I'll always ask, "How'd you hear about it?" Nine times out of ten it's "Oh my friend told me, so I downloaded a song and then I bought a record." So if one person downloads the entire freakin' catalog and they tell fifty people about it, and those fifty buy the record, that's fine with me.
KD: What advice do you have for somebody that is submitting something to you?
JM: I'm looking for really, really good music. A lot of people send these huge packages of everything they could possibly fit into it. As far as Crank! is concerned, I don't look at anything. I open the package, I take the CD, I put it in the CD-player, and I listen to it. I think a lot of bands are really trying to build a marketing thing around them, but what it really comes down to is, first of all, how good the music is, and secondly, is the band out there touring and doing it on their own? There's nothing more impressive to any A&R person, whether it be indie or major label, than to see a band that doesn't need a record label. To see a band that's going out and doing it themselves, no matter who cares about it.
KD: What about people who are wanting to work in the non-music-making part of the industry? You said "Go work for a major", but, go to college? Or just get out there?
JM: Well... I never tell anyone to skip college because I think it's important. Of course, David Geffen did mighty fine without it, but y'know, whatever. I think while you're in college you can still do stuff. You could do internships. You could do street team activities for labels. In fact that's probably the best way because you make a little cash off that. Just about every label these days has street teams, so that's a good "In". You get to know the people at the label and then during the summer you could hook up an internship with a label. Labels are always looking for people who'll work for free, and just about everybody has to do it in this industry.
KD: Who are some of the new bands that you've signed?
JM: We have this band called Neva Dinova, from Omaha, Nebraska, that I'm really excited about. They're actually doing quite well. They keep getting compared to Coldplay, Radiohead, and Death Cab For Cutie. In fact, I can give you an MP3 from the site. They've been touring around. They just finished a sold out tour with Cursive, and will be coming to the West Coast in April. The press likes them; word is spreading on them. And I just signed this new band from Sweden called Last Days of April, which is kind of a commercial indie rock thing - produced by the guy who did the Hives and International Noise Conspiracy, who also is the guitarist in another band on my label called Fireside. The Last Days' record comes out on June 3, great fucking record.
KD: I can see how Neva Dinova gets compared to Coldplay.
JM: Yeah, even more so live, but that's not a bad comparison. They're not complaining about it, and I'm not complaining about it. Coldplay's a cool band.
KD: How does it feel when a band starts out on your label, does fairly well, and then moves on to a major?
JM: I don't have problems with that at all. I understand the capabilities of Crank!. I can't sell a multi-million dollar record, and I can't get a top MTV rotation for any video. I just don't have the power, the manpower, or the ability. So I understand that at a certain point bands will have to go on to a bigger label, but that makes my label stronger too. There are always ways to remain involved, especially if there's a good relationship with the band. In fact, only if there's a good relationship with the band. There've been good things. We had this band, Mineral, the third band I signed. They created a little hoopla within the industry, and ended up signing to Interscope. It worked out for everybody in the beginning, till the band broke up. Then it didn't work out for anybody. [laughs]
KD: What happens when they come crawling back?
JM: That has never happened. I have very close personal relationships with a lot of the bands on the label, and there are a few on the label that I would release just about anything they do because they're such goods friend and I have so much respect for them. So, y'know, if a band goes to a different label and then they come back, I have no problem with that. It's not like when a band goes to a different label I stop communicating with them. In fact, I still help them with some press stuff. I sign the bands because I love them and even if they're not on my label I support them fully.
KD: Were you doing everything yourself when you started out?
JM: It was myself, and interns after about three months. The dreaded "I word". I'd bring some people in to help me do whatever: packing records, radio calls. In fact, funny thing is one of the first interns I had who was working with me out of my apartment, he'd come in and sit on my couch and stuff records - he dropped me a line out of the blue a month ago. He's now an A&R guy at Chrysalis music. Another guy who was interning for me five or six years ago is still working for me now, but he's not interning anymore. He is actually a big part of the label.
KD: What do you see for the future of the music industry?
JM: Oh it's a sad, sad future. I think of Mad Max. [laughs] A lot of death and destruction, and Mel Gibson. I think that the face of the entire music industry is going to change dramatically. There's going to be more of a focus online. I think the standard radio promotion, which has for the most part over the past twenty or thirty years been the horse that pulled the chariot of the music industry... All the money goes into radio promotion, and I think that's going to change as digital radio comes. As more and more people go online for radio, we don't really need the radio department. Marketing will have to focus more on bigger opportunities: corporate partners, online marketing, event marketing, which the music business isn't really doing that much of. Lord knows what's going to happen to A&R. I think it's going to be really tough for the major labels to keep the staff that they have now, and to make the money they need to keep everybody working.
KD: When a band sells a CD they get a small percentage of the sales, but when they go on tour they get to keep the lion share of what they make. Now, there are people like Robbie Williams who've signed new contracts that give the labels more of a percentage of everything. Is that something that's going to be more of a trend? Is that something you would do at Crank!?
JM: Yes, I would. I think it will be more of a trend. I think that it'll be more partnerships between the bands and the record labels. In fact, it started at Dischord and Touch & Go. The first I heard was Touch & Go who would always do 50/50 deals with their bands, as long as I've known Touch & Go existed. In that sense, it's a partnership. Now that has happened more and more, and with the Robbie Williams deal it's extending to the major labels. I absolutely think it's the only way that labels will be able to survive, is if it becomes a partnership in that way.
KD: Are there any bands that you're working on signing, or any bands out there that you would love to sign?
JM: There are bands that I'm working on signing. I could tell you but I'd have to kill you. There are bands that I'd love to work with. I'd love to put out some Bright Eyes stuff, and there's a chance that Bright Eyes and Neva Dinova may do a split together. I'd love to put out some Beatles stuff but I hear a couple of 'em are gone. Same with Nirvana.
KD: Do you see yourself running Crank! ten years from now?
JM: That's a loaded question isn't it? [laughs] What am I supposed to say? I've been running the label for eight years now, so... yes. There are a few things... my marketing company is building too, and I really enjoy doing that. I will always be involved with Crank!. Will I be running the day-to-day ten years from now? Honestly, probably not.
KD: You'll be the Bill Gates.
JM: Exactly. It's my passion. It's like my kid, and when the kid goes off to college I'll still stalk the kid, [laughs] but I may not be there to dress him. [laughs]
Featured Crank! MP3s:
Neva Dinova
Last Days of April.
Check out Crank!. Buy something.
Keith Daniels:How long ago did you found Crank! records?
Jeff Matlow: The history of it all is that I was working for some major labels for a while. I was a musician for a bit, a dj, and a manager, and suddenly realized I had absolutely no talent whatsoever.[laughs] So I decided to work for record labels because that's where all the frustrated musicians go. Did that for a while, and then was getting frustrated with how some of the companies were being run at the time - which was the early '90s. I wasn't happy with what I was doing, working with a lot of bands that I didn't have the passion for as much as I felt I should've to be working with them. So I started my own label in '94 because I found this one band called Vitreous Humor that I thought was great. The label I was at wouldn't sign them. I shopped them around to other labels, and nobody wanted this band. September 4th, 1994, best day of my life. I quit my job, started a label, and released the record from Vitreous Humor.
KD: Did you turn out to be right about that band?
JM: Yeah. Six months later they're opening for Urge Overkill, Everclear, and the Offspring, playing in front of ten thousand people. All of a sudden I have every major label in the country flying me around, wooing the band and trying to sign them. Kindof ridiculous.
KD: What frustrated you about working for major labels?
JM: Well at the time there really wasn't any sort of focus on who the consumer was. The record labels really didn't care who was buying the records. To a certain extent it was "Just put out the record, and if people are buying it, great, and if they're not..." Nobody really cared who was actually buying it. So when I started my label I also started a street team, because I wanted to know who was buying the record, and what they thought of it. I wanted a personal relationship with the kids who were buying this stuff. So there was that part that frustrated me, and another part, as I briefly mentioned, is the passion for the bands. I got into the business because I love music. I'm really, really passionate about it, and to work with bands that I wasn't as passionate about... I figured "If I go on my own I will only work with bands that I truly love", and that's the way it's been since I started.
KD: How did you get the money to start the label?
JM: Hooker. [laughs] I had actually saved some money. I'm a serial entrepreneur. I started my first company when I was twelve.
KD: What did you do?
JM: Calligrapher. I was a calligrapher. I worked at the local country club. Every week I'd make the place cards for whatever event they'd have, and then I also made invitations and whatever else anybody wanted: weddings, bar mitzvahs, you name it. The funny thing, to digress, I was in sixth grade at the time, and I got my report card back and I got A's in everything but handwriting. I looked at that and thought, "This is ridiculous. I'm making more money on my damn handwriting as a sixth grader than my teacher's making!" [laughs] So I had a little money saved, and then I got a loan from my father after the first six months or so. Then my records started selling, and I've been profitable ever since.
KD: Now, you also do some work for Island Def Jam?
JM: Well, when I started the record label I also started a marketing company, and the marketing company has since developed into a completely separate entity than the record label. We work doing promotions and partnerships and marketing strategy for some record labels. Island Def Jam, do some Virgin stuff, a label called DKG, and then corporate, Nike, Mattel, Handspring, and some film, New Line, Sony Pictures.
KD: A lot of people that run indie labels have probably never worked for major labels. Do you feel that gives you an advantage?
JM: Absolutely. Well, it depends on what you want to do. I think some people start their indie labels as a means to flush their money down the toilet. [laughs]
KD: [laughs] Get rid of their trust funds.
JM: Yeah. As long as you want your money in the toilet you're fine. The majors are the people who have the power, [and] who get stuff done. Somebody like me, who was just starting, pushing 'em Vitreous Humor, who the hell cares about that? But if I can be friends with people at all of the major labels... then I could get the record right into their hands, and they could introduce me to the booking agents or whoever else I may need. So just from a contact point of view, hell yeah, it helped me a lot, and besides the fact that some of my closest friends still work in that world. Also, the knowledge I got from every aspect: production, A&R, marketing, promotion, press, gave me a wealth of knowledge. I highly recommend it. In fact, when people ask me for advice, and they say they're starting an indie label, I tell 'em "Go work for a major." Even if you're interning you'll learn a lot.
KD: One of the things that fascinates me is that lately the major record labels are complaining that they're not making money, and yet, for example, you run an indie label... you probably haven't had anybody sell a million records, but you're making a profit.
JM: Well they're spending so much money there, and the way majors are set up is that they need hit records. If they don't have their multi-platinum every quarter, or every month, whatever it is, then they're losing money. They'll make a record for three or four hundred thousand that only sells five thousand copies. I'll make a record for three thousand that sells ten thousand copies. It's economy of scale. Especially with the consolidations, it's really geared toward the independents. People have a lot more access to music, with the Internet, so they can learn a lot more. The average person can find out a lot more about music, and it doesn't cost us. I think any indie label can stretch a dollar much further than a major can.
KD: Do the bands do better on the indies as well?
JM: Hell yeah. I was just talking to some band... I was just down in Texas at South by Southwest and there was some band that sold, like, a hundred and twenty thousand copies, and their record came out on their own label. They're making a freaking killing off that. So yeah, if bands recoup after only selling three thousand copies, if you keep your costs down for recording, then bands do see some money. I don't think bands are making a fortune. Most of the indie bands aren't making a fortune, but they're seeing at least something. Still there are bands like The Get Up Kids or The Promise Ring or Hot Water Music who are touring around and making a killing on merch, and what they get for their shows. Look at Bright Eyes, for God's sakes, all the Saddle Creek bands, they're making a fortune on tours. That's good, in fact it was Bright Eyes that sold a hundred and twenty thousand, I'm told, of one of their last records, and they own their label.
KD: And a hundred and twenty thousand would get them dropped from a major.
JM: Yeah. Exactly. "Only a hundred and twenty thousand." Only. That wouldn't even be looked at. That would be a sad state of affairs for that record [on a major].
KD: What have you done differently than the majors to embrace the Internet?
JM: Well I think with a lot of indies and a lot of our bands, I can only speak for myself, downloading music has helped our sales because people will download and listen to the music, and if they like two or three tracks they'll go and buy the record. So I am not opposed to MP3s by any means. In fact, we give 'em away on our site, and with a variety of other sites. So, the fact that we do that is already different. At this stage I can't really say we do a lot of things different than some of the other labels. I started a mailing list as soon as I started the label, and so we have communication directly with the people who buy our records. Some majors do that, but surprisingly a lot don't. It's the best form of communication, online, these days. That's where all the kids are, and that's the best way to communicate with them. So I guess just using the Internet to communicate with everybody would be the answer.
KD: Plus even if someone downloads the whole album, they'll still go see the show.
JM: Absolutely, and they'll buy some t-shirts or they'll tell their friends. We get emails everyday to the bands saying "I'm a huge fan." and I'll always ask, "How'd you hear about it?" Nine times out of ten it's "Oh my friend told me, so I downloaded a song and then I bought a record." So if one person downloads the entire freakin' catalog and they tell fifty people about it, and those fifty buy the record, that's fine with me.
KD: What advice do you have for somebody that is submitting something to you?
JM: I'm looking for really, really good music. A lot of people send these huge packages of everything they could possibly fit into it. As far as Crank! is concerned, I don't look at anything. I open the package, I take the CD, I put it in the CD-player, and I listen to it. I think a lot of bands are really trying to build a marketing thing around them, but what it really comes down to is, first of all, how good the music is, and secondly, is the band out there touring and doing it on their own? There's nothing more impressive to any A&R person, whether it be indie or major label, than to see a band that doesn't need a record label. To see a band that's going out and doing it themselves, no matter who cares about it.
KD: What about people who are wanting to work in the non-music-making part of the industry? You said "Go work for a major", but, go to college? Or just get out there?
JM: Well... I never tell anyone to skip college because I think it's important. Of course, David Geffen did mighty fine without it, but y'know, whatever. I think while you're in college you can still do stuff. You could do internships. You could do street team activities for labels. In fact that's probably the best way because you make a little cash off that. Just about every label these days has street teams, so that's a good "In". You get to know the people at the label and then during the summer you could hook up an internship with a label. Labels are always looking for people who'll work for free, and just about everybody has to do it in this industry.
KD: Who are some of the new bands that you've signed?
JM: We have this band called Neva Dinova, from Omaha, Nebraska, that I'm really excited about. They're actually doing quite well. They keep getting compared to Coldplay, Radiohead, and Death Cab For Cutie. In fact, I can give you an MP3 from the site. They've been touring around. They just finished a sold out tour with Cursive, and will be coming to the West Coast in April. The press likes them; word is spreading on them. And I just signed this new band from Sweden called Last Days of April, which is kind of a commercial indie rock thing - produced by the guy who did the Hives and International Noise Conspiracy, who also is the guitarist in another band on my label called Fireside. The Last Days' record comes out on June 3, great fucking record.
KD: I can see how Neva Dinova gets compared to Coldplay.
JM: Yeah, even more so live, but that's not a bad comparison. They're not complaining about it, and I'm not complaining about it. Coldplay's a cool band.
KD: How does it feel when a band starts out on your label, does fairly well, and then moves on to a major?
JM: I don't have problems with that at all. I understand the capabilities of Crank!. I can't sell a multi-million dollar record, and I can't get a top MTV rotation for any video. I just don't have the power, the manpower, or the ability. So I understand that at a certain point bands will have to go on to a bigger label, but that makes my label stronger too. There are always ways to remain involved, especially if there's a good relationship with the band. In fact, only if there's a good relationship with the band. There've been good things. We had this band, Mineral, the third band I signed. They created a little hoopla within the industry, and ended up signing to Interscope. It worked out for everybody in the beginning, till the band broke up. Then it didn't work out for anybody. [laughs]
KD: What happens when they come crawling back?
JM: That has never happened. I have very close personal relationships with a lot of the bands on the label, and there are a few on the label that I would release just about anything they do because they're such goods friend and I have so much respect for them. So, y'know, if a band goes to a different label and then they come back, I have no problem with that. It's not like when a band goes to a different label I stop communicating with them. In fact, I still help them with some press stuff. I sign the bands because I love them and even if they're not on my label I support them fully.
KD: Were you doing everything yourself when you started out?
JM: It was myself, and interns after about three months. The dreaded "I word". I'd bring some people in to help me do whatever: packing records, radio calls. In fact, funny thing is one of the first interns I had who was working with me out of my apartment, he'd come in and sit on my couch and stuff records - he dropped me a line out of the blue a month ago. He's now an A&R guy at Chrysalis music. Another guy who was interning for me five or six years ago is still working for me now, but he's not interning anymore. He is actually a big part of the label.
KD: What do you see for the future of the music industry?
JM: Oh it's a sad, sad future. I think of Mad Max. [laughs] A lot of death and destruction, and Mel Gibson. I think that the face of the entire music industry is going to change dramatically. There's going to be more of a focus online. I think the standard radio promotion, which has for the most part over the past twenty or thirty years been the horse that pulled the chariot of the music industry... All the money goes into radio promotion, and I think that's going to change as digital radio comes. As more and more people go online for radio, we don't really need the radio department. Marketing will have to focus more on bigger opportunities: corporate partners, online marketing, event marketing, which the music business isn't really doing that much of. Lord knows what's going to happen to A&R. I think it's going to be really tough for the major labels to keep the staff that they have now, and to make the money they need to keep everybody working.
KD: When a band sells a CD they get a small percentage of the sales, but when they go on tour they get to keep the lion share of what they make. Now, there are people like Robbie Williams who've signed new contracts that give the labels more of a percentage of everything. Is that something that's going to be more of a trend? Is that something you would do at Crank!?
JM: Yes, I would. I think it will be more of a trend. I think that it'll be more partnerships between the bands and the record labels. In fact, it started at Dischord and Touch & Go. The first I heard was Touch & Go who would always do 50/50 deals with their bands, as long as I've known Touch & Go existed. In that sense, it's a partnership. Now that has happened more and more, and with the Robbie Williams deal it's extending to the major labels. I absolutely think it's the only way that labels will be able to survive, is if it becomes a partnership in that way.
KD: Are there any bands that you're working on signing, or any bands out there that you would love to sign?
JM: There are bands that I'm working on signing. I could tell you but I'd have to kill you. There are bands that I'd love to work with. I'd love to put out some Bright Eyes stuff, and there's a chance that Bright Eyes and Neva Dinova may do a split together. I'd love to put out some Beatles stuff but I hear a couple of 'em are gone. Same with Nirvana.
KD: Do you see yourself running Crank! ten years from now?
JM: That's a loaded question isn't it? [laughs] What am I supposed to say? I've been running the label for eight years now, so... yes. There are a few things... my marketing company is building too, and I really enjoy doing that. I will always be involved with Crank!. Will I be running the day-to-day ten years from now? Honestly, probably not.
KD: You'll be the Bill Gates.
JM: Exactly. It's my passion. It's like my kid, and when the kid goes off to college I'll still stalk the kid, [laughs] but I may not be there to dress him. [laughs]
Featured Crank! MP3s:
Neva Dinova
Last Days of April.
Check out Crank!. Buy something.
keith:
Good advice here for aspiring musicians and music-industry-types.
lesa:
Crank! is good people. I dealt with them years ago when I was promoting Sunny Day Real Estate and they were awesome.