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Interview
with Indie Label Owner Ben Link Collins of Silent Media
September 2011 Name: Ben Link Collins QRD
– When & why did you
start your label? Ben
– First I should
mention that Silent Media isn’t really a music label.
We’re a platform for limited edition
interdisciplinary art
projects, some of which won’t have any audio at all.
I think the official “I started Silent Media” date
is April 15th,
2011, my little sister’s (Lilly) 20th birthday. I started Silent Media
because I’ve never
felt like my own interests fit into one medium & for artists
like myself,
there’s not an avenue for interdisciplinary projects.
Some record labels will do special releases with
nice packaging
& maybe some bit of writing or imagery as supplemental to the
sound, there
are a few publishers that will toss a CD in a book from time to time as
a
special freebee incentive to buy the product; but as far as I’ve found,
there’s
no one who will consistently choose a concept & see how that
concept shakes
down through different avenues of expression.
Basically, I see a hole in the art world &
I’m trying to fill it. QRD
– Where did you get the
money to finance your first few releases? Ben
– Coupling: Dedicated to the Man &
based
on the Work of Stan Brakhage was almost entirely paid for
with credit &
a bunch of scrounging & saving.
Imaginary magic money. QRD
– How many releases have
you put out? Ben
– One: Coupling:
Dedicated to the Man & based on the Work of Stan
Brakhage. It’s
a CD & book of
images with work from 26 artists focusing their creative minds on the
experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage.
It came out beautifully, if I may toot my own horn a
bit. QRD
– How many releases
would you like to do a year? Ben
– At
the moment, one release a year
seems like it’ll max Silent Media out on money & able hands
willing to put
the love & effort into creating releases up to my standards. More would be good, but
right now Silent
Media is under a year old & it’s hard to say where we’ll be in
a year or
two. QRD
– How many hours a
week do you work on the label & how many would you like to? Ben
– I really don’t
consider it work, yet. Maybe
it’s
because I haven’t be doing it long enough, but I still get excited
every time I
sit down to broaden the scope of Silent Media’s borders. Right now I spend between
5 & 30 hours a
week, depending on what’s going on otherwise.
It’s a labor of love, really.
I
have so many ideas myself & others come to me with ideas all
the time, so
there’s no doubt I could spend upwards of 60 hours a week on it
& would be
perfectly happy as long as my pesky body & mind didn’t need
rest &
relaxation. QRD
– What are the fun &/or
rewarding parts about running a label? Ben
– Creating something
that I’m proud of & that other’s appreciate. QRD
– How have your motivations
for having a label changed? Ben
– Well, I’ve
definitely been focusing on the making money side of things as of the
last month. Though,
I think the root of my motivations
are still generally the same. I
was
telling a friend recently that I feel like I’m pregnant with big ideas
all the
time. The most
gratifying thing about
Silent Media is having a means to give birth to those ideas &
encouraging
artists to think about how their art is presented to the world. It seems like such a
tragedy to develop one
side of a concept & then let the industry standards fill in the
blanks for
how your idea is presented. I
like
interacting with well thought out artifacts & it kills me to
listen to a CD
& then pop it back in it’s crappy jewel case, or finish a book
& go
stick it on the shelf with all the rest of the spines glaring back. I want to bring the art
galleries to your
home. That was my
motivation when I
started & less than 6 months later, that is still my motivation. QRD
– What do you feel is the
biggest waste of your time running the label? Ben
– The only time I’ve
felt like I’ve wasted my time is when I’ve not followed my intuition
&
tried to fill in the blanks with the traditional means.
Though, hopefully I learned my lesson &
that time will turn out to not have been wasted at all.
Ben
– Crouton Music had
some absolutely beautiful executed ideas.
McSweeney’s has impressed me several times with
their holistic
approaches, too. Other
than that, there
are more artists that I feel a kinship to than companies. QRD
– What other work
experiences prepared you to have a label? Ben
– My time with SILBER
RECORDS!!! I put
together two
compilations & did a lot of gathering of information for
reviewer contacts
& stuff like that. Brian
John Mitchell
taught me a lot about what it takes to coordinate artists &
remove your
work so it doesn’t end up hanging out in my living room for a decade. Though, whether I really
learned those
lessons or not has yet to be seen.
Ben
– That it’s not a
label & that no two releases will be presented the same way. Silent Media looks at
different means of
creating & presenting ideas.
Each
release will be a unique work of art.
Silent
Media is unique in that there will be no recognizable pattern beyond
well
thought out projects that are a pleasure to interact with. QRD
– How has your
physical location effected your label? Ben
– I can’t say the
home base location, small & rural Taos, NM, really effects
Silent Media
much. The internet
getting information
around the world in the blink of an eye. QRD
– Do you enjoy music as
much now as you used to & how has running a label effected how
you listen
to/hear music? Ben
– Absolutely,
I enjoy music & art
just as much as before, if not more.
I’ve always felt that I had a purpose for searching
out new art. Now I
call that purpose “Silent Media.”
I search for new art more vigorously, in
fact! QRD
– What’s your demos
policy? Ben
– I
don’t have one. Nor
have I really started receiving
any. Mostly, the
plans for future
releases have been through friends & friends of friends
& so on. In
fact, the next two releases, that will
most likely take another year & a half, are already lined up
& I can’t
really see doing more than that in the next two years.
A few folks have contacted me since Coupling
came out wanting me to release their next CD, but usually they have no
idea
what sort of projects Silent Media is looking for.
So, if I were to lay down a policy now, it would be
to give
Silent Media the consideration you, as an artist, expect from Silent
Media. Look at what
we’re interested in
& then decide if you think you have something to offer. We won’t re-release your
CD. We won’t
publish your novel & organize
your book signing tour at Barnes & Noble. Silent Media does
interdisciplinary art projects. That’s
our “policy.” QRD
– How do you find out
about new artists for your label? Ben
– Internet, word of
mouth & generally pursuing my own interests.
QRD
– How do most fans find out
about your label? Ben
– Word of mouth,
right now. Hopefully
through reviews
& media coverage, in the future. QRD
– What’s been your biggest
selling release & why do you think it was? Ben
– I only have one
release & it’s sales really aren’t anything to brag about… yet. QRD
– What release that you've
done was the most important & special to you personally? Ben
– Well, since Coupling is the only
release, it’s
important to me because it’s the first, & because I’m so proud
of how it
turned out. Ben
– Their approach to
sound & their openness to other mediums. QRD
– What are some
things that would make you stop working with a band? Ben
– Closed
mindedness. Ben
– They
will all be something to marvel
at & show to your kids in 30 years.
Or, if you don’t have kids, you can show them to
yourself again &
crack a satisfied smile. QRD
– How involved are
you with a band for acting as a producer as far as hearing demo ideas
or
selecting tracks to be on a release or mixing & mastering? Ben
– As active as I need
to be. For now,
there are really no
boundaries beyond time & energy.
I’ve been helping artists whose work I like to book
shows, find
galleries, get in touch with other like minded artists, all with
nothing for
Silent Media to gain other than to help those artists feed their means. For Coupling,
I did all the graphic
design, & involved myself in as many ways as I saw necessary
&
interesting. Other
people, my brother
Josh, Jerstin Crosby, Joel Fry, Shalis (my wife) & countless
others helped
me enormously, too. The
bottom line is,
Silent Media is just as much about being involved with the art world
&
making things happen, helping artists find avenues to reach others,
&
generally furthering the growth of art in our environment as it is
about
putting together releases & selling them. QRD
– How involved do you like
to be in the artwork design for a release? Ben
– See previous
response. QRD
– How long is it from when
an artist delivers an album to you until release date & why? Ben
– As long as it takes
to make it good, because it’s not worth doing unless it’s done well. QRD
– If a band breaks up
between the recording of a release & the release date, how does
that effect
what you do? Ben
– Depends on the band
& how much money has been put into the release.
I’ve never experienced that, but I would imagine it
would be a
case by case basis. QRD
– What do you wish bands on
your label would do? Ben
– Make more, think
more, listen more, try their hands at other means of expression,
& find
value in what they do. QRD
– What’s a record you’d
like to put out that you’ll never be able to? Ben
– This is a hard
question because I can’t see myself re-releasing anything. There are some that are
inspiring to me that
I wish I had thought of. Runar
Magnusson has a beautiful little bamboo box containing a bamboo encased
flash
drive on which is loads of amazing music, videos, & some pretty
hilarious
images. I wish I
had thought of that
format & might use it anyway.
I’m
always enamored with the production that goes into the The Hafler Trio
pieces. I also
think it would be a cool
idea to put out a book of images from some of the experimental
architects &
theorists that I like with a CD of audio compositions composed to be
played in
some of those selected spaces.
QRD
– If you really like a
band, but aren’t sure you could sell many copies of their record; what
do you
do? Ben
– Release their music
on a DVD with stop animation videos to accompany the sound, &
every year,
on the summer solstice, place one copy in a sturdy space traveling
vessel &
shoot it at the stars...duh. QRD
– How is financing of a
release split between artists & the label? Ben
– Case by case basis,
I suppose. QRD
– How do you split profits
from a release between artists & your label? Ben
– I give the artists
everything I can. QRD
– Do you have written
contracts with your bands or handshake deals? Ben
– Usually I require
either a right pinky toe, or 15% of their crops every year for 5 years.
QRD
– Do you take a cut of a
band’s publishing? Ben
– No, but I do
require that they let me do a Balalaika solo on their next album if
they make
some money.
QRD
– How important is it to
you to have touring acts on your roster & what do you do to
encourage it? Ben
– It’s not
particularly important to me, but I encourage folks to do it if they
are
interested. QRD
– How do you maintain
contact with your fanbase? Ben
– Telephone, e-mail,
facebook, reviews, Saatchi, et cetera.
Silent Media hasn’t been around long enough to have
a true fan
base. Beyond an
e-mail list, I can’t
say that I do any one activity specifically to maintain contact at the
moment. QRD
– Do you have intern &
street team programs & if so, how do they operate? Ben
– I wouldn’t call
them programs, or interns for that matter.
As I stated above, I have friends & family
who have graciously help
me out from time to time. Though,
with
the deluge of work I’ve run into recently, I have considered starting
something. Ben
– My staff is more of
a collective, I think... friends & family.
I need all the help I can get. QRD
– What do you do to build
relationships with record stores? Ben
– I buy things &
annoy the people behind the counter about things they don’t carry. Record stores aren’t
really a focus for
Silent Media. QRD
– What do you do to build
relationships with radio stations? Ben
– I like to call in
& request the studio recording of John Cage’s 4’33”. QRD
– What do you do to build
relationships with magazines & websites? Ben
– I’ve sent Coupling
to several for reviews. There
are also
a few I’m looking at for ads, but nothing out of the ordinary. QRD
– What do you do to build
relationships with bloggers? Ben
– Bug them about
reviews. QRD
– Do you view
advertisements as a way to generate interest & revenue or more
as a way to
financially support magazines & websites you like? Ben
– Both, being I only
consider the ones that I would be interested in reading, or at least do
respectable work. QRD
– What is the job of your
distributors? Ben
– To sell what I sell
them & redirect buyers to me when they sell out. QRD
– How do you decide how big
the initial pressing of a release should be? Ben
– I don’t really have
a science for it, but partially based on how many I think I can sell,
partially
based on the undertaking itself, i.e. the more involved the packaging
&
production, the fewer I’m probably going to have made/make. I’d be a liar if I didn’t
mention money as a
factor, too. QRD
– What percentage of a
pressing do you use for promotions? Ben
– Still figuring it
out, really. Right
now, I’m guessing
around 10%-20%, but it depends on the release. QRD
– Do you sell merchandise
other than the music (t-shirts, etc.)? Ben
– Some t-shirts are
in the works, sort of, but, right now, no. QRD
– Do you sell music that is
not on your label? Ben
– No. QRD
– How has running a label
effected your own artistic career? Ben
– It’s put the heat
on, for sure. I
have less time to work
on my own personal projects. Dividing
my focus makes it a little hard.
Though, I find that there’s a nice medium of
activity in my life that
makes my productivity peak. It’s
somewhere below where I am now, & above where I was before
starting Silent Media. Though,
after I finish a few things in my
near future, I think I’ll find a nice medium.
QRD
– Ideally, would you
release your own material? Ben
– Sure. In fact,
the next Silent Media release is a
collaboration between myself & the poet, Joel Fry. I feel like I’m going to
have to pave the
way for Silent Media a bit in terms of what it’s all about. QRD
– What do you do to try to
build a sense of community within your roster? Ben
– Late night drunken
phone calls & crude comments on their facebook pages. QRD
– What’s your most common
conversation with bands as far as balancing artistic integrity
& financial
viability? Ben
– Do what interests
you & to hell with what people want.
If it doesn’t sell, we’ll send it to the stars! QRD
– How often do you look at
your "return on investment" & adjust your business model? Ben
– I did it for the
first time today. I’ll
probably do it
again in a month or two, when the burn from exposure dies down a bit. QRD
– Do you worry about search
engine optimization & website traffic? Ben
– Yes, Silent Media’s
website is probably the most struggling aspect of the whole enterprise,
at the
moment. I know
almost zero html &
most of the people I know that care about Silent Media’s efforts are
equally
oblivious or are just as busy if not more busy than I am. I tend to be all about
“do-it-yourself”
(thanks Collins Supply) approaches, but I might have to drop $50 to
have
someone spend the 15 minutes it undoubtedly takes to fix the stupid
problems
I’m having. QRD
– What have you done to cut
costs over the years? Ben
– Years? I recently
found that I can get envelopes
for much cheaper on e-bay. Thanks
Brian! QRD
– Do you think the album
format is dead? Ben
– Not to me & not
to a lot of people I know. I
think that
value in artifacts is generally suffering.
Typically people experience their music, their art,
& now even their
books through one medium, the computer.
The recent surge of interest in vinyl &
cassette releases is
symptomatic of a backlash from people craving artifacts. I see modern culture
experiencing an
overwhelming acceleration of information & a resulting lack of
emphasis on
all but the most sensational portions of that information. The art world is being
challenged to either
adapt & in a lot of ways it has started, but nothing has really
stepped out
from the pack. I
think (hope) that what
we’ll find five years from now is that the internet will be utilized as
a means
of artistic expression instead of an avenue for people to homogenize
their art
made elsewhere; or a broader means of artistic expression will evolve
that is
capable of addressing the brevity of modern culture.
To say the album is dead is really just saying that
the means of
addressing & interacting with music is dead.
To re-address the question:
Is the album dead, or is it simply evolving? QRD
– Do you think the return
of vinyl & cassettes is a fad? Ben
– I suppose I’ve
somewhat answered this in my response previously, but I will add that I
don’t
think that it’s a fad if you consider what’s driving it & the
directional
aspect of the big picture. CDs
led to
music being tied to the computer, for most people.
The return to vinyl & cassettes is a
backlash to the
devaluing of a musical experience.
Songs are passed around & change formats so
easily that they’ve lost
the sense of investment of time & physical interaction. As I stated above, music
has been
homogenized on the computer. I
find it
interesting that a lot of vinyl releases also come with a free digital
download. This
tells me that people
want convenience, but don’t want to let go of the value inherent to the
thing associated with their
musical
experience.
QRD
– Is it important to have
physical releases over digital ones or does it not matter? Ben
– Indeed, it
matters. The
question for me is whether
the value in the thing, in the artifact, will evolve to a point that it
can
compete with the value of convenience & portability? Do they continue to grow
in opposite
directions & therefore to address an increasingly segregated
audience or do
they find common ground? QRD
– What do you think of
ultra-limited runs of releases (less than 100 discs)? Ben
– I’m not sure. I
have some that are very rare, but are
boring & not worth listening to.
I
have others, that I’m about to wear out & I can’t get another
copy. I think that
limited edition releases can
create a covetous response, but I personally put more emphasis on the
quality
of the work. QRD
– What do you think of
"print on demand" discs? Ben
– I can’t say I have
had much thought about “print on demand” discs. QRD
– How much content do you
feel should be available free to fans? Ben
– It’s a case by case
basis. I have no
means to quantify what
that is for everyone. So,
not so much
that folks just expect free shit all the time & not so little
that they
can’t even get an idea about what you do before making a purchase. Ben
– I drive to their
homes & film them while they sleep.
Then I leave the video in their mailbox for them to
view the next
morning. QRD
– What’s something you see
other labels do that you think of as borderline unethical? Ben
– I’m offended by any
company that is more interested in making money than doing something
they care
about. Then again,
I generally find
their products uninspiring & don’t support them anyway. QRD
– What changes in things
would cause you to stop your label? Ben
– Supervolcanoes. Ben
– Consider how you
represent yourself & the work of others to the world. QRD
– Where do you think money
is currently most available to labels/musicians & where in the
future? Ben
– Pop. QRD
– Why do you think
labels are still important to artists? Ben
– Because
the good ones allow the
artist to focus on their art & encourage/enable them to present
their art
to the world with integrity. QRD
– Music has had
different hotspots on the internet over the years (newsgroups, MP3.com,
MySpace, LastFM), but with MySpace’s
decline, what do you see as the place where "normal" people go to
find out about & get excited by new music? Ben
– Is
last.fm declining? I
must be behind the times. Hopefully
they start to value what labels
& artists have to offer - good’ole research & keyboard
pounding. If people
are really interested in seeking
out new art, they will do it by whatever means necessary. I watch favorite labels,
read reviews, see
who’s working with who, who got thanked where, & who’s touring
with who... not
to mention shows. I
can’t really speak
for anyone else. QRD
– In 20 years what do
you think/hope your label will be known/remembered for? Ben
– Can’t say I’ve
thought about it or even care. I
do
what I do because it’s an avenue for me to pursue my interests
& help other
people pursue theirs. I
guess you could
say that if Silent Media is successful, it will sustain itself
&
simultaneously remain Silent. Ben
– Way to end on 69
questions, Brian!
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