INTERVIEW WITH JOSHUA VAAGE (chief of High Karate records)

High Karate records is a fantastic label based in Portland, Oregon.We love this small record company.Josh is one of the main members in this lovely group of people.He's a really nice guy and has answered some of our (usuallly boring) questions...

1.How and when did you get involved with music? How did High Karate
records started? How long have you been running now?

I was around music a lot growing up, but when I became involved with bands was right before I went into High School. I played in several bands my friends and I could form and started playing out. I didn't get started with the idea of the label until 1999 when a band I was in "Malduit" was planning to tour. Just the general things we had to do to get the tour booked and the recording that we had to do for a demo led into it. I learned a lot about what labels do and subsequently had a lot of fun doing it. The label started to get active with simply trying to help bands by networking with us together under a common name. This went on from about 2001 until now and just recently we have launched
ourselves into releasing "real" releases. It was a surprise to see so many bands and individuals be so willing to be involved. It was mostly a very organic process because of all the influence of the bands, friends, and people who incouraged , and gave advice.

2.What were your expectations when you started the label?

That the bands I was in could have a Label support. I really tried to seperate the bands from the Label so it could appear that we had some legitamate backing. It always felt that no one was interested in letting us play shows or whatever unless we came in some sort of package, hence the Label. So I always expected it to be a front, but I was subconcously
thinking that if I took it seriously enough it would eventually evolve into a label for others and I liked that idea.

3.How would you describe your label to someone who's never heard of High Karate records before?

It is band influenced and label assisted, and we are not committed to a certain style of music, only people.

4.Tell us a little bit about your bands, releases...

At the moment the bands we are working with are: Desperately Waiting, Black Bird Red, Hurtbird, Loch Lomond, and Book of Maps. All have music available through our website. Hurtbird and Loch Lomond have worked with us recently to get some vinyl made. It's an amazing release. Black Bird Red are in the process of laying low and spending a lot of time preparing there next releases. In the past Desperately Waiting has toured relentlessly and we owe a great deal to them for their past and continuing efforts towards getting the word out. Desperately Waiting has just teamed up with Book of Maps for a split 7. We have a new project called the HK Basement series coming out. It will be a series of split 7 inches that will come out once every other month. Our sister label Born of Blue Skies is becoming established now. Look for releases on that label soon. The more the merrier.

5.Have you been inspired by any labels? Tell me about other record labels that you like.

I've been influenced by any label that has been started by a collective of bands. Thats pretty broad I guess but any label that I've been able to see grow up in my lifetime would narrow it down. I like labels where you see a real excitement among all the workers and bands. I don't care for labels that mass produce, but they don't bother me, I just think the work ethics are not interesting enough to be inspired by to build a label. I also admire labels that put the bands first so that the job of playing music for them can become a sustainable thing. I'm sure that will bring some labels to mind.

6.What are your views on the state of independent labels these days and the music industry in general? How do you see the future of music?

I have no idea. Maybe the marketplace is over-saturated but all the good stuff will float to the top. Most old notable indies have been bought up right?

7.What does it mean “to be independent” these days?

I think it only means that a label is not as big as any of the gigantic labels or any of the subsiderary labels they own. Do everything yourself: book, promote, distribute, etc...? Where you draw the line is difficult though because labels most always need
outside work done. It could mean that you don't answer to people like MTV, gouging distributors, or badly run publishing companies.

8.What do words like "emo, posthardcore, and indie," and those kind of genre-tags mean for you?

It's a "ballpark figure". It's slightly useful for descriptive purposes but not everything with that tag is going to sound like Hoover or
Jawbox. Post-harcore - From what I know the lyrical content has
strayed from "hardcore's" original political based roots into more abstract and poetic forms. Musically it's sometimes more matured, or more "mathy". It's like what Post-Rock might be where a band like the Rachels plays its music like a chamber orchestra would but has members
from bands such as Shellac, and June of 44. I don't know what indie
means - I think it means good enough to be Popular. I understand
genre-tags serve a purpose and I use them but they don't make as much sense as they could if everything didn't need a label or a record label.

9.What kind of a role has the internet regarding music these days?

Internet does what the radio can't do anymore and that is give
listeners all the music, not just some. It also has brought people
across the globe together. A band with no label support can email a band they heard online in another county and trade music or trade shows and possibly tour internationally or gain an audience overseas.

The Industry is in good shape. Labels can sell a single song for a dollar. My younger brother had downloaded (pirated) Tom Petty. He now has bought all Tom Petty's albums. I don't know how much good all the "respecting of artists property" is doing for the artist. Music has always been listened to freely , the packaging costs money. I love the internet. I don't think High Karate would exist yet without it.

10.High Karate is based in Portland (Oregon)…Tell us a little bit about
the local scene… Is there good musical activity? Would you recommend some bands?

Portland is overflowing with bands. These are some great bands in the area: Talkdemonic, Book of Maps, Fogatron, 31 Knots, Brindle,the
Standard, We're from Japan, and Shelter Red. Here are some of the Labels that have roots in Portland: 54/40 or fight, Film Guerrero, Temporary
Residence, Hush, Olympian Shadow Farm, and Lucky Madison. Bands on those labels are definately worth looking into. There is so much going on in Portland so I can't list everything because I have probably heard less than 1 percent of it.

11.How many people are involved in High Karate records? Is it just you running the label on your own?

During the last year Adam Payne, and Ben Morton have jumped in and boosted it up to where it's at. All the bands do a great deal of work. It's not just me anymore and I've spent the last year getting the hang of how fast it's growing because of all the new dedication. Ben is in San Francisco for work so Adam and I have been worked around the clock but we're looking at getting a San Francisco arm up and running while Ben is out of town.

12.Where have you found bands you've released stuff by so far? Do you get demos sent to you? Do you ask the bands or do they ask you? Is there any kind of label’s policy?

All childhood friends. We ask them to work with us and they have all been so gracious to oblige. Demos are great but unless it blows us away we're not in a position to do anything about it. We have recieved some amazing stuff in the past two years but unfortunately we haven't been able to help. I really want to start posting an mp3 section of some of our favorite demo stuff but we're really busy with the bands we do have... maybe we'll get to it this year

13.Do the releases you've put out really reflect your own personal
musical tastes. What’s the common thread in the music that High Karate puts out?

They have and have also expanded my tastes. I love listening to my friends make music. The common thread is that they all work hard, are sincere, and are unique.

14.What do you think are the best ways for an independent label to gain exposure to a crowd that cares? Which is your way of getting press and media coverage? Do you have any particular policy?

It's important to give the people music in a way they are comfortable with, then I think they start to care. As far as getting coverage goes so far we have just been keeping a nice compact press list for the Northwestern States and sending them the dirt on our projects.

15.Would you give us any advices/tips for anyone who wanted to start a label?

Find bands you get along with. Bands need to be recorded and help them if they need it. Be sure you know what they want and what is really
important is to make sure they know what you want before you find
yourself sweating because you didn't prepare them for what you had in mind. If it's meant to be, everything will fall into place. Look around at other labels and find methods that you agree with, that is a good place to start or practice. If someone really wants to start a label the rest is natural.

16.Prons and cons in running an indie label? What are both the boring and funny parts?

The only cons are running to the post office if you have a fever or something like that. The website is difficult to keep on. Pros are going out to see a band play and seeing them happy and seeing a happy crowd.

17.How do you feel about releasing stuff from your own musical projects and other bands at the same time?

Ok. It's actually not "released" in the sense that other bands are. We don't do much in the way of working press on them. I just sort of keep the mp3s up because they are from projects I really cared about and wanted to see go somewhere. For Posterity I guess. Adam and Ben were also founding members of en Filora so they feel the same way I'm sure.

18.I love to talk about music so what other things do you like
musically? What are you listening lately? What were the last records you bought?

Some of the last albums we got and have been listening to a lot at the office are Del Ray, Efterklang, Shipping News, Talkdemonic, and Cheval Defuse. Everyone here listens to stuff like: June of 44, Shipping News, Don Caballero, Sole, Themselves, Slint, Rodan, Thirty Ought Six, Fugazi, Bitch Magnet, Uzeda, Joanna Newsom, Rachels, etc... Older stuff too like Ramones or The Stones, there are way too many to list.

19.Has there ever been a time when you felt like calling it a day, that all music-related things were too much trouble? What makes you carry on? Do you see yourself keep doing this for another ten years?

Every once in awhile I'll throw a tantrum and want to quit but that only lasts a few hours and I think It's mostly due to sleep deprivation. I do see myself doing this for 10 more years. A ten year anniversary is a definite planned calendar date among us here. Wanting to carry on I think just comes from the fact that there are so many future opportunities that we're always eager to get to.

20.What are your upcoming plans? What do you see on the horizon for High Karate records?

There are a few bands that we'd like to release soon. That doesn't exclude the bands currently on the label list but it does include bands I can't mention because some of them don't even know it. I think we are almost in a position to start working with bands outside of our usual pack, but not until our core four bands are tended to. It's going to take a lot more work on the current projects we have before we can expand but we really are excited about growing this label. I'd like to put up a lot more free music on the website but have to make some time for that soon. Watch for the Basement Series, it's going to be fun

For more info about High Karate records, visit their website www.highkarate.com

Interview by Fernando Pérez Herrero