Mens NRK Radiofront leitar etter ein doomed american dream i Los Angeles, finn vi den hos Polyvinyl Records: Onsdag, Oh Montreal. Fredag, Deerhoof. Flutter & wow: Favoritthjortene har gått over til det største av dei siste indieselskapa i Georgia: Polyvinyl Records. Den amerikanske draumen i form av eit plateselskap: I møte med Polyvinyl går alt an. For eit par år sia slapp Mark “Jigsaw”, frå selskapet, meg inn backstage for eit intervju med Kevin Barnes. Førre veka gav han meg heimenummeret til Kevin og Nina Barnes, for eit intervju. På onsdag gjenkjente eg han under hest/ bøddel/ englekostyme på scena på Rockefeller. Så, Mark, kva med deg: Kven er du, eigentleg?
- My name is ‘Mark’. I’m the guy at Polyvinyl who stays up very late at night emailing and making long-distance phone calls to Norway trying to get our band’s records on the radio, in stores and of course in your wonderful magazine:)
– And here we go! It is about 7 AM Norwegian time just now. And your time, I can only dream about! You seem to work very long hours. How and why you get into music business?
- I started playing drums when I was 9 years old. In Junior High my mom used to drive me and my friends to recording studios and venues in the city to play punk rock shows. I’ve always played in bands and about 5 or 6 years ago I met Matt (the co-owner of Polyvinyl) and he gave me a job. I’ve been here ever since and I love what I do!
- What is your relationship to “your” musicians?
- We’re all good friends and work closely together. I think we’re a bit different than other labels since we give complete control to our bands. Once we fall in love with a bands music and start working with them, we’re happy to support whatever they want to do. This means that any music production stuff, videos, tshirt designs, etc is totally up to the bands. For instance, of Montreal wanted to release their record as a paper lantern and we said “Absolutely, that’s a great idea!” We’re happy to work with such great bands and anything they want to do artistically we fully support. Marketing a record always comes second to the music.
- To whom may we credit that you have OM in the company? Deerhoof?
- Well, of Montreal was already on the label before I started working at Polyvinyl. I believe we started our relationship back in 2003 out of a mutual love and respect for each other. Working with Deerhoof is something that’s happened just recently and I couldn’t be more excited about it! Adam Austin (who works at Polyvinyl) and Erik Carter (who books the band) have been friends for a long time. It was because of them that we were able to meet Deerhoof and talk to them about doing the new record in Norway.
- What does “Doing it in Norway” mean?
- That they release it there, and in Europe.
- Ok. So what offer could you give that they couldn’t turn down?
- We offered them coupons for free back-rubs.
- That would do it for me too! And judging on only one single, Deerhoof seem to return to something closer to what the were: sweet/ cute but with that darker currents underlying. But still with that complex beat.
- I agree! I love Deerhoof’s other releases (Friend Opportunity and Offend Maggie are amazing) but I also couldn’t be more excited for the new release. It’s my favorite so far! Speaking of that incredible new single, did you know we’re giving it away for free here: http://iheartvinyl.polyvinylrecords.com/em/deerhoofvsevil/
- Is your sirname “jiggsaw” as in the puzzlegame?
- Well, someone started calling me that years ago. My real name is Mark Kenny. Born and raised in Worth, Illinois.