Almost There, mon frere

So what is your background?

As far as the label?

Whatever you want to say. I guess, how you eventually came to doing the label.

Well I moved here in '95 and have been doing the music thing here since.

Are you a musician?

Yeah. When we first moved here we thought--well, a friend and I moved here for the music specifically--and when we got here we thought we moved to the wrong town because there was all of this horrible bluesy run-of-the-mill crap and there wasn't this great rock scene that there is now. So, we first started playing gigs at like the Steamboat and all those old places on 6th street and they were terrible.They had no clue how to book shows 'cause they were just doing it seven days a week. So you'd get like us, you know, some power pop band and then there would be a rap band on after us and then some metal band, so it was just a horrible set, you know. We were so stupid because we thought everything was on 6th street and then we found Hole in the Wall and Electric Lounge and that's when I saw Prescott Curlywolf. They are like our heroes. They set the foundation.

So, I started noticing a change about 97/98. Before that there was Silver Scooter, Prescott Curlywolf, The Onlys. There were a handful of really good bands; then it started changing.

What happened, do you think?

I think a lot of good bands may not be outgoing and meet up with other bands and put shows together with other bands and just kind of do their own thing. Maybe, I don't know, maybe bands just started to find each other and say "Hey, let's do a show together." That sort of thing. So it's hard to put a finger on it. I just remember all of the sudden it was like, "Wow! We know all these great bands that are here."

And what was your band?

The band then was called Supercrush.

OK.

Just an embarassing band name.

Supercrush?

There are so many "Super" bands. And then there was Seratone, which was a power pop band with a female singer. And then I joined Milton Mapes, which I was in for like 2 years.

What did you play?

In that band I played guitar.

So you play lots of different things?

I can. I play guitar in most of the bands. Now I just kind of have my own project. It's called Gleeson but it's not really a band. We don't have set members. It's just me and I write songs and I get all my friends to play on it.

It seems like there are a lot of "bands" like that lately. There's like one guy and he names himself something and then gets people to go on tour with him.

Yeah. Well we don't go on tour.

Someday! Gleeson? Anything to that? Jackie Gleason?

No, it just sounded like the last name of that guy in high school who had the keg parties and got you in trouble. But the label idea really started because The Chronicle called me and was like, "Hey we got your record, Seratone, and we wanna review it, so what's your record label?" And I was like, uh, I don't have a record label. So I came up with "Almost There", so the name of the record label came from that.

And we had no intention of doing anything with it other than we had to put a record label on it and make it look more pro, you know. But later on I just kept thinking, God, we have such a great scene here and it just doesn't get the attention that it deserves, 'cause for whatever reason, whether it's the old timers that embrace the boring ass singer songwriter crap or just some overabundance of stuff here. Although some of the bands The Chronicle does justice to, and they were really kind to us on the Who tribute CD (Who and Who). For four weeks in a row they were writing something about it. The original stuff we were like, "Come on man." They weren't giving us any love. Do we have to do cover songs?

I think The Chronicle is very tied with the KGSR crowd. Which I'm okay with, but there is this other thing, there is all this other sort of music out there.

Well, when I moved here The Chronicle didn't have any porn ads.

[Laughs]

So I think they have gotten to the point where they need things that are going to help them sell.

Maybe we need an alternative to the alternative. Like The Chronicle, I think it serves a good puprose, I like it, but maybe we need another voice.

I just wish people would write more objectively. I just hate all this liberal--even if I think something liberally, if that's even a word--I just hate how they have all these obvious opinions. Like with the Statesman and The Chronicle, they just seem so left.

You think the Statesman is left?

Oh, big time. You think they are more conservative?

I think they've always backed Bush. But I don't usually read Statesman, so I really have no reason for saying that. I guess it's just the nature of the business. I don't care. I'm like, left as possible! So it's fine with me. But I think, too, that it seems The Chronicle has had the same writers for so long that it is just that is who they are.

Yeah.

Maybe we need some fresh blood out there. I like Kinky. I'm going to vote for him.

[Laughs]

So there are other people on this?

It started out with just me and it was like, man this isn't as fun as it would be with other people. So, my friend, Jenny Vanderpool, who is Greg Vanderpool's (lead singer of MIlton Mapes) wife was I guess starting a public relations kind of production thing called Thumbtack Media. And she was looking to try and get bands, I don't necessarily think to manage, but just to try to create public relation awareness. So I got together with her and said, "Hey, you know, this is what I'm doing", and she thought it was a good idea so we sort of partnered up.

And I needed a graphic guy because I'm a graphic retard. I can't do anything on computers with that regard at all so [we brought in] my long time friend, Cody Walton, who graduated from Texas State with a degree in Graphic Design and he's a big fan of music, especially the music here. So that was pretty easy. And he's been a saint, because, you know, financially it is really hard to do this. He's basically just been a partner. He helped with the t-shirts and stickers.

Those look really nice. I like the design.

Yeah, he did those. And he didn't charge us anything. He's just kind of like "Hey, you know, I want to be a part of this." And maybe later on it will come back and if it doesn't who cares? We had fun. And that is sort of the premise behind the label. It's not like, "Hey, we have this great label." The idea behind it, really, is just to help bands through another outlet. And they are all friends with us. I'm friends with all of these guys in these bands. It's a big family project. All the bands have been really cool about it. I've yet - knock on wood - asked a band to do it and had them not want to. They've all been really receptive to the idea.

I don' t think we plan on becoming some big indie label.

You don't want to seek out bands that don't have a recording yet?

Well, we are putting out a record by a band called Mandible which don't have any recordings yet but they are a phenomonal band. Insanely original. And they are on both our albums. They are going to release their debut soon with us. But it's like, the goal is to get them somewhere else, because we can't do a lot. We don't have any distribution.

Just to get them heard.

Exactly. Give them a formal outlet to put it out on. Hey, you know, we're on this label. Sounds a little bit more official than, "Hey, we just put this out ourselves."

Like, hey, I got a band!

There's stuff behind it too. There's a couple of comps. There's a show that we are doing at Stubb's on the 28th of January that we are going to record live.

The Neil Young Tribute?

We are going to release a live tribute, hopefully. If everybody plays well and we record well then that's the plan.

How did you decide on The Who and Neil Young. Is that you and your influence?

Well sure, I love The Who and I love Neil Young, but I think a lot of these bands that we like and play with are heavily influenced by them too.

Cause those are wildly different choices.

Yeah, yeah. So that's neat.

I guess everybody wants to cover a Neil Young song. If I were a musician I'd wanna play Neil Young.

I chose The Who because they were my personal choice and people wanted to do it. I think with Neil Young there is a bigger response. A lot of these bands have a heavy Neil Young influence. Some people think of Neil Young as just a guy with a guitar and a harmonica and Crazy Horse.

But he's a rocker!

He's got one of the greatest rock records ever made.

So do you have a day job, then?

Yeah, I'm actually a city planner for Austin.

Wow, so you are ingrained in the city.

Yeah, I work for the police department as a planner. Crime analysis.

Good times. Is that what you went to school for?

I went to school for Urban and Regional planning. I wanted to be a city planner.

Give me three words you would use to describe Austin's music scene.

Geez. I have no idea. I would say that it is very all over the place. There's four words. There's so many different little scenes and genres of music.

Are you happy with it?

As far as what we wanted to do, I think it is a million times better than it was when we moved here. yeah. It's really weird. I don't know, I've been to other cities on small tours and don't know what it is but we have this real communal feel. For the most part everybody likes each other's band and is real supportive. So it made this thing easy to put together. The hard part has been to get people to pay attention to us. I think that has been the hard part of a lot of these bands. And so many of these bands are just so good. Just top notch rock music.

The major labels are into the quick dollar. And then the indie labels are too into the coolest, newest hippest sound that is so pretentious. They are into the next cool thing. Who's signing bands that just write great songs?

Are there major bands out there that you like?

Wilco. The Jayhawks, I don't know if they are on a major label. There are bands that have made it. Built to Spill made it. I like the first two Foo Fighters records, although you knew he was going to get a major deal. I don't hate everybody, I'm not one of those people.

No, I just wondered if there was just this phenomonal band that just happens to be well loved that you like.

Wilco. But I think they are loved by the people that love them. They haven't tapped into that crowd that just goes, "Whatever's on the radio..." Beck. I love Beck. He's a rock chameleon. Every record is different.

I like half of Beck. I'm glad he tries different things, but I don't always follow him. Do you like like Modest Mouse or Franz Ferdinand?

I don't like Franz Ferdinand but I do like Modest Mouse. I'm not into The Killers or any of that new - well, it's not really new - it's just like Depeche Mode all over again. Which I was never a big fan of.

You didn't have the fifteen year old Depeche Mode I'm so depressed phase?

I guess I listened The Smiths, but I listened to them for different reasons than most people. I liked the musicians in the band. I never could stand Morrissey and his weird lyrics.

He's his own thing.

He is definitely his own thing. There are people that would fall to their knees and cry and lose their mind if they ever met him.

I always thought his greatest hits would make an awesome musical. You know, like the Billy Joel musical. The young gay man goes to London.

A sort of depressive version of "Tommy."

Yeah. I could sell it. I gotta go to to New York. So yeah, is there anything you would change about the Austin music scene if you could?

Yeah, I wish that they would look at us more. Give us the attention. They try and promote people like Kelly Willis, whatever follows that sort of Austin tradition. BUt it's been done over and over. Why aren't these great bands putting out great records--I'm not faulting the powers that be.

Faulting the people?

Well, no. They just want to turn on the radio and whatever's there is comfortable. You know, it's all produced the same way. Produced by the same producer, played by the same band, same mixer, you know. It's sort of formulaic. On a whole, I don't think people want to be challenged musically. But there is an audience for that. Beyond Almost There or any other small label here in town.

Get your copies of Turn 1 or Who and Who at Waterloo Records.