| Q&A: Martin Devaney of Eclectone Records |
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| Written by Andrea Myers | |
| Friday, February 29, 2008 at 11:59 AM | |
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Disclaimer: Reveille columnist Jim Walsh released a record on Eclectone Records, and Reveille staff member Steve McPherson plays in the Crossing Guards, a band which is mentioned in this article.  Martin Devaney - Photo by Steve Cohen A few weeks later Martin agreed to let me interview him, and together we fumbled through a conversation about music and life. He mumbled, I scribbled, and afterward I wrote one of my first articles ever for my college newspaper. We’ve run into each other off and on since then, as Twin Cities music scene participants tend to do, but it’s been a while since we've really sat down to talk shop. Six years later, Devaney and I reconvened for a follow-up interview. Turns out he runs a successful local record label now, and has become somewhat of a face for Americana music in the Twin Cities. Tonight, Devaney and his label compatriots are throwing a five-year anniversary party for his label, Eclectone Records, at the Varsity Theater, and Martin was kind enough to sit down with me prior to the show to chat about music, business, and what it takes to keep going in an industry that is constantly in flux. Reveille Magazine: When you look back on the last five years with your label, do you feel like you've accomplished what you set out to do? Was it everything you thought it would be? Martin Devaney: To some degree yes, and to some degree no. When I started it I imagined it being truly cooperative, where the bands on the roster were involved semi-equally on every level. The idea of that is really cool, but it's also really idealistic, and the truth of it is that people are really busy, and they have different priorities, and different goals, and also that for it to really legitimately sustain itself as a business, as a promotional tool, as a resource, that model really doesn't work. As the music industry has changed, you realize that you need to operate things differently than a naïve twentysomething kid with no business experience or music industry experience would. Reveille: What are the biggest changes that you've noticed? Devaney: In the last five years we've seen the digital age take hold, and that affects labels all across the board. Obviously, you're essentially a small business trying to sell a product. And that product is becoming less relevant, or popular, or whatever, to a certain demographic. Then there becomes this difficulty in trying to figure out how to make money. Having to think about that is a drag, because it's not the point, it's not why any of us are doing this. But in order for us to do the other side of things, which is to promote and yell about our bands, we need money. Where we've seen a huge change is that people sell less records, and we have seen a spike in digital sales, but overall nobody is selling a lot of music right now. So then what do you do? How do you survive? A lot of our answer to that, and trying to stay ahead of the curve, is to think about ourselves not so much as a traditional record label, because that model is dead, but rather a resource, a promotions company, a community of people that are trying to advance our music. Part of that is getting people out to shows more often, by getting people movie and TV placement, getting people played on the radio, all those things are important, especially in a time where a lot of people can't even afford to tour, which used to be the way that you got widespread success. Reveille: With MySpace becoming so popular and music becoming so readily available, is there more of an emphasis on live shows and local music? Devaney: I think so. One of the things that we've talked about doing in the spring is doing a Live Music campaign. It would be like a political campaign on the part of live music. Because there you're getting a unique experience each time out that you're not paying one time for a physical product. You're purchasing an experience. With the bands on MySpace, it's not even that you're competing with other bands, you're competing with other forms of entertainment. You're competing with karaoke bars, you're competing with sporting events, you're competing with movies, you're competing with meat market bars where people are going out to get hammered and get laid. And they can do that at rock shows! There is the other side of it though, which is that anybody with a ProTools rig and a CD burner can make a CD now. And they can put it up on their website and download it or whatever, and then how do you make yourself stand out in that world? We're trying to build a catalog, we're trying to build a community that sustains itself and has some kind of presence for more than a couple of years. People are like, “Oh, five years, that's more than more than most bands last, more than most labels last in this day and age.” How do we make our actions seem more significant? I don't think that happens right away, I think that happens over time. Repeating those things and having a brand, essentially. Whether that breaks anybody out to the next level—maybe it does, maybe it doesn't—but if we survive, that's more than a lot of people can say. Reveille: How do you stay motivated amidst all the ups and downs of the industry? Devaney: It's hard. It's very easy to want to give in when there's no money and there's no recognition, but then there's the small victories. You play a good show and there are people there, or somebody writes something nice about you, or you get played on the radio and your co-workers hear it. At the end of the day you feel like you're doing something of worth because it is something off the beaten path. That can be hard, because the trade-offs are pretty rough. I don't make a lot of money. Some of my friends do. But they've got more mainstream jobs, and it's just not what I wanted. Reveille: Do you have a day job? Devaney: Yeah, I work at a book store, almost full time. Which is the reality of it. It's like the old Mike Watt thing, the Econo-job. I don't think there's any shame in having a day job.  Martin Devaney - Photo by Tony Nelson Reveille: Where are you at with your own music? Devaney: I'm just trying to be patient and make the songs and the records that I really want to make. In the past I think I've pushed things and I've rushed things, and that has led to a certain level of productivity, but not necessarily an advancement of the music of my career. With the Crossing Guards stuff [Devaney’s new band, with Sean Hoffman, Judd Hildreth, Eric Kassel, and Steve McPherson], that has just been a lot of fun. When I started writing this stuff, it was either little melodies or ideas that had been around forever and I had put in the drawer, and/or a reaction of getting together with some guys, having a bunch of beers and just banging out some fun rock music. The result is a band that is not by any means tongue and cheek, but a real band with real songs that just happens to be fun before anything else. Our goal with that is to make cool records, put 'em out whenever we feel like it, play a couple times a month, whatever. It's more of a clubhouse than a band. Reveille: Do you have trouble balancing your musical goals with your more practical business goals? Devaney: I think there's three parts: the artist side of me that wants to be creating at all times, the side of me that's thinking about the label and my work there, and then there's the other side of me, the side of me that gets the least amount of attention, which is my real life. My friends and family, and worrying about if I am going to be able to buy a house this summer, and if I am going to get out of debt, how come all my friends are getting married, that stuff. If I get too obsessed with one, the others take a hit, and that's just the nature of things. Reveille: What has it been like to go from a student at the U of M learning how to play guitar and putting out a solo album to being someone who can go out to a bar and be recognized by anyone who knows anything about local music? Does it ever feel stressful or strange to be the face of your label? Devaney: If it seemed like it happened overnight, if it seemed like complete foreign territory it might seem weird, but to me it totally made sense. And I don't mean that in an arrogant way. I feel like that kind of recognition or accolades is reasonably deserved, but also really appreciated. That’s your connection. That's your base. That's the people you play with and play for and play to, and go see and hang out with. You build your life around the connections that you make through the work that you do. Reveille: In a community as small as the Twin Cities, do you ever find it challenging to make friends with the people you work with? Devaney: Definitely. It's like having roommates. You're going to butt heads on some stuff, your friendship will change, there will be fights, there will be conflicts, and even worse, there is money involved. That blows, that's the worst. There's a different stress level. You unfortunately have to talk shop sometimes, you can't just talk baseball or rock. Reveille: Do you have a specific genre that you intentionally gear your label toward? Devaney: No. I think if you took a look at us, you could definitely somewhat corner us into the Americana, alt.country, singer-songwriter world, but look at Little Man, and look at what Big Ditch Road is like now, and what Hojas [Rojas] is like. We’re a rock and roll label. But that said, we wouldn’t do a good job of promoting a band like Gay Witch Abortion or STNNNG. Think about Modern Radio. There’s a cool label that has an identity, and those bands are working with them. I like a lot of those bands, but would we be the best resource for them? Probably not. With the avenues we promote through, the shows we put together, etc, etc, we’re going to be best for a certain kind of artist. Roots rock, more basic rock and roll, singer-songwriters. Reveille: How do you feel about [Eclectone artist] JoAnna James leaving Minneapolis for Los Angeles? Will you still be involved in her career? Devaney: Obviously JoAnna is one of our premier artists—I don’t think that’s slighting anyone—she’s certainly one of our most active, notable artists right now. To see her leave is hard. I think she’s such an insanely talented person, but also has grown really restless. I support her very, very much as a friend. I hope that we continue to be involved—she has a lot of her new record in the can, and obviously we want to work with her on that, but I think right now she is just searching for the right path to go down artistically and in her life. Nothing is changing in how much we support her and how much we will continue to support her. What our actual involvement will be from here on in remains to be seen. Reveille: What advice would you give to a new musician with stars in their eyes, trying to find a place in the local scene? Devaney: I think one of the key things, aside from being really thoughtful of your writing, is to decide to have some sort of presence. The most important thing that I think I did right was to get out and meet people and know them and create friendships and relationships, or at least be on people’s radar. Not only sending out your demo, but knowing them personally. Because that’s going to make people a lot more likely to listen to your stuff or go to your show. I think that goes all the way to the top. Reveille: Any big surprises planned for the Anniversary? Devaney: We’re putting out a compilation CD. It’s going to be more of a homemade deal, like some of the Big Ditch Road EPs. It’s largely unreleased stuff from a lot of the artists. We’re putting it out first at the show, so it’s for our audience and for our fans, before we give it out to radio and. It’s a limited run, a fun scrapbook to go along with the night. Reveille: How many bands are playing? Devaney: Nine. Eight or nine. We’re not doing two stages like we did last year, but we’ll keep it moving along. We’ll see stuff from new bands: Crossing Guards, it will be our second time out, and Hojas is going to close out the night. The whole theme of the compilation record and the night is an old inside joke, “I wouldn’t count on it,” which goes back to being on tour and saying, “I wonder if we’re going to get paid well tonight, or if people are going to be there, if we’re going to find a place to sleep or if they’re going to feed us.” And inevitably the answer was, “I wouldn’t count on it.” Reveille: What are your goals as you move forward? Devaney: We’ve had somebody recording the Hoots for the last year, so we’ve got all those and we’ve got a bunch of live shows recorded. What we would like to do is set up a thing through our website to have people be able to at least stream, if not download, a lot of that stuff. Now that it is so easy to get music out there on the internet, we really want to flood the internet with content. Get exclusive tracks up there, get live shows out there, so that it gets people coming back. If people aren’t going to be able to tour, we can put live shows up that everybody around the world can get in a minute. To try to roll with the punches, because the music industry is changing so fast, and it’s to the point now where it’s not stagnant for even a week. There’s something new every week. We have to stay on top of that. Eclectone Records website Eclectone Records MySpace page UP NEXT: Eclectone Records celebrates its 5 year anniversary tonight at the Varsity Theater. Tonight's lineup, in order or appearance: Bob McCreedy, John Ewing, Crossing Guards, The Mad Ripple, Big Ditch Road, Dan Israel and the Cultivators, Little Man, Hojas Rojas. 8 p.m. doors. 8:30 p.m. music. $8. 18+. |
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| Last Updated: Friday, February 29, 2008 at 02:48 PM |
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