PM: As soon as I could afford to, I moved out of my mom’s house with some friends, and we made it a point to find a pad with a basement so we could have shows. The bands you mentioned all played in that house’s basement, along with 2-3 others, every month we lived there for around five years. One of the bands that came through played me their demo upstairs after their gig while we were sitting on the couch, and said they wanted to put out a 7inch but had no money, and I had $1,000 in my bank account for the first time in my life. That’s essentially how I started making records.
PM: 702 Records was the label I put on that first record, and then on the next 30 or so I did. I didn’t really have a ‘sound’ in mind for 702 Records – I just put out bands that I liked. My musical tastes are quite varied, so the end result was in fact a label without a particular sound. And then I started to realize that most of my favorite labels did, in fact, have a sound. So in starting Slovenly, I set out to create a “Slovenly sound”. In retrospect, I think I would have needed to be more focused than I have been to really create that sound. For a label to have a sound, you have to really find a niche.
The label changed, but I’m still me and can’t say no to making records for good friends I like. So in the end, over the years, I think Slovenly has gone in the direction of good old 702, and that’s just fine. I love making records and work hard to do the best I can for our bands, and that’s what’s most important in the end.
Shock Treatment: What are some of the major differences you've noticed in running a label in the mid 1990’s as opposed to running a label now?
PM: That’s an easy one. Back in the 90s, even though new vinyl was not easy to find in stores in most US towns, if you released a decent 7inch record by a totally unknown band who barely played outside of their home state, you could pretty easily sell 1000 copies. It might take 5 years, but they would move. And if you put out a full-length record by a known band that was touring nationally, you could sell tens of thousands.
Nowadays, even for a known band that tours internationally, you’re lucky to sell 1000 copies of a full-length. Yeah, even after the “resurgence of vinyl”. Take it from me, who never stopped buying (or making) vinyl records: the resurgence of vinyl that supposedly started around 2015 is a steaming crock of shit. As if it weren’t bad enough that the major labels shut down most of the vinyl pressing plants in the 90s and replaced them with CDs… the motherfuckers went and took our indie plants back over starting around 10 years ago, and then got the press to report that people are buying vinyl again (when in reality, we never actually stopped). The ‘resurgence’ is of people buying their mainstream best-selling titles on vinyl again – not of the format as a whole.
Of course, digital media, Spotify, and the whole streaming model have to be mentioned as well. Until the late 90s, one pretty much needed a physical copy of music to listen to… that meant buying it, or ‘pirating’ it. Since then, it’s become easier & easier to get music for free, or worse – by giving money to piece of shit companies like Spotify so they could invest in AI military instead of paying royalties to the artists they’re making money from.
PM: Yeah, we ran ads for Sticker Guy! in MaximumRocknRoll for a coupla decades before they finally (and sadly) stopped printing. MRR was a great resource for the independent underground, and it’s been missed terribly.
What inspired me to get started making stickers? I was going to live gigs from a really young age (using my fake ID to get into 21+ shows at bars in Reno). And most of my friends were in bands. One night, a mediocre band came through town, and they had really cool vinyl stickers. I definitely loved their sticker more than I loved their music. They were called WILLIARD, and below their name on the sticker it said “The Sound of Fuck”. I guess I was easily amused as a 17-year-old. I guess I also noticed that most bands’ stickers were low-quality and didn’t withstand any kind of weather. Paper stickers just didn’t stand the test of time. After almost burning my mom’s house down running vinyl through my laser printer, I found my partner Jay in the phone book under “screen printers”.
Shock Treatment: These We’re Loud Fests that you put on are absolutely bonkers! I mean, doing a festival to me seems like a lot of work, much less doing them all around the world!? I can’t even imagine. What made you think to yourself: “Yeah, I can do this!”
PM: We’re Loud Fest has gradually taken shape as an itinerant music festival, with each edition happening in a different location around the world. The first edition was supposed to take place in Amsterdam (where I was living at the time in 2015). I had booked THE KIDS & NEW BOMB TURKS, reserved some date at a venue, and then went down to Athens for a week or so to hang with some of the Greek bands we were working with. While I was there, Bone from THE ANOMALYS called me up to tell me the venue had given my dates away to some fucking techno party! I was having a blast in Greece, so I said fuck Amsterdam and decided to move the festival to Athens. I’m really glad that happened, because it helped me realize that bands from isolated scenes tend to be special. Greece, Sardinia, Puerto Rico… all places that are a bit out of the way and all places with exceptionally good bands. And also, coincidentally, places I loved to travel to and hang out. So We’re Loud sort of became not only a music festival, but also a mission to help expose music scenes in unlikely places, and a way to bring friends from around the world into my ridiculous lifestyle for a weekend.
PM: I think I’d have to say Kenya was the most challenging, because when we went there, we didn’t know anyone at all. We just put ourselves out there a bit, slowly met people in their relatively very small scene, and after 2+ years had enough of a network to make something happen. Kenya’s edition turned out to be the most amazing one yet.
Shock Treatment: On the Slovenly.com site, it states that “most modern festivals feature music made with computerized beats and robot-enhanced voices.” Is We’re Loud Fest kind of your way of making sure rock n roll stays a vital part of people's lives all around the world?
PM: That is definitely one of the reasons we do We’re Loud Fest, but I’m not going to pretend that I was motivated by some grand devotion to the preservation of rock’n’roll. It’s just the music I like, and if I’m going to work my arse off to make a music festival that usually loses money, I damn sure better love the music.
Shock Treatment: I’d like to jump back to Slovenly Recordings for just a bit. Speaking of rock n roll around the world, can you tell me a bit about the new Twenty One Children After The Storm LP? I fucking love that record! How did you guys meet them?
PM: When we organized the Saigon edition in 2019, we made it a point to bring bands from across Vietnam and the surrounding regions. Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia, etc, and were really happy with the result.
In June, I’ll be on tour with Twenty One Children in Europe!
Shock Treatment: So, being in Phoenix, I’ve gotta ask, how did you come to discover Jaime Paul Lamb's music (Van Buren Wheels, Puppy, and The Handjobs)?
PM: I think Jaime got in touch with Bazooka Joe and let him know he had a box of cassettes from the 90s. The result was one of my all-time favorite releases on the label (and what is in my eyes our best collaboration together): WE’RE LOUD “90s Cassette Punk Unknowns. Various Artists, but all either played by or recorded by (or both) Jaime Paul Lamb. The We’re Loud Fest was actually organized as the release party for this record.
So Pete, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me! I really do appreciate your time. Where can people go for We’re Loud fest updates, Slovenly Recordings news, and to get some stickers made!
PM: Thanks to you!
slovenly.com / slovenly.com/fest / stickerguy.com
Go check out Slovenly Recording's Bandcamp here: slovenly.bandcamp.com
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