You are reading an interview with Drive Thru Records
conducted by Rich on 9 August 2004
Richard Reines Of Drive Thru Records
This interview was conducted by Rich, in person, on the 2nd of August
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Gamefoe:
To clear things up for everyone which bands are still on the label and which ones are now on Geffen? Richard Reines:
They're all still on the label, they have a certain number of albums on the contract, it's just our involvement is different. So the bands that Geffen is mostly involved with now is New Found Glory, Finch, Something Corporate, The Starting Line and Senses Fail and that's why the [Geffen] deal fucking sucks. Because of that reason. Gamefoe:
Was the problem with MCA as well or just when Geffen took over the deal? Richard Reines:
MCA's people were horrible, it's the same with that company, they fired a bunch of people, got some more people in, just the same assholes either way. Gamefoe:
That sucks. Richard Reines:
Yeah it does suck majorly. Gamefoe:
Why exactly did you get involved with MCA in the first place? Richard Reines:
Well, we started our label with absolutely no money, struggled for over three years, we were out of money, we were on welfare for three or four months, it was horrible, embarrassing it was the worst. We almost gave up more than once. We had a couple of bands on our label and we couldn't afford to do posters, we couldn't afford to do tour support, we couldn't afford to do anything because it was just the two of us with no money, our parents had no money, we couldn't get loans from anybody so then MCA comes in and says,
"You guys will do exactly what you do now except we'll give you enough money so that you can put out your records, so you can give the bands a little tour support, so you can hire two employees (we never had employees) and we'll give you each a salary."
It's not a very big salary, but to us, it was getting paid to do what we wanted to do. So we thought that sounded perfect and they said,
"We won't interfere with anything blah blah blah."
So we thought it was awesome, but we didn't realise what we were really getting into. We had a sketchy lawyer and there was a lot more detail that I want to get into. But it was an absolute horrible deal and every single person in the industry in America knows, and this is a fact, it's the worst label deal in history. We got screwed so badly. So badly. Gamefoe:
So now that's over you and Stefanie can start again as your own label? Richard Reines:
We still own 100% of our label, we never sold it. Almost every larger independent label have major label deals but they all try and hide it. I'm talking about huge punk labels, to a bunch of the bigger hardcore labels. I hate hiding things like that because who really cares, but if you hide it, then obviously you think you are doing something creepy. We don't ever hide things. We don't want to work with another major label. Vagrant is owned 49% by Interscope- we couldn't live with a major owning part of our company and telling us what to do. Dashboard is 100% owned by Interscope. It's cool that Interscope doesn't put their logo on the releases so it tricks everyone to think they are independent though. Geffen would slap their legal lines or logos on anything we did so they could always take credit and steal our identity since they fucking blow and can't find their own bands. Gamefoe:
So you're going to do it all yourselves? Richard Reines:
Well, maybe have someone distributing, but it's an independent distributor, we're not 100% confirmed with that, but 99% confirmed. But if we went with a major it would be millions and millions of dollars and it'd very, very tempting, but I fucking hate major labels. We got screwed really badly and I don't want to do that ever again. UPDATE: haha this changed a week later. We keep going back and forth with our 2 favorite choices, so can you just put a note about that? I guess the 1% chance was stronger than I thought. Gamefoe:
So if you could go back, knowing what you know now, what would you do? Richard Reines:
If I knew what I know now? I would have done it on our own. No matter what. Without question. I would have taken extra jobs, whatever. It was a big mistake. Gamefoe:
So you keep talking about a "new Drive Thru". Any details about that? Richard Reines:
We've signed a lot of new bands, we're kind of losing our old bands in a way, obviously we're still friends with all the bands except Senses Fail. We're still involved whenever they want us to be involved. If they ever want anything from us we'll do it in a second. I'm sure some of them will be involved in Drive Thru tours in the future. Gamefoe:
There wont be any problems with that with Geffen? Richard Reines:
No. Geffen has nothing to do with that. All they are is a fucking machine that doesn't care about people or bands or anything except the bottom line which is money. And they have to because that's what a corporation does. But the new Drive Thru is going to be different. We've always been interactive with our fans, Me and Stefanie, our bands we're going to do more of that, even bigger, even better, we've got loads of cool ideas of thing we're going to down that I can't tell anyone yet. Ways to get people involved, ways to help out bands, we're even doing this comp right now, just a bunch of local bands, some signed, some un-signed , most from America, maybe one or two from England also, but it's just bands we think are really good bands that need some help so we're going to put out this comp to help them out. Gamefoe:
When you were under Geffen could you not do that? Or was is more difficult to do that? Richard Reines:
Well they couldn't stop us from doing that. Me and Stefanie own the label 100% the only problem is that when we started doing something, they'd take it from us. It's like you work your ass off, save all your money for two years to buy a really nice car and your mum comes to you and says,
"You know what? I'm giving this to your next door neighbour."
And you're like
"What the fuck are you talking about?" and that's what they did. We'll give it to your next door neighbour but we'll give you $100 towards a new car. Well that doesn't really help. That's what it was. And you're stuck with all the money you spent, they took the band and gave us a tiny percentage when they picked them up and it sucks. It sucks to loose the band. Like it sucks to loose the car. And it's just a horrible situation. I hate it. Gamefoe:
So when you signed all the new bands could Geffen take those as well? Richard Reines:
There was a point where we actually made a deal with them, where if they didn't fund the bands we could sign them on our own. We stopped signing bands for a while if you noticed and when they made the deal with us we started signing bands again but without the Geffen part of the contract but Hellogoodbye and Jenoah were with the Geffen contract. That's why we put out the free EP's so Geffen couldn't touch anything. Gamefoe:
I was going to ask, will you be doing the Free EPs again? Richard Reines:
It was a great experiment, but it cost a lot of money and didn't make any back which is hard. We might do it again, we're sure not sure yet because it did well for the bands, we're still seeing how well it does with people showing up to shows. It's weird, it had a lot of downloads, Hellogoodbye at about 300,000 downloads, which is great. Gamefoe:
Loads of those people are going to go and buy the CD though so…… Richard Reines:
I hope so. That'd be awesome. The only way we can survive, the only way the band can survive. We did that number 1 because we wanted people to hear those two bands because they're both different to what's going on right now and we wanted to give them a chance. And free is the best way to give it a chance. Number two was to keep it away from Geffen. Number three as experiment to see if it works, so we can try it again in the future. So there were three reasons but Geffen was definatly one of them, so they couldn't get their fucking grubby hands on our bands. We built up a company over eight years and they took all of our biggest assets, all the biggest bands that we'd worked our asses off for and left us with all the small bands. I love our bands but it would be so much easier for us to operate and survive with the big bands. Everything we worked our asses off for. Gamefoe:
When you signed the last lot of bands did you try and find bands that were different to everything else in the scene and on the label at the moment? Richard Reines:
The thing is, you can go back and trace the roots of any label by their first releases. Our first release was a compilation, we did two comps in out first few releases we did and Mulletcore, stupid name but it was before mullets were all trendy and it was funny. Anyway on those two comps we had Jimmy Eat World before anyone knew who the fuck they were, it [the song] was unreleased so nobody knew who the band was at that time they'd maybe sold five thousand records, they were a tiny, tiny band. That's obviously some of the music we were into, look at The Early November, it's Jimmy Eat World territory or whatever. Then we had a couple of pop punk bands on there that we really liked, we had Less Than Jake on there. We had Chris Knocks on there who is a singer songwriter, he did some acoustic but a little more experimental stuff, really cool stuff. So you can see why were signed Dashboard [Confessional]. We've always had the same taste. You look at Vagrants old comp and it's just a bunch of really, really shitty pop punk bands like Automatic7 and stuff. And they jump on trends, you can see they're trying to sign every screamo band, we signed Finch when nobody was screaming. The only other screaming band in the scene were Glassjaw and at that time Glassjaw were tiny also. Glassjaw had sold a couple thousand records. We signed Finch and [people said] "What you sign a screaming band for?" because it's fucking awesome and then maybe a year later people starting getting into it, and two or three years later people started loving it. But we did that way before anyone else was doing that kind of stuff and right now we could sign a screaming band and in two seconds we could sell two hundred or three hundred thousand copies no effort. Make a lot of money, whatever. We don't want to do it. It's the trendiest shit around and I'm so tired of it, it's played out and boring. And we always try to put out what we love and what's right and I'm not jumping on bandwagons. Vagrant is scrambling to sign every screaming band on the planet, trying to steal them from other labels….. whatever they can do because they can't find there own fucking bands. They're trying to sign Boysnightout, trying to sign a bunch of other Ferret [Records] bands. It's like Ferret signed them, let Ferret keep them, why has Vagrant got steal the bands. And they're jumping on this trend how many years too late? Three years too late? It's pretty embarrassing they jumped on the emo trend when emo was becoming big, they jumped on the pop punk trend when pop punk was big. We don't do that. We put out what we love. And you know what? If I found a screamo band tomorrow that I thought were they best fucking band in on the planet, I might change my mind, I really doubt it still but you know if we loved the band…… I still don't think I would do it. We're just not into the trend thing. We just put out what we put out, what we love and what feels right at the time. We've always been that way. We've turned down bands because we don't like them as people, because they're not nice people and that's not what our vibe is. Sometimes we're wrong, like Senses Fail. Gamefoe:
All the bands I have seen from the label, have been awesome which adds to the experience of seeing them. Richard Reines:
It's part of it. It's part of our whole label. It's part of our whole life. Me and Stefanie used to be the fans that would go out, wait for hours to meet a band or go to hotels where our favourite bands were staying and wait for hours and hours. It would be Me, Stefanie and three or four other kids. And the bands, especially the British bands, back then we were into a lot of British bands, they would get off their tourbus and walk right by us. We'd call their names and they'd ignore us. There was five people, they wouldn't sign five autographs. Me and Stef thought how disgusting was that. And we make sure all our bands know that what we went through, what it's like and make sure they never do it fans. If I ever saw one of our bands do that I'd put them back in their place. You can't do that. You're not better than anybody, you can't be an asshole. Everyone has their bad days when they don't want to sit down and sign autographs, kids have to release that too, but there's no reason for bands to do that. Gamefoe:
When you sign bands, how does it work with you and Stefanie? You both have to agree fully? Richard Reines:
Both have to agree fully. Gamefoe:
What if you found a band that you really loved and she wasn't sure, or the other way around? Richard Reines:
If I was completely in love with them and thought they were amazing and she didn't agree, we'd probably still sign them. And the opposite way around. But it hasn't happened yet. Gamefoe:
Are there any other bands that you're thinking of signing right now? Richard Reines:
Yeah one more band that we are finishing the contract with right now. They are amazing, completely different again. They are so fucking good. And then we are also starting on our second label which is Rushmore Records, we already have two bands for that, and we're doing demo deals for another three bands for that. Gamefoe:
Is Rushmore Records for smaller bands? Richard Reines:
Not necessarily smaller. Just a new label. It'll be the same exact thing, but we don't want our roster to turn into Victory where they have ten thousand bands. We just want to keep it small. Gamefoe:
How do you think that will work? If you want to sign a band to Rushmore and they want to be one Drive Thru? Richard Reines:
It happened with a certain band. Called Fall Out Boy. Gamefoe:
I guess that is going to happen though because Drive Thru is one of the bigger labels and actually has a fanbase of its own. Richard Reines:
It's awesome. It'll be the same with Rushmore, we're going to put out great bands with awesome records all the way through, nice people, great live shows. I'm sure it's going to do well too, if people trust our taste and check out the bands. And we all know people usually check out bands before they buy the CD, some people don't buy the CD which is disgusting. Gamefoe:
People keep asking if you would sign a UK band? Richard Reines:
We've been looking for years. We used to love British music. I love certain bands. I think Snow Patrol have some great songs, Coldplay have some amazing songs, Muse are amazing, old Radiohead I love, I don't rate the new stuff. I would love a band from the UK. We've looked and looked and we can't find one. There's one band that I think is really, really good. Gamefoe:
Who's that? Richard Reines:
I can't tell you. But we need to hear more of their stuff and they're going to send us a new demo. But it's really difficult, I'd love to find something from here, it'd be really cool. One of the things that we want to do with the "new Drive Thru" which is in the planning stages is, but we want to do a UK battle of the bands and the winner gets signed to Drive Thru, get lots of bands involved, help them out. It's going to be really cool. Gamefoe:
How would signing a UK work logistically? Richard Reines:
We'd help them out with tours over here and bring them over to the US to tour. No real difference. Gamefoe:
The Fenix TX reformation, is that a permanent thing? Or is it just for the new records promotion? Richard Reines:
They're doing two shows in California and then they're pretty much committed to doing one Drive Thru tour, which will be a World wide tour, but it's not 100%. And the other problem is that Wills band, Denver Harbour just got signed to Universal, so depending on how that goes…. If that does well there won't be a tour. We want to do it this fall, I don't think we can pull it off by fall, so obviously that starts getting to next year, and his other bands might start doing well and then, you can forget about anymore Fenix shows again. UPDATE: There is maybe a 1% chance that Fenix TX will do any shows after the CA shows. Gamefoe:
How does it feel when a band breaks up? Richard Reines:
It's upsetting, but what can you do? It's like if you're going to break up with your girlfriend, It's your choice. If you're not getting on with anyone, for what ever reason, you can't force people to do it. Even if you did it wouldn't feel right. It'd be so fake, and I don't want fakeness. I really, really hate people in this industry, and the bands that are fony. There are a lot of fucking fony people in this industry and it's gross. Gamefoe:
Tell me about it… Richard Reines:
You seem like one of the people who isn't you know…. It's a lot harder when you're not, a lot harder. Gamefoe:
But you must feel a lot better as a person for it. Richard Reines:
Oh of course. I would never do it any other way. I'd rather not do it then be fake. Once in a while you have to be nice to someone you don't really like, but I rarely do that, we usually just tell them how it is. If we don't like it, they know it. Everyone knows it. Once in a very, very, very long while we have to be nice to someone we don't like. But now we're not with Geffen we don't need to do it anymore. Gamefoe:
On the website it says you are planning to release a Live DVD of the invasion tour. Richard Reines:
It's not happening right now. There were lots of guest appearances, New Found Glory, Something Corporate, but the problem is that New Found Glory didn't want us to tape. They said they were playing songs they didn't play anymore and they weren't rehearsed. We were like "It doesn't matter, you guys are always good" they said "no, no we're going to suck". Of course they played every song fucking amazing, sounded great, kids were going insane…… we didn't tape it. They are one of the few bands in this industry that no matter how big they get they still awesome people, they still completely normal, down to earth, to kids, to people they work with to everyone. If everyone was like them the industry would be so much better. Because everyone else are back stabbers, they're not backstabbers. They are loyal. I can't say enough good things about that band. Gamefoe:
I guess they were one of the two bands that started DTR up with Fenix TX and maybe Midtown. Richard Reines:
Midtown don't compare to the size of those two bands. Gamefoe:
A lot of people find it weird that they aren't as big as the two. A lot of people say they didn't want it as much. Is that true? Richard Reines:
That's the biggest crock of shit I have ever heard. They wanted it very, very, very, very, very badly. They begged MCA to come and pick them up, because they wanted to be on a major, they wanted to be huge. I'm not going to get into more details, but if you believe that, it's 100% inaccurate. They wanted it worse than almost anybody else. Which I think was part of the problem. And bad attitudes and bad management all came into play and that's why they are not as big as they should have been. Gamefoe:
You've always said that managers can cause a lot of trouble. Richard Reines:
I hate managers. Let's start with this. If you are a manager, they way you make your living is by making 20% or 15% off the bands. So as a manger your goal is to make as much money as you can for the band. And when that is the goal you don't necessarily make the right decision for the band. The essence of management and that's why most managers are bad. All they want is major labels, radio, MTV ad money. And it's not necessarily for good reasons. Like if you're band wanted to do a comp and I was you're manager. You say "I want to do this comp, blah, blah, won't get a lot of money" I'd say "Well No. Save it." I've seen managers turn down comps just because of the amount of money. They don't think about the long term, it all just revolves around greed and money. There are so many bad decisions, and some bands have managers that have no clue about the scene what so ever and they make really bad decisions for the band. And they cause problems between the band and the label because the manager wants to be the one with the trust. And when our bands have a close relationship with us managers get really territorial and really jealous. And they try and put a little fucking wall between us and the band. And most managers a completely clueless in that way. And what qualifies a manger to be in that grade anyway? It's like, if you look at our history, and I don't want to sound egotistical, but every band we've had has done well, and is happy and are grounded down to earth people and you look at a managers history and a lot of the time it's like what have they really proved? Have they taken a bad from nothing and built them up? They usually don't. They usually go in when the band has already sold a certain amount of records and have a huge buzz. Why is that person [manager] seen to be more trust worth than us [DTR]? I can understand why they wouldn't trust major labels, because they are all fucking snakes. And a lot of other labels. Like Vagrant, I would never fucking trust a word out of his [Vagrants owner] mouth. He's a great talker. A great shmoozer. But he's a fucking sack of shit. And you can put that in the fucking interview. I fucking hate that guy, he's the biggest fucking scumbag backstabber on the planet. Gamefoe:
How are you relationships with the other labels similar to yourselves? Richard Reines:
The thing is we always used to try and be friendly with everyone, help everyone, do things together blah, blah, blah. But everyone else is so bitter and jealous and weird about stuff like that. And all of a sudden, when we started getting big, they would come back around and they were like "oh, maybe we will do something with you." But they were still weird about it, which really bothers me because we tried to make a community, but I don't care. You can like the new Taking Back Sunday, which I think is great, you can like the Brand New record which is great, you can like something on Vagrant which, nothing on that label is great basically, but say there is a great band on that label. And if you like all four, our one and those three, you buy all four records. It's not like "well I'm only going to buy the Taking Back Sunday record and not the other three". They are four great records, you are going to buy four great records. If one is a great record and the other three suck you're only going to buy the one great record. Everyone makes this big competition… Gamefoe:
It's more about the bands than the labels. Richard Reines:
Of course. It's about the bands. It's about the music. If I like a band, I'll buy a CD I don't give a shit what's going on. And they all get really weird about it, Tony from Victory [Records] is the most jealous person on the planet and I don't get it. But you know what? There's Hopeless, I think they're really nice people, Fueled By Ramen are really good friends of ours, I think they are awesome people. I think Bob at fearless is really nice, I think equal vision are nice. There are defiantly nice people in this industry. Gamefoe:
Seems like a great place to leave it. Thanks a lot.
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