Bleepwatch

[David Keifer interviews Daniel Sanford and David Peck of Beardology]

Daniel Sanford and David Peck launched Beardology Records earlier this year, and already have three excellent releases in their catalog. They also have a thing for beards—which they claim are sources of incredible power. Recently they were kind enough to answer a few questions about net-labels, electronic music, and, of course, facial hair.

Dave: In the spirit of the double interview, let’s start off with a two-part question. How did you guys start working together, and what made you decide to start a net-label?

Daniel: David and I have never actually met in person. We met online through Acidplanet.com (an internet music community website). David lives in Indiana and I live in Texas. We had an appreciation for each others music and eventually, we began talking on AIM. Soon it progressed to discussing ideas and then we had a few collaborations and remixes of each other’s work. After a few years of that and after a while of meeting other artists, we sort of tossed around the idea of starting a record label, but at that point, it was mostly a joke, or something that we really didn’t have any intentions of doing. Then I put out an album on my own, before the label began, and then a few months later, a mutual internet friend Craig Banister (Sandpaperdemon) sent us a demo of his album “Dance Party” and we told him he should send it to major labels. He never did, but then he let us compile some of his other songs into the Dance Party album, and I even remixed one of his songs. After a while of us being fed up with major labels, we just decided to put in a little cash to start our own website and release music from our friends. We really sort of just fell into it; it just seemed to be the right thing to do.

David: Yeah, even though we’ve never met, we’ve been real cool and helped each other with our music. The idea of a net-label had been tossed around for awhile and we just decided to make it happen. We made it to put out our music and our friends music, as well as get connected with new artists of all styles and try and get it out there.

Dave: What advantages do you think net-labels have over traditional cd-producing labels in terms of bringing music and audiences together?

David: I think net-labels are great. First of all, there is tons of amazing music being released on the net, that’s available for free! I think that’s amazing. The whole aspect of bringing music directly to people, from real people, for little or no cost really makes the process a lot more personal. And the whole thing is instant. You download the music, and then it’s yours. You don’t have to mess with having to go to the store, or wait for something to ship. Through the net, you can promote and expand widely, and get your music out directly to your target audience easily without having to be concerned or preoccupied with making money. We are in this for the love of music and sharing it with people who we think will enjoy it.

Daniel: I mostly agree. I think that there’s a lot of red tape involved in producing an album with traditional labels. With net-labels, you the fan get music almost directly from the artist, with only a few people in the way. You have the label heads, who might suggest changes to an artist to tailor the project to the label’s liking. And then there might be some extra layer of involvement, such as Bleepwatch. And that’s it. Then if the label wants to, they might expand to a few physical releases of albums, but only after there has been an interest shown in the artists. That’s something we’re considering breaking into, but we’ve gotta make sure that the demand is there first.

Dave: Why do you think it is that electronic music and net-labels have such a close relationship? Seriously, I’ve thought about this a lot, and just can’t get a handle on it.

Daniel: My guess is that it’s mostly internet nerds who produce electronic music on their home computers. So people are always on the internet and always making electronic music. At least that’s what happened with me and David. ROFLCOPTER.

David: Ha ha! Yeah, I think that the fact that the music is made on either computers or electronic equipment, the creators are comfortable with computers and the internet, and want to utilize it to help get their music out there. Another thing is the fact that many other styles of music where people are playing an instrument that needs to be recorded in a studio setting, professional sounding audio recordings are not as readily available to them. Electronic music is made on the computer and expensive studio time isn’t required. We have the music already on our hard drives in good quality, so why not share it on the internet?

Dave: What would you guys like to accomplish with Beardology? Where do you see it going?

David: I think there are a number of things we’d like to accomplish with Beardology. As we’ve said, one of our main goals is to just get music out there to be discovered. We like the music we put out, and hope that others will too. I think one of the most important things we are trying to accomplish at the moment is trying to establish some sort of fan base or at least let people know that we exist. We’ve been promoting a lot through networking sites such as Myspace, hoping that if people hear our music and like it, they’ll download some and come back to download more. [Dave: Dig the Beardology profile!] Our website, while I think the design looks decent and is functional, it has a few flaws and has some parts that appear to be a little crude in my opinion, so that’s on the list of things to get done. Look for some site improvement in the near future. I just see the label reaching out to more people and interviews like this are really appreciated.

Daniel: I see Beardology Records as some day taking over the universe. Ha ha, just kidding. In reality, I don’t think we’ll get as big as larger, traditional labels like Warp Records, but I hope we can at least spread other people’s music to the masses. Speaking of which, we’re looking for new artists daily in hopes of accomplishing that goal.

Dave: Now to the serious stuff—you guys equate beards with power, which I can buy. Now, the guys you feature on your web site—Lincoln, Jesus, Gandalf—are all pretty strongly associated with good. But, of course, there are lots of bearded guys—Popeye’s nemesis Bluto, for instance, and Satan—who are not so strongly identified with good. I don’t want to get all Nietzschian here, but guess my question is this: are beards somehow beyond good and evil?

Daniel: Yeah, something like that. Beards aren’t necessarily good or evil. Like you said, they are a powerful force. This power can then be yielded by a person who is either good or evil, thus making the force good or evil. In our case, we try to do all good, and the reason we have guys like Lincoln, Jesus, and Gandalf on our page is to hopefully associate ourselves with their goodness.

David: Throughout time the strongest, most rugged, and powerful men have all been beard wearers! From the afore-mentioned Abraham Lincoln, to the heavens above, where Jesus and even God himself are often depicted as adorned with beards. In tall tales and mythology, the beard is nearly always present (i.e. Paul Bunyan). The beard is not good, the beard is not evil; the beard is power. Look around at these powerful figures, and what links them together? The answer is - you guessed it: the beard. The beard does not wield judgment over good or evil, it will only make you into one heck of a man. In my opinion we will probably be featuring some more diversity with figures on our site, as The Hall of Beards will be soon be transformed in a Beard of the Month section, so watch out as some dastardly bastards get their shine in the spot light.

Dave: And finally, how about mustaches? Do they have any worth at all?

David: Zero worth.

Daniel: Are you fucking joking!?

David: Mustaches are what happen when someone farts on your face, not what happens when you’re a fucking man.

Daniel: Agreed. No value.