Dogfight Records.

An interview with Pilks from Sydney's Dogfight records and No Love Lost. A good little insight into what it takes to run an emerging label. Also, pretty sure I got the exclusive on exactly what is going on with his old band. For fans of No Love Lost, there is bad news ahead.

What’s up man, would you be able to tell everyone your name, what you do at Dogfight and are you happy to finally have the new Shinto Katana record out?

Well I’m Pilk’s. Trent and myself pretty much share the load at Dogfight and work out all the distro and promo stuff for the albums as well as helping the bands with any tours or band related stuff that they need help with or advice with.

Yeah mate really happy to finally have that one out, its been hanging around for awhile and we were keen to get it out so people can finally hear it.

I heard you had some trouble getting that record out. Issues with distro?

Yeah lots of hassles there mate haha.

We had something lined up with Stomp for a distro deal and then there was a re-structure over at Stomp and they had to put it on the back burner, which put us in a spot because both Shinto and us at Dogfight expected it to be distro’d thru an actual company rather than the DIY stuff that myself and Trent were already doing.

With the amount of time, effort and money that Shinto spent on this album it sent us into overdrive to try and get something worked out to get some type of distro before its release.

Obviously the goal of all record labels is the same. Get their signing’s record out. But not all offer the same benefits or services as each other. What do you do for the guys that you have at your label?

Well I'm not sure what the other labels do to make us different from them so I cannot really say. But apart from releasing the record’s and promo, we like the bands to come to us with stuff they need help with, anything that comes in to the normal band organization which could be from hiring vans to merch designs, we are here to help them. We really like them to know that they can ring us for everything and anything.

What actually made you want to start a label to begin with? As I understand it, running a label isn’t all that profitable. Obviously riches and fame weren’t factors.

Trent and I just wanted to be able to do something for a lot of the bands out there that maybe weren’t big enough to get on some of the major labels. Kind of like a stepping stone for bands to move to those bigger labels and that’s what set the ball rolling on what Dogfight is today and yes it surely isn’t profitable, I’ve worked a lot of Saturdays to get extra cash for Dogfight haha

How did you get up in the beginning? Was it hard?

Getting started wasn’t the hard part for us, it was more so understanding and getting our heads around the in’s and out’s of what running a label means. Lucky for us good friends of mine, Craig and Cassie, had already been through the same stuff setting up their own label, Sightline, (Craig now runs a label called Midnight Funeral) and myself and Trent spent many an hour on the phone to them picking their brain on everything to do with record labels and they helped us get it all started.

Graham at Resist also helped us understand a lot of stuff and pointed us in the right direction with a heap of things.

Without Craig, Cassie and Graham it would have been a much harder exercise for us then what it was.

I’m sure people reading this would have heard of both labels, but if not check out www.myspace.com/resistmusic & www.mysapce.com/midnightfuneralmusic

You are pretty established now as a label now, being quite well known through out Australia. Now that you have established yourself what is on the cards (Bring a band over from the states, sign a foreign band)? Or are you just going to keep on with what you are doing?

We are getting to the point now where things are running really well and smoothly and we have been talking more and more about bringing bands out from the States and also signing or releasing some bands from overseas. So I think that is going to be on the cards for us for this year or next.

We would also like to maybe do some 7” releases at some stage and maybe even start doing a yearly Sydney compilation CD where we can get all the Sydney bands on one release to help promote the scene here.

Is the fact that your label is fairly well known a shock at all? Did you expect your initial signings to do well and establish such a good base to build from?

I’m actually quite shocked about it all and how fast people have recognized the label. I think we have been very lucky with the first few bands that we signed. All their releases did very well and all the bands helped us a heap in the beginning to promote the label as much as possible. With them as well as a lot of our friends promoting the labels name, it really helped us get our foot in the door.

No Way Out have done two records with you, Shinto Katana are literally days away from number 2, Relentless are looking at doing their second record with you. Is it a good feeling to know that these bands were happy with their first round with you and want to come back?

For sure mate, it definitely makes us feel like we did something right with those first few releases. At the time it was a gamble for both us and the bands, and I’m glad it worked out well for everyone and that they were happy enough to come back to us a second time.

The impression that I get from the label is that Dogfight is more or less a family. A group of dudes that hang out, play music and just have a good time in general. Is this something that’s important to you?

That would have to be the most important part of the label for Trent and myself. We want the label to be fun first and business second without compromising what we have to do for the releases.

Having the bands able to ring us for advice and to get along with the other bands on the label is the main thing that matters to us.

First and foremost this is a hardcore label and hardcore to us is more than music, it's friendship and being able to do something positive. Having our bands tour around the country and know that the guys from other bands on the label will go out to the shows and hang with the guys on tour and put them up or lend them gear is what this is all about and I reckon this would go for a lot of other labels too.

I’m just going to finish up some short questions

Favorite record you have released so far?

Um hard question, but would have to be the new Shinto record as well as the new Relentless one which will be out soon. Both these records blew me away the first time I heard the finished product and got me really siked on releasing them.

Anything exciting planned for 2010 that we don’t know about yet?

Well there is a few things in the works in the way of tours that haven’t 100% been finalized yet so I cant say to much on that haha. The new Relentless album will be out in August, which everyone should check out.

We have also been chatting to the Hand Of Mercy guys about releasing their new record so if all goes to plan we will be putting that out at some stage over next few months.

No Love Lost… What’s going on haha?

Haha mate if I had a dollar for every time I’ve been asked that question I could actually retire I think haha

Well ill finally tell the full story of what’s going on, here goes haha

Well we were all set to record the new album and two weeks before we were meant to record we lost two guitarist and a bass player but seeing that we had the pre production all done Tom and myself still wanted to give it a crack, so I rang Roman and filled him in on the situation and he said that he could play the guitars for us.

We spent the first few days tracking all the drums from the songs we had from the pre production at Romans Complex Studios and then came the guitars.

Well because of the fact that working out all the guitars was taking ages we scrapped that idea.

Roman had the idea that Tom and myself can tell and explain to him how we wanted the guitars to go in each song and he will pretty much write the guitars on the spot with the help from Jon.

So Tom and myself spent like three days making guitar sounds with our voices and explaining how we wanted the guitars to be while Roman and Jon recorded guitars to the drum tracks.

At the end of it we had a record that we all love, but all fool us that we didn’t take into consideration that the two guys laying the guitars are in the Red Shore haha

Now we have an album that despite our best efforts can't seem to find anyone in Sydney who can actually play it hahaha

So it looks as if one day there will be a final show when we can get Roman and Jon down to play the show.

If anyone hasn’t heard the album its up for free download so try and download that anywhere you can.

So there you have it. As much as it is disappointing to here that No Love Lost will be no more, it was good to find what Pilks has planned for the future of Dogfight. Relentless' new album Set In Stone will be Aug 13. Which is only 3 weeks from now. So get excited. They will on be on tour with America's Death Before Dishonour, in the first week of September.

Dogfight Records

Warbrain

So last week I was able to get Lloyd from Warbrain to answer some questions for me. This band is easily one of my favourite Australian groups at the moment. They have only got a four song demo but when this 7'' happens I will buy the shit out of it. They are that good.

Hey man, can I grab your name, what your do in Warbrain and does stuff you say on the internet count in real life?

My names Lloyd and I sing in Warbrain. Umm, well, pedophiles get arrested for trying to chat up innocent children on the internet all the time so I guess the answer would be yes....

Who else makes up Warbrain?

We have Josh on drums, Kain on bass and Tim on guitar.

Warbrain is a pretty new band. I caught you guys for the first time about a month ago in Morgan’s basement. How did you guys get together?

Yeah that show was a lot of fun actually! Basically Josh, Kain and I started writing some riffs trying to do something a little different from what we had been doing, and perhaps closer to what we grew up listening too. Tim was almost an automatic in because I had always wanted to do a band with him, and we have all been mates for ages.

Tim has Hopeless, you play guitar in Carpathian. The other guys, I don’t actually know anything about. Do they have any other bands?

Yeah Josh also plays in Carpathian, and Kain has filled in for us from time to time. He is now also playing in the Melbourne Straight Edge band Frozen Over.

Comparatively speaking, Warbrain and Carpathian are really different bands and the riffs that Tim writes for Hopeless are quite different to what he writes, for you guys. What made you guys want to go out and do something different to the music you were already doing?

Well like I mentioned before we have all talked about doing a band like this and it kind of just happened that we were all in the right place to do a new band at the time we started Warbrain. And that being said, if you listed to bands Tim and I have played in previously, its not that much of a transition.

What made you want to do vocals instead of guitar?

Josh and I were originally both going to play guitar, but then we had no drummer or singer so Josh put his hand up for drums which was cool because he fell right into it. We still didn't have a vocalist after a while and couldn't think of anyone we wanted so I said I'd give it a go because it was always something I'd wanted to do. I demo'd some vocals, everyone was into it and we went from there.

When you listen to the demo you can hear two guitar tracks, is there a plan to maybe add a second guitar at some point?

Yeah, I think there may be, but its hard to find someone who will fit in with us and be able to commit to putting 100% into the band. So we'll keep it a 4 piece for now.

What is the overall goal of the band? You guys have got some pretty important stuff on outside of Warbrain. So are there going to be more recordings and more shows? Or is this just a bit of fun?

We all have a common goal for this to be full time when the other bands aren't doing anything. So as soon as Carpathian gets back from europe we are pretty excited about going in to record some new songs for a 7" that will be out hopefully by the end of the year or early 2011.

A week or so ago you guys posted on your Facebook that you would be playing your last show for while. Whys that?

Because both Carpathian and Hopeless will be on tour over the next month or so its a little hard to try fit in any shows. We probably won't be playing again until mid September, so its not that long really, hahaha.

Just some quick questions to finish up with man
How good are Legions?

Legions are sick. I haven't been that impressed by young band with such good influences in a long time. They have a really positive attitude toward hardcore and are just stoked to play whatever shows they can. I respect that. They can only get better from here as well.

How do you find writing lyrics as apposed to riffs?

It depends how you look at it. I can spit out riffs like it's nobody's business but that doesn't meant they're good, hah, so it's nice to be able to take my time on something, and on top of that I really enjoy it.

Have you read John Joseph’s (of Cro-Mags fame) new book ‘Meat Is For Pussies’? I ask this because heaps of people have said its shit. I haven’t read it yet.

No I haven't and I haven't heard any reviews either. I usually like to decide on things like that for myself.

So that 'last show for a while' has been and gone. So I guess you will have to till Carpathian are back from Europe till you can see Warbrain again. If you haven't already done so. Go to there Myspace and download their demo from Mediafire. Pretty sure they have shirts up for grabs as well. So message them about that. Enjoy.

Warbrain