Hi Robert! Could you tell us your name, location, and age ?
Robert: I'm Robert and I'm 28 years old. My headquarter is in Berlin/ Germany.
Nikita: Nikita, 31 years old, Cologne, Germany
Having been part of the scene for quite some time, you had to have a hc/punk record which started it all. What was the first record you've bought ?
Robert: It's maybe boring and lame - but it has been the Minor Threat out of step LP and the GRAY MATTER food for thought LP.
Nikita: Well, i am not sure anymore, my first HC CD was RYKERS "brother against brother", a german HC band on lost and found :), when i first started to buy vinyl, i think the first record was JAWBREAKER - unfun LP.
For most folks who run a distro, it's the result of starting a label. Can you tell us about the beginning of the label ? What made you decide to do it ?
Robert: I started the distro around in 1997 when I moved out from my parents place and my friend Benni Serious released the PEACE OF MIND LP w/ some other dudes ... so I helped him w/ selling them in my town at shows. It got more and more - mostly just friends releases and fanzines. Then another friend asked me to help w/ releasing the COLE QUINTET LP ... so the label got started ... It has been really exciting and then I started trading and so on ... yeah.
Nikita: I started the label in 1998 to release the first yage 7" and kept releasing stuff by friends and people i knew which music i enjoyed. As most of the distribution went through trading, i started a small mailorder as well and sold stuff at shows, this is how it started. The motivation to start a label was a result of wanting to express myself and share the music and ideas which i found important with the rest of the world.
Nikita, in the meantime, you stopped the label or put it on hold at least. What was the reason behind that ?
Nikita: The label is on hold since 2004 as i was less and less excited by bands, at least not as much to want to put out their records, plus the records the sales got worse and worse and i just did not feel like i can carry it anymore on the financial side. I can imagine though to release something again, but i am not sure when it will be, i just want it to keep it spontaneous, so if a band blows me a way and would like to do a record, i'd be up to that, but it needs to happen still : )
You guys are some busy dudes... label, mailorder, tour booker, etc... and recently you opened a shop. Seems a bit much for one person. Do you handle it all by yourself, or do you actually have employees ?
Robert: I'm got lucky and found a partner w/ Stefan Vendetta ... We know each other for ages and somehow the idea came up w/ opening the store together after I tried to find places in Leipzig for a while. Yeah I'm glad we are two persons since its sometimes tons of work ...
Nikita: I used to get a lot of help from Elena, my partner, but she got busier and busier with the university so i kept on doing stuff by myself. it's hard to keep the balance from time to time, but i can not imagine to have someone working for me, firstly for money reasons and secondly cause i like to have control over things and have weird approach to some stuff which i want to keep, so i am not an easy person to work with :)
How were the responses from the local scene, your neighbourhood, etc.. towards the shop ? Do you get a lot of folks visiting the place ?
Robert: When we started the shop last year some other recordstores have been really pissed - like they put posters all around our store and had a "street team" etc etc etc ... I mean some of them found out that our store is much different then their locations - but I think they still have the impression hardcore is hardcore if you know what i mean ... whatever. The kids in town seem to like us and our neighbours too :-) We have local artists here showing their stuff, readings, try to help local bands w/ selling their stuff, do some shows etc ... and since Berlin is a tourist town a lot of people from other cities/countries come over and have a cup of coffee or a cola w/ us ... Yep. So we can be just thankful for the support from all the people.
Nikita: The responses have been pretty sparse. We had a great opening last november, but after that it's been going on a pretty low level. It seems that people buy less and less records and Cologne has already several really good record stores, so it's hard to compete. So mostly i work here in the store office and do the mailorder stuff and booking from here.i sell enough records to pay the rent in the store, but that's it already. i am not sure what the reason for the lacking support is, but it seems there are several factors involved here.
Did you ever through the course of your life, think about doing something else than being involved with music ?
Robert: I tried to became a teacher and I really had the plan to teach - but since the music (specially the band) "stole" so much time I didn't took the university too serious ... so after a while I recognized that music will be the thing I enjoy the most. I mean I'm involved since 1994 and it has been always a big (maybe the biggest part) of my life. I got socialized throught the music etc - so I think I will be a part of it for the rest of my life. Hahahaha - I mean I could be worse then that. We will see in the next 10 years. Hahahaha
Nikita: Well, to be honest i could not have imagined that still a couple of months ago. But my perspective changed a bit. I've been doing the whole punk-related stuff for a long time now and it has been a great time. But i feel that i am loosing touch with something that could be called a "scene" or a "community", a lot of recent bands and releases do not grab me anymore, be it punk/hc/screamo or anything related so i feel like i have less and less relation to the music i am selling and lack motivation lately. It's getting harder and harder to get excited over stuff, so if the whole thing turns out to be just another job, i'll stop doing it in the near future, as it's not something i want to do. So, to answer your question, yes, i can imagine to do different stuff than music related things, but still, music will remain one of the most important things in my life and i do not want to ruin my relationship to it by becoming it a commodity and routine. Plus there is a financial issue as well, i' ve been broke for at least 5 years straight, spending the last cent to get new records in stock and keep things moving. A couple of months ago i needed to get a part-time job again which makes the whole situation more stressfull, so if it stays like this, i am pretty sure that i will have to reduce or probably stop my music activities pretty soon as i do not think that i can keep the balance for a longer time.
You've just been to japan with Zann, how was the tour ?
The tour has been great. It has been our second time and we kinda know what to expect. It was much fun. Of course there have been still problems w/ vegan food and its still a totally different mentality. But I would say that we always would go back there. Birushanah & their friends did their best to organize a kick ass tour and since Funeral Diner came w/ us it has been even better.
And Nikita, you used to play in Yage, but the band isn't active anymore. Do you miss playing music, or is there already a new band we (read: i) don't know about ?
There have been several projects since Yage broke up, but none of them evolved to something serious and at the moment i can not imagine to play in a band anymore. Although i miss touring and playing live very much. But having tried to start something new and failed again and again for various reasons made me a bit frustrated about playing music at the moment. Maybe i still need to meet the right people and things will take off again or maybe i'll do some stuff on my own, who knows :)
Where do you see yourself in 5 years ? I mean, in what direction can things go ? You're already doing most of the things imaginable concerning DIY music. Bigger shop ? Bigger Mailorder ? ...?
Robert: I hope we will be still here and not get killed by MP3s. we will have evem more grey hair, get bitter and grumpy, loosing teeth while drinking too much coffee and tell you "how good it has been back in the days". hahaha - I hope I will be still excited about music like I have been in the last years. We are satisfied w/ the size of the store - so I hope we can stay here. If we grow I wouldn't have a problem w/ it - but if it stays like it is - I'm more then Happy. SO THANX SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!
Nikita: Well, i hate making plans. I really do not know where i will be in the next 5 years. That's an interesting thing about life, you never know how the future looks like, even if you try to lay it out. I really do not care about having a bigger shop, mailorder, etc., i just want to have an enjoyable life with some time for things i love and want to do, i want to see as many places as possible and experience as much as possible, otherwise it's pretty open.
Any last shout outs ?
Robert:Black vinyl sounds better then colored vinyl :)
www.bisaufsmesser.com/store
Nikita: Thanks for the interview!
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