Thanks to Dan so much for the interview! After writing about the Japanese band Peatmos, who released a 7″ on his label, Dan got in touch with me. I didn’t know much about the label aside from the few releases they put out in the 90s, mostly featuring Japanese bands, so I thought it was a great opportunity to learn more about his label and his love for pop music. Was very lucky indeed that he was up to answer all my questions!
++ Hi Dan! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! We got in touch through the Peatmos post and the Pop Jingu releases but there’s a lot of questions I have! But let’s start with “today”. Are you involved in any music projects at the moment?
I haven’t been involved in any music projects since the Sonorama Records label wound down in late 1997.
++ You were active in the mid 90s with Sonorama Records. I wonder though how did you get into music, into indiepop in the first place?
In the late 80’s, I did a radio show for four years at KCSB, the college radio station at UC Santa Barbara. It was probably in late 1987 that I was introduced to the C86 compilation and all the music that was later known as indiepop. Unfortunately, there was only so much we had available in the stacks of records at the station and available in L.A. record shops. So when I ended up in London for a week in the Summer of 1988, I had a great time stocking up on so much great music on labels such as Sarah, Creation, Subway Organisation, 53rd and 3rd, etc. Among my favorite bands at the time were McCarthy, Pop Will Eat Itself, Close Lobsters, This Poison!, Sea Urchins, Groovy Little Numbers, etc.
++ Were you ever in a band?
No — I’ve never had any musical talent whatsoever!
++ Your first release was a 7″ by the band Kactus. I don’t know much about this band, so was hoping you could tell me who were they and how did this relationship start?
My friend Rich, who I knew from my time in college radio, was living in Japan at the time and was part of Kactus. Masato, the drummer for Kactus (and guitarist for Peatmos), ran Clover Records. So when I decided to start the label, I asked Rich to send along a Kactus demo tape. He sent me a handful of cassette releases from Clover, which included earlier versions of some of the tracks included on both the Kactus and Peatmos 7”s.
++ What inspired you to start a label? Would you say there were any other labels influence in Sonorama?
1995 was a great year for me, very successful with my IT consulting company I had started the year before. Despite all that, during that time, I had a handful of friends doing work that looked more exciting than mine, one running a small label and a fanzine, another working at a larger indie label, etc. In early 1996, when I had more free time available between consulting jobs, I thought I could to that, too, and it would be something more exciting than my real job.
++ Something that strikes me when seeing the records you put out is that it seems you had a lot of interest on what was going in Japan. Why was that? How did that interest come about?
A year or so before I started label, I knew almost nothing about music in Japan. I was into indiepop and a lot of the lo-fi music that was happening at the time. I probably became aware that there were some interesting Japanese indiepop bands after hearing releases I picked up on the Sugarfrost and Por Supuesto labels. I also had a few friends who were really into the whole Shibuya-kei scene in Japan, so I learned a lot about Flipper’s Guitar Cornelius, Pizzicato Five, etc. from them.
++ Before you started Sonorama, had you had any experience working in a label? Or perhaps putting out any releases?
I had a couple internships, each lasting a couple months, one at a major label and another at a larger indie label.
++ And yeah, why the name of the label?
Here’s the answer that I had on the Sonorama website back in 1997:
…the name Sonorama was lifted from Esquivel, the brilliant lounge bandleader from the 50’s and 60’s. It was Esquivel that Stereolab was paying homage to when they named their 1993 ep “Space Age Batchelor Pad Music”. Sonorama was the term he used to describe his own music and some of his records were released as “Juan Garcia Esquivel and His Sonorama Orchestra.”
++ What about the infrastructure for the label? Was there perhaps an office? A deposit? Or was it a bedroom label? How many copies did you use to press more or less?
It was definitely a bedroom label.
For the 7”s I pressed 500 and for the CD’s I pressed 1000. I think I recall pressing an additional 2500 for distribution of the Pop Jingu CD in Japan.
++ Where in the US were you based? California? How was it back then in the mid nineties? Were there any good bands you liked in town? What about record stores?
Los Angeles. I wasn’t so focused on local bands at the time, though Aberdeen, who were on Sarah, were from L.A. At the time, we had some great record stores that I spent far too much time at: No Life Records, Rhino Records, Aron’s Records and Tower Records on Sunset.
++ And how come no American bands in your catalog?
There were a lot of labels doing American indiepop and doing it very well. In fact, when I envisioned the Japanese pop compilation that later became Pop Jingu, I was thinking I wanted to do a Japanese version of “Pop American Style,” which had recently been released on March Records.
++ What about the artwork for the label? Did you take care of that part as well?
For the Kactus 7” and the Jordans CD, the artwork was handled by the bands. For the Peatmos 7” and Pop Jingu CD, I was sent the photos and I handled the rest, including liner notes.
The Sonorama label art was based on the design from some really thick 80rpm (not 78!) records from the 1920’s on the Edison Records label I found at a thrift shop.
++ And was it easy to distribute your records?
No, that was one of the downfalls of the label. Distributors would pick up 5 or 10 copies, which never seemed to move.
++ Did the label get much support from the press or radio?
Yes, somewhat. I mailed the releases out to college radio and also to numerous magazines and fanzines and there were a number of reviews both online and in print. I would say I was somewhat successful, with Pop Jingu charting on the CMJ Top 200 as high as 96 in July 1997, which, for me as a former college-radio DJ, was pretty exciting and an accomplishment since I was running the whole label out of my apartment.
++ Your second release was a 7″ by Peatmos. You were telling me the band had to change their name to Pervenche for some legal reasons. What happened?
I won’t mention the individual’s name or record label here, but in December 1997, I received a call one evening from someone who ran a label and claimed he was completing a major label distribution deal for the American band Peatmoss.
He threatened me with a lawsuit if I continued to advertise for the Peatmos 7” or continued to include them on the website.
By the time this happened, I had already decided not to continue with the label, so it was easiest just to pull them off the website and not risk a lawsuit over a 7” that cost a few hundred dollars to produce. In the end, the bulk of the remaining 7”s were shipped off to Japan, which is why, when you look for people selling used copies, they are all outside the U.S.
In 1998, the band began using the name Pervenche. By 2002, when Pervenche released their “Subtle Song” CD, most of the band members had changed since the releases on Sonorama. Subtle Song is worth checking out, it includes updated versions of a number of songs that were released earlier as Peatmos and a nice cover of the Field Mice’s “September’s Not So Far Away.”
++ Afterwards you put out the fantastic Australian band The Jordans, who I have actually interviewed in the past. I believe he sent you some songs hoping to put out a 7″ and then you wanted all of them and ended up putting out an album! How did this contact with a rather obscure Australian band happened in the pre-internet days?
Well, it wasn’t pre-Internet days for me and for a lot of people I knew, but then again, my day job at the time was building corporate email systems. I subscribed to the Indiepop mailing list in October 1994, soon after it started up. I knew about Adam from the Sugargliders “Trumpet Play” single on Sarah and also the first Steinbeck’s album, both of which were among my favorites at the time. So when Adam posted on the Indiepop list in 1996 about having some songs he recorded as The Jordans, I asked him to send me a tape.
I loved the music and couldn’t decide on 2 or 3 songs for a 7”, so after he recorded a few more songs, they were released as a CD from The Jordans, katydid.
++ Then the “Pop Jingu Volume 1” compilation was released in 1997. This was a co-release between you and Clover Records, right? What relationship did you have with Clover and what was the deal? Was it as simple as you got the US and they Japan?
I recall it at least starting off primarily as a Sonorama release (with a lot of help from Clover) and I sent each band 5 copies of the CD and additional copies were sent to Clover Records that they could sell to record shops and at gigs. Just a couple months after the initial release, it became more of a co-release since Clover was able to secure distribution by a company associated with Sony in Japan and the CD made it into stores like Tower Records in Japan.
++ And are the Japanese CDs and American CDs the same?
Yes, all the copies of Pop Jingu Volume 1 were produced by Sonorama in the U.S. The ones with a Japanese wrapper were printed in the U.S. without a cellophane wrapper and sent to Japan so they could finish the packaging.
After Sonorama Records shut down, Clover Records continued with volumes 2 and 3 of Pop Jingu, both of which are worth checking out.
++ On the credits I see that the record was compiled by Masato, Rich and you. How was the process to compile these bands? Were there any bands that you would have wanted and didn’t end up in it?
It was pretty straightforward. Masato and Rich got the word out to the bands. Due to language issues, they handled most of the coordination, though a few bands that had members who felt comfortable communicating in English coordinated via email directly with me. The tapes were sent over to me and I coordinated everything else.
Bands that didn’t end up on it? My absolute favorite album that year was Cornelius’ 69/96 album. I remember asking a bit how we could get in touch with the band, but I had no clue where to start and knew the chances would be slim. Forget that the sound wouldn’t have necessarily fit with the rest of the CD.
++ So as far as I know these were the only four releases on the label. Why didn’t you continue putting out records? Were there any plans for other releases?
Bands from Sweden and Japan were in contact with me, there was some great music, but the talk was always around US-only album releases. In one situation, I was asked to provide a hefty outlay of money to fund the recording, which a real label would have had no problems with, but I still viewed Sonorama as a fun hobby. With the exception of the scene in Japan, much of the excitement around Sonorama was with people on the Indiepop mailing list (who were scattered all over the globe). US distribution being as challenging as it was, it didn’t make sense to do US-only releases.
I could have fallen back and just done a bunch of 7”s, but with the amount of money I was spending and not being very successful with distribution, I was increasingly asking myself “why am I doing this?” At that point, in late 1997, I was making a lot of changes in my life and it made sense to end it at those 4 releases.
++ You have recently added all songs of your catalog to Youtube. And that’s not all, you have also transferred from VHS live footage by many Japanese bands like Kactus, Drum Solo, Lucy Van Pelt and Peatmos! How cool! Where do these recordings come from? Did you record them? Will there be more of these in the future?
The live recordings were on VHS tapes I had been sent while the label was active. Everything that I have is now out there.
++ Looking back now, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the label?
The biggest highlight was easily when I visited Japan a few weeks after the Kactus 7” was released. I was at the club where the Kactus, Peatmos and Drum Solo sets were filmed in the September 1996 video clips that are now up on YouTube. The gig started after midnight Saturday night and went until 5am, when the trains started running again. It was a small club and the crowd was tiny since a typhoon rolled in during the evening. Fortunately, I had gotten into Japan a couple days earlier and my body was still on L.A. time, so midnight to 5am felt like daytime to me!
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?
Bike rides to the beach, trail running up in the mountains, skateboarding along the beach bike paths.
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for your interest in Sonorama, it’s been a long time since anyone has asked me about it and it’s also reminded me how much fun some parts of running the label were.
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