Pig Meat had the opertunity to get down with Nathan Gray and Dylan Krasevac the brains behind the Fifty Record Players exhibition, now into it’s second year. This interview took place at an art opening at the Tenament Galery in Brunswick Victoria 24th April 1998.
PIG: What’s the idea behind the 50 Record Players (50RP) Exhibition?
N: It’s to facilitate a cross pollination between the visual and audio arts.
D: It’s also a 5 year plan. At the end of the plan we’ll be running our own tobacco plantation.
N: With Yoko Ono.
D: It Belize So this is part of our air fair plan.
PIG: Is the plan coming into Fruition?
D: Last year we ran at a loss, this year we’ll run at a profit.
N: Last year we wrote to Yoko and she said no, this year we’ve written and she hasn’t said no yet. So, moving on up.
PIG: Who first came up with the 50RP idea?
D: I think the first idea was one crazy night, when we were writing an add for a speed metal band.
N: We invented a speed metal band called Snawklor and advertised for guitarists who mustcanfastbe.
PIG: What was that?
N: That’s what he had to be: must-can-fast-be.
D: We wanted to record people doing fake auditions for a fake band and then we were going to release it.
N: Snawclaw is supposed to sound like a Swedish death metal band.
D: It’s also got Snow and Claw like a beast in winter.
PIG: Did you ever do that?
N: No, we went to the BP down the road and bought some chocolate instead.
PIG: How does this all lead to 50RP?
N: 50PR started because we realised that Peter King pressed records so cheaply. We just said “We could put out a record every month if we wanted to, or why don’t we do 50 at once.” So, then we did. There never have never been 50 records in 50PR exhibition, 35’s the best we have ever got.
D: We did have 50 record players, only about 30 something of them worked. I’d like to specify that, there will be 50 record players at every exhibition.
PIG: What reaction did you get from artists?
N: We found lots of people who’re really into the idea of music and art and where they cross, it’s fantastic to put that out. I love Keyboard Venom and Sleepville and all those people who we just never hear the music of before we started doing this.
PIG: Where do you get all the record players?
N: Everyone who was involved here brought their own and we’ve got a fair stack.
D: It was mad. The last 24 or even 8 hours before the exhibition we had about 29 and we had to get together another 20 in 8 hours.
N: This year Scrabble (Brisbane clothing/music/zine shop - ED) will be organise everything we need, and we’re doing a few less, 20 players this year, but we won’t be calling it 20 Record Players Exhibition - that’s lame.
D: This year we’re getting the record players bought for us by the Queensland Government.
N: (Clears throat.)
D: By someone...
N: Someone very high up in the Queensland hierarchy.
PIG: So, you’ve got some sponsorship, it doesn’t sound like you want to tell me, but what’s it part of?
N: We can’t use names, but we’re part of the Vault. I’m not sure what the Vault is but it’s part of the Brisbane Festival and I assume its something to do with young people or multimedia. Because we do a sound thing in the context of a visual art gallery, they’re into it.
D: We’re there for the crazy youth vote, I think.
PIG: So you’re taking it all up there?
D: It’s going to be there waiting for us, then we’ll bring it back.
N: We’re going to take the records and bring back the record players. They want 50% Brisbane product, which is fine with us.
PIG: Have you got your Brisbane quota?
N: This feller rang me up and said he was going to send me 10 singles worth the other night, so that’ll do. But I’m sure more people are going to send us stuff.
PIG: Is the show going to be different in Melbourne?
N: I think it might be nice to do that, because that way there would be a Melbourne show for Melbourne people and a Brisbane show for Brisbane people. We don’t want those two groups to start mixing or anything.
D: Strangely enough a majority of the tapes I’ve received have been from Tasmania. They seem a very depressed lot.
N: At the moment we’re pretty stoked because it looks like we’re going to get more than we need, which is what we wanted and it means we can put out some pretty good stuff.
PIG: Will you be releasing it all on a compilation at the end?
N: We’re releasing a 12” compilation for the show as well. People can buy everything, all the records will be for sale.
D: The 12” will have a gatefold sleeve and booklet and.. what more do you want?
PIG: A plastic cover?
D: Yeah, we can get you a plastic cover, saw tooth red vinyl? That’s going to be through one of our main sponsor friends; Million to One Records. That’s; Andrew Britain from Million to One Records.
N: And Jaguar, he’s a fantastic guitar player, I love the way he plays guitar.
D: And he’s from Million to One Records.
N: Very reasonable rates. I’d also like to say something here. Because we pay for the records we have to go through a selection process. We’d love to press everything, it doesn’t mean that the others are bad. So what we’ll do is send the unused tapes back to the people in time for them to get their own stuff with King and if they want to be in the show they can rock up with a record player and their stack of singles and go for it. We’ll sell it for them and give them the cash at the end and all.
D: We don’t discriminate, we’re like the Salvation Army.
PIG: Tell me about the Polycarbonate pressing process?
N: Peter King is the inventor of the Polycarbonate single and the process used to make it. It’s the plastic CDs are made on, and he uses this.. Fucked if I know what it is, but you cut it, rather than pressing it as in vinyl.
D: It’s a very laborious process. I think he can cut two at once.
N: He has to listen to it while he does it. So he must be insane by now.
D: He’s a beautiful person with a very creative hand, he likes to be involved.
N: We wouldn’t be able to do this without Peter.
PIG: Is it the same process as mastering a record? Has he just bought a mastering machine?
D: Yeah, I think so.
N: I heard that the Beasty Boys are getting something pressed with him.
D: At Xmas time he had people from LA and the BBC in London coming to check out his little polycarbonate plant. He’s got more on his plate than he wants to deal with at the moment. He wasn’t making any money out of it.
PIG: He lives in New Zealand doesn’t he?
N: Yeah. He lives away from people. All I know is that he doesn’t want to divulge much information. I’ve got reason to believe he used to be involved in the NZ media to some extent and he doesn’t want to be involved with those people any more. So, he went into the country and has his record plant with his wife and no other people around, just the birds in the trees on a small property.
PIG: Was there any technical problems on opening night.
N: No, no there was no technical problems at all, I don’t know where you got that from. Whoever told you that’s full off shit.
PIG: You did.
N: ..Oh, yeah right, well of cause.
D: During the week there were enough headphones, but on the opening night there were hundreds of people clawing for available headphones.
N: I think we just got more people than we anticipated. We knew that we would get a far few people, but there were fuckin’ heaps of people on the opening night, which was really good. We did two nights of performances where our favourite acts from the show played, it went as smoothly as anything we every organise goes.
PIG: I notice you’re on the web, who does your web page?
N: Greg Wadley, of New Waver fame.
D: It’s got all the sound stuff from the first 50RP exhibition on the page.
N: He did it without us even asking him to do it, he just did it.
PIG: How did the visitors to the exhibition react?
D: Good. We sold twothirds of the records in the first three days of the exhibition.
PIG: Did you get the any mainstream media attention?
N: Do you read HQ?
PIG: No. How did that happen?
D: It was an industry connection. I do graphic art for them.
N: They just printed our press release, which was my big writing on a bit of scrap book paper, they printed that, and that was their graphic. They’re a pretty weird bunch.
PIG: Any future plans?
D: My dream of dreams is to get an Australia Council grant to take a heavy metal band to South East Asia.
N: I think the third world really needs this sort of thing, especially right now. They need a hot Snorclaw injection.
Making the Polycarbonate
Peter King is the inventor of the polycarbonate single and the process he uses to cut them. Polycarbonate is the same material from which CDs are made and differs from vinyl which is usually pressed when hot as opposed to being cut. Peter offers very reasonable rates and a minimum run of twenty singles which makes it possible for anyone to produce a single even on social security. His genuine excitement about this exhibition has made him invaluable and we'd like to thank him heaps.
"I went hotter and deeper on this one then ever before and it almost
killed me"
- Peter King.
Record Manufacturing
21RD, Woodside Road
Geraldine, New Zealand
Ph/Fax 643-693-8061 (pluz NZ prefix)
Tenament Gallery - now t-shirt gallery (Outskirts)
262a Brunswick Street
Fitzroy 3054, Victoria
Ph (03) 9415 7320