Merge Records are twenty years old this year and still acting like teenagers. OK, so maybe the label are treading a little more carefully in the current economic climes but Mac McCaughan seems unaffected, honest and above all still in love with the music his label are putting out. The feeling you get from talking to Mac (Merge co-founder and lead singer with influential punk rock stalwarts Superchunk) is that he’s still having fun – he seems more teenage-fanzine-writer than a successful businessman.
Merge are currently still coming down from their 20 year Merge celebrations, dubbed XX Merge. We caught up with Mac this September to see what all the fuss was about and to talk business…
Q1. Merge is 20 years old this year, did you ever envisage the label becoming what it has back when you and Laura first started it as fresh faced 20 year olds? What were your hopes and expectations of Merge back then?
“i think all we could envision back then was holding the next release in our hands!
for some reason we did begin with the possibly naive expectation that people somewhere would buy the cassettes and singles we were putting out… but then again we were only pressing 500 or 1000 of each so we didn’t need a TON of people to buy them, just enough to get us on to the next record.”
Q2. What do you think has set you apart from the other numerous bedroom founded labels that started around the same time as Merge but have since met an untimely end?
“i think that has to be a different answer for each label you’re thinking of…some we saw certainly trying to get too big too soon without any actual sales to back up the aspiration, but just as many were probably cases where the people starting the label lost interest or realized that they were going to have to have a “real” job as well and they didn’t want to be stuffing records in their spare time or living amongst the boxes. and then there’s luck which certainly has something to do with it.”
In February of this year, Touch and Go records announced that they were to shut their manufacturing and distribution arm as it was no longer financially viable to keep it running (see DbR post here). They provided this service for many smaller labels including Merge.
Q3. How have things changed and how have you adapted to the folding of T&G’s distribution arm?
i think we’re still learning how that affects us. so far i feel like it’s been pretty smooth but some of the records we’re putting out this fall will be a real test, because bands like The Clean and The Clientele have their strongest supporters in the world of independent retail, and that’s where Touch and Go really excelled and had great relationships because Touch and Go understood the music and loved it. if you’re selling records to Best Buy i don’t think that’s as much of a requirement. we just hope that Touch and Go the label continues on because Corey has a great history and is a person that the music industry (such as it is) should be without.
Part two coming soon…
