Tracking the Flight of Audio Eagle
Keeping up with Houseguest, and a hot label

Once upon a time in Akron there were two good friends from high school. One man went on to become half of the celebrated, occasionally-debated-by-sour-grapers-as-White Stripes-derivative Garage Rock/Blues 2-piecer, The Black Keys.

The other man became his Chief Operating Officer at the record label he started due to his celebrity – Audio Eagle Records. This other man also joined a band – Houseguest – not nearly as debated or celebrated but hey! - still quite a good band. This is his interview.

Cool Cleveland correspondent Daiv Whaley asks him lots of serious questions about the music industry and his band, and learns more about reverb and compression and the credentials for true nerdhood than he expected... below.

And since it’s Akron, of course there are blimp references.

Cool Cleveland: So, the slogan for Audio Eagle Records reads, "Going out of business since 2005." That's clever, but I wonder if it's just witty irony in the face of a sagging economy, or is there a bit of a statement being made about the relative hopelessness these days in keeping an independent rock label afloat?

Theodore Mallison: I think of it just as self-effacing humor, really. For a couple of years, we were partnered with Fat Possum, and their slogan is "We're Trying Our Best." It's just the "not thinking too highly of yourself" attitude that we prefer to have. I think it's really amusing when I get bombarded with Myspace messages hyping up a label or a band I've never heard of, with some name like "Burning on Sunday" or something like that, and they're 18-year-old kids who take themselves way too seriously. Taking yourself seriously while trying to "make a living with music" is absurd. If you manage to make your living playing in a band, that is absurd. You should always treat it as such, not like you're God's gift to the music world. It's easier to get people on your side if you're humble and funny than if you're a braggart.

The big labels have certainly been having their share of problems in the past 5 years or so with dwindling CD sales and illegal music downloads, etc. EMI just laid-off a huge percentage of their employees and even Radiohead, ironically, felt the need to release their latest album as a physical CD after their "experiment" in pay-what-you-want downloads for In Rainbows apparently wasn't very profitable for the band. Do you think the latest generations of young kids, who often consume the most music, simply don't understand that music needs to be paid for so that the bands and labels can stay in business?

No, I don't believe that at all. Like you said, it's the big labels that are having the problems. Somebody did a study recently that showed a vast majority of the people using things like Bit Torrent and other file-sharing programs actually BUY more music than those who don't use file-sharing programs. In other words, the people who are supposedly stealing the music are the people who are driving the music economy to begin with. And anyway, illegally downloading music won't necessarily hurt musicians, who are going to be deriving the majority of their income from touring and music licensing. But for labels, well, the market is different than it used to be, for sure. We need to adapt and find new ways to stay profitable. This is nothing new, really, in terms of the business world. From time to time, in every industry, something new comes along that exposes the weakness of a particular industry within its market. It's a rare case where an industry gets wiped out. You just have to be creative and find new ways to make it work.

I can't tell you the number of times I lend a friend a CD and then they duplicate it instead of going out and buying it themselves after liking what they hear. Sometimes they'll just download it without even bothering to hear it first. I'm curious what you think about that ethic – from both the perspective as the chief operating officer of a label and also the vantage point of a singer in a band?

Well, like I said, if they would still go out and see the band play, then they aren't necessarily hurting the band. Also, libraries didn't kill the concept of people buying books, nor have thrift stores killed the concept of people buying new clothes. I was in the mall the other day, in the music store, and there were a decent amount of kids in there buying CDs. So, I don't know. Were people not dubbing records onto reel-to-reel tape back in the 60s and 70s? Or making cassettes for their friends in the 80s and 90s? It's just a matter of making the idea of actually buying an entire album more attractive. It's just competition. The whole point of advertising is to sell people things they don't need. If Ron Popeil can sell a rotisserie oven, I can sell records. I happen to think that music is more important than finding yet another way of cooking a chicken. It's a label's job to figure out how to sell something that, yes, a person could theoretically get for free.

I read somewhere in an interview with Bob Mould of Sugar and Husker Du that he believes all these Indie labels popping up and catering to different sub-genres of Rock is really a very good thing, because it will basically eliminate the possibility of superstardom in the future. It'll be harder for bands to make huge amounts of money and get rich in rock music because the audience will be so split-up in differing directions, yet this will weed-out a lot of "shit rock" that should never have existed in the first place. And more original bands will have the opportunity to be recorded, etc., even if they don't make a lot of money doing it. So you have THAT to look forward to as Audio Eagle soars into the future!

He's totally right. There's plenty of money to go around, if people are willing to spend it. Diversification into niche markets has done wonderful things for television. Sure, gone are the days when everyone in America would be watching Ed Sullivan or something, but we have far better television now than we ever did. Shows are better written, better produced, better acted, and why? Because there are a million channels now. Cable is killing the profits of the Big Four networks, just like independent labels are getting bigger and bigger shares of the market while the majors struggle because they have been putting out complete garbage for years and have not cultivated anything new and remarkable.

It's like the Black Keys. Are they millionaires? No. They may be someday, if they keep investing wisely and are careful with their money, but they are making a good living and are able to own homes and drive decent cars from playing music. This should be the goal. Not driving around in a Bentley and living in a 30-room mansion, but being able to afford a good, middle-class lifestyle while playing music.

I saw the Audio Eagle compilation of Ohio bands recently, and was really pleased to see that you had a relative heavy-hitter like former Guided By Voices guitarist Doug Gillard on the disc, as well as those Cincinnati darlings the Heartless Bastards and Cleveland's answer to the Replacements – Coffinberry! I was impressed with the geographic span of the collection! Was it hard to coordinate that project? What was the toughest part about getting it finished and out to stores?

Actually, I think it was the easiest thing we've done so far. Everyone was really into it and eager to do whatever they needed to do to help it get done. Everything came together well, and it's been selling very well, so all-around it was a very positive experience.

Speaking of geographic span, I heard your band has been experiencing a bit of displeasure with the Free Times because they don't seem to consider any Akron bands when they release their Best Bands nominations and declarations. It does seem that there's a certain provinciality slope happening in the area. I mean, Akronites are much more inclined to visit Cleveland for cultural entertainment than vice versa. Any theories on why this seems to be so?

It's just natural, I guess. Akron is, according to Cleveland, a suburb of Cleveland. Of course, honestly, there is more to do in Cleveland, more places to go, things to do and see. I don't expect Clevelanders to be flocking to Akron anytime soon. And the whole thing with the Free Times was mostly a joke, kind of to bust their balls a little. I know a lot of the guys who work there, and they're all good writers and do right by the music scene as much as they can. I would, of course, like to see more coverage of things happening in Akron, but it IS kind of the duty of Akron bands to play Cleveland more often if they want to get recognized. It's a two-way street.

Of course, there ARE many more venues in Cleveland than in Akron for live music. Akron's best spot for rock music, the Lime Spider, closed its doors this summer in a sad rainstorm – as if the city was weeping along with all the Indie kids who came out to say goodbye to the club. If the city can't even offer decent environs for bands to play in, why should folks drive down to hear anything but Blues at Northside?

Well, like I said, they won't, and that's fine. The Lime Spider closed mostly because the rent was too high for a simple "local" club, but Danny Basone, the owner, was having a hard time competing with the Grog Shop and the Beachland, for national tours. Of course, those places are hurting right now, too. It's a bad time overall for live music. It's just kind of a down market. The Lime Spider opened in a very good market, and I think maybe Danny just wasn't prepared for such a drop-off. Seriously, their attendance dropped by like 75% in a matter of a few months. He gave it a valiant effort, and it was great while it lasted, but if you look back at the history of rock clubs in Akron, the ones downtown never last. The rent's too high. Annabell's in Highland Square does pretty much only local shows, and they do very well. Thursday's and the Matinee, both owned by Mario Nemr (who's opening a new place in Lakewood), have a good balance of live local music and DJ nights. A club for national acts is not going to survive in Akron right now.

Okay, back to Audio Eagle Records, which was started by one half of the Black Keys, Mr. Patrick Carney. Any idea what the other half of the Black Keys, Dan Auerbach, has done with his share of band royalties? I did notice an unusually designed blimp in the skies last month...

I'm not close friends with Dan, so I don't know. He owns a house, and he's putting a studio in the basement. I know that much.

Or maybe it’s a... hangar! As the chief operating officer, how do you get bands to join your label? Do they approach you due to the cache value of being the-record-label-of-the-guy-who's-musical-partner-owns-a-blimp? Or is it nothing that glamorous? Seriously, do you have talent scouts? How does that band-signing process work?

We get tons of demos. We listen to all of them. We also spend way too much time on MySpace looking for interesting bands. So far, though, we have acquired bands through less formal means. The next record we have coming out is by a band from Knoxville called Royal Bangs. I met a couple of them over a year ago when Houseguest was playing in Knoxville, and so things just kind of grew from there. I recently requested a demo from a band in England that has two really cute girls in it. I think that's what we're on the lookout for these days. Cute girls. We have enough weird boys.

I imagine the sound engineering portion of recording your bands must be big fun. At this point, do you have a Bob Clearmountain or Steve Albini twisting the dials for you or do the bands themselves have a lot to do with their final recorded sound?

Pat and I run the studio. Pat's the "engineer," I guess, and I help out with various things. We haven't done that much with this new set-up, though. We recorded Good Morning Valentine, and we are still working on the next Beaten Awake record, but that's pretty much it, aside from a few Houseguest demos. Since we've only just started, we're experimenting a lot with the new space, and Pat's trying to teach me how to use everything so I can run it by myself. Anyway, yeah, the bands have a big part in deciding how they sound. Pat's big thing is to get good, accurate sounds that don't require much "producing." We like to use post-recording effects, with the exception of compression, sparingly. That's a lot harder than relying on a lot of reverb and chorus to cover up lackluster performances, but you end up with a more "realistic" record.

Let's talk about Houseguest a bit. I've only had the pleasure of hearing the band once in a live setting, and it was a REAL pleasure. To this day, I have a hard time explaining what Houseguest is like. I'd like to hear your description of the band, and you have to use at least two metaphors to make it interesting.

A totally trashed dude at one of our shows said we were "nerds on fire." I've always liked that description for some reason. Not that we're consciously nerdy, or anything, but we're not particularly fashionable people. Of course, it's fashionable to be nerdy, I guess. But see, we are unlike "fake" nerds who want to be nerdy so they start playing Dungeons and Dragons, only they always end up playing 3rd Edition. You want to really get into some serious shit? You play Spelljammer, 2nd edition. Or Dark Sun! And you roll attributes with only THREE fucking dice. Let's see some self-proclaimed "nerd" in a trucker hat handle that shit! What were we talking about? Oh, yeah, what Houseguest is like? I don't know. I just think we're a good rock band. I'm actually glad that a lot of people have a hard time describing us. I think that bodes well for us.

I gotta confess, details of my live experience with the band are fuzzy, but I'm left with a Smiths-&-Beautiful South-and-nerdy-Buddy Holly/Elvis Costello-joins-REM-on-amphetamines kind of feeling about the night in question, like a rock and roll flashbulb went off in my head but the image is fading...

I think that's a good description.

You released an album in 2006, I believe, but you're working on a new one presently to be released in conjunction with the presidential election, right? So you guys are a political band, but more in the style of Fugazi or Billy Bragg than U2 or the Beastie Boys?

We do have some vaguely political songs on this next record, but only in certain places. Not really current politics, either, just kind of social ideas that we have, maybe? If I were to emulate Billy Bragg in my lyrics, I would do it in the sense that I would write only about obsolete British issues that I know nothing about. Writing overtly political songs about current events dates your music too much. I love Billy Bragg, actually, but some of his songs are just beyond me, you know? I don't want to alienate any potential fan by expressing opinions they might not agree with.

But seriously, you are working on a new album. How's it sounding, when and where will it be available, and when are the next few dates that folks can come and check out the Houseguest experience?

We are starting to record [this month] at Tangerine Studios, which is the other half of the building that Audio Eagle occupies. It is run by Ben Vehorn, who is probably the most knowledgeable guy I know about recording engineering. Since we haven't even started recording yet, it's not certain when the release date will be, but I would think early summer. It will coincide with a national tour. We are playing in Columbus on March 21st at Skylab, Cleveland on March 22nd at the Tower. We might also be playing Flash Fest at Kent State, on April 24th.

Very cool. Sounds like there are several occasions coming up where the curious as well as the initiated can come and hear the band. For the record, what's the Houseguest website or MySpace page address, please?

http://www.houseguest.org will take you to both, but the Myspace address by itself is http://www.myspace.com/houseguest.

Thanks, Theodore. We wish you, Audio Eagle Records, Houseguest, and Dan’s secret blimp project all the success in the free world. Rock on...

From Cool Cleveland contributor Daiv Whaley Daiv Whaley dwhaleyATfathomseo.com

Photo by Ben Tausig
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