Profound Lore Records' founder, Chris Bruni
Steel on Bone is thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with Chris Bruni about his label, Profound Lore Records. Personally, I found out about Profound Lore through a "Prog" festival show held in Philly some years ago. It was more of a "basement" type show rather than a festival, which was great. Everyone was drinking pounders of Pabst Blue Ribbon and there were paper-mache dinosaurs (pterodactyls, I believe) hanging from the ceiling.
Anyway, I was there to see Dysrhytmia, now on Profound Lore Records (check out their new album at the bottom of the post). I was caught completely off guard, however, by a single guitarist who reminded me of Trey Anastasio (ONLY in appearance), jamming along to a meticulously programmed drum track. Some time later I found out this guitarist's name was Mick Barr.
Needless to say, his performance that day in Philly left my mind a smoking crater.
Mick Barr is now featured in Krallice (who also feature Dysrhythmia bassist extraordinaire, Colin Marston). I've always kept tabs on Barr since that show, so it was great to see him making killer music with Krallice (on Profound Lore, of course).
That's my little story of how I found out about Profound Lore. I hope you take my word for it and check out the label's stable of bands for yourself.
And now...the interview:
SoB: Chris, thank you for taking the time to do the interview! Initially,
what made you interested in metal music?
Chris: I guess you can
say it started by hanging around older people, most notably I had older
cousins, which of course I looked up to, who were always playing music when I
was around as a kid visiting or whatever.
I’d be exposed to stuff in the early ‘80s like Rush, Van Halen, Judas
Priest, Motley Crue etc. and it didn’t take that much effort for it to make an
impression. Especially seeing the early
videos from bands such as Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Motley Crue etc. would make a huge
impression because of the visual aspect behind their imagery through their
videos and their “loud” music (admittedly, at the same time, regular pop, rock,
and even new wave music would also make an impression on me as a kid
likewise). So I would say that’s what
laid the seed down and then it would just go even further from there,
discovering heavier more extreme bands, ones that would inevitably lean more
towards the darker side of metal and extreme music in general.
What
made you want to form a record label in this day and age? Is it a labor
of love and just wanting to deepen your involvement in the music?
It was initially started as a side-hobby around eight years ago with a few partners, just doing stuff like limited edition vinyl releases and whatnot. Me and a former partner of mine were already somewhat involved in the scene and had connections with some bands and quite a few labels already, so through these connections we were able to license notable releases for vinyl and just build up a reputation of sorts from there. But I guess, from my end anyway, I helped to start the label just to find some sort of other venture within the scene to keep myself busy and creative at the same time since I didn’t have much going on and had some money saved. So yeah, I would say the only way I had to approach it was to make it a labor of love and get involved in a different aspect with the music, in actually working in conspiracy with artists I was somewhat acquainted with.
So
how did you go about putting the first Profound Lore Records release
together? It looks like everything started in May of 2004.
The band
Melechesh were playing an exclusive show locally, technically their first ever
North American appearance, and my former partner, who was already talking with
them, was thinking of doing something like a 7” limited EP to coincide with the
show and I decided to help out after he talked with me because I had a much
more stable cash flow than he did. So
after figuring what we wanted this EP to entail with the band, we settled on a
limited (500 copies) 10” vinyl of the band’s “Ziggurat Scrolls” EP which was
comprised of a few exclusive songs and a few re-mixes.
What can a label like Profound Lore Records provide for a band that they can’t do themselves? Distribution, marketing, tour support, brand recognition?
I would say the
brand recognition, reputation, and distribution is there to help bring
awareness to the bands and artists. I do
some marketing I guess (but don’t really go on full-on marketing schemes like
what some of the bigger labels do) and of course I'm needed to be there to provide tour support for the bands if they are in a bind to make something
happen for an imminent tour they want to do.
Is
there anyway bands/labels can make money these days? It seems pretty
rough. With the crash and burn of CD sales, it seems like labels have no
incentive to invest time and money into developing artists.
If the numbers
are calculated properly and things are projected accordingly, it can work to a
degree. It’s tough of course and it’s
going to take months and months, and at times even years, to even recoup on a
project. And I think a lot of people
getting into this, for the most part I think one of their main goals is to
recoup whatever costs go into a labor of love project. I mean it’s definitely a more realistic goal
to set than setting a goal to make money (because it’s not really gonna happen
anyway). It seems that people getting
into starting labels with the intent to try and recoup their costs from their
initial projects and recycle whatever revenue they bring in to put towards the
next project. I mean, when Profound Lore
started, I didn’t really want to wait to recoup from that first release to fund
the next one. I wanted to keep the
momentum going so I personally paid for the next release right out of my own
pocket (without any financial assistance whatsoever from my other partners) and
then took some of the revenue from that to help fund the next release and the
impending ones that lay ahead.
What
do you see as the future function of the record label?
To help bring
that awareness to the artist and band through the reputation and brand the
label has built up, and as well to provide that solid backdrop through expertise
to help the band (financially of course as well) develop and to help and do
their part make things happen for the band and artist, depending on the band or
artist’s intended goal of course.
What do you see in
store for the future of Profound Lore Records? What kind of ways do you
see your label evolving and growing in the coming years?
The future goal
for Profound Lore is to just remain consistent in the quality output of the
label, to continue putting out stuff I tend to resonate with and not
compromise. I’m not looking to make the
label the next big thing, or to compete in the market or whatever with other
labels because I’m not that desperate and I don’t want to force anything with
the label just to try and take the label to the next level. Over the last several years, the label’s
growth has been natural, a snowball effect of sorts, and I’ve just happened to
have been fortunate enough over these years to work with such respected bands
as Agalloch and Yob; two bands that have played an integral part of the label’s
growth along with other notable artists who have become a part of the label’s
history through fitting in with its aesthetic and placing themselves right
alongside the label’s quality releases.
As I mentioned, nothing has been forced whatsoever, everything has been
a natural growth and progression and during this growth, things just started to
happen. So I basically just want to keep
this up as best as I can, for as long as I can, keep realistic goals and more
importantly continue to find enjoyment in doing this and not deal too much with
the politics of the industry (sometimes you have no choice since it’s part of
the territory) and just do my own thing, on my own, apart and away from what
everyone else is doing.
What
do you think it takes for a band to be successful?
A good work
ethic and a certain kind of enthusiasm, a clear focus and a good sense of
projection. But more importantly, they
need to have goals that are realistic and need to have an outlook that is
realistic. Especially in the climate
that we’re currently in (one that’s entrenched in a singular niche kinda scene
and movement). I think it’s important for
bands to understand this and be familiar with the landscape of what’s going on
today. Of course every band has
different goals and their goals and aspirations of course reflect the course a
release or album of theirs is going to take.
What
are you looking for in a band that makes you want them in the Profound Lore
stable? I feel there are some very diverse styles among the bands on the
roster, so it seems something much more than an issue of genre.
It pretty much
all boils down to an aesthetic that the band employs and if it’s one that I can
relate and resonate with. It’s hard to
describe, but it mostly relies on a feeling, an intuition of sorts. Of course there are instances as well where
I’ll work with a band because I’m good friends with them right off the bat,
on top of digging their music, and I want to help them out as best as I
can. There have been a few instances
such as this as well.
I
know when I buy CDs, I’m hoping that my money finds its way into the hands of
the artist and label that make it all happen. Is there a place where all
us supporters can make sure we are in fact supporting Profound Lore?
Amazon.com? I’m guessing http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/.
Pretty much wherever
a product of ours is bought, the money will find its way into the hands of the
label and artists. Our products seen on
a retail level like Amazon.com are sold via our distributor and in turn we get
a payback from our distributor respectively from those products pushed and
moved through them on a retail level.
It’s not much of a payback as when something is bought directly from our
website of course since we see the most return from something bought directly
through the label. But the revenue does
somehow find its way back to us through all means of how our product is pushed.
Kind
of a random thought here, but one thing I really like about Profound Lore is
the overall high level of artistry featured on the album covers. Is this
something you oversee or is it entirely the bands’ choice?
I’ve been lucky
to pretty much work with bands, for the most part, who deliver awesome cover
art. Pretty much one of the next most
exciting thing from hearing the new music for the first time is seeing the
cover art for the first time. So for the
most part, I trust the majority of bands I work with to deliver cool album
artwork and I’m confident they will. And some of my favourite album covers I’ve
released come from very simple ideas and have a minimalist approach and look to
them. Of course I’ve also had the odd
release where people have criticized the album cover artwork and even had a release
where people considered the album cover to be one of the worst metal album
covers of that year the album was released haha.
Have
you ever tagged along on tour with one of your label’s bands? And if so,
any crazy road stories?
I haven’t
really tagged along with any of my bands while on tour, but there have been
many instances where I’ve hung out with some of my bands at shows or festivals
where things would get pretty crazy. I
do hear stories on some occasions from some of my bands while on the road and
what happened to them. For example when
Impetuous Ritual did their U.S. tour last year around their most devastating
appearance at last year’s Rites Of Darkness fest in San Antonio, I heard that
when they got into Texas, one night the guitar player attempted to jump the
fence at the border into Mexico. I think
he might have gotten shocked or something. Or when The Atlas Moth were playing Vegas,
I’ll never forget the text Stavros sent me: “If I got arrested here, would you
be prepared to bail me out?”.
What are some releases we can expect from Profound Lore in the near future?
The remainder
of the year, at the time of this writing, will see new releases from
Indesinence (who had to get pushed back a month because of a massive
manufacturing delay at the plant, because of the severity of the packaging), an
album that I consider one of the label’s proudest moments (and it’s kind of a
personal release as well too since Indesinence are pretty much the only band,
aside from Agalloch, that the label has ever worked with that I had personal
contact with way before the label even began).
Then new albums from Menace Ruine, the new Yakuza album, and closing off
the year with the incredible new album from Atriarch and the debut album from
Bell Witch. Off the top of my head early
2013 will see releases by Ash Borer (a CD version of their debut album), the
debut album from Vhöl (which features Mike Scheidt of Yob, Aesop of
Agalloch/Worm Ouroboros, John Cobbett of Hammers Of Misfortune, and Sigrid of
Hammers Of Misfortune likewise), the new Man’s Gin which should be epic, and
the new Portal which should be the musical equivalent to the Ebola virus.
