Interview with:

   

I hope you'll enjoy this very nice interview with Mike Stiff (Guitar) about his band - Workin' Stiffs and the record label that he's working in - TKO Records. February 2001

 

 

 

•  When did TKO start; who founded it and what's your share in all of that?

TKO RECORDS was started in 1997, in San Francisco.  The label was founded by Mark Rainey, a local drunk and long-time punk music fanatic.  I became friends with Mark when he released our “Whippin’ Boy” picture disc seven inch.  I told him back then that if he ever had any work for me I would really like to work for TKO.  Then in March of 1999 I came aboard to handle advertising and some publicity and marketing.  Now, two years later I’m just a part of the furniture over here.

•  What ever happened to the East Bay Menace Records?

EAST BAY MENACE was unfortunately managed poorly in terms of their finances.  They put out a few really good releases like STRYCHNINE and the GRIMPLE re-release but I don’t think the sales were high enough for them to continue.  They eventually went out of business and sold off the remaining stock to a local distributor.  I certainly have nothing bad to say about them as they put out our first album and always treated us well.  They were a cool bunch of people to work with and it was sad to see them go.  Even when they were losing money and trying to finish off the label they were still paying out royalties to the bands so you can see they were clearly good people with good intentions.
 

•  It didn't take much for TKO to become one of the leading punk labels of today. What's your secret?

The big secret is that TKO is a tiny record label that tries to act like a huge record label.  Many people have the impression that TKO is this big company, when in fact we are just another one of the hundreds of punk/indie labels out there.  But thanks for the kind words: it’s always good to hear that we are fooling people.

 

•  How many copies of each release you do? What are the best sellers?

Our pressings of a release are determined by the pre-order for that release.  Then we do subsequent re-pressings according to the demand.  This stuff always varies from title to title, depending on the popularity of the band.  Our best sellers to date are PUNCHDRUNK and PUNCHDRUNK 2 compilations, and the releases that we have done with the DROPKICK MURPHYS.  But you never know, we have some great stuff coming out this year, so that could always change.

 

•  I have the impression that each fresh/new band signed to TKO immediately gets picked up by Hellcat, FAT, GMM to do a full length or the bands use TKO for 7" releases?

I really don’t know of that ever happening.  We have worked with several bands that are also signed to or work with the labels you mentioned, but I don’t think there has ever been a case of a band leaving TKO to do a release with HELLCAT, FAT or GMM.  The bands were already working with those labels when they decided to do something with us.

 

•  Is it hard to do label work and be in the band in the same time? What's more important to you?

No, not really.  Believe it or not the two are kept pretty separate.  I coordinate all of the advertising at TKO, so that basically means pushing our new releases whatever they may be.  Since the WORKIN’ STIFFS don’t put out tons and tons of records I rarely have any kind of band business to take care of at work.  Of course I keep an eye on how our stuff is selling because I’m here but otherwise TKO is just my job, my income etc, and the band is something I do entirely for fun and some occasional free beer.  I don’t see either one as more important than the other as they both serve important purposes in my life.  Without TKO I would be broke and without the WORKIN’ STIFFS I would be bored.

•  Do you think there are some labels, groups, people who are spoiling the punk scene world-wide?

I think the people who come out to punk shows with the purpose of starting fights and making trouble are certainly not helping the scene.  I understand that punk rock is far too big for everyone to get along all of the time but when clubs and bars close down or ban punk shows because of repeated nights of violence then yes I believe the scene is being spoiled.  We have lost many places to have punk shows here because of violence and it is very disappointing to see that happen in any scene because it does nobody any good in the end.

 

•  Did a lot of things change since you had to replace your original drummer? How is Eric now?

Well we took almost a year off following Eric’s tragedy.  It was very hard to know what the right thing to do was in a situation like that.  Nobody expects their drummer and friend to have a stroke at age 29.  We stayed close to Eric that year and watched his recovery.  Eventually it became pretty clear that he would not be playing drums any time soon if ever again.  The stroke paralyzed him on his right side of his body and left him unable to speak.  Over the past 2 years he has been in physical therapy and doing pretty well.  He can walk again and has regained much of his speech back too.  The whole thing was very hard for me and Dave (singer) because we had been with Eric from the very start where as other members had come and gone.  Things have really never been quite the same since Eric left.  He was a very vital member of this band and to this day his involvement is still missed a lot.  We finally got our friend Toby (ex: SUBMACHINE, FILTH, REDUCERS SF) to replace Eric permanently and now we are just trying to move forward again.  I still hang out with Eric a lot.  He remains a very close friend and comes to our shows as much as possible.
 

 •  Will there be a re-release of "Dog Tired" album?

It’s funny that you asked that, actually TKO will most likely be re-issuing the “Dog Tired” album later this year with some of the early 7 inch singles on there as well.  We’ll probably change the artwork and make it somewhat different than the original pressing.  That record has been out-of-print for some time now so hopefully there will be some interest for it when it comes out again and who knows maybe the original will become collectable.  Look for the “Dog Tired” re-release this summer.

• What's the criteria in releasing policy of TKO? Is it a genre or what?
If we like the music and we get along with the members of the band, then whenever possible, we will release the record.  The bottom line is: TKO is a 100% independent label.  We don’t answer to anyone except ourselves and the bands we work with, so we release whatever we want.

• Recommend your favorite top 3 TKO releases to serbian customers and give us your top 5 of all time influences of yours.
My top 3 TKO releases would have to be The BODIES “self-titled” LP/CD, The BELTONES “On Deaf Ears” CD EP and The REDUCERS SF “Backing The Longshot” LP/CD.  As for my top 5 all time favorites, that’s a tough one but here goes…The REZILLOS “Can’t Stand The Rezillos”, The MISFITS “Walk Among Us”, R.K.L. “Rock n’ Roll Nightmare”, The RADICTS “Rebel Sound”, and finally NEW BOMB TURKS “Destroy Oh Boy”.  I really hate that question because no matter what I answer there will be 10 more records I forgot about.

• What would be mission accomplished for Workin' Stiffs (something to split-up happily after)?
If we could play an all-weekend party at the Playboy Mansion I think I could safely say we could hang it up.  But since that will never happen we just make smaller more manageable goals like playing local prisons and stuff.  We are trying to play at San Quentin prison in Northern California but haven’t got there yet.  I would like to play San Quentin prison and record it for a live album just like Johnny Cash did.  Any really bizarre place to play is attractive to me.  Any band can play the common club circuit but there are a lot of weird places out there that could be just as fun.

• Any last words?
Well, though it does not look like we will be touring in your area any time soon, I want to wish all the punks and skins of Yugoslavia a great year.  Thanks to Vlada and S.C.A.B. zine for this interview.  Fuck shit up, stay outta trouble and most of all, thanks to all of you for your continued support of TKO RECORDS and the WORKIN’ STIFFS we could not do it without you!