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Interview with Martin Turzik and Richard Imrich Deadred Records, SK
17.02.2001
Many years ago, we met Martin Turzik in the small town of Trencin, Slovakia. Under the old Roman-inscribed stone wall of the Trencin castle lives a town unexpectedly hip (despite what jaded locals might try to tell you.) In the early 90's, Trencin and nearby cities Nove Mesto, Trencianske Teplice, Zilina, and Bratislava, were home to a great many independent bands. In the early 80's, Trencin was the home of Vazeni Chor Muzikanov, Slovakia's own incarnation of the Plastic People of the Universe. Later, band Bez Ladu a Skladu made a name for themselves on international circuits with their classy punk- ska/big-band sound. After the wake of new-wave and neo-punk, Trencin and surrounding areas bore new sounds as witnessed in hosts of local acts including Champ, Junk, Poor Joyce, even Slovak-American trio Skulpey.
In the early 90's, MTV came blistering onto TV screens of SK, while Bart Simpson's blatherings were to be found graffitied on castle walls. Although the young were ready for change, the keepers of venues and curfews were not: cool underground concerts were inevitably still shut down early without just cause, and many 'alternative' events were forced to take place outside of town, in harder-to-trace places, usually loaned by a sympathetic supporter. One of the coolest local events was called "Frog Jam," held in the winter at the former Communist-resort spa in Teplice called "Zelena Zhaba (Green Frog)" At Frog Jams one and two, one could hear sounds from all across Slovakia, from hip-hop to new wave to noise. We were so blown away by their first Frog Jam, that it's occurance probably led to the eventual formation of Tamizdat! Nevermind that, let's get back to Deadred Records.
One of the coolest mid-90's guitar-texture/drone-rock-a-la-Cranes bands in Trencin was called Champ, an incredible band whose talent should have reached far outside of Slovakia. Bassist of Champ was Martin Turzik. Long around 1998-99, Slovakia boasted a great new band: This is Kevin, mixing samples and sounding very cosmopolitan. Richard Imrich was one a proud This Is Kevin member. Turzik and Imrich team up now for new band Nylon Union, starting as the indie label Deadred. Dead Red Records is Slovakia's newest and coolest indepedent music label, recently proclaimed most promising label for 2001 in local Slovak press, http://music.5d.sk. The following interview with Martin and Richard tells you all about their work and perspectives. For more information about Deadred, see their website of course, www.deadred.sk. Read on right here.....
T: What are your jobs at DeadRed?
RI: We do everything together, but I do mostly stuffs about media communication, promotion, seeking contacts and I`m manager for selling records - distribution, selling through Internet etc...In our band Nylon Union I`m mostly author of music and sound ingeneer /recording, mastering.../..;)))
MT: All ideas, concepts, planes we do together, my jobs are technical stuffs..CD recording and mastering, printing of covers, posters, flyers, also I`m chief designer of Corporate identity of DR and also of Nylon Union...I`m also bassplayer there in Nylon Union, sometimes author of music..;)))
T: What are the new releases and releases in progress for Dead Red? What kind of music are you interested in most?
RI: I`m interesting about lot`s of psychedelic music, old or new, some jazz with a certain vibe in it, but in Martin and my basements are noise guitar recordings of the 90`s..;) As Deadred rec. we are interested in all new and progressive music in Slovakia, mostly live bands using some electronic background, samples...but the scene is very small, we invite all good music here ...
MT: My music choise is similar to Richard`s, but I`m opened to listen each good music...ambient, drum`n`bass, ethno...Deadred hasn`t straight borders...it`s not possible over here..;). First release was 3 inch CD-EP Nylon Union 'oxeyed ep', in progress is compilation of new Slovak music, mostly unknown ...and we are thinking about next releases, bands like Puding Pani Elvisovej, Ettela Diamant and others make interesting music, we think about their EP or LP..;)))
T: What are the formats of releases you will do? (mini discs, vinyl, CD, MP3...?)
RI/MT: We do this time only CD`s....3 inch /21 min. EPs/ and LPs, but we want to release sometimes later also vinyls, we think about MP3 shop in our websites....just ideas at this time..;)))
T: What are your plans for selling your releases? Will you distribute in other countries? Do you have MP3 ecommerce on your site?
RI: There`re big plans, we hope it won`t be just a plans...We distribute our products at this moments just in Slovakia, but we want to make it also in other countries...first in Czech Republic,...we wery appreciate your interest about us, we want to make some corporation with Tamizdat to sell our product in US and West Europe..;)))
MT: MP3 ecommerce, as I said, is just in ideas and plans ....not yet because of difficult way of payment and distribution in Slovakia by using webspace at this time...;))))
T: Tell a bit about the situation in Slovakia for independent labels...is there a scene of such small labels, or are you guys one of the only labels there?
RI: There were two alternative independent attempts in past 10 yeras in Slovakia..ZOON Records /Ali Ibn Rachid, Tornado Lue, Stoka, Matkovia.../ and GA agency /some samplers of slovak bands, J.B.Kladivo, Karol Miklos, M. Burlas.../, but they are inactive now. Better situations is in techno and house scene over here...some new little labels as Olga+Jozef, Bajkonur...producing mostly techno records on vinyls and CDs, selling in Slovakia and also in West Europe But we`re standing somewhere else, I don`t want to say in between, we`re alone in alternative-electronic cross-over now....
MT: Situation with independent labels is strange, because of small market and bad economic situation in Slovakia...people haven`t enough money to buy CD`s, also it`s very expensive to release CDs and vinyls over there...big companies like Bonton, Monitor haven`t this problems....therefore we want to provide music from Slovakia to other markets....I think slovak music is interesting....;))))
T: What is the state of distribution like in Slovakia right now?
RI: Distribution is effective, but there are less CDs sold in general from year to year...
MT: We resolve distribution for our products by using ditribution system to record stores in Slovakia, but amount of distributed CD is very small, other way we use Internet eshops like anarchy.sk, music.sk...and our self eshop
T: What is the situation in Slovakia with copyrights agencies (SOSA)? Is it working at all? (in other countries, it seems to be a mess right now!)
RI: Bureaucracy rules!!!
MT: It`s working but it`s closed for unknown and `small` bands and labels...their priority is support and save mostly popular authors, selling many CDs in shops, also if we want to safe copyrights with SOZA, we have to pay so much money for each CD...it`s very bad law here...
T: What are your biggest frustrations as a small label, and what are your biggest joys?
RI: Making records as a mission or charity - frustration and joy in one..;)))
MT: My frustration is all that rules over here, also situation with illegal copying-burning CDs...it`s really best way to listen good music here, because Cds are really very expensive for ordinary people..;((( My joys is all work on records...also when people appreciate it, maybe it will rise some good scene over here soon..;))
T: What kinds of future plans do you have for DeadRed?
RI: To sell 1 million of copies worldwide... ;)))
MT: Make Deadred known as good label everywhere....;))) 
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