The Trouble With Simonetti

Complaints and hate mail are handled with the utmost seriousness at Bettawreckonize headquarters. A prompt and considerate response, usually consisting of a middle finger pointed right-side up at the computer screen or a reply of “Your momma” does the trick. However, when I received a brief note from Troubleman Unlimited founder Mike Simonetti, who was unhappy about some statements The Six Parts Seven made about his business practices landed in my Inbox (“Mike from Troubleman Unlimited here. You should take the slanderous shit The Six Parts Seven said about me in their interview out because it isn’t true. Slanderous shit isn’t cool dude.”), I suspected that his request should be handled with a little more tact.

After all, anyone with ears can tell you that Simonetti’s releases (over 100 to date) have been essential in the development of underground music over the last ten years. Moreover, records by The Party of Helicopters, The Panthers, Shotmaker, Rye Coalition, Glass Candy and The Shattered Theatre, Erase Errata, Red Scare, etc. have been my regular fare for as long as I can remember (or for at least as long as I’ve been able to sew a hardcore patch on a back pocket).

Though I wasn’t will to take down The Six Parts Seven’s statements (after all, it is what they said), I offered Troubleman a feature interview instead and Mike and I had at it. To be frank, it got a little ugly. Simonetti “tells it like it is” and my capabilities as an interviewer seem to be collateral damage. But just when things on this end seemed most dire, I thought to myself, “Since when has punk and hardcore been safe or pretty?” There is something to be said for Simonetti’s honesty, determination, and self-assuredness; if it weren’t for these characteristics the real collateral damage may have meant missing out on some of the most complex, devastating, and mind-boggling records our record collections have ever seen.

Interview conducted via e-mail by Tim Anderl.

Name: Mike Simonetti
Label: Troubleman Unlimited

Bettawreckonize: When did Troubleman come about? Has it always been based in New Jersey?

Mike: I have never left New Jersey. Born in Bayonne, now residing in Jersey City. The label started as an extension of my zine Wanna Communicate? I did a tape compilation titled, Superpowers. That was the first official Troubleman release. Records happened later, and sorta by accident.

BW: Has being on the outskirts of New York and having that outsiders' vantage point helped you to keep perspective on the difference between hype and good, solid groundbreaking music?

M: I don’t think so. I spend almost every day in NYC. All my friends live there. All the good restaurants are there, some decent record stores.…I grew up a New Yorker, even though I live 10 minutes outside of NYC. I think I can tell when a band truly sucks and is all hype and no substance. The key is to not buy into all the shit that flows into N.Y. on a daily basis. People are moving here from all over the world to be in a famous band, or to be seen at a crappy bar with a hip DJ. It takes a lot more than wearing a trucker hat and playing a disco beat, although you couldn’t tell these days. Major labels are really dumb.

BW: How has putting out over a hundred releases in nine years taxed your personal life? Are you able to separate your life outside of Troubleman from the stresses of managing the label and putting out records?

M: Not at all. If anything, it enhanced my social life. I am everyone’s friend now! Mr. Popularity! People tend to think I release too many records, which is bullshit. There are two kinds of people in this world, the ones who talk about doing things, and the ones who put their money where their mouths are and actually do something. I think I am the latter. I release records because I am a record label. Right now, there are a lot of amazing bands around, and I want to release them all. Who knows? Next year there may be no good bands. If that’s the case, I will not release anything. I put out a lot of stuff, and MOST of it gets a lot of recognition. There are some bands that don’t get hype (see below), but that isn’t my fault. I can’t control who listens to what records. All I can do is get them out there and try to get them recognized. I NEVER promise fame and fortune. Most of the shit I release is unlistenable or "too weird" anyway. Plus, a lot of my records are limited editions. So they sell out right away and don’t get repressed. This is for collectors, since I am a collector myself. It’s not as much stuff as you think.

BW: Is their some underlying common ground between Troubleman's current roster Wolf Eyes, Nuzzle, Glass Candy, etc. and the bands of Troubleman past (Rye Coalition, Camera Obscura, Shotmaker) that has allowed you to diversify what you're putting out and still remain true to your original game plan?

M: They are all originals. I never had a game plan because I release what I like. I don’t care what the band wears, where they are from, or what they sound like. I am not a trendy label. If the shit I release becomes trendy, that’s great. But I don’t do this to start fads, because once something becomes a fad, it isn’t cool anymore. And I want to stay cool. The cool thing is to move on before it gets wide recognition. My short attention span is perfect for my philosophy.

BW: Where did Troubleman's logo come from? Is it ironic that Troubleman's logo indicates some allegiance to a hip-hop or black music heritage when most of Troubleman's bands seem to have a white-majority fanbase?

M: I would say ALL, not MOST, of Troubleman's bands have a white fan base unfortunately. The art is from a Miles Davis record titled On The Corner. I liked the image. It looks nice. I wouldn’t say the logo shows an allegiance to any "black music.” Isn’t rock and roll "black music"? Just because a bunch of privileged white kids like and play rock and roll these days doesn’t necessarily mean it's a white music. I am sure Bo Didley is as pissed off as you are about Creed's existence. And, I think hip-hop is just as popular with the white kids as it is with the black kids. Isn’t Eminem white? It’s weird how you associate a logo of a woman with no color at all in the actual drawing to be black? Is it because she has an afro, or big lips and a big nose? Couldn’t she be a white woman? It’s weird how people see the logo as some sort of "black" statement. And assuming such is sorta racist if you ask me.…not that I am calling you racist, but you should realize what you are saying. It’s a drawing of a woman's face from the 70's. That’s all it is.

(Editor’s note: In the cover art of On The Corner the image where this logo is taken from is in color. Coincidentally, in Miles Davis’ artwork the artist made her black.)

BW: I see where you are coming from and maybe it was a bit presumptuous of me to make assumptions about the race of the character in your logo. However, I think that people who make art and facilitate art, as you do, can be inspired by artists or movements that are instigated by catalysts, environments and times in history that they can identify with even though they didn't "live" it firsthand. I've followed some of the discourse on your website, and have noticed that you follow hip-hop. While that musical scene is diverse, there are certainly things that you'll have to admit that move you, but that you can't identify with firsthand. So, seeing that logo, making an apparent wrong assumption, and knowing that you weren't putting out records or making music yourself in the political, social climate, I wondered if there was something about the 70s, black culture, or even that Miles Davis record that encouraged you to make it a logo. Historically logos have functioned to associate a graphic image with some particular characteristic or idea behind a company, record label, etc. If you just "liked it,” we'll leave it at that and I apologize that I assumed more. Perhaps this kind of unintentional racism is a by-product of my not having those physical characteristics and being all too aware of that difference. But, I also value being a part of a sub-culture or society where we can be exposed to diverse ideas and people, and seek to understand the differences between people physically, politically, economically, etc. and make associations or establish common ground based on those differences. Now that you know where I was coming from, do you have any comments?

M: I just liked the image!

BW: Have you seen major challenges in trying to maintain your roots amidst all the media hype surrounding punk, hardcore, and most recently dance punk?

M: No. I will always be punk. To me, it is a system of beliefs, not a musical style. I don’t listen to music because it is punk or not, I listen to music because I think its GOOD. The dance punk thing will be over soon anyway. Major labels are stupid (once again). They don’t know shit about music. Bands that sign to major labels are stupid. Everyone thinks they are going to be the next White Stripes. They are all going to be famous. We all know about 1/10 of 1 percent of these bands sell over 2,000 copies. There was even an article written in The New Yorker a few weeks ago about this. Look around. How many post punk bands got signed this year? Where will they be next year? Dropped and/or broken up. I don’t care. If a band wants to ruin their existence because they can get a $20,000 signing bonus, go for it. That’s one less shitty band in the world.

BW: What personality characteristics should a person be equipped with to best receive and understand a Troubleman release? What sub-cultures do you think best receive what your label and bands are trying to do?

M: I think the person should be caring, giving, enjoy long walks on the beach, compassionate, love sunsets (but not as much as sunrises), oh….and be white apparently. That’s a weird question....

BW: Let me give this another shot, are you concerned that people who have been receptive to your past releases, or bands that you've worked with in the past will understand, appreciate releases that you're working that may be significantly different from what you've done in the past? Honestly, how much do you care whether someone likes or hates a record that you've invested time, money, etc. in putting out?

M: I don’t care at all. I can’t make anyone like the stuff I release. There are people who absolutely hate all my releases and think I am a trendy rap label. And there are some who would think the opposite.…

BW: How has Troubleman managed to connect with such a geographically diverse bunch of bands (for example, Glass Candy, Erase Errata - Northwest; Party of Helicopters, Song of Zarathustra, Harriet the Spy - Midwest; Shotmaker - Mideast, East Coast)? What challenges have you faced trying to balance musicians who aren't all local?

M: I release whatever I am into. It doesn’t matter where they are from. Most of these bands know each other anyway. It’s very incestuous. I am releasing a band from Jupiter soon!

BW: Are there other labels that you feel akin to or really identify with?

M: No. But I worship Discord.

BW: Have you every faced a challenge or problem so large that you contemplated calling it quits, shutting down the label?

M: Sure. All the time. Too many to mention. I was going to quit the label a few months ago over something I cant even remember! Sometimes I think it’s trivial to do a label these days given the state of affairs. There are zillions of labels throwing money at everyone. Once a band gets some press, you get labels coming out of the woodwork looking to get a piece of the pie. It’s funny because you can totally tell when a label is trying too hard to be trendy and hip and not being true to themselves. That’s why Discord is the best label ever.

BW: In the Six Parts Seven interview we did a while back they were critical of the amount of time it took to release their record, and the number of releases that you try to balance at any given time? Would you like to address their criticism?

M: Yes. They were almost 6 months late giving me the artwork. The artist was sick, and the art took forever. They should have had someone do the layout. They told me it would make the release date and it didn’t. I delayed the record 3 times with my distributor because of this. After the third time they took it out of the catalog because stores were beginning to lose interest, since it kept on getting delayed. By the time I got art from them, I had other records scheduled and had to push theirs back. It wouldn’t be fair to the other bands to bump them because The Six Parts Seven couldn’t get it together to get the artwork to me.
f you look at the roster of bands I have released, I would say about 85 percent of them are recognizable and have received press. I give each band the same treatment. I spend the same amount of money on each record. I do tons of press, radio, etc. Look at it this way, if I wasn’t releasing these bands, another label would. What’s the difference? It is going to come out anyway. If the band works hard and the music are good, something will happen. It’s that simple. But it doesn’t happen overnight. Erase Errata's success is no fluke. They BUSTED THEIR ASSES to be where they are today. Those girls tour ALL THE TIME. They are professional and committed, and they don’t need anyone’s help, especially mine. Every ounce of popularity they have is because they never gave up or quit when shit wasn’t going well. That’s what every band should do.

The Six Parts Seven felt they deserved more because they were around a while and had a record out before mine. But their old label didn’t do anything for them, so it was like starting over. I think they neglected that. Bands tend to always point fingers to the labels if they fail. To be honest, I think The Six Parts Seven is still a relatively unknown band. I don’t see how leaving Troubleman changed anything. They are still selling a small amount of records. Don’t get me wrong; Al is a totally hard worker and excellent musician, and a genuinely good guy. I just think he was very impatient, and he expected to be instantly popular just because he was on the label. I still haven’t sold out of the original pressing of the CD. Go figure. Almost every other record I have released sells decently.

BW: What advantage do you see to juggling several releases at once over focusing on one band and one release at a time?

M: I don’t "juggle" releases. I have a staff that works very hard on each release. I don’t do this alone. I have actual, real-life, "employees.” I spend a lot of money. Just like Matador or Sub Pop or any other label that releases more than one record every 6 months. Look at the bands I have released over the last 2 years. They are almost all doing well: Glass Candy, The Troubleman Mix Tape, Erase Errata, Wolf Eyes, The Rogers Sisters, Numbers, Kepler, Milky Wimpshake, The Walkmen, Party of Helicopters, The Recoys, Panthers, Song of Zarathustra, Luttenbachers, Orthrelm, Pixeltan, Black Dice.…some bands broke up before the record was released or had a real chance (Subtonix, The Lack, American Heritage, Man vs Humanity). But that’s not my fault dude. Some bands signed to major labels (Party of Helicopters, Panthers, The Walkmen). PLUS, these bands all charted very high on CMJ, got great press, and sold very well. How am I "juggling?” Every move I make with the label is calculated. I know exactly what I am getting into. I am not afraid! I have TONS of shit coming out too: Tracy and the Plastics, Broke Revue, King Cobra, Currituck County, California Lightening, Tussle, Measels Mumps Rubela, Sleetmute Nightmute, Death Comet Crew. These are all going to be great records and they are going to do well. Just wait and see. By the way, all of these bands outsold The Six Parts Seven. But you see, it isn’t about record sales dude. Its about doing things right. That’s all I care about. The Six Parts Seven was doomed from the start unfortunately.

BW: For the record, what happened to the Allen Karpinski (Six Parts Seven) solo stuff?

M: Nothing. The covers and music are here. I still have them at the house. I didn’t want to work with them after they left the label. They never asked for them back. If they want them back I will gladly send them back. It’s funny that they think I burned them or something.... they can have someone else release it. Go for it!

BW: You do some DJing, correct?

M: Yes. Some.

BW: Have you ever spun your own Troubleman releases?

M: Never.

BW: What is the Troubleman record that you are most proud of and why?

M: Unwound "Negated" 7", because it’s the first record I ever released and Unwound are one of the best bands ever. If it weren’t for unwound taking a chance on my crappy label i wouldn’t be here now.