The Pleasure Leftists 12″, released by Fan Death Records. Read more about the Pleasure Leftists below.

On Friday, we posted the first installment of our extensive interview with Sean Gray and Chris Berry of Fan Death Records. Here’s the other half of the conversation, in where Gray and Berry elaborate on Fan Death’s sense of humor, their definition of DIY and what bands they’ve been listening to and loving. They also address their much publicized comments on their disdain for D.C. bands.

I actually listened to part of your interview on You, Me, Them, Everybody, where you mentioned putting out a comedy compilation. Does that somehow hearken back to that first Clockcleaner live release?

Sean: No, this is a legit comedy compilation.

Chris: That’s with your tape label right?

Sean: Yeah, this isn’t a Fan Death thing. But Chris and I always say that our first release was a comedy record.

Chris: I think we still have it in the pipeline to do a prank phone call tape.

Sean: Our thing that we have always said in interviews is that if Chris and I have a bajillion dollars and the record label is huge, Chris and I have made a promise to each other that we will put out a Longmont Potion Castle vinyl box set. Which, if you don’t know who he is, he’s just this guy that does amazing prank phone calls.

Chris: It’s really absurdist and he just says weird shit to people and people get really, really mad. It’s sometimes a little mean-spirited, but it never starts as that.

Sean: He’ll just ask really crazy questions. Like, he’ll pretend to be a delivery guy and pretend to have 400 owls or something to deliver to your house. Just weird stuff and sometimes he’ll use delay pedals and weird vocal effects that make no sense. But Fan Death was built on the first release being a comedy record. So if you want to equate the interview that I did with You, Me, Them, Everybody at the end of the day, Chris and I are smartasses. I think that while we’ve kind of gotten away from that a little bit, at the end of the day, that’s where the label is.

Because punk rock has always had this, I hate to use the word “attitude” because I think that’s really stupid, but it’s always had a “fuck you” kind of mentality that Chris and I, to some extent, have. I think that it shows to some extent in Fan Death. I understand some of our past…press issues…have kind of dealt with that. I think that’s good sometimes. When I was growing up, I really loved stuff Steve Albini did and he has a reputation of being very vocal and very up front.

Chris: And I think if you look at the record collection of anyone who would run a label like us, they would be into Steve Albini. I think it was definitely a touchstone for us; something that was very eye-opening to hear Big Black when I was fifteen and read about them in Our Band Could Be Your Life. And a big part of it wasn’t necessarily that he believed what he said but it’s what he thought was interesting and he liked getting a reaction out of people.

Sean: And when you put out records, you want people to like them, but you also want a reaction. We love the negative reviews as much as we love the positive reviews.

Chris: I don’t think we’ve had a negative review of anything that we’ve put out that actually had a serious analysis of it. They’re like, “Uh, this is kind of boring, I guess” or something very vague in general.

Sean: And when you put out records, I don’t buy the whole bullshit thing of “I’m putting this out for myself.” No. You’re putting out this record because you want other people to listen to it and analyze it.

Chris: Like the Taco Leg record.

Sean: Yes, I’m putting out records because I want you, the listener, to analyze them. I want you to give us money so that we can put out the next thing. Of course you put out a record that you love first and foremost, but you always have to remember that you’re putting your money into this, and you’re putting it out into the world because you want people to dissect the record. And the whole idea of “I’m doing this just for me”…if that were the case, you’d record a band and you’d have them burn it on a CD for you and you’d play it in your car or on your stereo forever. When you’re charging people their hard-earned money, especially in this economy…

Chris: Especially when there are so many other options out there, too.

Sean: So many options, so many different record labels.

Chris: I think there are more records coming out now than there have ever been before since like the ’70s or ’80s or something.

Sean: I wouldn’t even equate that to just physical records. The idea of having downloadable tapes.

Chris: There are so many different options that we have to fight for every listener that we get.

Sean: It’s one of those things where Chris and I are very happy with the status of the record label. We’re very happy with where it is. It’s one of those things, though…I know we’re still a small fish in a really big pond. As much as I’m like, “We do this and we do this” and we have a lot of people that we respected growing up respecting us. It’s really nice to know when a hero of yours is buying your records.

Chris: There have been a couple names on the PayPal account that I called Sean up immediately after when I saw that and said, “This person just bought something from us.”

Sean: It’s kind of gratifying. In a way, I can’t believe that X person would buy a record that we put together in my living room or Chris’ living room. It’s a crazy thing to think about. But you put out records because you want those people to dissect them and you want those people to criticize them or enjoy them. So the whole idea of us saying to you, “Oh, we do it for ourselves…DIY a bajillion percent…”

Chris: …That’s not necessarily what I think DIY is. I think DIY is doing things on your own terms and not necessarily just for yourself but doing things on your own terms and under your own control. So, in that sense I’d say that we’re completely a DIY label. We don’t deal with anybody that we don’t want to.

Sean: I think people get that confused, too. I think people think that if we want to sell records that we’re not a DIY label. No! We want to sell records to put out the next thing. I don’t want to be broke. I like to pay for rent and I like to eat. That’s a very important thing as a human being. So, as a human being that needs to eat, I want to be sure that what I’m doing with the record label means that I don’t have to sacrifice food for that. It’s as essential as that, really. That’s as simple as it gets.

But the record label was built on humor, but it was built on the kind of humor that we can poke fun at ourselves. If you look at the Facebook wall or any of our mailing list stuff, there are jabs at ourselves because we know that we’re part of a community that sometimes takes itself way too seriously. I think it’s one of those things where if you have a little bit of humor in it, it goes a long way.

And we’ve gotten some responses from some people that say, “Stand-up kind of has some personality to it.” I don’t want to be a record label that just puts out records…where you’re just a machine that puts out records. I always enjoyed record labels like Subpop that have that almost self-deprecating kind of humor about them.

Chris: Where they knew kind of, their status. I remember seeing Subpop ads…there’s one that I remember really vividly…it was like, “We’re Sorry.” And it was a bunch of things like, “We’re sorry this record came out late” and “We’re sorry blah blah blah blah blah” and I thought that was pretty funny. And I feel like we try to present ourselves with a sense of humor. I feel like that’s pretty important to us.

What’s something that you’ve been listening to recently that you’re pretty excited about? It can be something you’re releasing or not.

Chris: Leather.

Sean: Leather. Both Chris and I cannot stress enough how good this band actually is. Sonically…energy…they are, to me, the full package in terms of a punk rock band. They’re kind of like Taco Leg in a way. Taco Leg has this gung-ho spirit that I love, but Chris and I love them because they don’t care or don’t know.

Chris: No, they know. They’re making the music they want to make. But Leather…everything that they’ve done…they have a record coming out on Saturday which may be one of the only things that I buy and it’s one of my favorite records that I’ve heard all year. Everything about them, I feel meshes in a really cool way.

Sean: Our friend John Sharkey actually said, “Leather sounds like if Tad Doyle owned a Cro-mag’s Age of Quarrel record and actually listened to it.” They just execute their songs really well. Their demo sounded really good. It sounded like they were serious. And I love bands that sound shitty. There are bands that do the whole lo-fi thing and do it well. But it’s also kind of overkill sometimes where every band, every demo that we get sometimes is sometimes this stupid aesthetic of being so lo-fi that…

Chris: …that we don’t know what’s going on. But they write really memorable songs and they have really memorable parts and I think that they’re the full package. What else…from D.C., I think the Future Times label. The Beautiful Swimmers and Protect-U stuff that I’ve heard is really cool.

Sean: I can tell you, flat out, for me, I’ve been listening to the new Foo Fighters record a lot. Completely serious. I think it’s a great record. 100 percent. I’m not even being ironic. Foo Fighters were one of my favorite bands growing up. I think that record’s really, really good.

Chris: Before you called, we were listening to “Everlong” in my apartment and that song is a jam.

Sean: Another thing that Chris and I bonded on was Nirvana. Chris isn’t the hugest Nirvana fan, but we always had a love of the ’90s music.

Chris: When we saw Kurt Vile, he asked [the audience] if we had any requests and from the back of the room, I yelled, “Hey Man, Nice Shot.”

That was you? That was the best show I’ve ever seen him do with the Violators.

Chris: I completely agree.

Sean: The nice thing about when the Violators come to this part of town is that it’s always at the end of tour and that’s when they’re really in that groove.

Chris: They’re always really really tight.

Sean: And I think because of that and because Chris and I are good friends with Kurt, he kind of gets excited to see friends and friends that he’s known for years. You have to remember, not to brag, but Chris and I brought Kurt here before anybody else cared about him. I remember he played the very first Test Fest three years ago to like, ten people while doing a fifteen minute cover of The Stooges’ “No Fun.” And there were ten people that watched that.

It’s one of those things where when the Violators come here, they’re already in the groove. We always get a really really good show from them. And a long show, too! I think that show was like, ninety minutes. So we always get the cream of the crop because we’re always like, the last date that the Violators play. But I think all of the bands we work with have grown up on the same kind of music.

Chris: I feel like with everybody we’ve worked with, there’s a certain level that we can connect with them on. Like, when Taco Leg came over to the U.S., there were things that we were able to talk with them about where we were just like, “Oh. Huh. You live in Australia and you know about that. Cool.” Mostly those kids just wanted to talk about fast food, so…

Sean: Also, I love Bikini Kill. And one of the things that drew me into Taco Leg is that they love Bikini Kill, and you could hear that they did, and their aesthetic as far as being really involved with Kill Rock Stars and being knowledgeable of the K Records bands was really well shown in their music. So, a lot of the bands we work with, like Broken Water…they’re from Olympia…and their connection with Kill Rock Stars is pretty deep now. It’s one of those things where if you look at all of the bands that are involved with Fan Death from the most crazy to the most Fan Death-y kind of band, if there is a Fan Death-y kind of band…

Chris: I don’t think there is…

Sean: I don’t think there is either.

Chris: I don’t want there to be one.

Sean: And that’s the thing. We’ve gotten reviews that have said that and Chris and I have always been like, “But the next record we did was a Jason Urick* record. But the connection we all have is that there’s a core group of bands that every group can agree upon where we can say, “That’s a good band.” I don’t necessarily know what that is right off the top of my head, but I think Chris can agree with that.

Chris: Yeah.

Sean: You have to have that kind of connection, too.

I actually want to ask you about one of your newer artists, Pleasure Leftists.

Sean: Wow. We love that record.

Chris: They’re actually the first band that we decided to work with based on a demo. We had known their bassist for a while, and basically, he sent us the demo and said, “Hey, if you’re interested in doing a record, this is my new band.” And we got it and I feel like somebody had told me that it was a hardcore band and I put the CD-R in my car stereo and I was expecting it to be a hardcore band, and then it’s this weird, female-fronted post-punk band that sounds like it would be from 1985 or something.

Sean: I think we also had the misconception because it was Steve from Homostupids. Because Homostupids, if you listen to them, are very…they’re not a hardcore band, but they’re very abrasive. And anything Steve has done up to that point, you’d think that it’s going to be abrasive and then we put this thing on and it’s almost — I hate to use this term — but it’s silky, smooth, post-punk. Just very — done well.

Chris: It’s very precise, too.

Sean: It’s very calculated. You listen to this record and you think, “Man, they must have been practicing this for years! It’s executed so well.” And there’s this whole new resurgence on dark music or goth or whatever tag you want to put on it, be it nu-goth or whatever, and it’s almost like these guys came out of left field — and there are so many other bands trying to replicate this very soothing Siouxsie and the Banshees/Bauhaus/Christian Death kind of sound –and then these guys come out of left field which even we didn’t expect and just kind of obliterate everybody in terms of songwriting. And that’s not us being cocky for putting out the record. It’s there. The songs are there. I’m extremely proud of this record. I know that if Tracy were here, she’d tell you that between this and the Broken Water record, it’s her favorite thing that we’ve done and it’s executed so well. And it’s nice that the songs are catchy.

Chris: And Haley’s voice is really phenomenal for this band. She’s really dynamic and almost really androgynous in a sense. I think everything just works together really well. I love the guitar sound. I can’t really pinpoint another guitar sound that’s really like this other than maybe Dire Straits. It’s got this weird delay on it and it’s used in a way that I feel is pretty innovative for a band that’s out right now.

Sean: Anything else that you wanted to ask?

Well, do we want to beat the dead horse of hating bands in D.C.?

Chris: At this point, we’re doing what we’re doing and we don’t really care that much.

Sean: At the end of the day, we said what we said and we still stand by it.

Chris: There are a few other bands that are pretty good.

Sean: It’s one of those things where you have to realize, with that story, we were doing it for our friend.

Chris: And it just blew up so hard. We thought it was just going to be up on his blog and then it became a Big Deal. And in a sense, it’s kind of funny. But at the same time, there were articles being written about that over a month after it happened.

Sean: And there are still people that bring it up whenever we do an interview and it’s like, look, we stand by what we said 100 percent. I’d say it today. I’d say it to your face. I’d say it to any news outlet. But I think it was one of those things where people don’t realize that it wasn’t meant to be, “Fuck you! You’re a fucking jerk!” It was more like…look man…we love music and we care about music and it sucks that the bands that we love that are putting a lot of time and effort into it. And that’s not to say that whatever band we dissed isn’t…but these bands just aren’t getting the attention that they deserve and when you love something so dearly, that’s your reaction.

And it’s one of those things where I don’t regret what we said. I’ll say it again tomorrow. I don’t regret the people that it hurt — but at the end of the day, that’s the way Chris and I roll. It would be one thing for us to say we’re sorry, but no. Realistically, we love music and we love the bands that we put out. We love the bands that are our friends and yeah, we do have this soapbox to say something and it kind of reverts back to Steve Albini.

He said a lot of shit that pissed people off, but he was just a straight shooter. Everybody that kind of works with Fan Death, in a way, kind of has that mentality. And it’s one of those things where I don’t want to bullshit anybody. I’d rather be honest and be like, look man, I’m not really into your band. I don’t want to be that guy that goes, “Oh yeah, that’s really cool, man” and then tell Chris…

Chris: I feel really fake for patting other people on the back for something that I’m not into.

Sean: And when you’re putting out records you have to have that mentality that “This is better than what’s going on right now. Or just as good.” You have to have that mentality and if you don’t, you’re going to fail. We have seen so many peers that have done record labels that have just failed in our span of 2+ years, which is still a short amount of time. So, I think we have longevity because of the quality of records we put out.

Chris: Hopefully we’ll have longevity!

Sean: Hopefully, yeah. Who knows, this could be the last interview we do.

Chris: Or our next record could sell three copies.

Sean: Or they might upgrade me at NASA.

Chris: Or your minimal-synth thing might take off.

Sean: Yeah, I’m doing this weird minimal power electronic synth thing right now, so I don’t know. But right now, we’re putting out great records. I love it. I love working with Chris. I love working with Tracy. I love making people happy, putting out records and hearing somebody say, “Aw man, this is really awesome. Thanks for doing it.” Or “Aw man, this sucks.” I love it just as much. It’s why we put out records. At the end of the day, Chris and I love music and we’re record collectors.