August 16, 2023 • 45 mins
On this episode are excited to have conversation with Sara Pette and Alex Stillman co-owners of Outta Wax, a pressing plant and lathe cut studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in the spring of 2020 we discuss the ups, downs and reality of starting a record pressing plant. The Outta Wax team are simply put - record nerds - who came together to open a factory whose primary purpose is to uplift and celebrate local and independent artists who kept the record industry alive through the decades - especially within their community.
We enjoyed discussing the other side of the coin with a newer plant’s journey after hearing about United’s long standing place in our industry last month.
Huge thanks to Stefani Sikora, singer, songwriter and performer for the use of her song ‘Good Days Are Coming’ off her new record The Shine. Find more on the album and order the record at www.stefanisikora.com/music
If you’re listening to this in August, don’t forget that we have our ongoing 5 year Anniversary drive and raffle underway and the day that this goes live is August 16th which is our 5th birthday! Please join us in celebrating and donate today, no amount is too small www.womeninvinyl.com/donate
THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS! The ones that make your vinyl needs even more accessible with so many great codes and resources.
Other Record Labels - Who’ve gifted our listeners - you! - a 25% code in their store for the myriad of resources compiled there using the code WIVFRIENDS at checkout! https://www.otherrecordlabels.com/store
Selektor Record Bags - Our new favorite record bag: https://www.theselektor.com/us/
Koeppel Design (pronounced Kep-ul) - Sleek and sophisticated, handmade record collection organization! Get $10 off your first order of $75 using the code WOMENINVINYL at checkout! https://koeppeldesign.com/
Eargasm - High fidelity ear plugs! keep your hearing protected in style! Eargasm has a great deal for you with 10% off your order using, you guessed it, discount code: WOMENINVINYL at checkout. www.eargasm.com/
Glowtronics - Custom slip mats - you already love the WIV branded slipmat, but think, you can make your own! Get 15% off using the code: WOMENINVINYL15 at www.glowtronics-store.com/
Nugen Audio - Innovative, intuitive, award-winning professional audio plugins and software for all your creative music producing and sound design needs! Use code WOMENINVINYL for 20% off at check out: https://nugenaudio.com/womeninvinyl/
Vinyl Revolution Record Show - Attend one of the longest running record shows out there. 55 dealer tables filled with vendors from all over the east coast and tons of rare and collectible vinyl records! Find more at: https://www.instagram.com/vinylrevolutionrecordshow/
Want to be a sponsor? Email us: info@womeninvinyl.com
As always, join the conversation on Instagram or send us a note at: media@womeninvinyl.com
Check out www.womeninvinyl.com for past episodes, the store, job board, and the growing library of resources!
Don’t forget to like, subscribe and give us a review on your favorite podcast delivery method!
You can also contribute to furthering our mission at https://www.patreon.com/womeninvinyl Where you’ll find all of the B-Sides, Deep Cuts and amazing extras, including longer episodes and contribute to the creation of scholarships and educational opportunities to further the demystification and infiltration of more W
We enjoyed discussing the other side of the coin with a newer plant’s journey after hearing about United’s long standing place in our industry last month.
Huge thanks to Stefani Sikora, singer, songwriter and performer for the use of her song ‘Good Days Are Coming’ off her new record The Shine. Find more on the album and order the record at www.stefanisikora.com/music
If you’re listening to this in August, don’t forget that we have our ongoing 5 year Anniversary drive and raffle underway and the day that this goes live is August 16th which is our 5th birthday! Please join us in celebrating and donate today, no amount is too small www.womeninvinyl.com/donate
THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS! The ones that make your vinyl needs even more accessible with so many great codes and resources.
Other Record Labels - Who’ve gifted our listeners - you! - a 25% code in their store for the myriad of resources compiled there using the code WIVFRIENDS at checkout! https://www.otherrecordlabels.com/store
Selektor Record Bags - Our new favorite record bag: https://www.theselektor.com/us/
Koeppel Design (pronounced Kep-ul) - Sleek and sophisticated, handmade record collection organization! Get $10 off your first order of $75 using the code WOMENINVINYL at checkout! https://koeppeldesign.com/
Eargasm - High fidelity ear plugs! keep your hearing protected in style! Eargasm has a great deal for you with 10% off your order using, you guessed it, discount code: WOMENINVINYL at checkout. www.eargasm.com/
Glowtronics - Custom slip mats - you already love the WIV branded slipmat, but think, you can make your own! Get 15% off using the code: WOMENINVINYL15 at www.glowtronics-store.com/
Nugen Audio - Innovative, intuitive, award-winning professional audio plugins and software for all your creative music producing and sound design needs! Use code WOMENINVINYL for 20% off at check out: https://nugenaudio.com/womeninvinyl/
Vinyl Revolution Record Show - Attend one of the longest running record shows out there. 55 dealer tables filled with vendors from all over the east coast and tons of rare and collectible vinyl records! Find more at: https://www.instagram.com/vinylrevolutionrecordshow/
Want to be a sponsor? Email us: info@womeninvinyl.com
As always, join the conversation on Instagram or send us a note at: media@womeninvinyl.com
Check out www.womeninvinyl.com for past episodes, the store, job board, and the growing library of resources!
Don’t forget to like, subscribe and give us a review on your favorite podcast delivery method!
You can also contribute to furthering our mission at https://www.patreon.com/womeninvinyl Where you’ll find all of the B-Sides, Deep Cuts and amazing extras, including longer episodes and contribute to the creation of scholarships and educational opportunities to further the demystification and infiltration of more W
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Welcome to the Women in Vinyl Podcastwith Jen Dugenio, founder of Women in
Vinyl, and contributor Robin Raymond.This podcast facilitates conversations with those working in
the vinyl record industry to educate,demystify, and diversify the vinyl community.
(00:32):
I see the lie at the endof the tunnel, follow the sign to
the edge of the trouble. Feelin love for my sisters, embravence.
(00:58):
He recurs each other, and Ijust keep on bye on the feed and
inside. Days of Coming resume.It's time to tell the walls. I'm
(01:25):
on the just so my soul.Good Days of Coming. Thanks for listening
to episode forty three of the Womenin Vinyl Podcast. You just heard Good
Days Are Coming by songwriter and performerStephanie Socora off her new record The Shine.
(01:45):
Find more on the album and orderthe record at www dot Stephaniesocora dot
com slash music. If you're listeningto this in August, don't forget that
we have our ongoing five year anniversaryDrive and Raffle Under and the day that
this goes live is August sixteenth,which is our fifth birthday. Please join
(02:06):
us in celebrating and donate today.No amount is too small www dot womenivinyl
dot com slash donate. On thisepisode, we're excited to have a conversation
with Sarah Pete and Alex Stillman,co owners of Autowax, a pressing plant
and Laithecut studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded in the spring of twenty twenty.
(02:29):
We discuss the ups, downs,and reality of starting a record pressing
plant. The Autowas team are simplyput record nerds who came together to open
a factory whose primary purpose is touplift and celebrate local and independent artists who
kept the record industry alive through thedecades, especially within their community. We
(02:50):
really enjoyed discussing the other side ofthe coin with a newer plants journey after
hearing about United's long standing place inour industry last month. Enjoy the episode.
Well welcome, Sarah and Alex.We're so glad that you could join
us. It's been a long while. I know it has been a long
while. You're kicking this ball aroundfor a little while. Yes, yes
(03:12):
we have. Yeah, thanks forinterviewing us. Oh hey, thanks,
thanks for being bold and doing whatyou guys do it. How can we
oh, well, we feel likeyou know, once, if we weren't
up and running yet, we werelike like do we even get to be
(03:34):
like are we actually in the industryyet? That kind of thing, like
like we're still faking until we makeit. So we got a mostly uh
mostly warm reception at making Vinyl.We got we had some people be skeptical,
which I totally understand, but we'relike, we have all the stuff,
we have some training, like we'redoing yeah, what else do we
(03:59):
have a choice that? Right?Yeah, exactly exactly. Yeah. Well,
and to back up, why don'tyou tell our listeners who you are
and what you are doing? Alex? Do you want to start? Sure?
I'm Alex Stillman and I was oneof the founders out of Wax record
(04:19):
Pressing Is along with Sarah and herbrother John, and basically joined the project
because I heard a rumor that Sarahwas working on this, and I this
is something that I knew that Ireally wanted to be a part of,
So just just worked out. Iguess worked in a record store for a
(04:45):
long time and saw finally come backand saw how it was hurting some of
the indie labels that we championed.At my record store, and I was
just knew that there was a needin that market for people to press their
records. So that's what I'm motivatedby. Awesome. And my name is
(05:11):
Sarah pet I am co founder ofOut of Wax with Alex and my brother
John as well. And Alex justsaid that. But anyway, I have
been doing well. I'll back upin twenty twenty, I was panicking because
my job at the time was basicallydefunct in the pandemic and it never it
(05:39):
never truly came back. I wasin pet care and so after the pandemic,
well not after, but you knowwhat I mean, like in during
like the last few years after thepandemic hit, it just never really came
back from there. So I wasfreaking out back in twenty twenty, being
like I need money, like Ineed to not like I need to suddenly
(06:01):
not have a job, you knowthat kind of thing. So so I
asked my brother, like, doyou want to start a record pressing business?
And it all went from there.I have figured, you know,
like we we the three of us, know all about the backlog, the
many years backlog, which sounds likeit's clearing up now, but but we
(06:23):
still wanted to get in on itbecause we all love records and we all
want to keep the medium alive.And yeah, we thought. I thought
it might be fun. I knowit's not not always fun. I know
there's a lot of troubleshooting, butI did. I will say I did.
(06:45):
I took a like a boiler,the boiler certification class that you have
to take for you know, tobe able to run a boiler in the
state of Minnesota, and I realizedthat every factory is like that, where
like you're constantly working, the machinesare always working, and you're constantly fighting
against them to like not break downor not like have a part wear out
(07:10):
or something. So understanding that that'sjust factories made me feel a little better,
if that makes any sense. Ohyeah, yeah, that's the truth.
Yeah. How did you decide onrecord pressing though? Where you just
like spin the giant wheel or like, I've got a bunch of things spinned
on my card and it's gonna bethis one. Well, I actually like
(07:33):
was entertaining buying a coffee roaster andgetting into coffee roasting a couple of years
ago with a friend who was aroaster and several very like prominent roastries around
the US, and now he's inGermany. Uh. And it wasn't really
I just liked coffee. It wasn'treally something that I had an experience with,
(07:53):
and I kind of dove deep intoit and ruined coffee for myself because
now I know what good time coffeetastes like. No. No, but
it was something that I liked,but not something that I really truly understood.
But records are something that So whenSarah said that this was another business
(08:16):
that she was trying to start andI was trying to get into starting my
own business, it just made alot more sense because I know I don't
need training on what a good recordlooks and sounds like. So it just
seemed like really natural type of likeproduction to get into. And Sarah,
(08:37):
how did you decide that that wasit? You're like, hey, this
one the well the quite honestly,the fact that there was a backlog for
so many years made us think thatit would be not easy money, but
but you know, it was somethingthat we like. There would be no
(08:58):
short supply of demand. Sorry,that was confusing. There would be no
let up on demand for many years, so thinking that way, we we
sort of decided we would do that. My brother John is a he's a
record collector and I say that,and he's very very serious about it,
(09:20):
and he like, he has hisown website and it shows all these discographies
of things that and things that he'scollected over time. So he's very entrenched
in the collector community. And asfor me, I don't. I don't
collect records as seriously, but I'mstill a collector. I I don't,
(09:41):
you know, I DJ with myrecords, so they don't stay Christine all
the time. Well, we mentionedwhen we started that it had been a
long time coming, and obviously aretrying to open a pressing plant and that
is no easy feat. So maybeyou could tell everybody a little bit of
about how you got to where youare now and some of the road I
(10:03):
guess to where you are currently.Well, let's see, like I said,
it was, we started thinking aboutthis in twenty twenty and in twenty
twenty one, that was when wereally started thinking very seriously about it and
doing as much research as we couldabout how we were going to do this.
(10:24):
And we are not Alex is aperson with a manufacturing background, but
my brother and I are not,so it felt like a lot of cold
calls and people not knowing what wewere trying to do because it's a niche
thing, and you know, contractors, random contractors that you call are like
(10:46):
what, like what actually are youtrying to do? So there's lots of
that. It's been interesting. Wefound that like actually, like blue collar
workers take us more seriously than whitecollar workers, which is like really interesting
to us, you know, butthey've they've seen factories, so that makes
(11:07):
sense. But let's see. Onebig obstacle is that we needed to move
from our original building. So Alex, do you want to take it from
here? Yeah? So even thoughwe had ordered the equipment that we thought
(11:28):
was correct and so far is butyou know, we haven't plugged it in
yet, so who knows, andhad it designed by an engineer that had
designed pressing plants before, we stillneeded to have another mechanical firm or plumber
essentially hook everything up in the spacethat we have. So it was our
(11:52):
system was designed for our space,very roughly, but not down to like
this is where the box is andthis is where these pipes go. And
so when we started trying to workwith a mechanical firm, nobody would work
with us because we had already designedand bought purchased all the equipment ourselves,
(12:15):
so they can't sell us our boiler, they can't sell us our crooling tower,
so it's kind of like showing upto a mechanic with the part you
need replaced, and most of thetime a mechanic would won't do that,
so that was really difficult. Andthen once we finally found somebody, a
master plumber that wanted to work withus and seemed to not just like ghost
(12:37):
us or give us a go awaynumber, we found that the utilities and
just the logistics of building out thebuilding that we were renting for over a
year was just not physically possible withoutjust major investments in a building that we
don't own. So it didn't makeany sense financially for us to stay there,
(12:58):
and we didn't even know that wasgoing to work, so we ended
up just moving as fast as wecould, which wasn't actually that fast at
the end of the day. Ittook like four or five months because we
found essentially a really perfect building,but of course it also has its own
(13:18):
things that we have to figure out, like It had most of the utility
needs that we needed, seemingly,but when the snow melted, they were
different, and we had to geta permit from the city because for production,
because our building was zoned residential eventhough it was plus sixteen thousand square
(13:39):
foot concrete block warehouse, a loadingdock, and no rooms. So we
had to you know, you knowwhat, do the whole thing, bring
it up to Council Chambers, cityPlanning Commission, and the City Council Chambers
public comment presenting for boat. Itpassed with no problem, but it was
(14:03):
a lot of uh, bureaucracy togo through just to get the building.
We did a pretty beast lucky itonly took two months, which was not
crazy for bringing something to city councilvote. So, yeah, have you
guys sad like politicians kind of likein your corner like helping you out,
(14:28):
like like this is good for Minneapolis, this is like this is a good
thing, we want this around,And then there's probably people on the opposite
side being like damio hippies. Yeah, luckily the built. The neighborhood that
we moved that we're moving into isone of the smallest neighborhoods in the city
and one of the most and therearen't very many employers in the neighborhood.
(14:50):
It's mostly residential. Uh. Soyou know, we went to a neighborhood
association meeting, which we did nothave to do for a permit, but
we did that for just because wewanted to introduce ourselves to the community.
And I live only, like Idon't even know, like two hundred feet
(15:11):
away from the building. So it'smy that's like my neighborhood, and I've
lived there for a long time,and our neighborhood is really community driven.
So when I knew that I neededto bring something to city Planning Commission,
and I knew I already knew peoplethat I could talk to you to help
us with that. So yeah,so it's it's important to me to be
(15:35):
in the neighborhood that you know.And then our old building was in Sara's
neighborhood too. It's the same ideaof just opening a business in our community
to create more community. Yeah,didn't you say it was a mascot shop
or something, So yeah, itwas. It was a mascot factory.
(16:00):
Oh my god. It one isso Alix and I have both seen we
both had seen the inside of themascot factory in different like context. But
yeah, it's like definitely crazy asyou can imagine. It's cool. But
yeah, I imagine like mascot headslike stacked on top of like shelves going
up, and yeah, it's prettydreams of fabric everywhere. Yeah, yeah,
(16:26):
it was pretty cozy, like yeah, yeah, it was my neighbor
owned it maybe like fifteen years ago. I don't know what happened to him.
He was quite old at the time, and I know they were like
the largest producers of mascot heads outsideof Japan for a while. So so
it's just really really goofy and justkind of just makes so much sense that
we're also like opening such like kindof like a goose wing nut like goofy
(16:51):
type business in space and in likethis kind of really like creative area of
town. And it's like there's alot of like bit of mask Peter.
One of the only other large businessesin the neighborhood is a puppet and mask
Peter. So it's like it's it'spretty hilario. Yeah, crazy. We
(17:14):
have other hippies. We have otherhippies in our vicinity that like, yeah,
that's fundy, right, like keepit weird and that's awesome, like
that that'll keep, that will endure. That's the I mean I kind of
wish that that was like your firstchoice because then you could have been like
Mascot Records or something that would havebeen amazing. You have an imprint,
(17:47):
good idea, good idea. SoI know that the burning question for everybody.
And like you can totally the podcastdoes not go live to air or
anything, so you can tell meto go pounceand you can tell me that
(18:10):
fuck right off whatever you want.How did the funding work? Because I
know that that's going to be everybody'sbig question. How did you guys get
funding? Did you self funded?Did you find somebody that was like,
yeah, fuck, let's do this, or like yeah, what what's the
what's the story? How is itworking? Because these this ship is not
(18:30):
cheap. Yeah, and we gotsome bad numbers when we started too,
so you know, we budgeted,We gave ourselves a lot of room in
our budget when we started. Butyeah, I mean, especially just the
mechanical design and install is just tentimes what we estimated because we we were
(18:56):
going by like pre pandemic construction costs, so and just and just had no
idea that like an architectural design firmis five hundred dollars an hour. Yeah,
uh so did you wind up gettingtoo We have a new built duplex
(19:18):
system, so two presses in onesystem. Yeah right, yep, they're
new builts. Yeah, and they'rethey're sorry, I didn't hear you quite
well their manual press. Yeah.So we self oh yeah, oh yeah.
(19:41):
So we're self funded and then witha with a with a loan as
well, but we don't have anyoutside of investors outside of me Sarah and
John. Congratulations. Yeah, andthat's for now. I mean, that's
that's a good way to keep itin the family man, and like keep
your vision and yourselves on track forsure. They're hoping that gives us an
(20:06):
advantage because at this point, youknow, we're just trying to break even
and make it work, and wedon't need that return on investment necessarily anytime
soon. Yeah, so hoping thatcan yeah, hoping that's the way to
(20:26):
go. Well, so what doyou offer now, and what do you
hope to offer because you also havea lath to right yes, yeah,
so we I believe you know,Mike Dixon. Pretty sure he's been on
the podcast, right, Oh yeah, we're sending someone to his cad.
(20:51):
Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. So I went to that camp and
that's how we got into Late Wedding. Alex has taken to it much more
than I. I think I gotoverwhelmed by it. I still want to
learn it, but it's it's intimidating, which is fine because you're the press
operators. I'll do that and youcan. So as for what as for
(21:19):
what we're offering, I mean,part of why we got into laithe cutting
outside of camp was was we wantedto provide an opportunity to do short runs.
So you know, now with lathcutting, you can make one of
one thing, as you know,and so that's sort of we because we
(21:41):
want to serve our music scene inthe Twin Cities. A lot of people
who haven't been able to press recordsanytime recently just because of the increasing costs
and increasing time commitment that you haveto put in for you know, to
wait. Those people have been ableto, you know, make really short
(22:03):
runs for their tour and it's notyou know, some people aren't always into
the idea of it. But theyunderstand. It seems like the people we
know understand that it's a long,expensive process to even just get a record
pressed. So we just wanted tosort of bridge that gap, especially while
(22:23):
we're not up yet. Like it'sa nice, nice way to like market
ourselves and and sort of demonstrate thatwe understand how quality works in a number
of you know, mixed media.That's great. I love it, so
do you. I'm just gonna say, do do you intend to do short
(22:45):
run pressing as well? Yes?So I haven't decided yet, but I'm
thinking I'm sure people will laugh ifI say fifty, but I'm like maybe,
I mean, it would be apain, but we probably charge much
more, you know, it's likemore if you do a shorter run.
(23:07):
That's just like how the you know, how the money works. But but
you know, more realistically, it'llprobably be like two hundred and fifty at
most. But you know, weI personally want to do such short runs
as fifty fifty or one hundred becausethat's like I think that would fulfill a
(23:30):
lot of peoples and there's a marketthere for it. So so it's really
just about how annoyed I want toget changing shippers and yeah, like just
like do doing all the prep work? Like how annoying? Am I willing
to make this job for myself?You know? Yeah a seconds to do
(23:52):
fifty and be like okay, andI'll all spend thirty minutes changing stampers.
Great well, and we have themanual new builds, so we're hoping and
we have creative backgrounds, so we'rehoping that we can you know, come
up with some cool designs. Andwe have multiple extruders and so if we're
(24:15):
doing a small run and it's superspecialty color situation, that's kind of what
really, Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I'd rather have a manual
for us all day every day thanhave an auto like yeah, like flex
flex your ability, you know whatI mean, like make it special,
like put your stamp on it.That's exactly. You know. That's one
(24:37):
of the reasons that we love Heathso much too, Like Heath has completely
changed the medium as we know itfor everybody. It's amazing following along at
home that's wax Age records. Ifyou don't know by now, why are
(25:00):
you here? Is We're so stokedto do color vinyl and just all the
patterns like one obstacle that I foundreally interesting was just how fast you run
out of PBC. Oh. I'mlike, okay, we have to be
really good about about like using rpsand stuff like that to to make sure
(25:26):
we don't run out. And Iassume I assume Jen you could speak to
like needing to do that for likeplanning out jobs and that kind of thing.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah,knowing how much you have to order
for a job and then knowing likefactoring in your waist for that as well,
you know, to be able toaccount for what you need to throw
out during QC and things like that. So yeah, yeah, i'd love
(25:52):
to I'd love to pick both ofy'all's brains when you're not interviewing us.
But anyway, Alex, as afellow Lathe cutter, where are you kind
of tapping out at? Are yourunning like? Are you doing like mostly
sevens? Are you doing like smallerruns like fifteens, twenties, twenty fives,
(26:14):
fifties? Are you doing one hundredruns? What are you doing?
Yeah? I think we kind ofmax out at fifty. I think once
we get fifty as something, there'smore and more problems and it's hard to
make that to break even, becauseeven if you had a great day today
cutting tomorrow, you come back andyou're like, why is this not touching
(26:37):
even touching the record when I putthe stylist down? What the heck?
Yeah? So yeah, and we'redoing a really we're doing a ten inch
order right now of fifty. Andit's just way it's that's the limit that
I don't think it's once you getinto ten inches, it's it gets kind
(26:59):
of rough even so it sounds fine. That makes us really good, And
I don't know, so that's kindof that's my limit. They wanted seventy
five. I don't think we're gonnaget from seventy five fifty. Are you
a producer, engineer or broadcaster?Do you want to be either way?
(27:23):
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(27:45):
next NuGen Audio purchase using code Womenin Vinyl. Go to nugenaudio dot com
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your podcasts have much more of aclue about the processes involved. But like,
(28:08):
you know, like if if you'rejust listening to this podcast for the
first time, please know that noneof it is easy. Yeah, well,
that's kind of a good segue intoyou know, the next question,
which was, like, what advicewould you give to someone that's trying to
open a pressing plant now? BecauseI think we heard a lot at Making
(28:29):
Vinyl about the oversaturation of the marketand like a continued message of like maybe
stop opening pressing plants, and obviouslyyou all are in the middle of it.
What would you say to someone thatwants to open one now? I
would say I wouldn't say just don't, because that's what everyone else said,
(28:55):
but the I would say, like, make sure or make one sure you
want to get into this, becauseeverybody deals with these like problems that are
just like the most bonkers problems you'veever heard, So like make sure you're
an innovative person who can handle thestress of something breaking or or something going
(29:21):
wrong, because if if that's notyou, then maybe this job isn't for
you. So I think that's whatI would say. What about you,
Alex uh Yeah, and yeah,if you're thinking about going building your own
plant, make sure you know exactlywho your clients are going to be.
(29:44):
And if you're just like if youdon't know specific labels or people that need
your service and you just want toget in on it because you think it's
cool on a tip and you makeother plastic stuff or whatever, I think
it's to be, it's going tobe difficult for you to to get clients.
So just make sure you know exactlywho you're trying to serve. I
(30:08):
think that's good advice. I mean, I feel like when everything's going wrong
and everything's so frustrated at the endof the day, Like if you're not
a vinyl head and you don't likelove records, you could check out really
easily. Like I think we alljust like really love them to be able
to keep persevering some days. Ilike, once you have, like when
(30:34):
you have a certain population that you'retrying to serve or like a relationship with
that community, Like you guys arelike we want to serve the Twin Cities
music community. I'm like, Iwant to move back to Calgary and like
foster the community that grew me asa musician too. Like, once you
have that as an extra motivator,it's a little bit easier too write where
(30:56):
you're like, got to solve thisproblem, needs these records because he's going
on tour, and we really loveJim and he's really rad, you know
what I mean, like and weall. That's one of the other things
that I think is so great abouthaving these little niche pockets of people hyper
specializing and having a vision and fullcontrol of what they're doing, is because
(31:17):
you can do that, and youcan execute that, and you can own
it all and you can be alittle bit more fueled by it, right,
but you don't have to worry abouta major swooping in and being like,
oh, hey, guys, wellwe need you to do ten thousand
of this okay, and you're like, yeah, you know what, Jim's
records up next, So sorry,we're doing We love Jim, Yeah,
(31:40):
Jim, That's that's exactly I mean. That was another that was another reason
for getting into this. We hadsome inkling prior to prior to doing any
of our own deeper research. Thatmajor like part of the reason people or
independent artists or labels can't you know, there's a logjam for them, is
(32:04):
because majors will swoop in. Soknowing that, we thought we could sort
of do the opposite of that orjust not just choose not to work with
majors too. I mean, we'renot up and running yet, Like we
don't know what's going to look like. We haven't said no never any majors
ever, but our capacity just isn'tthat anyway, So it feels like it
would be a bad match. Sowe're not too worried about that at all,
(32:29):
which is great. And yeah,Robin, like you said, it's
like we have all these people wealready know who we want to do records,
and we know have been sort ofshafted by the industry for like,
you know, ten years or so. We you know, we want to
serve those people. Yeah. Absolutely, And there's a lot of those labels
here in Minneapolis that people don't evenknow, like maybe are from here or
(32:54):
realize that they make like twenty tofifty thousand records a year, but they
still when they try to go totheir old standby presses that they've been using
for twenty five years, they getthere, they're no longer prioritized, so
we don't really have to look veryfar for clients. Well, I mean,
(33:16):
what else is there to do inMidia Afterlis? Right? I think
the way you're approaching it is supersmart, and it's why I think plants
your size that are opening up withthat sort of mentality will survive through all
of this. Yeah. I thinkthat's the way that the industry kind of
(33:37):
needs to pivot to be honest,Like, it's you serve your little constituency
or your community. You have thoseone to one relationships with bands. People
that are steeped in those industries aregoing to be the ones that are going
to be successful because they have astake in it, you know what I
mean. Like, you know,in five years, when you guys are
(33:59):
you have like three presses and you'rekilling it, You're like, oh,
hey, like let's throw a festivalor whatever, you know what I mean.
So that you can put people onstages, You're giving them numerous ways
to make money. It's not justyou know, it's not just we're making
classics for you. It's we're creatingopportunities for you to go make money in
other markets because now you have stuffto sell or whatever, and now we
(34:22):
want to bring other bands in.Maybe you start a label. You do
have mascot as the imprint, youknow, like the the options when you
are the architects of your own thingare infinite. It was interesting entering the
industry and noticing that there's a lotof people at odds with each other.
(34:45):
And I know that's sort of theolder generation and the younger generations are starting
to be like, we can't dothis without each other, so we should
probably get together. But yeah,it's like it's been it's been interesting to
see that, and I'm I'm gladthat it's pivoting towards the more like like,
(35:06):
let's do this together model. I'mexcited to see what that looks like
in the next however many decades we'rein this business. So but I am
so glad. So when I wasin the Southeast pressing, that's when I
found out about women in vinyl.It was your first I don't think it
(35:29):
was your first conference, but itwas or not conference but like panel of
people, but it was one ofyour first I think. But this was
the one in twenty twenty one,and I just remember feeling really inspired by
the people who spoke among which youknow you two were, But I remember
Karen from gold Rush, I rememberAmanda from Long Island. Yeah, I'm
(35:54):
like, too much stuff for meto list from it a Manda from One
Island. So yeah, it justit's pretty inspiring to be welcomed into this
part of the community. And youknow, I don't think I don't think
(36:17):
men in the in the vinyl musicindustry, I don't think they have something
that's the same. You know,they don't have like men in vinyl because
that's just what it was. Althoughsome of them want that right of course,
so I guess they're free to dothat if they want. But that
(36:43):
said, I I'm just like reallygrateful for for you too, and for
your organization, because we do feellike welcomed and embraced. Yeah, it's
nice to be told that we're we'redoing it even when we haven't the press
to record ourselves yet. You knowthat kind of thing, So good you'll
get there. So I'm sure youguys all have sustainability on your brain while
(37:09):
you're making a new plant and lookingat things and plastic and all the things
that we do. Do you thinkthat where we are with the environment and
within the scope and the business asit is. Do you think that those
two things are sustainable independent of eachother and together. Do you think we
can keep going at the rate thatwe're going, making records all the time
(37:34):
with the amount of PVC that wehave, right, I guess I am
you know. I was one reasonI was reluctant to get into this was
the plastic, the plastic situation.I know of one company that is trying
to trying to make a more sustainableproduct. I guess I don't know that
(38:00):
much about it. You're you mightknow more than I do. But we
are absolutely into exploring other options.We obviously have to start with PVC,
which is really unfortunate, but weare also committed to sustainability in terms of
perhaps carbon offsets in the near future. That's yeah. We we don't want
(38:25):
to be garbage people to the planet, so so we'll recycle the PBC we
can and then I'm sure there's there'speople out there who are still like,
no, regrund. I'm sure I'msure you hear about it. Yeah,
and they can pay for that.Yes, Yeah, you have brand new
(38:45):
PBC. Here's your markup, here'syour audio file, tax boom oh.
We also make a bunch of polycarbonatetrash with our Lathe and Bossed records,
which I have been hoarding and tryingto come up with the creative things to
use them for, which we've onlyreally come up with them making a giant
(39:09):
chandelier for are else. I knowthat we could talk forever, but we
are coming up on our time,so I want to make sure we leave
enough for you all to answer ourdifficult question, which is, if you
could make a seven inch, whichyou can with any song of your choosing
(39:35):
from any time, any artists onthe A side and any on the B
side, what would it be?And each one of you has to choose
a side because you can't make tworecords, you can only make one.
You have to choose. You reallynarrowed it down difficulty. This is tough,
and I also anticipated a question likeit. I'm like I should like
(39:58):
a record section, like really tryingto make it a thing, like a
heart, like it's a it's thing. It's the question. Oh, I
love it. I'm just gonna goout there and say, uh, there's
I'm gonna be really annoying and alive track on a R B side Alex
(40:21):
and I can flip a coin.We So there's a song that's just called
I'm all Right that there's many I'mall rights or all rights or there's just
so many that word is used inrock and roll all the time. So,
but it's a live track on hisBeach album, which was one I
think it was the first live recordingever that actually was successful of a full
(40:46):
band and like offsite off, likeremote and it's from nineteen sixty five,
I think. So Yeah, I'mall Right by Bob Didley live, love
it out, you're up with theclassic B side, Yes, instrumental B
(41:07):
side that when gold in the summerof sixty eight, The Horse by Cliff
Nobles. All right, but we'rerecord nerds. I love how decisive it
was. Yeah, that was great. I put put a put a giant
(41:29):
white Castle burger on top of thatone, because that's what we like for
Minneapolis. Uh. I mean,I've never had white Castle until I was
in Minneapolis, and it was everythingthat I ever imagined and want it.
It's awesome. I was sad thatI missed you guys at Mickey Vinyl.
(41:50):
I hope that I will have thechance an opportunity to come out there and
we can all hang and yeah,yeah anytime. Yeah, especially when you
have your big grand opening. We'llcome there with tiny scissors, like tiny
scissors, like if you know,with like the tiny hands that like just
(42:12):
fit on, then we'll just tinyscissors that'll work on that too. That'd
be great, Okay, said I'man a ball today. Well, thank
you all so much. I reallyappreciate it and I'm so glad we were
able to make it happen. Andyeah, utilize Robin and I anytime if
(42:34):
we, you know, want tohave just another hangout at some point about
other stuff. More than happy too, So you guys sounds great. I'm
happy to cheerlead and that's awesome.Remind you how awesome you are. Thank
you so much. You guys arefucking awesome. One last thing I loved
and Robin, it's sad you weren'tthere, but I was so glad to
(42:57):
go to the women in vital METIup. Yeah, I don't know.
We had a lot of fun inmet people and like I lawn bowld.
All right, ladies, thank youso much, Thank you again. Thanks
still talk sim O, Thank youguys. Bye. Don't forget that we
(43:17):
have our ongoing five year anniversary driveand Raffle. It's underway now and the
day that this goes live is Augustsixteenth, which is our fifth birthday.
Please join us in celebrating and donatetoday. No amount is too small.
Www dot womenivinyl dot com slash donate. Thanks for joining us on the Women
in Vinyl podcast. You can joinour ever growing list of sponsors other record
(43:45):
labels Selector, Copple Design, Eargasm, Groove Washer, Glowtronics, New Gen
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As always, you can join ourconversation on Instagram or send us a
note at media at Women Invinyl dotcom, clock us, send us info
(44:07):
if you have a question, Yo, we got the answer or we'll find
it. We won't let you,and check out Women in Vinyl dot com
for past episodes, the store,the job board, and the library of
resources. Don't forget to like andsubscribe and give us a review on your
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(44:30):
dot com slash Women in Vinyl.Hey guess what this episode forty five minutes
You know there was more. Youwant more, you get more. Go
to patreon dot com and you canget more and you'll find all the b
sides, the deep cuts, andthe amazing extras, including longer episodes,
and contribute to the creation of scholarshipsand educational opportunities to further the demistification.
(44:54):
The infiltration of more women and nonbinary identifying humans into the Vinyl making space,
decrease in those turnaround times every week. Yeah, we love your records.
We want you to love them too, Women Invinyl dot Com. This
episode has been brought to you byWomen in Vinyl and Red Spade Records.
(45:15):
Thank you for listening. Please rememberto subscribe and you can always contact us
directly by visiting www dot Women inVinyl dot com
Welcome to the Women in Vinyl Podcastwith Jen Dugenio, founder of Women in
Vinyl, and contributor Robin Raymond.This podcast facilitates conversations with those working in
the vinyl record industry to educate,demystify, and diversify the vinyl community.
(00:32):
I see the lie at the endof the tunnel, follow the sign to
the edge of the trouble. Feelin love for my sisters, embravence.
(00:58):
He recurs each other, and Ijust keep on bye on the feed and
inside. Days of Coming resume.It's time to tell the walls. I'm
(01:25):
on the just so my soul.Good Days of Coming. Thanks for listening
to episode forty three of the Womenin Vinyl Podcast. You just heard Good
Days Are Coming by songwriter and performerStephanie Socora off her new record The Shine.
(01:45):
Find more on the album and orderthe record at www dot Stephaniesocora dot
com slash music. If you're listeningto this in August, don't forget that
we have our ongoing five year anniversaryDrive and Raffle Under and the day that
this goes live is August sixteenth,which is our fifth birthday. Please join
(02:06):
us in celebrating and donate today.No amount is too small www dot womenivinyl
dot com slash donate. On thisepisode, we're excited to have a conversation
with Sarah Pete and Alex Stillman,co owners of Autowax, a pressing plant
and Laithecut studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded in the spring of twenty twenty.
(02:29):
We discuss the ups, downs,and reality of starting a record pressing
plant. The Autowas team are simplyput record nerds who came together to open
a factory whose primary purpose is touplift and celebrate local and independent artists who
kept the record industry alive through thedecades, especially within their community. We
(02:50):
really enjoyed discussing the other side ofthe coin with a newer plants journey after
hearing about United's long standing place inour industry last month. Enjoy the episode.
Well welcome, Sarah and Alex.We're so glad that you could join
us. It's been a long while. I know it has been a long
while. You're kicking this ball aroundfor a little while. Yes, yes
(03:12):
we have. Yeah, thanks forinterviewing us. Oh hey, thanks,
thanks for being bold and doing whatyou guys do it. How can we
oh, well, we feel likeyou know, once, if we weren't
up and running yet, we werelike like do we even get to be
(03:34):
like are we actually in the industryyet? That kind of thing, like
like we're still faking until we makeit. So we got a mostly uh
mostly warm reception at making Vinyl.We got we had some people be skeptical,
which I totally understand, but we'relike, we have all the stuff,
we have some training, like we'redoing yeah, what else do we
(03:59):
have a choice that? Right?Yeah, exactly exactly. Yeah. Well,
and to back up, why don'tyou tell our listeners who you are
and what you are doing? Alex? Do you want to start? Sure?
I'm Alex Stillman and I was oneof the founders out of Wax record
(04:19):
Pressing Is along with Sarah and herbrother John, and basically joined the project
because I heard a rumor that Sarahwas working on this, and I this
is something that I knew that Ireally wanted to be a part of,
So just just worked out. Iguess worked in a record store for a
(04:45):
long time and saw finally come backand saw how it was hurting some of
the indie labels that we championed.At my record store, and I was
just knew that there was a needin that market for people to press their
records. So that's what I'm motivatedby. Awesome. And my name is
(05:11):
Sarah pet I am co founder ofOut of Wax with Alex and my brother
John as well. And Alex justsaid that. But anyway, I have
been doing well. I'll back upin twenty twenty, I was panicking because
my job at the time was basicallydefunct in the pandemic and it never it
(05:39):
never truly came back. I wasin pet care and so after the pandemic,
well not after, but you knowwhat I mean, like in during
like the last few years after thepandemic hit, it just never really came
back from there. So I wasfreaking out back in twenty twenty, being
like I need money, like Ineed to not like I need to suddenly
(06:01):
not have a job, you knowthat kind of thing. So so I
asked my brother, like, doyou want to start a record pressing business?
And it all went from there.I have figured, you know,
like we we the three of us, know all about the backlog, the
many years backlog, which sounds likeit's clearing up now, but but we
(06:23):
still wanted to get in on itbecause we all love records and we all
want to keep the medium alive.And yeah, we thought. I thought
it might be fun. I knowit's not not always fun. I know
there's a lot of troubleshooting, butI did. I will say I did.
(06:45):
I took a like a boiler,the boiler certification class that you have
to take for you know, tobe able to run a boiler in the
state of Minnesota, and I realizedthat every factory is like that, where
like you're constantly working, the machinesare always working, and you're constantly fighting
against them to like not break downor not like have a part wear out
(07:10):
or something. So understanding that that'sjust factories made me feel a little better,
if that makes any sense. Ohyeah, yeah, that's the truth.
Yeah. How did you decide onrecord pressing though? Where you just
like spin the giant wheel or like, I've got a bunch of things spinned
on my card and it's gonna bethis one. Well, I actually like
(07:33):
was entertaining buying a coffee roaster andgetting into coffee roasting a couple of years
ago with a friend who was aroaster and several very like prominent roastries around
the US, and now he's inGermany. Uh. And it wasn't really
I just liked coffee. It wasn'treally something that I had an experience with,
(07:53):
and I kind of dove deep intoit and ruined coffee for myself because
now I know what good time coffeetastes like. No. No, but
it was something that I liked,but not something that I really truly understood.
But records are something that So whenSarah said that this was another business
(08:16):
that she was trying to start andI was trying to get into starting my
own business, it just made alot more sense because I know I don't
need training on what a good recordlooks and sounds like. So it just
seemed like really natural type of likeproduction to get into. And Sarah,
(08:37):
how did you decide that that wasit? You're like, hey, this
one the well the quite honestly,the fact that there was a backlog for
so many years made us think thatit would be not easy money, but
but you know, it was somethingthat we like. There would be no
(08:58):
short supply of demand. Sorry,that was confusing. There would be no
let up on demand for many years, so thinking that way, we we
sort of decided we would do that. My brother John is a he's a
record collector and I say that,and he's very very serious about it,
(09:20):
and he like, he has hisown website and it shows all these discographies
of things that and things that he'scollected over time. So he's very entrenched
in the collector community. And asfor me, I don't. I don't
collect records as seriously, but I'mstill a collector. I I don't,
(09:41):
you know, I DJ with myrecords, so they don't stay Christine all
the time. Well, we mentionedwhen we started that it had been a
long time coming, and obviously aretrying to open a pressing plant and that
is no easy feat. So maybeyou could tell everybody a little bit of
about how you got to where youare now and some of the road I
(10:03):
guess to where you are currently.Well, let's see, like I said,
it was, we started thinking aboutthis in twenty twenty and in twenty
twenty one, that was when wereally started thinking very seriously about it and
doing as much research as we couldabout how we were going to do this.
(10:24):
And we are not Alex is aperson with a manufacturing background, but
my brother and I are not,so it felt like a lot of cold
calls and people not knowing what wewere trying to do because it's a niche
thing, and you know, contractors, random contractors that you call are like
(10:46):
what, like what actually are youtrying to do? So there's lots of
that. It's been interesting. Wefound that like actually, like blue collar
workers take us more seriously than whitecollar workers, which is like really interesting
to us, you know, butthey've they've seen factories, so that makes
(11:07):
sense. But let's see. Onebig obstacle is that we needed to move
from our original building. So Alex, do you want to take it from
here? Yeah? So even thoughwe had ordered the equipment that we thought
(11:28):
was correct and so far is butyou know, we haven't plugged it in
yet, so who knows, andhad it designed by an engineer that had
designed pressing plants before, we stillneeded to have another mechanical firm or plumber
essentially hook everything up in the spacethat we have. So it was our
(11:52):
system was designed for our space,very roughly, but not down to like
this is where the box is andthis is where these pipes go. And
so when we started trying to workwith a mechanical firm, nobody would work
with us because we had already designedand bought purchased all the equipment ourselves,
(12:15):
so they can't sell us our boiler, they can't sell us our crooling tower,
so it's kind of like showing upto a mechanic with the part you
need replaced, and most of thetime a mechanic would won't do that,
so that was really difficult. Andthen once we finally found somebody, a
master plumber that wanted to work withus and seemed to not just like ghost
(12:37):
us or give us a go awaynumber, we found that the utilities and
just the logistics of building out thebuilding that we were renting for over a
year was just not physically possible withoutjust major investments in a building that we
don't own. So it didn't makeany sense financially for us to stay there,
(12:58):
and we didn't even know that wasgoing to work, so we ended
up just moving as fast as wecould, which wasn't actually that fast at
the end of the day. Ittook like four or five months because we
found essentially a really perfect building,but of course it also has its own
(13:18):
things that we have to figure out, like It had most of the utility
needs that we needed, seemingly,but when the snow melted, they were
different, and we had to geta permit from the city because for production,
because our building was zoned residential eventhough it was plus sixteen thousand square
(13:39):
foot concrete block warehouse, a loadingdock, and no rooms. So we
had to you know, you knowwhat, do the whole thing, bring
it up to Council Chambers, cityPlanning Commission, and the City Council Chambers
public comment presenting for boat. Itpassed with no problem, but it was
(14:03):
a lot of uh, bureaucracy togo through just to get the building.
We did a pretty beast lucky itonly took two months, which was not
crazy for bringing something to city councilvote. So, yeah, have you
guys sad like politicians kind of likein your corner like helping you out,
(14:28):
like like this is good for Minneapolis, this is like this is a good
thing, we want this around,And then there's probably people on the opposite
side being like damio hippies. Yeah, luckily the built. The neighborhood that
we moved that we're moving into isone of the smallest neighborhoods in the city
and one of the most and therearen't very many employers in the neighborhood.
(14:50):
It's mostly residential. Uh. Soyou know, we went to a neighborhood
association meeting, which we did nothave to do for a permit, but
we did that for just because wewanted to introduce ourselves to the community.
And I live only, like Idon't even know, like two hundred feet
(15:11):
away from the building. So it'smy that's like my neighborhood, and I've
lived there for a long time,and our neighborhood is really community driven.
So when I knew that I neededto bring something to city Planning Commission,
and I knew I already knew peoplethat I could talk to you to help
us with that. So yeah,so it's it's important to me to be
(15:35):
in the neighborhood that you know.And then our old building was in Sara's
neighborhood too. It's the same ideaof just opening a business in our community
to create more community. Yeah,didn't you say it was a mascot shop
or something, So yeah, itwas. It was a mascot factory.
(16:00):
Oh my god. It one isso Alix and I have both seen we
both had seen the inside of themascot factory in different like context. But
yeah, it's like definitely crazy asyou can imagine. It's cool. But
yeah, I imagine like mascot headslike stacked on top of like shelves going
up, and yeah, it's prettydreams of fabric everywhere. Yeah, yeah,
(16:26):
it was pretty cozy, like yeah, yeah, it was my neighbor
owned it maybe like fifteen years ago. I don't know what happened to him.
He was quite old at the time, and I know they were like
the largest producers of mascot heads outsideof Japan for a while. So so
it's just really really goofy and justkind of just makes so much sense that
we're also like opening such like kindof like a goose wing nut like goofy
(16:51):
type business in space and in likethis kind of really like creative area of
town. And it's like there's alot of like bit of mask Peter.
One of the only other large businessesin the neighborhood is a puppet and mask
Peter. So it's like it's it'spretty hilario. Yeah, crazy. We
(17:14):
have other hippies. We have otherhippies in our vicinity that like, yeah,
that's fundy, right, like keepit weird and that's awesome, like
that that'll keep, that will endure. That's the I mean I kind of
wish that that was like your firstchoice because then you could have been like
Mascot Records or something that would havebeen amazing. You have an imprint,
(17:47):
good idea, good idea. SoI know that the burning question for everybody.
And like you can totally the podcastdoes not go live to air or
anything, so you can tell meto go pounceand you can tell me that
(18:10):
fuck right off whatever you want.How did the funding work? Because I
know that that's going to be everybody'sbig question. How did you guys get
funding? Did you self funded?Did you find somebody that was like,
yeah, fuck, let's do this, or like yeah, what what's the
what's the story? How is itworking? Because these this ship is not
(18:30):
cheap. Yeah, and we gotsome bad numbers when we started too,
so you know, we budgeted,We gave ourselves a lot of room in
our budget when we started. Butyeah, I mean, especially just the
mechanical design and install is just tentimes what we estimated because we we were
(18:56):
going by like pre pandemic construction costs, so and just and just had no
idea that like an architectural design firmis five hundred dollars an hour. Yeah,
uh so did you wind up gettingtoo We have a new built duplex
(19:18):
system, so two presses in onesystem. Yeah right, yep, they're
new builts. Yeah, and they'rethey're sorry, I didn't hear you quite
well their manual press. Yeah.So we self oh yeah, oh yeah.
(19:41):
So we're self funded and then witha with a with a loan as
well, but we don't have anyoutside of investors outside of me Sarah and
John. Congratulations. Yeah, andthat's for now. I mean, that's
that's a good way to keep itin the family man, and like keep
your vision and yourselves on track forsure. They're hoping that gives us an
(20:06):
advantage because at this point, youknow, we're just trying to break even
and make it work, and wedon't need that return on investment necessarily anytime
soon. Yeah, so hoping thatcan yeah, hoping that's the way to
(20:26):
go. Well, so what doyou offer now, and what do you
hope to offer because you also havea lath to right yes, yeah,
so we I believe you know,Mike Dixon. Pretty sure he's been on
the podcast, right, Oh yeah, we're sending someone to his cad.
(20:51):
Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. So I went to that camp and
that's how we got into Late Wedding. Alex has taken to it much more
than I. I think I gotoverwhelmed by it. I still want to
learn it, but it's it's intimidating, which is fine because you're the press
operators. I'll do that and youcan. So as for what as for
(21:19):
what we're offering, I mean,part of why we got into laithe cutting
outside of camp was was we wantedto provide an opportunity to do short runs.
So you know, now with lathcutting, you can make one of
one thing, as you know,and so that's sort of we because we
(21:41):
want to serve our music scene inthe Twin Cities. A lot of people
who haven't been able to press recordsanytime recently just because of the increasing costs
and increasing time commitment that you haveto put in for you know, to
wait. Those people have been ableto, you know, make really short
(22:03):
runs for their tour and it's notyou know, some people aren't always into
the idea of it. But theyunderstand. It seems like the people we
know understand that it's a long,expensive process to even just get a record
pressed. So we just wanted tosort of bridge that gap, especially while
(22:23):
we're not up yet. Like it'sa nice, nice way to like market
ourselves and and sort of demonstrate thatwe understand how quality works in a number
of you know, mixed media.That's great. I love it, so
do you. I'm just gonna say, do do you intend to do short
(22:45):
run pressing as well? Yes?So I haven't decided yet, but I'm
thinking I'm sure people will laugh ifI say fifty, but I'm like maybe,
I mean, it would be apain, but we probably charge much
more, you know, it's likemore if you do a shorter run.
(23:07):
That's just like how the you know, how the money works. But but
you know, more realistically, it'llprobably be like two hundred and fifty at
most. But you know, weI personally want to do such short runs
as fifty fifty or one hundred becausethat's like I think that would fulfill a
(23:30):
lot of peoples and there's a marketthere for it. So so it's really
just about how annoyed I want toget changing shippers and yeah, like just
like do doing all the prep work? Like how annoying? Am I willing
to make this job for myself?You know? Yeah a seconds to do
(23:52):
fifty and be like okay, andI'll all spend thirty minutes changing stampers.
Great well, and we have themanual new builds, so we're hoping and
we have creative backgrounds, so we'rehoping that we can you know, come
up with some cool designs. Andwe have multiple extruders and so if we're
(24:15):
doing a small run and it's superspecialty color situation, that's kind of what
really, Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I'd rather have a manual
for us all day every day thanhave an auto like yeah, like flex
flex your ability, you know whatI mean, like make it special,
like put your stamp on it.That's exactly. You know. That's one
(24:37):
of the reasons that we love Heathso much too, Like Heath has completely
changed the medium as we know itfor everybody. It's amazing following along at
home that's wax Age records. Ifyou don't know by now, why are
(25:00):
you here? Is We're so stokedto do color vinyl and just all the
patterns like one obstacle that I foundreally interesting was just how fast you run
out of PBC. Oh. I'mlike, okay, we have to be
really good about about like using rpsand stuff like that to to make sure
(25:26):
we don't run out. And Iassume I assume Jen you could speak to
like needing to do that for likeplanning out jobs and that kind of thing.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah,knowing how much you have to order
for a job and then knowing likefactoring in your waist for that as well,
you know, to be able toaccount for what you need to throw
out during QC and things like that. So yeah, yeah, i'd love
(25:52):
to I'd love to pick both ofy'all's brains when you're not interviewing us.
But anyway, Alex, as afellow Lathe cutter, where are you kind
of tapping out at? Are yourunning like? Are you doing like mostly
sevens? Are you doing like smallerruns like fifteens, twenties, twenty fives,
(26:14):
fifties? Are you doing one hundredruns? What are you doing?
Yeah? I think we kind ofmax out at fifty. I think once
we get fifty as something, there'smore and more problems and it's hard to
make that to break even, becauseeven if you had a great day today
cutting tomorrow, you come back andyou're like, why is this not touching
(26:37):
even touching the record when I putthe stylist down? What the heck?
Yeah? So yeah, and we'redoing a really we're doing a ten inch
order right now of fifty. Andit's just way it's that's the limit that
I don't think it's once you getinto ten inches, it's it gets kind
(26:59):
of rough even so it sounds fine. That makes us really good, And
I don't know, so that's kindof that's my limit. They wanted seventy
five. I don't think we're gonnaget from seventy five fifty. Are you
a producer, engineer or broadcaster?Do you want to be either way?
(27:23):
NuGen Audio is for you. Nugenecreates innovative, intuitive, professional audio tools
for a high end music producers,post production engineers, and broadcasters. Their
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As a Women in Vinyl podcast listener, you get twenty percent off your
(27:45):
next NuGen Audio purchase using code Womenin Vinyl. Go to nugenaudio dot com
slash Women in VITYL and now tothe episode. I'm sure people who listening
your podcasts have much more of aclue about the processes involved. But like,
(28:08):
you know, like if if you'rejust listening to this podcast for the
first time, please know that noneof it is easy. Yeah, well,
that's kind of a good segue intoyou know, the next question,
which was, like, what advicewould you give to someone that's trying to
open a pressing plant now? BecauseI think we heard a lot at Making
(28:29):
Vinyl about the oversaturation of the marketand like a continued message of like maybe
stop opening pressing plants, and obviouslyyou all are in the middle of it.
What would you say to someone thatwants to open one now? I
would say I wouldn't say just don't, because that's what everyone else said,
(28:55):
but the I would say, like, make sure or make one sure you
want to get into this, becauseeverybody deals with these like problems that are
just like the most bonkers problems you'veever heard, So like make sure you're
an innovative person who can handle thestress of something breaking or or something going
(29:21):
wrong, because if if that's notyou, then maybe this job isn't for
you. So I think that's whatI would say. What about you,
Alex uh Yeah, and yeah,if you're thinking about going building your own
plant, make sure you know exactlywho your clients are going to be.
(29:44):
And if you're just like if youdon't know specific labels or people that need
your service and you just want toget in on it because you think it's
cool on a tip and you makeother plastic stuff or whatever, I think
it's to be, it's going tobe difficult for you to to get clients.
So just make sure you know exactlywho you're trying to serve. I
(30:08):
think that's good advice. I mean, I feel like when everything's going wrong
and everything's so frustrated at the endof the day, Like if you're not
a vinyl head and you don't likelove records, you could check out really
easily. Like I think we alljust like really love them to be able
to keep persevering some days. Ilike, once you have, like when
(30:34):
you have a certain population that you'retrying to serve or like a relationship with
that community, Like you guys arelike we want to serve the Twin Cities
music community. I'm like, Iwant to move back to Calgary and like
foster the community that grew me asa musician too. Like, once you
have that as an extra motivator,it's a little bit easier too write where
(30:56):
you're like, got to solve thisproblem, needs these records because he's going
on tour, and we really loveJim and he's really rad, you know
what I mean, like and weall. That's one of the other things
that I think is so great abouthaving these little niche pockets of people hyper
specializing and having a vision and fullcontrol of what they're doing, is because
(31:17):
you can do that, and youcan execute that, and you can own
it all and you can be alittle bit more fueled by it, right,
but you don't have to worry abouta major swooping in and being like,
oh, hey, guys, wellwe need you to do ten thousand
of this okay, and you're like, yeah, you know what, Jim's
records up next, So sorry,we're doing We love Jim, Yeah,
(31:40):
Jim, That's that's exactly I mean. That was another that was another reason
for getting into this. We hadsome inkling prior to prior to doing any
of our own deeper research. Thatmajor like part of the reason people or
independent artists or labels can't you know, there's a logjam for them, is
(32:04):
because majors will swoop in. Soknowing that, we thought we could sort
of do the opposite of that orjust not just choose not to work with
majors too. I mean, we'renot up and running yet, Like we
don't know what's going to look like. We haven't said no never any majors
ever, but our capacity just isn'tthat anyway, So it feels like it
would be a bad match. Sowe're not too worried about that at all,
(32:29):
which is great. And yeah,Robin, like you said, it's
like we have all these people wealready know who we want to do records,
and we know have been sort ofshafted by the industry for like,
you know, ten years or so. We you know, we want to
serve those people. Yeah. Absolutely, And there's a lot of those labels
here in Minneapolis that people don't evenknow, like maybe are from here or
(32:54):
realize that they make like twenty tofifty thousand records a year, but they
still when they try to go totheir old standby presses that they've been using
for twenty five years, they getthere, they're no longer prioritized, so
we don't really have to look veryfar for clients. Well, I mean,
(33:16):
what else is there to do inMidia Afterlis? Right? I think
the way you're approaching it is supersmart, and it's why I think plants
your size that are opening up withthat sort of mentality will survive through all
of this. Yeah. I thinkthat's the way that the industry kind of
(33:37):
needs to pivot to be honest,Like, it's you serve your little constituency
or your community. You have thoseone to one relationships with bands. People
that are steeped in those industries aregoing to be the ones that are going
to be successful because they have astake in it, you know what I
mean. Like, you know,in five years, when you guys are
(33:59):
you have like three presses and you'rekilling it, You're like, oh,
hey, like let's throw a festivalor whatever, you know what I mean.
So that you can put people onstages, You're giving them numerous ways
to make money. It's not justyou know, it's not just we're making
classics for you. It's we're creatingopportunities for you to go make money in
other markets because now you have stuffto sell or whatever, and now we
(34:22):
want to bring other bands in.Maybe you start a label. You do
have mascot as the imprint, youknow, like the the options when you
are the architects of your own thingare infinite. It was interesting entering the
industry and noticing that there's a lotof people at odds with each other.
(34:45):
And I know that's sort of theolder generation and the younger generations are starting
to be like, we can't dothis without each other, so we should
probably get together. But yeah,it's like it's been it's been interesting to
see that, and I'm I'm gladthat it's pivoting towards the more like like,
(35:06):
let's do this together model. I'mexcited to see what that looks like
in the next however many decades we'rein this business. So but I am
so glad. So when I wasin the Southeast pressing, that's when I
found out about women in vinyl.It was your first I don't think it
(35:29):
was your first conference, but itwas or not conference but like panel of
people, but it was one ofyour first I think. But this was
the one in twenty twenty one,and I just remember feeling really inspired by
the people who spoke among which youknow you two were, But I remember
Karen from gold Rush, I rememberAmanda from Long Island. Yeah, I'm
(35:54):
like, too much stuff for meto list from it a Manda from One
Island. So yeah, it justit's pretty inspiring to be welcomed into this
part of the community. And youknow, I don't think I don't think
(36:17):
men in the in the vinyl musicindustry, I don't think they have something
that's the same. You know,they don't have like men in vinyl because
that's just what it was. Althoughsome of them want that right of course,
so I guess they're free to dothat if they want. But that
(36:43):
said, I I'm just like reallygrateful for for you too, and for
your organization, because we do feellike welcomed and embraced. Yeah, it's
nice to be told that we're we'redoing it even when we haven't the press
to record ourselves yet. You knowthat kind of thing, So good you'll
get there. So I'm sure youguys all have sustainability on your brain while
(37:09):
you're making a new plant and lookingat things and plastic and all the things
that we do. Do you thinkthat where we are with the environment and
within the scope and the business asit is. Do you think that those
two things are sustainable independent of eachother and together. Do you think we
can keep going at the rate thatwe're going, making records all the time
(37:34):
with the amount of PVC that wehave, right, I guess I am
you know. I was one reasonI was reluctant to get into this was
the plastic, the plastic situation.I know of one company that is trying
to trying to make a more sustainableproduct. I guess I don't know that
(38:00):
much about it. You're you mightknow more than I do. But we
are absolutely into exploring other options.We obviously have to start with PVC,
which is really unfortunate, but weare also committed to sustainability in terms of
perhaps carbon offsets in the near future. That's yeah. We we don't want
(38:25):
to be garbage people to the planet, so so we'll recycle the PBC we
can and then I'm sure there's there'speople out there who are still like,
no, regrund. I'm sure I'msure you hear about it. Yeah,
and they can pay for that.Yes, Yeah, you have brand new
(38:45):
PBC. Here's your markup, here'syour audio file, tax boom oh.
We also make a bunch of polycarbonatetrash with our Lathe and Bossed records,
which I have been hoarding and tryingto come up with the creative things to
use them for, which we've onlyreally come up with them making a giant
(39:09):
chandelier for are else. I knowthat we could talk forever, but we
are coming up on our time,so I want to make sure we leave
enough for you all to answer ourdifficult question, which is, if you
could make a seven inch, whichyou can with any song of your choosing
(39:35):
from any time, any artists onthe A side and any on the B
side, what would it be?And each one of you has to choose
a side because you can't make tworecords, you can only make one.
You have to choose. You reallynarrowed it down difficulty. This is tough,
and I also anticipated a question likeit. I'm like I should like
(39:58):
a record section, like really tryingto make it a thing, like a
heart, like it's a it's thing. It's the question. Oh, I
love it. I'm just gonna goout there and say, uh, there's
I'm gonna be really annoying and alive track on a R B side Alex
(40:21):
and I can flip a coin.We So there's a song that's just called
I'm all Right that there's many I'mall rights or all rights or there's just
so many that word is used inrock and roll all the time. So,
but it's a live track on hisBeach album, which was one I
think it was the first live recordingever that actually was successful of a full
(40:46):
band and like offsite off, likeremote and it's from nineteen sixty five,
I think. So Yeah, I'mall Right by Bob Didley live, love
it out, you're up with theclassic B side, Yes, instrumental B
(41:07):
side that when gold in the summerof sixty eight, The Horse by Cliff
Nobles. All right, but we'rerecord nerds. I love how decisive it
was. Yeah, that was great. I put put a put a giant
(41:29):
white Castle burger on top of thatone, because that's what we like for
Minneapolis. Uh. I mean,I've never had white Castle until I was
in Minneapolis, and it was everythingthat I ever imagined and want it.
It's awesome. I was sad thatI missed you guys at Mickey Vinyl.
(41:50):
I hope that I will have thechance an opportunity to come out there and
we can all hang and yeah,yeah anytime. Yeah, especially when you
have your big grand opening. We'llcome there with tiny scissors, like tiny
scissors, like if you know,with like the tiny hands that like just
(42:12):
fit on, then we'll just tinyscissors that'll work on that too. That'd
be great, Okay, said I'man a ball today. Well, thank
you all so much. I reallyappreciate it and I'm so glad we were
able to make it happen. Andyeah, utilize Robin and I anytime if
(42:34):
we, you know, want tohave just another hangout at some point about
other stuff. More than happy too, So you guys sounds great. I'm
happy to cheerlead and that's awesome.Remind you how awesome you are. Thank
you so much. You guys arefucking awesome. One last thing I loved
and Robin, it's sad you weren'tthere, but I was so glad to
(42:57):
go to the women in vital METIup. Yeah, I don't know.
We had a lot of fun inmet people and like I lawn bowld.
All right, ladies, thank youso much, Thank you again. Thanks
still talk sim O, Thank youguys. Bye. Don't forget that we
(43:17):
have our ongoing five year anniversary driveand Raffle. It's underway now and the
day that this goes live is Augustsixteenth, which is our fifth birthday.
Please join us in celebrating and donatetoday. No amount is too small.
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(43:45):
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As always, you can join ourconversation on Instagram or send us a
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(44:07):
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