BIG STIR RECORDS - REX BROOME & CHRISTINA BULBENKO : We're often thought of as a “power pop” label (1/2)
One of the most active labels around, not a week goes by without news from them. It's about time we knew a little more about Big Stir Records and the two people behind this excellent label: REX BROOME & CHRISTINA BULBENKO. Let them tell their story.
This interview is in two parts, because they had a lot to say!
Can you introduce the label?
REX BROOME & CHRISTINA BULBENKO OF BIG STIR RECORDS: We're the founders and pretty much the full staff of Big Stir Records – Christina is the official CEO – and we're an indie label out of Burbank, California with an international roster. We specialize in what could be considered “indie pop”, melodic and usually guitar-based music that draws on – but, importantly, pushes forward – the whole history of rock and pop music. All the albums we release go out as CDs as well as digital, and a fair percentage of them get vinyl releases as well.
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| Christina & Rex |
What about the label's activities?
R&C: They're nonstop! We do a major album release just about every month, and every week there's a new single supporting either an album that's about to be released, or one that has come out recently. We do all of our promo in-house and work closely with all of our artists in preparing the albums and crafting the campaigns, so there is absolutely always something, or in fact numerous things, going on, with just the two of us handling almost all the work that a label needs to do, including accounting and shipping!
Where does the label's name come from and what does it represent?
R&C: It is a nod, of course, to Alex Chilton's legendary band Big Star, often thought of as a progenitor of the power pop sound that's a key influence on so many of our artists... although it's important to us that that band took creative risks, and we like to think that our artists do that, too. Of course the idea of a “big stir” also means a commotion, an exciting event worth paying attention to. Christina originally came up with the name for our live concert series, which started before the label (and has long since ended, because we don't have the time for it any more), but it became iconic enough that we carried it over to the label when it was founded in 2017.
R&C: We hope people see the love, care, hard work and thoughtfulness we put into every release. And we hope that more and more people come to see the Big Stir Records logo as a sign that they can expect a great record. It's really gratifying that so many people feel that way already, and it gives us a lot to live up to!
Which labels have inspired you?
R&C: We're always happy to be grouped with some of the great pop-rock labels of the past, like Bomp and Not Lame, to mention just a few. But we're also inspired by labels who have “their own sound” that's like a genre of its own, labels like 4AD, SST, Creation, even the big guys like Asylum or Sire. We operate on instinct, not strategy, and we feel like we have that in common with the folks behind those kinds of labels. A few writers have classed us with some of those labels from time to time, which does make us feel like we're doing something right!
What scene is the label most interested in?
R&C: We're often thought of as a “power pop” label, and we love that music and are privileged to work with some of the true titans of the genre! But our interests are a lot broader than that, and in some senses it's easier to say what kinds of music isn't Big Stir music than what is! We're very focused on songwriting and inventiveness, so there is some purely nostalgia-based power pop that isn't for us, and there's also some music that's less straight-up guitar pop – folk rock, postpunk, chamber pop, punk-leaning stuff – that really captures our hearts, and we listen to our hearts when that happens. Again, it's part of the label having its own sound rather than following genre lines.
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| Rex and Christina with Arthur Alexander of Sorrow and his band |
How is distribution handled?
R&C: We're honored to have been brought on board by The Orchard (Sony) a few years back, and they handle digital and most physical distribution for us. That said, we do have our own web store at our website for physical sales, and a Bandcamp page as well for folks that do most of their shopping there.
Do you contact the record stores yourself, or do they?
R&C: That's largely done by The Orchard – there are only two of us running day to day operations, and when it comes to promotion, it takes all of our time to interact personally with DJs and writers, literally thousands of them. The thought of adding thousands more in the form of record store owners is daunting... something we wish we could do, but there are only so many hours in the day!
How much does a record cost, and can you make a living from the label?
R&C: We're trying, oh my how hard we are trying! Costs for releases vary a lot depending on the format and how elaborate each piece of design work is, of course. The goal is absolutely to be making a living from the label – it's our life's work and we pour our hearts and souls into it – and of course to make sure the artists are treated fairly, too, because that's not normal in the music industry! As a band ourselves (The Armoires), we want to be the label that treats artists the way we would want a label to treat our band. And many of our artists are dear friends, too, so we strive to do right by them.
R&C: These days, most dispatches from labels come via social media, and that's how we do most sharing of our news – and it's another full time job doing that on multiple platforms. We do love it when people subscribe to our website www.bigstirrecords.com because those subscribers get special offers from us, like exclusive and discounted merchandise, early pre-orders, and signed copies of new releases which often sell out via our subscribers before we are even able to announce them to the public!
Who are the label's star artists?
R&C: Our best known artist is of course the great Graham Parker, whose album “Last Chance To Learn The Twist” we were honored to release, and we love working with him. And as of this year, the combined Big Stir Records and SpyderPop Records roster feature four bands who have been officially inducted into The Power Pop Hall Of Fame: The Spongetones, The Flashcubes, Splitsville, and 20/20. That's a big deal, and frankly some of our other legacy artists, like Sorrows and The Bablers, probably belong in the Hall, too, and something should be done about that, hahaha! And there are some veteran acts from other fields and eras, too, like The Cyrkle (who had hits in the '60s) and The Jack Rubies (who were signed to TVT in the '80s). Of course, we consider them all stars!
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| Rex and Christina with Graham Parker and Steven Wilson of Plasticsoul |
How do you choose bands and discover them?
R&C: In the beginning, they were quite simply our friends and the bands on the same live scene as The Armoires, first in LA and then in the UK and elsewhere in California. Very quickly, as our reputation and community grew, we started to hear from artists all over the place, some of them wonderful, some a little bit desperate, and more and more often, actual heroes of ours we never could have dreamed would want to put a record out with the logo of our little label on it. It happened quickly, and we probably stumbled in trying to get a handle on it all, but it all led to what you see and hear from Big Stir Records today. We have never once “pursued” an artist; they either come to us, or become BSR artists in the course of conversations about other things, really!
What are your strong points?
R&C: At the risk of repeating ourselves, it's hard work combined with heart and soul. If we're perceived to have a strong roster, it all comes from those things, either the work we do for the release itself, or the fact that world-class artists have recognized the results of that work as something they want to be a part of.
R&C: Oh, yes. We've been assembling a contacts list from Day 1, and it is now massive, almost unmanageable, but we keep at it. To us, and we say this all the time, the DJs, writers, blogs, magazines, playlisters, fans on social media, they're ALL key parts of the community and we want to help their shows and writings reach the audience they deserve, too. So we try to help them all as much as they help us and our artists. That, of course, includes you fine folks at Monstres Sacrés and a few of your staff members with excellent radio shows that have audiences in France and far beyond!
Is the label's approach based on the number of releases?
R&C: It's more like it's limited based on the number of releases. These days our promo campaigns are very complex and take a lot of time, so we're always working on at least three at a time and certainly could never release more than one album per month – even that is very difficult! But while every project has its own unique needs, we do follow a pretty similar timeline and schedule in introducing them and releasing them, and that schedule is as tight as it could possibly be, at least for our staff of two and the limited capacity of a human mind, hahaha!
What have been your biggest sales?
R&C: Well, it's fair to say that our answer to the question about our “stars” is a good hint, but it's hard to answer beyond that. Even over the eight years we've been a label, sales from physical releases have declined across the boards. So for a while, every record sold a little more than the last one, just because we were building our audience, but when we achieved a certain level, we started to see that people were just buying fewer CDs and LPs from year to year. Artists who release more than one, or two, albums with BSR always seem to sell more each time, because buzz builds. Most assuredly, because we're an LA-based label, a lot of our California artists sell more copies early on – Nelson Bragg, sparkle*jets u.k., The Armoires, and The Corner Laughers from up north – and we have our biggest successes with artists who have their own established fanbases and are active in doing their own promotion on social media. Everyone tagging each other, the artists and the label and the radio stations and reviewers, it creates the impression of a party that people might want to be a part of, and really, it is a party, at least when it's working! Again, community is the key. Mutual support that helps everyone.
End of part 1
(Part 2 tomorrow 😊)
(Part 2 tomorrow 😊)
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| Big Stir Records Cover Art Gallery |
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