Ondalabel #8

Born in 2013 and 2017 respectively, Bobo Integral and Meritorio both started in Madrid as small, DIY labels. Throughout these few years they have attracted a remarkable pool of bands from all other the world, all with a distinctive guitar-pop signature. In brief, they have created an actual scene that is not geographical, but label-centered. They have given visibility to small bands as well as provided a harbor to records that were still in a limbo (as in the Butcher The Bar case). We have sent the two label owners, Gonzalo Marcos and Alvaro Lisson Aguiar, a few questions to tell us about their business. Further below, we have interviewed some of their bands to understand their relationship with the label.

What led you to start your own label? How has the role of labels in music changed in the latest years?

Gonzalo Marcos, Bobo Integral: It was something I had in mind, out of curiosity, to learn and to do something more fun than just studying a boring engineering career. I never found the moment, but it was listening to a demo of Los Nuevos Hobbies that I decided to embark on the adventure.
Right now there is so much musical offer… I believe that independent record labels mainly serve as curators. Hopefully there are people who pay attention to the bands I work with simply because they are part of the label.
For the rest, I think we help to keep this obsolete idea of a collection of 10-12 songs alive for a few more years. I have always loved LPs, they seem like the perfect format to me.

Alvaro Lisson Aguiar, Meritorio:I am an indie music fan, a guy who is a music lover, that he is making his dream come true.  I think that the role of the indie record labels is the same than before: The main objective is to make records to sell them and to continue making records!
What has changed is that there are many more smaller indie labels (and less major names), that are directed by music lovers that are tryng to manage time and finding a balance between day job/life/label.  

Is there a reason to explain this concentration of indie-pop labels in Madrid? What is the current situation for independent music in Spain?

Bobo Integral: The situation is just as bad as everywhere. The interest is small and we are far, at least I am, from being sustainable. For some reason, in Madrid, and in the rest of Spain, there are people similar to me who assemble and disassemble labels that are really interesting. Here we always make the joke that when we are young and have time and have no money we set up bands, and that when we are somewhat older and we don’t have time but have money, we set up record labels. Of course, nobody told us about the amount of time it takes to run a label! That said, in Spain there are people very faithful to this music and who are interested in everything we release.

Meritorio: I don’t think so… Spain have tradition in indie labels… Elefant or Siesta have earned a name in the past, and I think that there are pretty labels around the Country, not only in Madrid, such as Pretty Olivia (Alicante), You Are The Cosmos (Zaragoza), Kocliko (Navarra), Hanky Panky (Bilbao), Discos de Kirlian (Barcelona) and Caballito (Cádiz) among others! …I think that are many amazing labels in Spain and we are close to the US and UK indie labels!

How strict are you with creating a label sound or style? Do you just follow your taste or would you go as far as not signing a band that you like but doesn’t fit into your label style?

Bobo Integral: My taste is quite homogeneous, with age I have become more lazy and do not pay attention to too many things that go beyond my usual spectrum. With this, I fully trust that if I love a band, there will be people as interested as me.

Meritorio: I am trying to follow my music taste, releasing records that I love that normally are based in guitar pop or indie rock! I love other music generes, like folk, country or jazz, but will hardly make records that go out of the guitar pop or indie rock style!

Have you had the chance to interact with artists also on the production of records? If not, would you like to?
Bobo Integral: So far they have always sent me the finished album and we have pulled forward just as it was. I strongly believe that the intervention of the label must be minimal in all aspects. I play in a couple of bands myself and I don’t usually want to change anything out of suggestions from the top.

Meritorio:Some bands have asked me about songs, and I’ve helped choosing final mixes or songs that finally are included on the album… which is cool!

Many of the independent labels from the past used to have a distinctive image and the sleeves of their records were made by the same artists or designers. Do you think even the artwork of your releases should follow a certain style?
Bobo Integral: I’ve thought a lot about this, and maybe it’s something we’d do in the future, as long as the bands want, of course.

Meritorio: It is not my case, the idea is the band lead that process… normally I accept everything that they do because they’ve created and recorded the music, so I think they know the perfect artwork for the album (more than I)!

Artists

Why did you choose to sign with a label and not to self-produce your music?

Lachlan Denton (BI): Gonzalo hit me up out of the blue about my first solo record, “Two Months In Ben Woolley’s Room”, and had genuine enthusiasm about putting it on vinyl. Originally that album had only been released as a cassette, so i thought, what the hell. From there I found Gonzalo to be one of the easiest and most genuine people to work with. I got to meet him in Spain and I was blown away at what a wonderfully sincere person he was in real life. I release my own music in Australia but I don’t have a clue about Europe. Having Bobo Integral put my music in front of a bunch of  people on the other side of the world is a real blessing.

Butcher The Bar (BI): We were originally going to self-release our last album “III”, an album we’d recorded a while ago and wanted to give away in order to move on make another record. I first learned of Bobo Integral after hearing the Dumb Things album – which is great by the way – after which I sent them our album and we decided to work together on a release. Having people outside the band help promote your music is very helpful, not only does it open up the potential for more people to hear your music, but the enthusiasm and encouragement that comes along with it is very positive, and can can counter balance any self deprecating self promotion which artists often hide behind.

Poppel (M): The first releases of Poppel were put out by Gazer Tapes, my own little label. We release mostly cassettes because that’s just the cheapest. When Meritorio Records came by we checked out the bands and were totally amazed. We had to release our new album with them because they have more international exposure, better distribution, more bands on it have the same feeling for music… It all comes from a natural love for music and we like that very much. We think that’s the most important thing and Meritorio Records is the representation of love and music in a way.  It’s not so obvious these days that labels are putting out just what they want, what they like.

Holy Tunics (M): For me it’s all about reaching a wider audience as well as the association with other bands that whose music I would listen to. Someone might stumble across my tunes via another band on the label that they listen to and they might like our music too. Also a global community is a really cool idea. Luckily Meritorio is very cool and I also am able to self produce cassettes as well.

Do you know other artists from your label? Would you be open to collaborating with some of them (even by just releasing a split EP/single)?
Lachlan Denton (BI): Always up for collaboration. I make a lot of music and I love collaborating.
Butcher The Bar (BI): I dont know any of the other artists on the label personally but I’m definitely a fan. Dumb Things I mentioned earlier, and Lachlan Denton’s last record was totally great, so good. I’m just getting into his new LP, a collaboration with Emma Russack, which I’ve been really enjoying after a couple of spins, but yeah I would LOVE to collaborate on something, great idea Ondarock! Make it happen!
Poppel (M): Definitely yes. There is this strange story about Sprinters. With Poppel we used to play this song called “Lloret Train” from Sprinters in our live set. We like their first album very much, but it was very underground by that time. We were very happy to hear that they will join Meritorio Records! So we are label mates with one of our favourite bands now. Truly fantastic!
Holy Tunics (M): I was linked up with Meritorio through a good friends band Smokescreens and I would absolutely do a split or collaboration with any of the artists on the label. Collaborations like that are really fun and create a unique project.