San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
SAVING AN ART FORM
Flux: S.A. record label owner, frontman hangs on in a fast-changing industry.
Jeff Smith’s San Antonio-based label Saustex Records has survived the disappearance of record stores and CDs, the rise of streaming platforms and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The small San Antonio record label specializes in rock ’n’ roll, and so does Smith. The 57-yearold is the frontman for the redneck punk band the Hickoids, and in addition to performing, he has has written and promoted music for nearly four decades.
While streaming services may have largely replaced CDs, Smith’s Saustex Records still produces discs, along with vinyl records and T-shirts promoting its lineup of musical groups.
“I am a rock ’n’ roller for life,” Smith says.
It started when he was 14. He played in a San Antonio-based band called the Dwarves before performing with the Hickoids. The band dates back to the early 1980s, went on a long hiatus and re-formed in 2008. It plays loud, hard-charging rock ’n’ roll with threads of R-rated humor.
Smith was also a club owner. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, he was a co-owner of the Hole in the Wall, an eclectic bar and live music venue on Guadalupe Street in Austin.
Previously, Smith owned several other record labels, dating back to the 1980s, but his drug addiction — he’s now sober — hobbled his business judgment. The labels folded.
He launched Saustex Records in 2003 and has issued more than 70 releases by artists that include Javier Escovedo, Blowfly,
The Upper Crust, and BP Fallon and Piñata Protest, as well as the Hickoids.
Saustex and Smith also host the annual mini-music festival the Austin Corn Lovers Fiesta. Why corn?
“We’re In It For the Corn” was the title of the Hickoid’s first album, released in 1985 — a takeoff
on Frank Zappa’s “We’re
Only In It For the Money” album.
The next Corn Lovers Fiesta, the 12th one, is slated for Oct. 1-2 in Austin. Last year’s festival was livestreamed because of COVID19. Smith was glad the festival went on but disappointed that fans had to listen to the music at home.
Smith recently spoke with the San Antonio Express-News in his home office/studio. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: What is it about running a record company and specializing in rock ’n’ roll that you love?
A: Rock ’n’ roll is now outsider music. It’s relegated to what people thought about jazz 20 years ago. There’s always going to be big rock bands — Aerosmith, AC/DC, U2 or whoever — but that’s not the vast majority of rock bands. That’s one-tenth of 1 percent. And everyone else is groveling. What I do with this
label is more about the perpetuation of the art form than anything else.
The real great thing about rock ’n’ roll is that passion trumps talent. I mean, talent — sure, it gets you somewhere, but it doesn’t put you over the top. I guess rock ’n’ roll is about sweat and magic. You’re taking some very simple parts and you’re making something out of nothing. And when you see it happen, it’s especially a beautiful thing.
Q: What are the challenges in your business today?
A: Just getting noticed for whatever is happening, rising above the noise. It is a perpetual issue. There are more releases than ever before. You have to consider that back in the 1980s, maybe there were 200 album releases a week. And now there are probably 1,000 releases a day. There is none of the traditional gatekeeping
that went on. Which is a good thing and a bad thing, I guess. There is an overwhelming volume of music but a precipitate decline in the overall quality.
Q:
Do you sell your CDs and vinyl records to retail stores or the few remaining record stores besides your website?
A: It’s hard. Target or Walmart, somewhere like that, they do carry LPs and CDs there. They probably only carry 50 LP titles at a time and maybe 200 CD titles at a time. If you are not AC/DC, Jay-Z or whoever, you are just not going to command that shelf space. Record stores, when I was growing up, in the ’70s and ’80s, were adventuresome, they would take a chance. Now they don’t want to order it if they don’t think they are going to sell it.
Q: What changes have you seen
since starting Saustex Records? A: I started this label at the end of 2003. I have been pivoting and shouting pretty much the whole time this label has been going. You had the death of the CD, the rise of streaming, the return of vinyl, the predominance of streaming platforms. The record industry was born out of the desire to sell phonographs. And what was going to sell the phonograph was the record. So in the early days when people bought a phonograph, they did not care what was on there. They didn’t care if it was bird calls or a hillbilly musician or opera. They were just excited to have something that was not the sound of their brother or sister in the house.
Up until the early 2000s, the end of the CD era, the artist still has a lot of power — and now the platform has the power. Because if I try and sell a single song, if I
post something up on Facebook that says, “Hey, buy this new single by so-and-so on iTunes for 77 cents,” iTunes is going to tell them, why not try a music subscription with 70 million songs for free for six months? So basically, my partner iTunes undermines me putting money in my artists’ pockets. So for one song, I and the artist could split 77 cents, but if someone signs up for some streaming subscription, that turns into some fraction of a penny.
Q: How did you survive during the pandemic?
A: It was very good for the mailorder business selling CD’s and vinyl on Saustex Record’s website, but it was very bad for the bands in terms of live performances. Records stores were closed, so people were supportive of the mail-order business.
We did have some problems with vinyl. The whole supply chain was all gummed up during the pandemic and still is. Part of it is the high demand for vinyl. And another part of it was either parts for the record presses or the vinyl itself being unavailable.
Q:
You have your own machines capable of producing vinyl records?
A: These are called lathes. They can make records by electronically embossing the music on a plexiglass disc. I call them sound artifacts because the quality is somewhat less than stereo records.
I plan to do a monthly or more release. I bought the equipment this year, but it will be short runs, maybe 75 records, because you have to cut them all in real time. The music has to be played over and over on an audio file — and there’s only so much patience I got. They do command a premium for a single, anywhere from $25-$50. And, of course, you’re not left with a whole lot of inventory because it is a limitededition item.
Q:
I see that your own group is launching a new tour. Do you enjoy performing?
A: We’re going out on a tour of the Southeast and mid-South at the end of July for three weeks. We will be recording a new album in Tupelo, Miss., birthplace of Elvis Presley. And then I am going out singing with another band at the beginning of September, and we are going to play some dates up in Alaska.
A lot of people are like, “I don’t miss live performances.” That is part of the job, and if you don’t love that, you don’t really love it. I am not the most popular, talented musician in the world. I’m not the most popular musician in my band, and I might be the least talented musician among the dozens of artists and musicians who work with my record company.
But one thing I do believe is it is an honor to perform for people and to have them show up.