Est-ce que tu travailles avec des designers ou bien tu fais tout toi-même ?
J’en fais la plupart moi-même. Mais après, ça dépend si ça plaît aux groupes ou non. Sinon, il faut qu’ils fassent une autre couverture, ou alors ils trouvent un artiste avec qui je dois travailler et souvent, soit je le vire soit je le pousse vraiment dans ses retranchements. Je peux vraiment, vraiment être tellement chiant ! Ce n’est pas de la méchanceté ou quoi que ce soit, c’est seulement que je veux créer le meilleur produit sur la planète. Bon, ce n’est que mon humble opinion, peut-être que ce n’est pas la meilleure production sur la planète. Mais j’essaie toujours de faire au mieux que je peux. J’essaie de progresser…
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English version
Who was Lightning Beatman?
Lightning Beatman was my alter ego. I’m Beatman Zeller from Bern, Switzerland. In the 80s and 90s I was in Los Angeles and I discovered Mexican wrestling, so I bought myself a wrestling mask and went on the stage as a one man band, fought against myself and always won. (laughs) But the mask took his personality after me and it got a bit crazy, I lost my voice, and after ten years of Lightning Beatman my whole body was destroyed so I had to change the name to Reverend Beatman.
So… How and why did Lightning Beatman become Reverend Beatman?
Well that’s why. This character, Lightning Beatman was just too evil, too sick and I had to get rid of it. (laughs)
Does Reverend Beatman have a special mission on earth? With music?
Yeah, it’s love. (laughs) I love love. It’s the best.
So, Lightning Beatman, Reverend Beatman and Beatman Zeller, are they different characters?
They are all me. Everybody has a lot of different characters in themselves. Onstage, I find out which one is the character I want to show, so all those characters are in me, I let them out on the stage, but it’s all me.
So you don’t want to use your wrestler mask…
I don’t need to hide behind a mask anymore. It’s really easy to put the mask on, you can explore yourself in different ways, but at the same time never explore yourself. It’s an amazing experience to hide behind the mask and go freak out, get naked... I would never do that without the mask. Now, I don’t need the mask anymore.
Now, about the label Voodoo Rhythm Records, when has the adventure started?
It started also in the mid-80s, when I was working with a record label and record shop called Record Junkie. I already had a little pirate tape. I learned about running a label in the mid-80s with the Record Junkie Records, then in 1992 I made it more professional with the Voodoo Rhythm Record Label.
What is your stance about supporting small bands that will never be profitable?
That’s exactly that. When I was on tour in the 80s, 90s I saw so many bands that couldn’t find a record label. And I wanted to have a record from that band in my record collection, because I’m a record collector so… The only way to have a record from that band in my record collection is to make a record of that band. So actually I started to make the label because I wanted to have records of those bands I love so much. And that’s what I still do! I get demo tapes and I see bands, other people say “oh my god this is too crazy” and I normally do it. (laughs)
That’s actually in my next question: does Voodoo have some sort of guideline, like one man bands, European, trash blues… or is it mostly based on encounters?
My guideline, I think, is no guideline. The honesty of the bands, I think that’s the line, they’re all good people and they all write great songs but then the music style, I don’t care, if there are 10 people in the band, or only one person in the band, or if they make jazz or rock or punk or blues, I don’t care, if it’s good then it appeals to me and I want to make it. It’s kind of like being in a flea market, searching for something, at first you don’t know what you’re searching for and you find it and you just have to have it. It’s the same.
I suppose you have many people coming to you and asking you if you want to release their album?
Yeah, many people come.
And does it work?
Yeah, sometimes it works, but it’s really hard because I don’t want to disappoint anyone. If someone starts playing the guitar and recording their own music, that’s already an amazing step! It’s really hard for me to tell them that I won’t release it on Voodoo Rhythm Records, even if I think their music is great! For me that’s the hardest part in running a label. And I don’t know exactly what kind of records I put out, it’s a feeling I have inside, you know, it’s not my brain telling me to make a record of this musician, it’s something else, I just have to do it. If this feeling comes out, I do it, it’s not something personal against or in favour of the musician, it’s just that I have to do it, it’s my passion.
Does Voodoo want to get bigger?
Oh yeah, we do, totally!
Bigger is better you know (laughs)! We like where we are at the moment,
but I think that there are so many people in the world, you know, that’s
trillions of people. And what the mainstream music is bringing them,
it’s just not creative, it brings people nowhere. I want the music to be
creative, to be different. When you put on the radio it’s always the
same ten musicians 24hours a day! There’s so much different music in the
world, from Africa to Arabia, to America, Switzerland, France etc.
Everybody does different music and they are so good, they write such
good songs! Why don’t they get played on the radio? This would open the
mind of every person in the world! This would change the whole world for
ever, if this music was heard by a lot of people, and if these people
were interested in that music. Our brain is so big, we can take so much,
and they only give us so little, it’s not fair. (laughs)
What are Voodoo Rhythm Records’ future releases?
At
the moment, it’s the new release of Hank Haint, an English one man
band, it’s brilliant. No, it’s like, super brilliant. Then in September
we have Becky Lee & Drunkfoot she’s a girl from Arizona, it’s a one
woman / girl band and she’s just like amazing. When you hear all the
blues guys, it’s very man dominated. Then comes this woman from Arizona
(Tempee Arizona) and she’s just a whole orchestra. Blues, kind of desert
blues band. It’s amazing also the songs she sings, what she writes
about, they’re all crazy stories from her life. She has a crazy life
story, it’s all in her music, it’s really beautiful. In October we’re
going to have the Heart Attack Alley, it’s a band from New Zealand, it’s
two girls and one guy, it’s also kind of a bluesy band and it’s also
really good.
A few years ago, you had problems with the SACEM, Voodoo Rhythm was about to close down, can you tell us about this episode and the solidarity it provoked around you?
I’m a small record label, like a lot of other small record labels and you have this royalty policy: SACEM, SUISA etc. A lot of copyright companies which is actually a good thing, they stand behind the musicians, they care about them. But I paid so much money to those companies and the bands never got the money and I was getting kind of pissed off, so I stopped paying them and I gave the money directly to the bands, without going through the copyright companies, and instead of money I gave records, I gave them a lot of records that I played. So, that was good for me and it was good for the bands and of course the copyright companies didn’t like that at all. So they sued me for like 50 or 60 thousand bucks, and I couldn’t pay it. So I wrote on the internet “please help, I have to close down Voodoo Rhythm Records”. People from all over the world sent me money and made benefit concerts, and in the end I could pay! It’s amazing. If you create a label, you’re sitting behind your computer and you can’t imagine how much contact you can get with the people who are buying the records. And if you do something like that you get so many reactions, it’s just amazing. We realized that we were doing something that maybe the people really liked. They like that we are doing something different, that it’s not just one style but many styles and the music is different, it’s strange… It was really helpful. But now, we pay the money, we’re working really close with SACEM and SUISA together to change the whole system. We want the musicians to be the priority of those companies. Not only the top 100 or the top ten musicians, they get the money, we want that all musicians, the little guys who play like 300 shows a year, that they get the money, that’s what we are fighting for at the moment.
How is your claim received by the SACEM in Switzerland?
Well, SUISA is working really close with us, they also want to change, they see the problem. They’re like “ok, we see that there are so many musicians and that they don’t get the money, there is so much money and we don’t know where it’s going… how we could change the system.” I think the whole system has to be rethought. So many musicians and so much money around… You’re always paying the SACEM, but who gets that money, where does the money go? I want that bloodshot bill gets the money as well you know, everybody, Delaney Davidson! It’s just not fair that DJ Bobo and Manu Chao get the money. I’m not saying that Manu Chao is the same as DJ Bobo (laughs). I love Manu Chao (laughs).
Now about The Monsters? Why did The Monsters get back together?
We never split up! (Jordane laughs and apologizes). We started in 1986, and we just kept on going. In the beginning we were doing a lot of shows and tours, and then, POP, I got a kid, POP, I got a second kid, then the bass player got a kid, the drummer got a kid… It’s a lot of kids! It’s really hard to deal with that, you know you don’t want to get the women upset, so… (laughs) So we have to arrange things and see priorities. The Monsters always were a priority, we have always had a rehearsal day a week so we could get together, everyone in the band is from a different town but our band is based in Zürich. That, and the tours, there has always been a lot of organising to do. I’m having a lot of fun with the Monsters, it’s my favourite band to play with.
The Monsters are a reference, here in Europe. Are you surprised to hear that?
Yes, I’m really surprised! (laughs) It’s just trash punk we’re doing it’s not like top 100 music. I’m always surprised that the people like us.
Can you explain it?
No, it’s a mystery (laughs). I have no idea why (laughs). We can’t play, we can’t sing, we can’t do anything. They like it, that’s good!
But, you play music with your heart!
You can be terrible even if you’re playing with your heart.
Can you tell us about Die Zorros?
Oh, that’s one of my favourite bands. And nobody likes that band. It’s the worst selling band on the label. I play drums on that band, it’s so much fun, it’s so chaotic, the live shows... We never rehearse, and even for the studio we don’t even have songs, we don’t rehearse, we don’t do anything. Before a song, anybody can choose one, and then we just play something. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of fun, really good band.
Do you have other things to come? Other bands...?
No, I think that’s it. In the past I always had a lot of bands, but now my three bands are Die Zorros, The Monsters and Reverend Beatman.
Just a few questions about how you record your vinyls: you know we also have a label, and we think you’re quite at the top. What kind of material do you use to record?
It varies. We can record digital, analogue... I try to work with good studios that I already know, there are many good studios. There are some in Italy, there is Star Track in Switzerland, Toe Rag Studios in London. I like to work with good engineers, people I know who know about the sound. That’s the first step of recording, and the second step is the mastering process: you have the final recording and you give it to the mastering guy, that’s something completely different and they are quite expensive. I also work with a couple of different mastering guys together. And after that is the coding process, which is also a very important process. After the mastering you can press the CD, but if you want to make a vinyl record you need a good code. So we have in Bern a pretty good codage the Centraldubs, or in Czech Republic there is at the moment a really good coder, I love this codage, he makes a really good code on the vinyl it’s very loud and the quality is very good, and the vinyl quality is very good, I like this pressing plate a lot.
So you don’t do the mastering yourself?
No. I really have a lot of great people I work with. There are a few in Switzerland for the more powerful records and then I have Eric Merz for the more bluesy stuff, he’s just opening up the whole sounds. There are not a lot of good mastering guys, maybe ten in the whole world, and you have to find those guys and it’s really hard to find them.
So, the recording and mastering stages are important for you...
Yeah. It can be a super trash band, I don’t care, but I want to have a record that blows my head off. You know, when you put it on and then you have something, you’re sitting in a room and it just takes you away to another place, that’s what I want to do. But that’s also a lot of work. Sometimes I argue a lot with my musicians about the recording. With Delaney for example, it can sometimes be months of arguing about what I don’t like, what he doesn’t like, it’s a whole process you know. Re-recording and stuff, you go to the artist’s studio, make home recording, you do that and you do this, a record normally takes me from 1 to 2 years worth of work with a band, for one record. It’s a lot of work. (laughs) I can be a real pain in the ass for the musicians, I apologise to my musicians for being a pain in the ass. But I think in the end we have a product we really like.
What about the album covers and artwork, is it the same thing?
Yes, it’s the same, I apologise to all my bands again. If it’s not super perfect I can be a real pain in the ass. (laughs)
Do you have designers you work with or do you do it all yourself?
I do it mostly myself. But you know it depends if the bands like it or not, otherwise they have to make another one, or they can bring a graphic artist and I have to work with the graphic artist, or fire him or push him so that he goes to the limit of what he can do. I can really, really, be a pain in the ass. It’s not that I am mean or anything, it’s just that I want to have the best product ever made on this planet. But that is only my opinion you know, maybe it isn’t the best product ever made on this planet. But I always try to go a little bit higher. I try...