Each month around the 15th, we’re going to feature an independently-run Canadian music label putting out innovative and fun releases on a budget. This month, we’re featuring Noyes Records out of Halifax, Nova Scotia!
Label name: Noyes Records
Location: Truro/Halifax/Lornevale, Nova Scotia
Staff: Chad Peck(founder), Craig Johnson
Below, listen to an exclusive track from Noyes’ upcoming release Melancholy and the Archive by We Need Secrets. And read our chat with the label’s founder Chad Peck below, where he discusses hand-delivery, glitter vinyl and apology emails. “You, the person reading this, you should start a label right now!” he says.
Broken Pencil: You’ve been around since 2005. (Happy 10-year anniversary, holy crap!) Chad, you’ve been a musician in and around Halifax for some time. Why start a record label? And can you give me a sense of some of the early releases and how they came to exist?
Chad Peck/Noyes Records: Because I had grown up rurally and in relative isolation, I spent far more time listening to recorded music than watching live music. Those hours and hours spent pouring over liner notes and listening with great intent on headphones really made me appreciate the importance of the physical document, and Noyes really has come to represent that idea: the importance of the document.
The label started in Truro, Nova Scotia. I was at the end of Bachelor of Education degree and just beginning my first band. I was practice teaching at a high school and I realized there were some students playing incredible songs with little hope of ever having those songs exist outside all-ages shows or poorly recorded mp3s. Someone tipped me off to a students in business program that gave interest-free loans to people in school. I took out a $5000 loan, bought some recording gear and some webspace, and started Noyes Records. I started it before I really had any idea what I was doing; I really enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) building something out of nothing.
Truro was on the map for having a really healthy hardcore scene, and Noyes served as a bit of a foil—at the time, I wasn’t interested in what I perceived as the stereotypical rigid hardcore mentality. It seems funny now, but I remember getting lambasted by a few people for being elitist by multi-tracking on ProTools and getting CDs manufactured.
The first two releases were Truro-centric bands: NR-001 was Fugitives by Safety Scissors (a band I was in—later called the Medium Mood), and NR-002 was At the Center Where Nothing Moves by The Nursed (high school students I had met during my practicum—the lead singer/guitarist, Brad, currently plays in Each Other). It was crazy exciting at the time. Our next big step was moving into vinyl, which we did with our 4th release. I had met my neighbour, the legendary Jim MacAlpine (ex-North of America, The Holy Shroud), and he was looking to get his new band VKNGS on vinyl. Their 12” EP became NR-004, and really opened a bunch of doors for the label.
BP: How do you determine which musicians you want to work with? Do you have a mandate to stay within the Maritimes?
CP: From the outset, I decided the label was going to be centred around great bands populated by great people, and not confined to a specific genre. In that sense, it’s not been a niche label, but I like the mosaic quality of the entire discography. I have worked mostly with Maritime bands, and will certainly continue to work with local bands. I’ve also started to branch out a bit. Back in 2012 and 2013 I released two records for my friends Ash, who are based out of NYC and Scotland, and last year I released a record by Austin, TX band Ringo Deathstarr, who I’m working with again this year. I’ve also started working with like-minded labels in other countries, so that’s a whole new world for the label as well.
BP: The DIY record industry can be a bit dodgy, especially when there are delays with vinyl manufacturing. I felt Noyes handled this issue very well by keeping subscribers completely in the loop. Can you talk a little more about how you managed this issue and also any other unforseen challenges you’ve encountered over the past ten years? (I imagine being a touring musician and managing a label has its own inherent challenges!)
CP: Dave Eggers once described McSweeney’s as a quarterly that was published three times a year, and that attitude sometimes applies to Noyes as well. There’s always a plan in place, but so many things can go awry during the process that timelines can shift dramatically. There have been more than a few cases of overnighting records to ensure delivery before a release show or tour.
A few issues that have hampered us in the past: a pressing plant closing down for close to a month due to an extreme heat wave; a band delivering incorrect masters and not realizing it until the test presses had arrived; records held at customs for three weeks; my van, full of Noyes stock (and equipment) stolen in Montreal; bands unable to decide on artwork; stolen money across international borders (no joke!)…the biggest issue now, which is well-documented, is the limited number of pressing plants facing unprecedented demand now that big labels have started pressing vinyl with some consistency. With that said, the manufacturers I work with are all super understanding, incredibly flexible, and 100% artist and label friendly.
Most people are pretty understanding of the delays. It’s also super important to be honest and send the fifteenth apology email when the records have been delayed yet again. It feels more like a community than a business, and that goes for the customers, record store owners, distributors, manufacturers, the woman who runs my local Canada Post store, writers, publicists, mastering engineers, my uncles at FedEx, and everyone else who has helped out (and there have been many). It still feels like a small club in a really comforting way.
BP: What are the contributing factors that have kept Noyes around all these years? And I’ll preface this – I kinda hate asking this question but I think it’s important – can you give me a couple pieces of advice you could offer to someone starting a DIY record label in a medium sized city like Halifax?
CP: I felt that the label was doing something important, and I enjoyed the work. That’s pretty much it. I do think myself and the bands I’ve worked with have done a good job of making the records themselves interesting, from the secret messages etched in the dead wax to the reverse stock jackets to the glitter vinyl to the triple-LP-with-foil-stamped-cover to the hand numbered editions. I’m a total collector, and I love that stuff—I just assume other people do as well. (Any creative types reading this—if you have a great idea for packaging records in a new and interesting way, please get in touch.)
The best advice I can give is this: just do it, and do whatever it takes to make it happen. I used to hand deliver pre-orders to people in Halifax—I’d literally set up appointment times and hand over records to strangers. That was fun, and a lot of those people still buy copies of everything that gets released. Outside of that advice, I would suggest talking to people who run labels you admire—you’d be surprised how much info they will give you—and try to work with good people. I asked my friend Craig to come on board to handle the social media/press side of things, and he’s been an incredible help. Finally, and this my own personal plea, supplement your digital releases with a physical release—cassette, lathe cut, 200 gram audiophile vinyl, CD-R, whatever—it’s important.
BP: Do you think Noyes could exist in a place other than Halifax?
CP: It’s kind of funny—Noyes is really a Lornevale, Nova Scotia label more than a Halifax label. Lornevale is a tiny rural community, and I run the label from a big house on a small hill. Almost all of the work is done online, and I sell more records outside of Halifax than inside of Halifax at this point. There’s no question: it definitely helps to have a supportive community like Halifax to start in, but you can start a label anywhere. You, the person reading this, you should start a label right now.
BP: Finally tell me about the upcoming releases you’re stoked about.
CP: There are a few cool records on the way. The three I can tell you about are as follows: 1) Eurydice by Moonsocket. This has been a few years in the making, but the slow-as-molasses approach has been worth it. 30 minutes of heartbreaking songs from Chris Thompson, an important figure in Canadian indie rock. 2) Melancholy and the Archive by We Need Secrets. This is a record I made in my bedroom, and the first pressing sold out without any real promotion. We’re repressing a special numbered version with a bunch of rare songs and demos—that’ll be out soon on 180 gram clear with random splatter vinyl. 3) The new record from Ringo Deathstarr. They are recording it right now, and they stand for everything I like about music.