I Scream Records
Interview with Laurens Kusters, founder of I Scream Records, in August of 2006.
I Scream Records was started in 1994 in Brussels, Belgium, and since then, has released some of the most popular albums in Europe for bands like Discipline, Agnostic Front, Slapshot, and Blood For Blood. In March of this year, a new office was started in the U.S., bringing old-school records back to youth and a taste of the new bands to come from America and Europe. Laurens Kusters, founder of I Scream Records, took some time to speak about the label’s history and what to expect down the road.
Starting from the very beginning, how did I Scream Records get formed?
I actually was born into the industry; my father was involved in it for thirty-five years so I was influenced from the music industry. When I started playing in my band in the early ’90s, I figured that I was doing punk rock and hardcore and had this industry thing in me, so I combined them and said, “Why don’t I do a punk rock and hardcore label?”
Who were the first few bands signed onto the label?
The first band was actually my own band, a hardcore band. I started out with a couple local bands from my home country Belgium. There was a local skater band called Down With It, and a couple of hardcore bands. We evolved and did a couple Dutch bands, signed a German band, did a couple French bands. After doing that for a few years, we picked up Stigmata, and then we had Run Devil Run, which was our first American signing.
When did larger bands come about like Agnostic Front, Wrecking Crew, and bands that are huge in the US?
I’ve been close to Agnostic Front for years, and one day, they were doing a show together with one of my European bands called Discipline, one of the biggest European speedcore bands. They were putting a show together with Agnostic Front in this club called Lintfabriek in Belgium, it’s basically the Belgium version of CGBGs. I said, “Why don’t we record it and release it?” We recorded the two shows and put it out on CD. That kicked off that. We did Slapshot and Blood For Blood (after they did that record with Victory). We did Ramallah last year. Since I grew up in the industry, I know a lot of people who are my father’s age that own record companies, and one of them was a Dutch guy that owns Roadrunner. I called him and said, “Hey, you used to have this label called Hawker Records in the 80′s.” Obviously, he didn’t remember that. That was the label that put out Token Entry, Wrecking Crew, and this compilation called Free For All, which was recorded at CGBGs. I said, “Hey, these are just lying on your shelf. Let’s release it.” We got a deal, and we put them out. Wrecking Crew is going out in August in America and September in Europe. Token Entry is coming next. We have that compilation Free For All, which has Armand’s, the drummer of Sick Of It All, old band. All these records were just released on vinyl. We did Maximum Penalty from New York. We did Beowulf from California. People seemed to appreciate that a lot, and we were very excited and honored to do that, since I grew up with all that stuff.
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How is your street team going?
I Scream Records has been around for fifteen years in Europe, and we did so many releases with American labels over the last years. Our street team, that is concentrated in Europe, has been very active. Since we’ve been doing releases in Los Angeles since March and the I Scream Records branch is really young here, we’ve been trying to build up a street team here. We have a lot of stuff on Ozzfest and Warped Tour, get in touch with kids, etc. We are building our street team and hope to get it as active as it is in Europe. Obviously, comparing ten years to five months is not comparable. It’s going to take a while, but it’s going good. A lot of people seem to be excited that we’re here and doing the releases we are doing. They send us emails, join up, and we send stuff out.
A lot of people know the big names you guys have released. What are some of the smaller bands you’ve been trying to promote and get out there?
One of the bands that we’ve released in May was called Crackjaw, out of Detroit. They are one of those bands we picked up that has no history; they are brand new. They’ve played so many shows and are such a hard working band so we decided to release their record and have these guys go out and play. They are a great band and a very hard-working band. Obviously, I Scream Records signs bands we are convinced are going to sell because that is the business of selling records. We don’t want to just concentrate on that though; we still want to have those young bands that are going to be the next Agnostic Front or Madball. You have to nourish those bands, give them a couple records, give them some shows, because they are the bands that work their asses off and play shows. These guys I think played like 250 shows last year in America. That’s amazing for a band that hasn’t been signed yet. They have a huge following and fanbase. That’s a band kids should definitely look at. Over the years to come, in our re-release series, a lot of kids that are into hardcore and punk rock haven’t heard of the bands like Wrecking Crew. Re-releasing these CDs from the 80s are giving chances for these kids to check them out, because those are the bands that I, and other guys in bands today, grew up with. One of the guys from Token Entry was the tour manager for Green Day. Those generations follow up. It’s a legacy. When we put out our European bands, it won’t be easy to break European bands in America, but the bands that do good in Europe, we want to have them get a shot. One of the biggest bands we have in Europe are Discipline, and we’re going to put out a new record, a DVD, with those guys. It’s an introduction for American kids to see what Europe is like. In some ways, it’s very different, but in others, it’s very close.
What else can we expect from I Scream Records for upcoming releases?
This month is a very big month for us. We are doing Wrecking Crew and Darkbuster this month. We are doing the split record with Mercy Killers, who just signed with Hell Cat, and a band from Belgium called Enemy Rose. Obviously a big one is going to be that compilation I told you about before, Free For All. It has Token Entry, Rest In Pieces, Wrecking Crew, and No For An Answer, which is great because it is a live record from CGBGs, and everyone knows CGBGs is closing down. We have a series called the Resistance Tour DVD series. Volume Three is being released before the end of the year, which is a great volume with Sick Of It All, 7 Seconds, Unearth, Walls Of Jericho, Slapshot, Heaven Shall Burn, and a couple European bands. Line-ups like that are not your particular line-ups for American shows, but in Europe, those line-ups work very well. It’s very interesting to see all those bands in one show. Volume One had Agnostic Front, Hatebreed, and Biohazard, three great bands. Volume Three will be exciting. There’s some new bands in the works for releases, but by that time, it’ll be next year. We have a new record from Maximum Penalty, after almost fifteen years of silence. Same thing with Beowulf. We are working on a few projects for compilations.
Down the road, how do you want I Scream Records to be remembered by the kids who came out and bought your records?
What I’d like is a fanbase for the label and bands like in Europe. That will be a big challenge to make that happen. That’s one thing that we’re really concentrating on very much so kids can appreciate that. Let’s say, in ten years, when we have done that work over here too, it will be cool to have kids look back at I Scream Records and say that, “Well, these guys have given us great classics and great discoveries from bands we didn’t know anything about. The records stayed on our iPods or CD changers for a long time.” Over these years, labels like Roadrunner have a specific sound that has become an icon in the music industry. Let’s hope that I Scream Records can be that too for today’s generation.
Any last words to the readers?
What we do with I Scream Records is that you can get our records anywhere. You can get them from the highest end chain store to the smallest mom-and-pop store, online or whatever. Send us an e-mail or get it online if you can’t find it in a store. Try and discover, especially for the younger kids, your legacy of what you’re listening to today. Try to understand that everything we do today like punk, hardcore, metal, emo, it all comes from the bases, old-school bands that put the layer down for bands to build on. Those bands you absolutely have to check out. We have some of them; other labels have the other stuff. Broaden your horizons.
