When did you start the label?
We started in 1990 with the first LP "Get Crazy" by my own band "The Slow Slushy Boys". All french rock'n'roll and independent labels had just died, like Stop It Baby Records, and I decided to start my own.
What about the name? Why did you choose "Larsen"?
"larsen" is the french word for "feedback"!! I mean, the larsen effect is when the amps make intolable noise and kill your ears.
What was there earlier, label or fanzine?
I started the label in 1990, the fanzine was two years later I guess..
Why did you start a fanzine as well?
The reason we started the fanzine is that we met three "comic artists" who could work with computers and we decicded to join our passion to release good stuff. As for the label, France was so poor concerning labels or fanzines. Sure, it is too much sometimes, especially when I had no more time to make songs or play music myself. I do exactly what I want and when I want.
There are only two issues a year. Issue number 16 has been out since January 2000. Then I did label work for three or four months, meaning I released the "Waistcoats" LP and five 7". Then I spent my energy on the "Slow Slushy Boys", finishing the songs, designing the artwork, taking care of the pressing and now promoting and distributing it.
Hopefully, I will have two months of holidays, July and August, then I will start to work on Issue number 17 of Larsen Fanzine which should be out in October. Anyway, when I discover a great new band, that always gives me energy to keep the label and the fanzine going.
How many people are working at Larsen Records?
I am the only one! Hopefully, Yannick of Wiped Out records, a very good friend of mine, will help me sometimes as well as my wife, Dem, who plays guitar in the Godzillas. Maybe you don't know, but music is not my day job. I am a primary school teacher, that's merely the reason why label and fanzine still exist: money never was or is a problem for me. I always can consider music as my passion and nothing else.
How do you choose, what you release? Is there a straight line?
There is no straight line! Only what I love and music by people I like. I try to meet every band I release records from and for me, that is the best thing in my activities. Or the worst, but that has been so rare.
For example, when I met the Waistcoats, they were so friendly and cool that we made about seven records together. Sure, music is important too, it has to be sincere, dancable, wild and melodic.
But it could be punk, or beat, surf, rhythm'n'blues, or ska, garage, whatever. I don't care! My favorite music is rhythm'n'blues, but even in my own bands, there is more than this type of music. Listen to the Mersey Sect, Bees'n'B-Mice, The Trouble Makers or Muccus 2, all of them have records on Larsen, and you will see what I mean. There are some things I can't stand, mostly posers. It is great for me to release stuff of unknown bands. The next one will be a garage punk band from the states called the Havox. They play music somewhere between Lyres, Swinging Neckbreakers, Makers and Woggles. Speaking of the Neckbreakers, that is the best example for what I dislike in bands!
You have written that you consider rhythm'n'blues as your favorite music? How did you get in contact with it? How did your interest in music start?
The first contact was, like a lot of teenagers in the early seventies, when I discovered the first album of the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, John Mayall, Them, and all the bands of the british R'n'B. At theses times (70-75), I listened to a lot of other different stuff aswell, Hendrix, Who, Birds, Neil Young, Bowie, Velvet... But the real will to play Rhythm'n'Blues came later when I discovered the real blacks roots of this music, in some compilations like "Talkin' Trash", "Whip it on them" and some great artists like Arthur Alexander or Smokey Robinson.
What about distribution? How do you sell the records? How many copies are there?
I do all by myself, I work with some record shops trading with fanzines and labels all around the world, but most of it in Europe. You can find all about our distributors on our website. I always press 500 copies the first time, so it is not so hard to sell all the records. Of course, it is a little bit harder to sell the unknown bands like the Splinters, Bees'n'B-Mice or the Mersey Sect, but we sold all of them after about a year. As I trade a lot, I have to have a mailorder list. Itīs a hard job, I am no expert and it takes a long time, but that is the right way to be independent, not to give money to the big distributors. I worked with some of them in the past, but it always was a horror. They kept a lot of money when they sold a few records, and they never sold many. They are all robbers!
Don't you feel you are limiting yourself if the fanzine is written in french? Do you mind being limited to France more or less?
Not at all. France is my country and it is easier for me to know what is happening. But as far as music is concerned, I
have better contacts in Italy and a lot of friends there. The Italians seem to appreciate what I do, the label and the
band as well, we have made four EPs with italian labels. Spain and Germany are really more ready to listen to the music
I love than France. The best example is when american bands I "produced" are in tour in Europe. The Hentchmen or Fortune and Maltese played a lot in Germany and in Spain, but only one or two concerts in France and only for a few
people. I would really like to organize more concerts but that is so hard to do here. I did one show with the Woggles
last december but we were about 25 people to see a great, great show! You can imagine how disappointing that is.
With some luck, I can organize a free festival in our town each year in July, and then we have a lot of people here who
can see some of the bands I really love: Waistcoats, Beat Man, Los Imposibles, The Squares, The Bogeymen, Muccus 2,
Coyote Men...whatīs going on with french bands? I don't talk about those on Larsen Records. Thundercrack is a really
great band, but who else? All the other punk bands really bore me. Nobody knows how to write an exiting song, nobody
has the roots for it. I think it is enough for starting a band to love the New Bomb Turks but afterwards...it is the same with the 60's revival bands and the Sonics. When we play music, we always have to look for new sensations, new bands or old bands, never remain at the same place for long. The Satelliters are great, they move! Their last LP on Screaming Apple shows that they still listen to new stuff and they are not static. They are alive! Talking about german bands, I am really impressed by your bands. Muccus 2 are the best for me and there are some more like the Montesas, Curly Wurly, Satelliters, Oddball's Band...Oh, what was the question again? Let's talk about France again.
The Fanzine is written in french, as you can see my English, it would be hard work to do it in English. This could
sound ridiculous, but somwhow, I am a teacher and it sounds good to me to introduce some good rock'n'roll to french
people! To be sincere, we always lost money with the fanzine because it is so expensive to make it and at that price,
800 copies are not enough. But I want to keep it like that. That thing looks good, I don't know, I like it, just like
the music we love. The french must know that thing!
Ok, so you don't normally organize concerts, is that correct? Would you like to do that? or don't you have enough time for that? What about that festival you were talking about? How do you get the money together for it?
10 years ago, I did organize a concert every two weeks, then I stopped because it was too hard to find a good place here. Anyway, I don't have enough time now to do it. The only thing we do is the festival in July. the City, Chambery, gives me some money to organize a free festival, and I do it, exactly as I want. That's a cool deal for us, 'cause we can see and meet some great bands for the first time, like the Waistcoats, Coyote Men, Mucus 2... Next year, there will be a cool new place here for all the associations, then we can organize concerts again, but I will not be into that kind of work, only give some bands contacts and some help, and that's all. Some good friends around Larsen will do that: Wiped Out Rec, and Catharsis.
Please tell me a few things about your own band "The Slow Slushy Boys"...
We started 10 years ago, like the Larsen label. We never did it as an ambitious band who wants to be known and to be rich, we only want to play some concerts and record some good songs. And we did it, 5 albums, a dozen of 7inches and about 300 concerts in France, Italy, Spain, and soon Germany.
I guess you started prior to the label?
Just a few monthes before. I started the label to release our first record.
You mentioned something about a german tour...
Yeah, we'll be there next autumn, that's very exciting for me to play there, to travel again and meet some new friends. We only played once at Köln some years ago, and that was cool. Like the people in Spain, the german people seem to still appreciate garage beat.
Do you have contact with the girls doing "Underground" fanzine? How far are you involved in the kind of french scene?
When we organized concerts from 1986 to 1992, I knew about all the independent and alternative french scene, and it was really excitin' and funny. And I still have contacts with some of them, as the "Underground" girls. One of them, Nadine, is a very good friend of us.
What about radio shows broadcasting underground music? Does something like that exist?
I never listen to radio here, 'cause there's only bullshit! There are a very few great radio shows in France who play rock'n'roll, garage and punk. And there's no radio who plays rhythm'n'blues !! There's a big association of independent radio stations called Ferarock, but they only play commercial shit or boring HC.
Do you spend money on placing songs of your records on compilations?
I did spend money only once for a song of Stompin' Harvey in Banzai (not a lot, hopefully). Usually, we don't have to pay...
How would you estimate their usefulness? Do you think it is worth the money?
I don't know. I just like that our songs appear on compilations. That's always a pleasure and an honor to be asked for that.
What about the free 7" that comes with larsen fanzine? How is that financed? Do the bands have to pay money in order to be placed on that piece of vinyl?
Nobody has to pay! That'd be a shame for me to ask money to the bands. I even give them some copies of the fanzines.
Where do you get the money from for larsen fanzine? I mean, if you sell all copies, it is 800*35f which is quite a lot of money...how do you manage that?
Yes, let's go to the numbers! The price is 35FF, including 8FF of postage, then it is only 27FF. As I give about 100 copies minimum away for free, it means 18 900 FF when I have sold all the stock. The fanzine + the EP cost in total: 21000FF. That means that I lost some money, but we know that since the first issue, and we never managed to change it. We want it to be of a high quality. And anyway the fanzine helps me a lot to promote the Larsen activities.
How important are ads for Larsen? Both, those you place and those you get for the fanzine?
I only have a few in Larsen (not very expensive, 200FF for one page (only one size), but I don't really look for... Feel free to contact me for that! I'm not into business at all.
Are those comics a regular part of larsen fanzine?
Yes. The first idea was to mix garage music and independent comix. Didn't I tell you that I started the first CD-issue of Larsen zine, with 3 friends who are drawers? One of them, Pierre Jean, still takes care about all the comix part of the fanzine.
Thanks for your time, Denis!