All Hands Electric: A Brooklyn Artist Collective & Modern Musical Co-Op

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN: An artists collective and record label inspired by other artist-run labels, All Hands Electric encompasses the multiple projects of its all-Brooklyn-based artist-founders: singer/songwriter and musician Zachary Cale (Solo, Illuminations, Rope, Prudence Teacup), dance-punk musician and painter Peter La Bier (Psychobuildings), singer/composer and graphic artist Alfra Martini (Prudence Teacup) and drummer, visual artist and recording engineer Ryan Johnson (Illuminations).

In the spirit of the DIY punk labels of the 80s, the founders of All Hands Electric set out not only to release their own records, but also to develop a collective approach to producing, distributing and touring behind the records.

“We were excited about creating our own context for what we were doing,” explains Cale. “There was all this great music being made just in our circle of friends and we thought why wait around for somebody else to catch onto what we’re doing, why not just start our own label?”

It’s a question every artist and many producer/engineers, studio owners and music houses have asked themselves: why not just start your own label?

We spoke to Cale about where the group efforts have been well worth it for the All Hands Electric artists.

What’s the thinking behind All Hands Electric and why did it make sense for you and your colleagues to come together in this way now?

All Hands Electric was born out of necessity, as there was so much fantastic music being made just in our circle of friends and none of us were on a label. So we set about creating our own platform, pooling our different talents and resources and it quickly took on a life of its own. I think it is easy to underestimate just how important community is for artists.  It is healthy to be around people who will challenge you as well as inspire you. As a group effort we also felt it might make it easier to cut through — if we could create a collective context for our music it would stand out in its own way.

Zachary Cale. Photo by Alfra Martini.

Besides getting your friends/colleagues together to form the collective, what was involved in getting started?

Starting a label is actually simpler than what most people imagine. There really are no rules! Basically, we just needed to get some money together, collectively, to get that first release out. And then the second and so on…

As a true collective, we share and interchange our responsibilities. In the most general of terms I serve as the label’s main contact. I communicate with stores, distributors, and I handle the mail orders. Ryan and I both oversee production and maintain contacts with the vinyl, CD, and mastering people.

As visual artists we all contribute to the look of the label. Ryan created the logo, and directs most of the visual content, but both Alfra and Peter have contributed artwork to the label as well. Alfra designed and manages the website and blog. We all write copy and press releases. The technical stuff we learn as we go along. We all work at contacting the press (blogs, radio, mags…). It’s all quite evenly distributed.

And I see you guys are releasing vinyl LPs and 7”s. Is vinyl an essential piece of the All Hands Electric mission?

Yes, we’re all fans of the medium. When we were setting up, I’d already been a big vinyl fan for many years; I couldn’t even remember when I’d last bought a CD. From an artistic perspective too, I’d always wanted to release records on vinyl — the physical medium is more fun to work with.

Before we started All Hands Electric we did some research on where we should be pressing our vinyl and how. I think the perception is that pressing records is a lot more expensive than pressing CDs, but that’s not really true if you know where to go and what to spend money on.

All Hands Electric's 7" bundle includes releases by Rope, Psychobuildings and Zachary Cale.

Do you work with consistent facilities to master and press your vinyl?

Yes, we started off pressing vinyl with Brooklyn Phono. They’re really great and affordable and they do high quality vinyl — not the heaviest 180-gram vinyl, but the standard weight. It’s some of the best quality I’ve found of anywhere on the East Coast. We’ve worked with them quite a bit, but there are other companies out there too that are worth looking into. It takes trial and error to figure out what’s going to work best for you.

Brooklyn Phono doesn’t do 7″s, so for our recent 7” releases we went to another Brooklyn plant, EKS. Going into these places, I’m so surprised with how insanely busy they are with pressing vinyl. They can barely keep up with the amount of orders they’re getting.

How about on the mastering side? Who do you use for vinyl mastering?

We’ve gone to Paul Gold at Salt Mastering [in Greenpoint, Brooklyn]. He’s very vinyl minded. And I’d worked with both Paul Gold and Brooklyn Phono before, on a record I released in ’05 through another Brooklyn independent label, New World of Sound, run by my friend John Allen. I learned a lot about the New York underground through his label, which planted the seed to start something with my friends later on.

How about distribution — how complicated has it been to get that going?

Well, we really had no idea about how to get records into stores. It took awhile to find distributors and figure out how it all works. We’ve been fortunate to get help from outside sources, like Matador Direct, which is the domestic distribution wing of Matador, 4AD, Beggars Banquet. They also help out other smaller American labels with distribution, and they’ve worked with us to get a few of our releases into stores.

Pretty much everything we’ve released up to this point has been by the people who started the label, but now that we understand how to run this as a business, we’re excited to work with some artists outside of our circle. It’s taken a lot of time and work to get there.

Yeah, I bet! And at the same time you’ve also been producing a new album. That right?

Yes, I just recently mastered my next full-length and now I’m working on figuring out when to release it. This will be my second record on All Hands Electric, unless I put it out with another label. I think it’s good to release albums with different labels — it opens the audience for a band or performer. Also, that would allow us to bring other new acts into All Hands Electric.

What do you do to cultivate and promote the collective? Do you do All Hands Electric showcases?

Prudence Teacup. Photo by Justin McIntosh.

Yes, and we’d really like to do more. There hasn’t always been a live act attached to the records we’ve released and in some of those cases, we’ve actually formed bands through the making of the record. The Prudence Teacup album we just released, for example: Alfra Martini is the singer and composer, and she recorded it herself.

The album, Where All the Little Songs Go When They Die, was created purely as a recording project, so originally there was no plan to perform the music live. But in releasing this record, we decided to put a band together for a record release show. And in doing so, we got some other shows and then we got on a short tour, opening for Rasputina. We’d only ever played the record release show and next thing we knew, we were on the road with Rasputina!

So the band is born in the studio.

That’s how it worked out in that case. And now we’ll probably make another Prudence Teacup album with the full band. It was exciting pulling it together so quickly — finding the right people and being able to go out on tour right as the album came out.

As far as recording, is there any particular methodology to how All Hands Electric produces records?

Rope. Photo by Alfra Martini.

Well, we’re all definitely into the home studio idea. I think almost every one of our albums has been recorded either in a home studio, or in our rehearsal/recording studio, which is in the basement of my house.

We record to a TEAC 80 8-track 1/2″ tape machine that we bought for the very first All Hands Electric release by Illuminations, a band I sing and play guitar in. For that album, we recorded the basic tracks on tape and then transferred into a digital format and did the overdubs and mixing on Pro Tools with Josh Clark at Seaside Lounge Recording in Park Slope. In doing that record, Josh and I became friends and went onto collaborate on his project, Rope. All Hands Electric recently put out Rope’s first 7” single.

And how about your new record? Was that recorded in your home studio?

Yes, we did it down in the rehearsal space, tracking basics and a lot of the singing live to tape. Some of the songs are pretty stripped down in an old blues or folk kind of style — so I went for that raw, live sound — and some have bigger arrangements. So I took the analog tracks and dumped them into digital and mixed it at Vacation Island Recording [in Brooklyn] with Matt Boynton.

I like recording at home — you feel you have time to get it right without stressing out over the time/money you’re spending to get the best take. But the negative side to recording at home is that things can be more scattered and take a lot longer. When you book a room, everyone has to focus and get it done right then.

But having the rehearsal/recording space is great for the collective — it’s a resource that can be shared to record demos and basics.

Yeah and the farther we go along, it seems like a lot of the same people are playing on the records, and we kind of have a system now. For example on this new album I just finished, I brought in artists from the collective to play and help arrange the songs. And now Josh Clark is playing drums with me live, and I’m playing guitar with Rope.

Cool. Does All Hands Electric have a particular style or sound?

Psychobuildings. Photo by Joey Frank.

We don’t really have an identity as far as sound — we’re not really following any one trend. If anything we have an ear for American tradition, be it folk or punk, pop or rock, but it’s not so much that it can be considered “our sound.”

Prudence Teacup is experimental-pop with old cabaret influences mixed with some Brian Eno experimental sound sculpting. And we just released a single by Psychobuildings, which is Peter La Bier’s new dance-punk project. That’s again different than anything else we’ve put out and it’s doing really well — he just played at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.

So the Rope, Psychobuildings and Prudence Teacup are your latest releases and what’s next, your record?

Mine probably won’t be coming out until the Fall, but we’re planning on releasing a 7” single a month or two before the album comes out with the A side as a track from the album and the B side as an album outtake. It’s a good idea to calculate your release schedule. Our first year of releases, we had no idea what worked, and we released everything at the tail end of the year not realizing that everyone in the music press would be so preoccupied with their “End of the Year” lists. I think those records got a little forgotten because of when we put them out. You have to be strategic about it.

Anything else you’ve learned to take into consideration?

It’s a good idea to have MP3 codes in your vinyl releases. Also the blogs are a good resource to help generate interest, so you have to work with them.  Sending out songs ahead of time before you release your record is key if you want people to catch on and look for the album’s release. There’s some science to it, plus a lot of trial and error. Two years into having the label, things are making a lot more sense!

For more on All Hands Electric, visit http://www.allhandselectric.com.

Please note: When you buy products through links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.