Off The Hip: Rock’n’Roll Rules

Keep your bands happy. Distribute your own titles. Never offer downloads. On the eve of their 100th release – Sole Stickers’ 'Sludge' – PATRICK EMERY speaks to Mick Baty about the three golden rules behind his Melbourne-based label and record store Off the Hip.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Barely a day goes by without some semi-informed commentator predicting the impending demise of the music industry and its business model. Specious analysis of the music industry is thrown in with airport-lounge quality economic analysis and a smattering of glib techno-savvy discourse to create apocryphal scenarios where record labels – once the basis commercial element of the music industry – are stumbling toward irrelevance.

But is it all really that bad? The Off the Hip model suggests there’s still light at the end of the tunnel for the independent music business. Mick Baty (aka Mickster) and his brother Chris established the Off the Hip label in 2002, ostensibly to support the release of Mickster’s album with The Stoneage Hearts. Baty had been playing drums in bands in Sydney for a number of years, including The Crusaders, The Pyromidiacs and The Finkers, and decided to base the label around his peers and his own experiences in the music industry. The Off the Hip tagline – garage, powerpop and rock’n’roll – captured the essence of the brand.

After moving to Melbourne with his wife Karen, Mickster set up the Off the Hip retail store in Preston, in the inner-northern suburbs of Melbourne. Within a few years, the store had moved to Melbourne’s CBD. Mickster ditched his carpentry job to work at Off the Hip full-time. Along the way Off the Hip had gradually established a strong roster of Australian acts, which now includes Johnny Casino and the Secrets, the Pink Fits, Wrong Turn, Dolly Rocker Movement and The Frowning Clouds. Like Au Go Go in the late 1980s, Off the Hip has introduced overseas bands to Australia, including the Goodnight Loving, Dollhouse and The Urges. And then there’s the periodic re-releases, including Little Murders, Asteroid B-612, The Finkers and The Shindiggers.

Five years later, and with the viability of record labels, and the music industry generally, under regular attack, Off the Hip has confounded the pundits and evolved into a successful brand. The three basic ingredients of the Off the Hip business – label, retail store and mail order service – work together to create a cogent commercial and artistic concept that’s as robust as Johnny Casino’s rock’n’roll credibility.

When and why did you establish the label originally?
In February 2002 as an outlet for my own recordings – The Stoneage Hearts - and a place for [my] mates’ bands. The label has grown organically from there.

You started out publishing a magazine as well. It’s been a few years since you published the magazine – do you expect to publish another edition?
Possibly, when my youngest kid stops sleeping in my bed and I’m getting a regular eight hours sleep, seven nights a week.

You’ve said previously that you’ve tried to develop Off the Hip label in light of your own – positive and negative – experiences with making, recording and releasing music. What are the main lessons you took into running your own label?
Rule #1 always look after the bands. Keep them happy, keep them coming back to the label.

Off the Hip has a very well defined brand ie. garage and powerpop. Is it important to maintain the cogency of that brand?
Truth be told we’ve sold more psych records than powerpop, and we have dabbled in folk/indie and a little surf. But yeah it’s important for me to release records that I’d wanna buy myself, and my shelves at home are stocked with plenty of garage, but mostly powerpop. I think for Off the Hip to last the distance we need to find a balance: not being too narrow a label (garage or powerpop only) or throwing too wide a net with too many genres. I’m pretty happy with where we’re at stylistically at the moment. We probably won’t release anything heavier than Chuck Norris, or as timid as the Creep Outs.

Without disclosing commercial secrets, to what extent is the Off the Hip label is sustainable business in its own right?
Most importantly we didn’t start our business with a loan, so we never owe any money. From the beginning we put back into the business any money that we made. I started taking a full-time wage after three years. We are on very good terms with our landlord, so we should occupy these premises for the next 20 years. Off the Hip has been growing steadily each year. In the near future I can’t foresee that changing.

“I think for Off the Hip to last the distance we need to find a balance: not being too narrow a label … or throwing too wide a net with too many genres.”

The music industry continues to be rife with apocryphal scenarios in relation to the future of record labels. What benefit does a record label provide for a band in the modern era?
I’m in a lucky position because I’ve played in bands myself for over 20 years, so I have a very good understanding of what bands at this level require: someone to look after the manufacture and promotion and distribution of their music. Also, I have 20 years of contacts abroad, so almost every Off the Hip band is surprised to see their music reviewed, played or sold in foreign territories. Rule #1: Keep bands happy and they’ll come back to the label. I make their music available to them to sell at gigs – most labels who go through standard distribution channels make it hard-to-impossible for their acts to take CDs or records on tour. I also help bands get music on TV or film, I don’t get them to sign away publishing rights, but work on a percentage for each job I land them.

Presumably you’re approached on a regular basis to release records for young Australian bands. What do you look for in a band before you agree to release their record?
I get around 25 albums sent to me each month for possible release, mostly Australian but a couple of overseas records. I look for no one thing in particular. I must love the music, and would want to buy a record from that band if they were to release with someone else. I try to weed out stars or wankers as early in the process as possible. The economics of running a record label are complex – artist royalties, manufacturer costs, distributer costs, etc.

What’s different in the Off the Hip model that’s ensured its current commercial viability?
Rule #2: Distribute your own titles. Rule #3: Never offer downloads. So far so good!

Is it correct that you’re looking to transform your label to focus primarily on vinyl, rather than CDs? What’s behind that business decision?
Vinyl is back in a big way, but the trick is how do I make it viable? It’s taken me eight years to get the CD part working smoothly! We’ll take baby steps, learn from our mistakes (or better, learn from others’ mistakes) and within three years would like to have turned it into a mainly vinyl label with CD saved for reissues (with more tracks and big booklets).

A number of record labels have embraced the digital download format as an additional revenue stream. Do you see Off the Hip taking the leap into the digital world?
Rule #1: Keep the bands happy. Bands on Off the Hip are music fans. They want physical product. Can you imagine me saying to Johnny Casino, “Here you go Johnny, here’s your new album, just click this link, add this coupon number and stream the album on your iPhone, iPod, iWhatever?”

Off the Hip has released a number of re-issues (Asteroid B-612, Bo Weevils, Shindiggers, Little Murders, Finkers, Brother Brick etc).
What’s your policy in deciding to re-release a particular record?
The main thrust is keeping good Australian music in print. There’s a stack of things I’d like to re-release but obtaining rights from big labels is too problematic for a one man show like Off the Hip.

You’ve also released overseas records in Australia such as Dimi Dero, Gimmies, Goodnight Loving, The Urges, Dollhouse and Reckless Hearts. What makes you decide to release an overseas record in Australia? Is it just when a band is about to tour, or is it more than that?
Touring is the last thing I’m thinking of. Purely about releasing good music, but in the case of Gimmies and Dimi Dero it was about helping out a band about to tour Oz.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] You also run the Off the Hip record store in Melbourne’s CBD. The combination of the decline in record sales, coupled with the growth of major retail chains such as JB Hi-Fi, has led to a reduction in the number and size of retail record stores. How has Off the Hip managed to weather that negative trend?
We are staffed by knowledgeable music types. We deal in secondhand and collectable vinyl. We source hard to find imports. We stock every Off the Hip title, and you can’t find those in any of the chains. [Laughs] Suckers.

You started out with the Off the Hip shop in Preston (in the northern suburbs of Melbourne), and then moved to the Melbourne CBD. Was that move necessary to sustain the shop?
Preston was our hobby stage … CBD is the “let’s pay Mick a wage every Friday like any regular job”. Of course since the move into the city we’ve grown quite strong, but the way things are today I could easily have one person staffing the shop while I worked from home on the label/distribution, and each entity would look after itself.

You grew up in Sydney, but you’ve been in Melbourne for more than 10 years. What’s your observation of the difference between the live music scenes in both cities?
Johnny Casino and the Secrets struggle to play live in Sydney. That town is full of fools.

Since the Lords of Gravity broke-up, and the Tash Mints went on permanent hiatus, you haven’t been playing in a band. Do you see yourself getting back into a band, on a semi-permanent basis, in the future?
Well I play drums in The Shandies: Mum and dads of students from Alphington Primary School. We do fetes, school events, corporate gigs. We do Amy Winehouse, Blondie, Paul Kelly, Triffids. It’s lotsa fun and I get to keep my hand in. I also still have a batch of powerpop tunes left over from my Finkers and Stoneage Hearts days that I’d love to record and release as Orange Sparkle.

Is there another Antipodean Screams compilation in the wings?
Yep, beavering away on #3 as we speak.

Off the Hip: Choice Cuts

The Frowning Clouds
Listen Closelier
Recorded in the record store. Magic!

The Stoneage Hearts
Guilty as Sin
Fond memories of playing with one of my heroes Dom Mariani.

Dolly Rocker Movement
Electric Sunshine
My brother Chris put me onto Dolly Rocker Movement; what more could you want from a business partner.

Johnny Casino and the Secrets
Old Clothes, New Shoes
Each new album is better than the one before.

Russian Roulettes
R’n’R
Because of this release they got to share the stage with Bob Dylan and Kiss. Impressive stuff.

Dollhouse
Royal Rendezvous
This is the overseas band I’d most love to see live.

The Datson Four
See
A great lost mod classic. Our first international band.

The Shimmys
1xCDEP, 2xCD Albums
At each of these three sessions we had a new born baby in the control room, while mum played bass and dad produced.

Antipodean Screams
Compilations
Such joy presenting great new Australian bands to the Europeans/Americans.

Pink Fits
Deja blues
Fantastic live band. Sorely missed.

+

Off the Hip will celebrate 100 releases at The Tote in Melbourne this Sunday (August 22). Acts performing include Los Chicos (Spain), Johnny Casino and the Secrets, Midnight Woolf, The Cheats, Little Murders and Russian Roulettes.