This interview appeared in issue 4(1994), of 'Protest'. Active Minds are a great band with great strong beliefs. Just after this interview was done Active Minds came to Ireland to play with Mushroom Attack and Hiatus. When they arrived the gig was cancelled due to Fugazi playing the following day!!!! Protest: Whats the history of the band, when formed etc? I really don't see why anyone would be interested in knowing when we started, its just totally irelevant. The only thing I will give is a list of our releases to date, so that people can find out what we've done, so here goes: "You can close your eyes to the horrors of reality",ep(tune4_released june '87) sold out "Welcome to the slaughterhouse" lp(tune11_released july '88) "Capitalisim is a disease & money an addictive drug" ep(tune21_released jan '91) We also have tracks on the following compilation records: "Splitting headache on a sunday afternoon"ep(Loony Tunes records)sold out "Exclusion"lp(Nabate records) "Wild & Crazy Noise Merchants" double lp(1 in 12 records) Theres also loads of our tracks on compilation tapes, too numberous to list. Do you want to give any tips on how your label "Loony Tunes , make the records so cheaply, like your own lp? Are you pissed off with questions on how you made your lp so cheap? Yeah, I suppose I am a bit pissed off with it now, 'cos I always thought it was a pretty obivious answer anyway theres no big secret about it. It's purely because we're non- profit label and the others aren't. You'd be better off asking the bigger labels why their stuff is so expensive. That doesn't mean necessary that any records that aren't as cheap as ours are a rip-off, 'cos there are some factors that allow our records to be cheaper than some other lables, e.g. (a)We did an intial pressing run on the album of 2,500 copies, which means costs are cheaper than for some labels who can only press 500 records or something. (b) Our recording costs are cheaper than alot of other bands (c) We have alot of contacts worldwide who can help in selling the records, so we don't have to concentrate on selling records through shops via distributers like Southern or the Cartel, who give you a real low price per record they sell. I'd say, on average, only about a fifth of our records sales are through places like that. As for giving tips on putting out records, I think the main important point is to stay totally independant. Primary, you haven't got to be too dependant on 1 distributer(e.g. Southern, Cartel, etc) 'cos if you are then its easy for them to manipulate what you do. Get you to put up your prices up, etc: before you decide to put a record out you should try to find out how many copies you'd be able to get rid of without using the big shop distributers. There are loads of independant mail-order distro's around, both in the U.K. and over seas, and you may be able to trade copies of your release with records done by other bands/labels. This is one of the best ways of selling your stuff. Don't be over ambitious, if you think you only sell a few hundred then consider only doing an initial pressing of 500 copies with a cheap ,fold-out sleeve. If you press for too many, you'll probably end up at the mercy of the big distributers, and thats a recepe for disater as far as I'm concerned. If any ones thinking of doing a record by themselves ,the pressing plant we use is:COPS, The Studio, Kent house Station Approach Barnmead Road Beckenham Kent BR3 IJD UK Seand for their pressing prices catalogue. Your lp was distributed by the Cartel. Don't you think you're just supporting these money grabbers? Not really, no. Unlike most other labels we don't concentrate our efforts on selling records through shops. With our lp, only about a quarter of them went on to the Cartel. The rest were distroed totally independantly through mail-orders or gigs, etc. Thats the sort of distribution that we concentrate on and support the underground distribution network. We do still use the big shop distributers(we're with Southern record distributers at the moment) because we realise that there are some people who think that hardcore shouldn't at all involve itself with the Cartel and such distro's and we have put out some releases on Looney Tunes which haven't gone through shops at all because the bands wanted it that way. Personally I don't feel that it's us who actually buy the records from shops. Any plans of paying a visit to Ireland in the distant future? Well, by the time you read this we should have already played in Dublin 'cos we're supposed to be playing there next weekend if all goes well(12 may). We'll have to see how that goes down. If it's good we'll probably be back again sometime soonish. What do you think of the bands on the tape I sent you(I sent a demo of Dublins "Paranoid Visions" and Corks "Monica Knickers and her 7 Peters") Well, you didn't send any of the bands lyrics, so I can't properly comment on the bands, as lyrics, for me, are the most important part of the band. Musically though the Paranoid Visions, stuff was pretty cool. I'd heard stuff by 'em before. I wasn't too keen on Monica knickers and her seven peters, and judging by the name I guess their lyrics wouldn't be too interesting either(although you should never judge a book by its cover, so I'll reserve my judgement until I see their lyrics). Whats in store for Looney Tunes or Active Minds in the future? For Active Minds we have very few confirmed ideas of what we'll be doing in the future, no doubt we'll just keep going and releasing more records. We're planning to do another 7" pretty soon, probably followed by a second album, although these plans may change before we actually get round to doing the damn things. We're hoping to go to the U.S.A. next year. As for Looney Tunes, we'll be winding down our activity with the label to a large extent in the future, as we felt that we just couldn't keep up with all the work onvolved in putting at the number of the way first-these are things that, we already agreed to put out, so we're still going ahead with'em so that we're not letting the bands down. After that, we'll also be putting out a series of comp. lps featuring only unreleased bands, each band will pay for 50 copies of the album which they'll receive so that they can help sell the thing. If any bands are interested in being on 1 of these albums they should write to us for more details. The address to write to is: Bobs Top flat 23 The Esplanade Scarborough N.Yorks Y011 2AQ England thats all for now..Bobs. A If your looking to hear music by Active Minds,click here for the 'D.A.F.T' website