You’ve probably heard about the vinyl resurgence by now, with vinyl albums predicted to move approximately 40 million records in 2017. The popular medium has grown steadily over the past decade, but vinyl isn’t the only physical medium brought back from the dead: cassette sales grew by 74% in 2016, according to Forbes.
Enter Tridroid Records, an underground record label that specializes in cassette releases. Recent Tridroid releases include Heavy Temple’s psychedelic, The Dark Towers-themed record Chassit and black metal horde Uprising’s self-titled debut.
Decibel caught up with Tridroid Records owner Christine Kelly for a conversation about the growing popularity of tapes, being a fan of the label before owning it and what the future holds for Tridroid.
If you're down with the return of the cassette, you can find Tridroid on Facebook, Bandcamp and their store.
When did you start Tridroid Records, and what made you want to start a label?
I actually can't take credit for starting it - it was started by original owner Andrew Rehberger back in 2012 and (in my mind) was one of the earlier labels responsible for the metal tape resurgence in the US. In 2016, he and his business partner Jason Oberuc decided to pass the label on to someone who would keep the name alive. I had some label running experience, was a Tridroid fan and had been involved in underground metal for about 15 years, so I sent along an email that was basically 'I would KILL it at running Tridroid and here's why...' Apparently it was pretty impressive, so I became the new owner. I'd wanted to run a metal cassette label for years but didn't want to add to the glut of already-existing (and amazing) labels, so taking over one that was already around and had an audience was a best-case scenario for me.
Shortly thereafter, Andrew suddenly and tragically passed away. His best friend told me that Andrew was proud of the label's new direction which, for me, is the best endorsement I could ask for. RIP Andrew.
How would you describe the type of music that Tridroid puts out?
Heavy Underground Sounds
Tridroid is a “(mostly) cassette label.” Have you seen a similar resurgence in cassettes as we’ve seen in vinyl?
Yeah, it's interesting - I got into cassettes (again) several years ago for pragmatic reasons: I had long commutes on the train and never had an iPod. CD players skip and didn't fit in my jacket pocket. So I dug out an old Walkman I had lying around, bought a few cassettes and spent my train rides listening to black metal demos and old Iron Maiden tapes. I guess the collective unconscious came to some of the same conclusions, because soon thereafter I started seeing more and more cassette releases and tape labels. I've also noticed that turnaround times at cassette plants have greatly increased, so yeah, similar resurgence!
What is, in your opinion, the biggest challenge of running a heavy metal record label? What is the largest reward?
Money. Absolutely the biggest challenge. I pride myself on my business-running ability, but accounting and finances is definitely the biggest stumbling block. The largest reward? That I get to essentially be a professional music fan.
In the future, how would you like to see Tridroid grow? Will you expand into other formats, or do you think you’ll continue to mainly release cassettes?
It's going to be a cassette-focused label, but I'm dipping my toe in the vinyl waters with the new Violet Cold double LP coming out in July. I'm co-releasing it with Folkvangr Records, one of the best new black metal cassette labels out there. I'm also working out some licensing deals to put out cassette versions of metal classics, old and new. My goal is to show what's possible with the much-maligned tape format, since people seem to associate them with crappy sound, breaking, etc. A lot of the issues have more to do with crap tape players than the format itself, in my experience.
And, the question on everyone’s mind: Where does the name Tridroid Records come from?
Ha! Andrew came up with the name, and I read an interview from Jason that said 'he just thought it sounded cool.' Droids are fucking metal. 3 of them? TRIPLE FUCKING METAL.
