Here’s a different kind of interview for you.  This one’s about all of the behind-the-scenes sweat and hard work that it takes to bring the metal music we love to the listening public.  Eric Galy is the owner of Canada’s Galy Records (go to www.galyrecords.com), and with recent releases by bands like Neuraxis, Martyr, Soulscar, Blinded By Faith, and Beneath the Massacre, they’re quickly establishing themselves as a force to be taken seriously in the metal underground.  Oh, and for all of you ambitious young entrepreneurs considering a move into the music business . . . read this first and consider your decision very carefully.

 

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

 

I don’t like to talk about myself too much.  I’m more on the quiet side.  I keep to myself.  I’m just a regular guy who likes and enjoys music very much.

 

You sign your name in emails with “sXe.”  Doesn’t that mean straight edge?  For those like myself who don’t know much about what that means, can you give us a little history lesson?

 

Yes, that is correct.  That’s what it means.  I’m not one that likes to preach, and I don’t bug people with this, and I don’t ask people to join the force with me either. It’s a personal choice, approach, and process in my life. I believe it’s part of steps to make my life better and make me a better person. It’s also part of personal challenges that I give to myself.  Straight edge basically means you abstain from smoking, alcohol, and drugs. That’s the basics. Some take it further and abstain from caffeine, promiscuity, etc., and follow a vegetarian or vegan diet.  So not all straight edgers are the same, if I can say. There is other things and ways of thinking involved. It’s a lifestyle. It starts in the hardcore punk scene around 1980.

 

When and why did you become straight edge? 

 

I don’t have an exact date. It’s a process and steps I took over the years. I never smoke, I don’t do drugs, I decided to become a vegetarian around 8 years ago, and I stopped drinking 3 or 4 years ago. I don’t remember the exact year. I stopped caffeine some time in 2007, etc. I still have things that I want to change, delete, or add in my way of life.  It’s a work in progress. As of why, it’s mainly because it makes me more happy and more healthy.

 

Was it before or after you formed the record label?  I ask since the label doesn’t seem particularly geared toward straight edge music, does it?

 

It’s not related to the label.  It’s part of my personal life, not my professional life. I don’t have one straight edge band on the label but would not mind having some, but it would not become and exclusive thing either.  Like I might not just do metal-related music without doing pop commercial stuff.  I became straight edge with time, by stages, so some stuff was before I formed the label and others after, and in the future there will be other stages as well.

 

When and where did you start your record label?

 

8 years ago in my head sitting at my old day job thinking of doing something more meaningful with my life. Then I started the label officially almost 6 years ago in Verdun, a city next to Montreal where I live.

 

With the thriving metal scene in Canada right now, it probably seemed like a pretty damn good business move to form a Canadian label, didn’t it?  You have easy access to all of these bands, for instance.

 

Not really. Business-wise I don’t think it was a good move to start a label in the era of the free download on the internet and in the era where some people are satisfied with just the songs on MySpace or Youtube.  I can’t tell you how much it has affected the label and our bands sales-wise because it’s impossible to have exact numbers, but I know that we can ship under 100 CDs in 1 week when a new release comes out, and it’s already available for free on the net the week after. So we do lose sales, so it’s not good for us, for the band, and the metal scene in general. It’s part of the game, but how long we can play it like this I’m not sure.

 

Now I understand people in a way checking out bands free on the internet. I mean, there are so much bands, so many crap ones, and so little money to buy all you want that it’s not hard to see why people do it, and there is no way that it will stop. We all bought a CD in the past and got ripped off with only 2 good songs on it, the multiple versions of the same album, etc.  The industry is in bad shape, and the industry is a big part of why it’s like this. Plus it’s there, it’s available, just waiting for you to use it, like a kid in a candy store that can eat what he wants for free. The only thing I would like to see happening is when someone really likes a CD he downloads, one that he listens to many times, goes and sees the band live, etc., I think the appropriate thing to do would be to buy that CD at some point in time, even if it’s a year later or no matter when. Shop smart and you’ll save money. Buy online or at shows! I think the net should be used as a listen-before-you-buy type of thing, a tool to help you buy wisely when you’ll have the money and when you’ll find the CD for a good price.

 

Why I started the label then you might ask?  Well, because I’m hard-headed, and I wanted to do it and try it anyway, and it was the next step in my evolvement in the metal scene for like 20 years now. Music is art, and art is not free. I pay to go to a museum to look at art. The statue you see in a park?  The artist got paid to do it.  I want a painting or a poster on my wall, and I got to pay for it. See the pattern? But hey, I don’t cry about it. I don’t slam people for it. I can see and understand why it’s like this. Still, it would be nice to pay and reward the artists that create and make this great music that we enjoy. We all like to get paid for the work we do, and artists are working hard to create great music and they have tons of expenses to do it.

 

So forming a record label wasn’t just a business move?

 

Not at all, or I would have done something else because it was not the best move to do business-wise. I never consider myself a business man, anyway. It’s kind of a crazy thing to start your label, so you got to be a bit crazy or a risk-taker, etc. But most importantly, it needs to be passion-driven first. The main motivation behind it has got to be passion and love for what you do.

 

I started the label for 2 main reasons: to create a full time job for myself in what I like the most so I could quit my uninspired day job and work for myself in something that would inspire me, and to help Canadian bands get more recognition worldwide and help them reach the next level in their career. Honestly, the business side of it, all the paperwork and the few problems and issues along the way with people that don’t understand the business and the reality of the music business in the twenty-first century (it’s not 1980 any more!) is starting to wear me down. This is not what I signed up for! It always sucks to put the word “business” with the word “music” because music is art, and art should not be a business. It should be about passion, creation, etc., but it’s just reality. It’s a business because everything related to it includes money.

 

Were you involved in the music business before the label?  Were you ever in a band yourself?

 

I’ve never been in a band. I don’t have that type of talent, but I do all I do for the same reasons as why musicians play music and form a band. The same things drive and motivate me. I started almost 20 years ago by doing a fanzine, then promoting shows, booking shows for bands, selling merch, managing bands, etc. I pretty much did it all beside playing in a band. All the behind-the-scenes aspect of it, I did and do.

 

With all of the technology so readily available today, was it relatively easy to form the label?  More people than ever seem to be doing it today, just out of their basements.  What were some of the specific challenges that you faced, even with all the technology?

 

What makes it easy these days is the easy access of manufacturing CDs. Equipment, recording, and the internet sure help to get your message and info across and to communicate with people everywhere in the world. So yeah, many people start a band or a label in part because of all this, because of the easy access to tools to do it. So there is more product, but less quality as well. Anyone can do it but with different results.  Still, it’s not easy, and it’s a lot of work to do it full-time and to be very serious about it. The easy part for me, I guess, was that I didn’t appear out of nowhere and decide to start a label out of the blue. I’ve been involved in music 14 years before starting the label, so that 14 years of hard work, of contacts, and networking, along with the good reputation, made it easy for me to have a quick start with some great bands, some well-established ones, or the best of the new up-and-coming bands. People know I’m an honest and serious person that does what I do for the right reasons, so it does help to get people and bands involved. The challenges that I face is more work than I can handle myself and the difficulties of finding the right people to help me out with all this work.

 

What all is involved in running Galy Records on a day-to-day basis?  How do you divide your time when it comes to promotion versus, say, searching out new talent?

 

A day of work consists in too many emails, phone calls, doing orders, setting up everything for a new release, the promotion, distribution, etc. It would be too long to detail everything since I overview and do most of the work. Lots of stuff to put together, to organize, to look for, to keep track, etc. Many things all at once!

 

Independent labels obviously have a huge part to play in the health of a music scene.  What’s the most important bit of advice you can give to those who are considering the formation of a label of their own?

 

Don’t do it!  It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifices for not much in return. It’s getting harder and harder to do it and to make it happen unless you do it for fun part-time while you got a real paying job and you put out 1 or 2 releases a year in your spare time as a hobby. We don’t know where all this is going, so it’s very risky. Check around in your circle of friends to see how often they buy music and how much they buy. Compare it to a few years ago, then ask yourself if it’s a smart thing to do at this point in time.

 

Who would you say has been most influential in your life up until this point?  What was the nature of the influence?

 

Michel ‘Away’ Langevin of Voivod and Vincent Peak who use to play in Groovy Aardvark. It’s simple. Those guys are very talented and passionate, and they are very nice, friendly, and humble people. Amazing as artists and amazing as human beings. I interviewed them when I was doing my fanzine when I was around 18 to 20 years old. They are very positive, and they influence and inspire me. Since we all live in Montreal, I see them over the years at shows or events. Sometime we just say hi, and sometimes we talk a bit. Almost 20 years later, they’re still the same. They never change, still very friendly and humble, and they still create amazing music. They both play together now in a band call Kosmos. Very spacey, weird, prog music. Check it out.

 

I would guess that, as a professional in the music business, you probably keep up a lot when it comes to current music.  Do you have a list for the best releases of 2007?

 

I used to, but for the last 3 years I actually don’t. It might seem kind of strange, but I hear so many new bands, see so many shows, and I listen to all the demos I get, and there is so much bad, lame, or ordinary stuff in what I hear and see, and it’s harder and harder to go see a show and be entertained or impressed by it. So many shows are just ok, and the same old things I saw thousands of times before. I love to listen to music. I do listen to music all the time, but to enjoy what I listen to, I’m driven into the old classics and back catalogue of older bands, in general. For the last year I got into old French music as well (like 70’s stuff). I find there a comfort that I don’t find in music that comes out today. Still, there is always a few things that come out in a year that is exciting.  In 2007, I really liked the Despised Icon album, Reanimator, L’Esprit Du Clan, and Melechesh. I think that’s about it. I can’t make a top 10 list. Dig into the back catalogue. There is some great timeless music out there!

 

Any new bands you’ve discovered and signed recently who you’d like to promote?

 

Reanimator and L’Esprit Du Clan are two very amazing bands on CD and live. Check them out. So there is hope. There is still some good music being made today!

 

Where do you hope to be ten years from now?

 

Somewhere warm with California-type weather, at least for the winter part of the year. No more snow or below-zero weather please! I don’t even have a 5-year plan. I don’t have hopes or dreams, but I’m confident I’ll be ok and happy.

 

Thank you so much for the interview, Eric!  I look forward to hearing many more good things from Galy Records in the near future.

 

Thanks to you and for your support. I really appreciate it.