Q&A: High Tension’s Damian Coward launches label, Trait Records

High Tension drummer Damian Coward has co-founded Trait Records, a boutique label and online store which favours vinyl.

Along with his Gold Coast-based childhood friend Mark Smith, Coward launched the label this week with a genre-clashing roster of seven acts: Perth band Snowman, Melbourne electronic duo Armour Group, Sydney band Making, black metal act Drohtnung, hard rock quartet Burlap, Melbourne electronic act Elisabeth Dixon and Sydney hardcore band Tanned Christ.

Speaking to TMN, Coward said the label is “run by artists, for artists”, and while Coward’s wholesale accounts and 20+ years of industry experience gives the label the running start, it aims to establish relationships with global labels to push its acts.

In the Q&A below, Coward chats to TMN about his hopes to reverse the “exploitative” history of the artist-label dynamic, how financially transparent they are with their acts, and why they’ve opted to take care of distribution themselves.

Tell me about Trait's founders and team, where do your music backgrounds lie?

The label is run by myself, and my partner, Mark. We have been friends for over 20 years, having met in high school through similar musical interests. Both of our musical backgrounds definitely come from the punk/hardcore realm, having both worked within that field over the past two decades.

Mark grew up, and got into other businesses, while I decided to stay within the music scene and work primarily within it’s walls, running small labels and merch companies, as well as play in a ton of different bands. Right now, I am the drummer for High Tension, The Night Terrors, Heirs + a bunch of other smaller projects.

Trait’s “team” consists of every artist on the label. We have a very strong collective of talented individuals who all excel in other industries; all of our artists work together. Film clips, artist bio’s, press photos are all handled in-house, and by that, I mean that if one of our artists (or myself) need something done, there is definitely another artist within our circle that is capable of handling this.

Why was Trait Records formed?

Trait was formed through the desire to run something new. Something that was run by artists, for artists. The main idea of the label was to try and “reverse” the ideals held by both label and artist; to try and eradicate the exploitative histories that both sides have with each other. Unless you are going for “mainstream” success, the money involved in this is almost always going to run at a loss. So, every artist on the label has complete access to every platform we have; everyone is a full admin on our Facebook, all of our accounts are open to the artists (SoundCloud/Vimeo etc), and our accounting systems are always accessible at any stage, giving the artists complete transparency. If we spend money on an artist, they are asked beforehand if this is what they would like, and after having reached an agreement, we then go forward. Everything is done on the artists’ behalf, with full knowledge.

Do you have an office space, where are you based?

We do not have an office space. I am currently residing in Perth, and our mail-order is handled by a close friend in Melbourne. Mark lives on the Gold Coast, and our artists come from all around Australia. The idea is create something where anyone can move around and do as they please, but also, having mail-order run by a third party ensures that orders that are placed get sent out immediately, and this is run as it’s own sector, where people get paid to do so. Melbourne is definitely the “home base”, but the idea is that it could be run from anywhere in the world.

Who’s your distributor?

What we are dealing with, per release, is around 250-300 copies + digital. The digital obviously takes care of itself, and the physical distribution is handled by myself. Over the years of running labels and playing in bands, I have developed close relationships with retail stores in Australia and around the world, and I find that having these relationships strengthens the bond between the label and the public. Obviously this means that we do not stock larger outlets, but through my experience, people are definitely not “browsing” when they go to these types of stores. I have also found that selling a niche product in larger outlets can have a negative impact – if the store doesn’t sell your stock, it gets put in a reduced section, and therefore cheapens the product.

When a release is in our hands, I will personally travel around Australia and drop the records off personally, and if I cannot reach a store for whatever reason, I will post them to the store. We also work on consignment only – this way, if the store sells the records, then great – everyone gets paid. If not, then we have the freedom to relocate the stock without causing any issues. The cost of travel/postage, if you have enough stock, definitely aligns itself with the percentage that distributors take, and this technique also ensures that our products are available, instead of sitting in a warehouse. Since distributors work on a direct sale basis, it often means that smaller releases get overlooked. This technique of consignment combined with a person to person relationship seems to fix these issues.

Is Trait equally a label and a store, or does it lean more towards one of those things?

Basically, the store operates as both a personal and a audial/visual extension of the label. The records we stock are there for a reason – either they lean towards personal tastes of myself and the artists, or they have something in common with the artists we are releasing. Stocking Whitehouse, Merzbow etc. is important to an act like Armour Group, who are based within this sub-genre.

It serves a few purposes; to give the artists a “home”, where they feel that they are surrounded by artists that they admire, it also works as an “incentive” for the consumer, so they can buy a rare release within these sub-genres as well as the label’s release, but mostly, we use this facet of the business to establish relationships with worldwide labels that fit our artists and could potentially be a home for them in the future. We try and purchase directly from the labels, so we have a “label to label” relationship, which benefits both parties a lot more than just blindly purchasing from distributors.

You’re giving artists full creative control on their work, how does that work?

The label exists primarily for the artist to grow. My job is to make sure that the artists learn from the knowledge of the 20+ years I have been in the industry, to impart this knowledge so the artists can avoid the many pitfalls associated with being in this industry. There is definitely more “unspoken” rules to this industry than other industries; making sure venues have what they need to promote shows, making sure the artists have tech riders, knowing how and where to purchase things like blank t-shirts all the way to hiring their own vans. I have wholesale accounts with all of these facets, and instead of just booking and purchasing these things myself, I send the artists these details and they book/purchase things themselves. The goal is to then have the artist “take control” of the label, and to then look at releasing other artists to join them, and to then impart this knowledge onto said artist. The ultimate goal is DIY at its most pure form, and abolishing any “label/artist” relationship that has existed in the past.

Tell us more about how the label will act as a collaborative space.

We want to have a platform where all art can be utilised – the joining of visual to audio is extremely important, and collaborations with work outside the music industry is definitely encouraged.

We want to produce items that are much more personal than just a shirt with a logo; the idea of one of our artists actually making something with another entity appeals to both us as a company, the artist as a more apt way of visually displaying themselves, and the consumer, in a way that they are receiving something that is made directly from said artist, e.g. hand-etched candles, screened posters etc.

It’s not about promoting the artists’ name across a shirt, like Nike or similar branding techniques; it is about the artist collaborating with something that they have a personal connection with, and that the consumer can purchase this item, therefore establishing its own personal connection.