A few months ago I went up to LA with Crisis Arm because they were playing Day 2 of the awkwardly-named Three-Dee Fest, being hosted by DR Records and KXLU at the LA ArtShare. Bands that we saw that day included Aftergloam, The Aquadolls, Cat King, and and Dona Nicha.
I had never been to the space before, and in between bands I walked around to check things out. Some of the rooms were theatres, some appeared to be classrooms, and on the upper floors were apartments with individually-painted and decorated doors. It appeared to be a multi-use facility and I was curious to find out how they operated, so I got a few words in with Lyndon, Chris, Andy,and Dan - a few of whom play in the Pocket Rockets, a few of whom perform as Ancient Animals, and all of whom are involved with DR Records.
This is a transcript of the conversation we had out on the sidewalk out the space. I don’t distinguish between the different voices because they all kinda talked at once and I’m not familiar enough with these dudes to tell who is who on the recording. It took me way too long to transcribe this but finally it has been done.
IAN: What’s up, my name’s Ian, I’m with The Dial Collective down in Murrieta.I just wanted to get a quick perspective [on the LA Art Share] because we had never been up here and were impressed with everything. When did you guys all start doing things at this space?
DR:: The first time we had a show here was probably for FMLY Fest, in 2012. It was The Fort who put that together, up there by skid row. They got closed down since then but they had shows similar to this, and we got Avi Buffalo to play, which is really cool. He’s a cool dude.
IAN: How often do you guys have events here?
DR: Out here in downtown, probably like once a month or every two months, but we have shows regularly out in East LA, like all the time.
IAN: Where do you have events out there?
DR: At our houses, at parties
IAN: So do you guys have like a collective? What is DR Records?
DR: What we’re trying to do is have everything recorded, so everything is for free download, just to have music out there. [We put on] live shows, you have an EP we’ll put it out, whatever you know.
IAN: So when you do things downtown like this, is it usually [this type of festival format] with alot of bands at once?
DR: Most of the time it is...We try to get alot of bands because alot of times we book bands that are known, so we try to get other bands that we want to see, or bands that we want to play with, so that everyone gets exposure. It’s like a unity thing....Maybe we’ll get a band who’s only been playing for like a year and has only really played like backyards, and we’ll put’em with a band like Avi Buffalo or like Hindu Pirates because we like them
IAN: So [this space] is like, an art gallery as well? I noticed it says “Residences” [on the street-facing wall] What exactly is this space?
DR: Its a lot more than a ‘space’, it’s a non-profit organization art share and apartment complex [The residences] are actually why we have to stop the noise at 12...They get alot of their lease money from those people up there. They (the LA Art Share) try to make everything pay for itself which is what we want to try to do as well.
DR: Its a lot more than a ‘space’, it’s a non-profit organization art share and apartment complex [The residences] are actually why we have to stop the noise at 12...They get alot of their lease money from those people up there. They (the LA Art Share) try to make everything pay for itself which is what we want to try to do as well.
IAN: I’ll just end it with this one: at our space down in Murrieta it’s like really important that we don’t have drinking etc; you guys haven’t had police intervention here or anything?
DR: Not really...They drive by but we have our foam-cup policy and no bottles policy...Especially too since it’s in Downtown, and its BYOB, only the older people can get beer, people who are of-age, so you don’t have kids coming in with it...They [the cops] have bigger things to worry about here.
IAN: Okay my last question just to wrap things up is, what’s your favorite breakfast food?
Lyndon: A waffle / peanut butter and jelly
Lyndon: A waffle / peanut butter and jelly
Chris: Some sunnyside-up eggs
Andy: I really don’t eat breakfast but when I do I eat chocolate parsons (?)
Dan: All-American Breakfast : Bacon eggs toast and fuckin...french toast
Chris: And hash browns! Homefries!
Chris: And hash browns! Homefries!
Dan: Total staple American breakfast
IAN: Okay so DR Records, is that the best thing to contact you guys through?
DR: Yeah thats the name of a street that we all lived on and we all record out of and have shows on...Downey Road
IAN: Where’s that at?
DR: East LA...When you’re driving on the 65 towards San Diego you’ll see “Now Entering East LA” and after that you’ll see Downey Road. The first exit is Downey Road.
IAN: Well I will send you this when I get it all transcribed but thank you for having this event! This has been very cool!
DR: Thanks!
DR Records: http://drrecords1.bandcamp.com/
The Pocket Rockets : https://www.facebook.com/TPROfficial
Ancient Animals: https://www.facebook.com/ancientanim
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