Hello and welcome to the last full week of 2013! We know many members of the music industry take this week off to celebrate the holidays and unwind from months spent staring at monitors, but here at Haulix we’re forging ahead with a full week of new, never-before-published content to keep you entertained while the snow falls. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Essentially all of the sites we have featured hope to start discussions about music, but very few have actually built communities of their own. Before social networking became a craze nearly every major new site/blog had a forum, if not something even more in-depth, and though many may argue the age of Facebook is better you will learn in the paragraphs below there is still something to be said for building your own community of like-minded individuals.
Dave Buck is a person who loves music far more than he ever enjoyed writing, but after noticing a number of talented musicians being overlooked by the music blogging community he decided to take matters into his own hands. The results of those efforts is the now well-known outlet Dying Scene, which boasts a community of thousands of diehard alternative music fans hungry for news and tunes from bands both known and obscure. It’s a destination for people who don’t care as much about what is trendy as they do about what is simply great music, and today we will learn how it all came together.
If you would like to stay up-to-date with everything Dave Buck has going on, we highly encourage you to bookmark and frequent Dying Scene. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.
H: Thanks again for doing this. Before we dive in, would you please tell everyone your full name, job title, and the publication you’re here to discuss:
D: My name’s Dave Buck and I guess you can consider me the founder and “head honcho” of Dying Scene (the site and the record label).
H: This is one interview our readers have been requesting for a while, so let’s start at the beginning: When you think about your life with music, what are the earliest memories that come to mind?
D: Considering Dying Scene is a punk focused brand I’d love to tell you I was listening to the Sex Pistols at 5 but the truth is I didn’t discover punk rock until I was 15. My earliest music memory was listening to “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel over and over again on a little Fisher Price record player when I was 5 or 6 years old. Eventually I graduated to Weird Al and the Beach Boys and listened to them almost exclusively until I was in Middle School.
H: What was the first album you purchased with your own money? Do you still own it?
D: I’m sure there were albums before this but the first album I can actually remember purchasing with my own money was Nirvana’s “Nevermind”. Hell yeah, I still have it!
H: This is a bit exciting for me because even though I’ve read your site for a long time I do not know that much about its history. What originally attracted you to the world of online journalism?
D: Well, it wasn’t so much a love for online journalism that lead me to start Dying Scene, it was a love for music. I guess you could say that the impetus to starting a punk blog was my level of frustration in the coverage I was seeing in other online punk news sites. I was coming across some fantastic punk bands scouring sites like MySpace and some of the best of those bands were getting absolutely zero coverage anywhere on the web. Bands like Chaser, Youthinasia, Doesitmatter, The Bastard Suns and Skyline Collapse were just a few of the acts putting out punk albums that I thought were some of the best releases of the year and I was shocked that no so called punk sites were talking about them. I just thought, “if nobody else is gonna tell people about these bands then I guess I’ll just have to do it myself!”
H: Is your site your first foray online, or did you write elsewhere before deciding to step out on your own?
D: I’ve never written for any publication, online or otherwise, but I do have a career as a web product manager so whatever experience I was lacking on the writing side, I probably made up for on the organizational and tech side.
H: DyingScene is a name that sticks to the brain. What is the story behind the name?
D: When I was in high school I always dreamed of owning a punk record label. By the time I got to college the “EpiFat” style of skate punk that I had fallen in love with was sorta being replaced by the first emo wave. I thought that if I ever did launch a label I’d probably only want to put out albums reminiscent of the punk that I grew up on, a sound I falsely felt was a dying part of the punk scene. I guess I thought Dying Scene Records would have been an appropriate name. Fast forward 10 more years and the name still seemed appropriate. The punk scene did seem to be dying out a bit but I think it was more a factor of the existing media coverage than a lack of quality bands or interested fans. I wanted to pump new blood into the anemic state of modern punk rock and help salvage the remains of what felt like a dying scene. A new punk website was born.
H: There is more to DyingScene than news and reviews, you’re actually building a community. What can you tell us about the original motivation behind the site and its design?
D: [Think I inadvertently answered the original motivation behind the site in the answer to my last question.] The design of DyingScene.com, for better or worse, was done by me. I’m no artist so it may look a little rough around the edges to some but I believe it encapsulates the DIY nature of the punk community at large in an authentic way. Funny enough, the original header of the site was based off some cover art I designed for a semi-joke compilation album I put together for one of my old friends. It was he and I that wanted to one day start Dying Scene Records together back in high school and in the years that followed he sort of drifted away from punk in general. When I was making those amazing new punk band discoveries I mentioned earlier I decided to put together a compilation called “Dying Music From A Dying Scene” consisting of awesome songs from those bands. I wanted to show him that if we did want to start a label there were some killer unsigned punk bands out there that we could launch with. Anyway, I decided to package it up like a real CD with real looking cover art, CD jacket and all that. I thought it would take a few hours but it took 2 whole days and about 10 trips to Kinkos. By the end of the project I was so into the design I had come up with for it I decided to keep it going in the form of a website header. That lead to a whole homepage design, which eventually became an entire site design.
H: How would you describe the typical DS community member?
D: That’s so hard to say because our community has become so large and so diverse over the years. The trolls and complainers are always the loudest so its tempting to tell you that they’re all grouchy punk rock elitists who hate the Offspring and have perfect penchant for pointing out typos but the truth is most of our community are positive, left leaning (obviously) boys and girls who really, really love punk music.
H: What type of content did DyingScene produce when it launched, and how has that posting style evolved over time?
D: I’m sort of proud to say that as our site has grown the types of bands we cover has not changed at all. We still give as much attention to the smaller up and coming bands today with a monthly readership in the hundreds of thousands as we did when we were just a no name brand when we first started. Since day one we’ve done news, album reviews, interviews, band spotlights and some original content like trivia posts and band name origin stories. We still do all that today with very little changes in terms of its presentation but our processes for finding and putting together that content is ever evolving.
H: There are a number of sites featuring talent similar to what can be found on DS. What is it about the content and coverage you offer that sets you apart from the competition?
D: We cover the little guys, for one, focusing a lot more on new music discovery than your typical news site. That’s a big one. If we think the music is good we don’t care if the band only has 10 followers on Facebook. A lot of sites find it more profitable to only cover the bands with big followings because the simple truth is stories about relatively unknown bands don’t drive clicks to your website. I’ve got a great career outside of DS so I’ve never really had to worry about making sure we’re turning a profit. All our writers, myself included, do this for free and we do it because its fun and we want to share great punk music with people we think might dig it. Sure, we’ll still cover the big guys but in response to that I’ll quote something from our FAQ page:
“Imagine for a second that you’re a kid who does not yet really know about the punk scene. You don’t have an older brother that introduced you to it and your friends all listen to hip-hop. You’ve heard Rise Against on the radio and you know you like them so one day you do a search for them on the internet and you end up on a story about them on Dying Scene. Now that you’re on Dying Scene you read the next story on the front page which happens to be about a band called Part Time Killer. You’ve never heard of them, so you give them a listen and Holy Shit, you love it! You check out another band, and another, and next thing you know you’re buying the latest albums from 5 bands you’ve never heard of until today. Then you realize that the unifying factor amongst these bands is that they are more or less considered “punk” bands and now your mind is officially blown. So this is what Punk Music sounds like?! You tell all your friends about this “punk rock” deal and you introduce them to the new bands you’ve discovered on a very informative, sometimes funny and usually accurate website called Dying Scene. Some of those friends like what they hear and then they go and tell their friends, and just like that, we’ve helped dozens of smaller punk bands find new fans all because of one little article on a band the elitists shun because they think they’ve “sold out” or don’t fit their definition of punk rock. We call that a huge success.
Also, it should be noted that we at Dying Scene have absolutely no problem with punk bands getting popular and even getting played on the radio. Good for them!”
H: You mention on the site that you never launched with intentions of finding fame or fortune, but there are a handful of ads to be found if you click around. When did you first begin monetizing your efforts? Do you have any plans to expand those efforts in the foreseeable future?
D: We’ve sold advertising for quite a while now but so far all its done is offset some of the costs involved in running the site. Of course, as our traffic grows so does our revenue, and if one day Dying Scene breaks even I would be thrilled. If one day it could pay me back what I’ve put in and afford me a flight once a year to Fest I’d be beyond thrilled, but I’m not expecting it. Dying Scene serves its function as a fun and rewarding creative outlet for me. I’ve got my day job to pay the bills.
H: What is the most difficult part of this ‘job’ you’ve created for yourself?
D: Time management. We have nearly 40 contributors working on DS and that’s a lot of writers to stay in touch with and keep tabs on. There are so many moving parts at this point it requires constant attention to keep things running smoothly from an operations standpoint, let alone from a timely coverage standpoint. I’m multi-taskinging DS work and day job work all day every day, except on weekends when I’m multi-tasking DS work and life in general. It’s a ton of work but I love it.
H: There are a number of young artists featured on your site. Where do you turn when hoping to discover new music?
D: New music and new bands have a way of finding us. We get new profile requests from bands every day and I listen to every single one of them, deciding who makes the cut and who doesn’t. We also get dozens of albums sent to us every day and I listen to at least one or two songs of every single one of them. It’s actually not so much a question of where to go to find music as it is how to filter out the good from the bad amongst the constant bombardment.
H: Let’s turn the tables a bit. What advice would you offer bands hoping to gain your attention and one day make an appearance on DS?
D: If you want to get our attention go to our FAQ page linked in the footer of the site and read. From there you can fill out a profile request form and leave us a note in the appropriate box if there’s something you want to tell us. Like I said, I listen to every single band that submits a request so if you properly filled out the fields on where to go to listen to your music I WILL hear your music. If I like it enough I WILL feature you, do a story on you, or maybe even sign your band. If you want us to review an album then follow the instructions on how to do so, again written out on our FAQ page. It’s actually amazingly simple to get your music in front of us. Obviously all of this is superseded by the quality of your music. If we can’t listen to your music or the recording quality is terrible or you’re not punk you’re not getting on Dying Scene. Period.
H: When it comes to receiving music for review purposes, which distribution services do you prefer and why?
D: I LOVE bandcamp. So simple. So easy. If your album is already released and you want people to easily stream it put it on bandcamp. And its really easy to embed so if we like it, we’ll do a story and stream your music right on Dying Scene. If you’re album isn’t released yet and you don’t want the general public to hear it until it is Haulix does seem to be the best service. Easy to stream, easy to download. Clean and simple. Simple is key when you’re trying to listen to a dozen different albums a day all the while churning out never ending news stories.
H: Album leaks have been a hot button topic for well over a decade at this point. Do you feel they do as much damage today as they have in years prior?
D: If we’re talking strictly about pre-official release date leaks, here’s the deal: There’s three kinds of people when it comes to illegal downloading of albums. Those that absolutely don’t do it (or at least they’ll go back and pay for it if they like it). Those that have absolutely no problem doing it. And those who won’t do it unless its the only way they can get their hands on the album. This third case is where album leaks hurt bands and labels. They lose out on the revenue from the people that would have paid for it if they could have but they’re just so excited to hear the album they toss their morals right out the window. Having said that, I don’t think that amounts to too much so its no huge loss to the music creators. It’s hard to think of anything else as a “leak” since I feel like its inevitable for an album to eventually end up on an illegal download site. If we’re talking about that practice in general then yes, it is hugely detrimental to the band, labels, and music industry as a whole. Labels and bands don’t make nearly as much money as they once did from album sales. That’s a fact. And its a fact that it directly corresponds with illegal downloading.
H: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
D: No more illegal downloads. Bands who work hard and put out good music deserve compensation and we should be happy to give it to them considering how much pleasure we’re deriving from their work.
H: What is your ultimate career goal?
D: I’d love to be able to do Dying Scene full time without the hindrance of a “real” job. That’s a bit of a fantasy though so I guess I’d settle for owning an online business of some sort that would allow me the freedom to live where I want and provide a little more free time to spend on passion projects like Dying Scene.
H: Thank you again for taking the time to talk to me. Before I let you go, is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
D: The pleasure is all on this side of the table, James. Thanks a lot for the interest. For those of you that haven’t already, please check out the site if you’re into punk music. Join us on Facebook and say hi (me and/or one of my editors are on there all day and we love talking to our readers).
