INTERVIEW
NO FRONT TEETH RECORDS
by Christer Davidsson, October 2006

Hey! What's going on?

Marco: Hey!

Tell me a little bit about yourself and the rest of the NFT crew.

I started NFT with Jon and ever since, we've been the heads of this operation and through the years we've had a bunch of people doing shit but Jon and I have been there since day one. Sam and Tom joined a while after and still do a bunch of shit and my wife Rose does too, so there's 5 of us who constantly do stuff but we got a whole load of kids doing reviews, interviews etc. We all work other jobs because we'd all starve to death if we had to live on NFT wages!!!

I work in an art college, Tom works for a builder's merchants, Sam works at a publisher's, Tom works for a television station and Rose has just finished studying child psychology. Plus we're all in bands like The Blacklist Brigade, Botox Rats, The Jabbs, Capitol Targets, Disco Lepers, Black Beach Union etc. So we're busy fuckers!

For how long have you been doing this?

It's been about 6 years now.

How come you started NFT in the first place?

Just because we felt that there wasn't a huge amount of European representation of the type of punk we were into, mainly American stuff so we wanted to cover that and that's what led us onto releasing those bands on our comps so that we could spread that sound in Europe a bit more and teach the kids!
Also, the label was a good way to get our own bands stuff out there too and a way to help lesser known bands get exposed through bigger bands. Every compilation we've ever done and will ever do always has a bunch of big-namers on there and a bunch of lesser-knows and even some total unknowns and we just want all these bands to be back-to-back on the same comp because there's so much great shit out there that doesn't get a chance a lot of the time.

What is your first memory of punk rock?

When I was about 11 I was on holiday in Italy and I was listening to stuff like Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, Guns 'N' Roses, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and shit like that and one of my sister's friends who was much older than me made me a Clash tape and I was instantly blown away! I couldn't believe the impact of this band through such simplicity. I was used to ridiculous solos and 10 minute epics and this just re-wrote everything for me. Still feel the same way about the Clash today. That was my first real taste of punk rock and then at school the Sex Pistols were pretty exiting, but the Clash have really stuck with me throughout all these years.

Why do you call your label No Front Teeth?

Because my front teeth are silver, I got them when I worked in a dental laboratory making teeth! I shot half of one out with a BB gun on my 12th birthday and then I smashed my face into my bike handlebars about 5 years ago so I got the silver ones in there!



Give me a brief history of the label, discography etc.

Ok, the label started a year after NFT began so we've been releasing stuff for about 5 years now and it all started with the "Suburban Life Sentence" and since then we've put out five more compilations, the "Global Hostility" world-wide punk comp, "Resistance" skate/punk comp, "Dancehall Troops" volume one and just now the "Kamikaze Broadcast" double comp. We've also put out a bunch of shit like a couple Bombshells albums, Killing California, The Scuffs, Hook and the Daggers, Deadones USA, Dead End Kids, The Put-Ons, Blacklist Brigade, Black Beach Union, The Jabbs, Inoculators, Malavista, Gumbabies, Nazi Dogs, Hollowpoints and tons more! We've put out, like, 30-something releases so far with so many more in the works!

Out of all the NFT releases, which one are you the most proud of?

I love our compilations because they have so much shit on there but the series we're working on right now called "Good Vibrations and Vicious Transmissions" is really exciting! It's a live series that has songs and videos on there and the first volume will be by the Nazi Dogs. We recorded and filmed it all and it's just about ready to go with killer artwork too! I know that it's not out yet but I'm very proud of that!

How much does the artist have to say about the artwork of the records. Are you doing it or are the bands taking care of it themselves?

I do 99% of all the NFT releases cover art myself and I work with the bands to get what they want on there, if they don't like it - it's gone, no problem! That doesn't ever really happen but I want the band to be happy as much as I want an NFT style. I didn't do the Nazi Dogs 7" art or the Gumbabies CD, the Hook and the Daggers CD, the Bombshells CD's, the Scuffs CD and a few more but I really like all those!

Is the artwork of a record really that important?

Fuck yeah, there's no excuse for shitty looking releases. That's just lazy shit. NFT is totally D.I.Y. and even when we started out and had no money we never put out lousy looking shit! There's just no reason for it. It takes just as long to make something look cool as it does to just throw some shit together, I can't stand releases that have no style. For me, the artwork is just as important as the music because that's how the band present themselves and a record sleeve should suck you and make you want a record badly!

What is your favorite record-sleeve of all times?

Shit, there's so many! I love the U.S. Bombs' "The World", The Briefs' "Sex Objects", The Hollowpoints' "The Black Spot", The Fartz, The Feelers, maybe my favourite is The Riffs' "Underground Kicks" or the Mummies' "Death By Unga Bunga".

What's the best and the worst thing about having a label of your own?

The best thing is working with all the cool people and bands and meeting some truly great people and friends and seeing what a great spirit of generosity and "family" exists in punk rock. There's not many scenes that a D.I.Y. label could survive in! The worst thing is money, hands-down, that's been a problem since day one and will be until the end. Every penny we make with NFT goes straight back in to fund the next project. It's a constant struggle and definitely hold us back on the amount we would like to be doing.

Are you doing a lot of specials, color vinyls, gate-fold-sleeves etc?

The first 7" we put out which was a split between the band that is made up of NFT members the Blacklist Brigade and the Dead End Kids from Florida was on red vinyl but that about as special as it gets! We'd love to do more special stuff but it's just too expensive at the moment. We will be doing a limited had-screened run of the new Dead End Kids full-length that I'll be doing and hand-numbering which will be out at the end of the year, and I also did a run of hand-stencilled NFT skateboard decks that sold out straight away so we might do another run of those.

NFT is also a zine, tell me about that.

Yeah, when we started we were just a zine not a record label. Our first release, the "Suburban Life Sentence" compilation came out after about a year. We actually started out as a paper zine but canned that quick! So we became a webzine and we still are. We're still doing reviews, interviews etc. so it's about 50/50 zine/label now.

What's the best sounding record of all times according to you, and why?

I actually like really shitty sounding punk rock because I fee that it truly communicates the spirit of rebellion in punk. I just don't hear that in all this super-produced shit these days... If I wanted big production I'd listen to major-label stuff? I love the early sound of stuff like the Injections, The Rotters, Reagan Youth, Big Boys, The Dicks, The Scumfucs and early Mystic Records stuff. Probably the best sounding record for me would be something like JFA's "Valley Of The Yakes" and contemporary-wise would have to be the Soda Pop Kids "Write Home" and The Riffs' "Underground Kicks" tied.

Are you buying a lot of records?

Shit yeah! I spend all my wages on records!! My baby boy has to go hungry because I spend all our money on fucking records!!!

Tell me about the latest record you got?

Stuff I've bought recently is The Nihilistics, The Simpletones, Hanoi Rocks, The Mumps, The Defex, The Threats, The Ulcers and so much more... The Infections, 7 Seconds, all on vinyl!

What other record labels inspire you?

So many! Hostage, Rip Off, Shattered, Posh Boy, Disaster, TKO, Full Breach Kicks, People Like You, Radio! There's so many great ones.

Some of your releases are co-released with other labels, right?

Yeah, the first we ever released with another label was the Malavista CD that we did with Rezist Records from Texas then we did the Scuffs with Disrupter, Nazi Dogs with Drunk 'N' Roll and Caustic Rock, The Gumbabies with Caustic Rock too, The Hollowpoints / Deadones USA split 7" with Drunk 'N' Roll too and we're doing the Dancehall Troops series with Dogpile, but that's a clothing company not a label.

What's your dream-record?

Well, there have been a few records that kicked my ass and really woke me up as a kid- like Swingin' Utters' "Streets Of San Francisco", Dead Kennedys "Bedtime For Democracy" and shit like that so I'm very close to those records, but a dream record has to be something that I don't already have... I'd quite like one of those GG Allin 7's where he traced around his cock for the cover art, but that's not really a dream record. It would have to be some fictitious shit like Johnny Cash with the Jabbers or some shit like that, that can never exist!

So, what are you working on right now?

Right now we're working on the Nazi Dogs live CD that I mentioned earlier, we just released the Kamikaze Broadcast compilations last month. That was a double release - two totally separate volumes of the same compilation series released at the same time and there's 60 bands in total on there including Die Hunns, Black Halos, Thee Indigents, Nazi Dogs, Oppressed Logic, Brain Failure, Vivisuk, Disco Lepers, Kings Of Nuthin', Teenage Harlets and tons more and we just put the Hollowpoints / Deadones USA split out last week and we're still finishing up the first NFT DVD that we're doing with Dogpile as part of the "Dancehall Troops" series and that's gonna be killer! There's over 4 hours of punk and skate chaos on there including so much never seen before shit from Lars Frederiksen, U.S. Bombs, Hunns, Black Halos, Smut Peddlers, Texas Terri, Exploding Fuck Dolls, Dayglo Abortions, Nazi Dogs, TV Smith, The Shocks, The Briefs, Midnight Creeps and so many more, plus there's a 42 track CD with it too!!! It's insane shit! I really think there's been nothing like this released before. Also, all NFT members are in those bands that I mentioned earlier who have shit going on like The Disco Lepers. They have a full-length in the works, Black Beach Union are working on the second full-length, the debut Jabbs full-length should be out in the near future and the Botox Rats have a 7" in the works too so we're all busy as shit!
Oh yeah, there's a new Factory 13 Jabbs skate-deck in the works too to coincide with the full-length.

Anything you'd like to add?

Yeah, check the site out at www.nofrontteeth.net and buy our sick shit! Support D.I.Y. and independence and keep sending us stuff for future comps and DVD's and check us out on My Space - www.myspace.com/nftrecords.

Ok, all the best to NFT and thanks a lot for doing this interview!

Thanks a lot!


LINKS:

http://www.nofrontteeth.net

http://www.myspace.com/nftrecords