Altered Zones

By Jenn Pelly

With a catalogue of early releases from the likes of Blank Dogs, Zola Jesus, and Gary War, Brooklyn’s Sacred Bones Records has established itself as one of independent music’s most enigmatic underground labels. Founded in 2007 by Denver transplant Caleb Braaten, now 33, the label has since grown to include partner Taylor Brode, 32, and a crew of generous creatives. Their releases range from Kosmiche-inspired soundscapes to straight-ahead cyberpunk, all bound with an elusive but tight, dark thread. From its goth-tinged music videos and occultish triangle logo to its signature white vinyl packaging, Sacred Bones has succeeded in shrouding itself in an aura of romance and mystery.

Sort of. During our interview outside Williamsburg café Bakeri on November 19th, this enigma was met mostly with laughter. “Hell yeah,” Caleb jokes, “That’s exactly it. It’s whatever you want it to be.” Caleb and Taylor spilled a few Sacred Bones secrets before heading to Bones HQ: the dark and dingy basement of Brooklyn’s Academy Records, ground-packed with Sharpie-marked “SBR-00X” cardboard boxes and a small Tom Petty photo. The next day, they left to catch up with label mainstays Zola Jesus and Gary War at a 1,200-year old castle in the medieval Italian town of Itri, where the artists recorded a collaborative record for Sacred Bones last week. Read on to learn more about their upcoming releases and European adventures, and to find out which of their artists are heading from bedroom to studio in 2011 to ditch the hiss.

AZ: Can you tell me about your backgrounds and what lead you to start Sacred Bones?

Caleb: I’m a high school graduate from Denver, Colorado. I moved to New York seven years ago and worked at Bleecker Bob’s in Manhattan, then at Academy Records in Brooklyn. The first Sacred Bones record was The Hunt, some of my best buds in the city. They recorded songs, and I was like, "Yeah, sure, I’ll put out a record." I didn’t know how to sell a record aside from at the store I worked at. The next record was Blank Dogs. I got lucky that people liked it and there was an Internet buzz.

Taylor: I’m from Chicago. Caleb and I became friends five years ago. I was a Sales Rep at Touch and Go, and Caleb was one of my buyers. Then Touch and Go laid off their whole staff. In 2009, I started working for Caleb remotely, and in early 2010, I came here to do Sacred Bones full-time. I also worked at Reckless Records in Chicago for almost nine years. Sacred Bones is an 80-hour-a-week job, but we both have night jobs. I work for Bowery Presents part-time, Caleb bartends.

(img credit= Jenn Pelly)

AZ: Is anyone else involved with the label?

Caleb: David Correll is our graphic designer. There’s Keegan Cooke, the drummer of Crystal Stilts, who makes all the prints. He’s a real solid fella. And there’s Jacqueline Castel, who shoots all of the Sacred Bones videos. The five of us are the Bones Brigade.

Taylor: Jacqueline is basically our in-house director. We’re lucky; most labels pays tens of thousands of dollars to hire directors who will never nail the aesthetic nearly as well as she does.

Caleb: Jacqueline and I just went to Australia, and met up with Shawn Reed from Night People, and Matthew and Lucy from Naked On The Vague. We went into the outback and filmed a psychotic, psychedelic desert horror movie about a man losing his mind. It’s going to be loosely based on a Naked On The Vague song called “Clock of Twelve". We’re releasing an EP of theirs to coincide, and we’re going to do a DVD of Jacqueline Castel’s work.

AZ: For a DIY label, Sacred Bones’ aesthetic seems polished. Do you think it’s gotten stronger since 2007?

Taylor: With all of our records, we use a template; the covers are all laid out the same way. We like to keep it uniform and easily identifiable. All of the full-lengths are hand silk-screened by Keegan in the basement of Academy. We want people to have that forever. An MP3 is transparent.

Caleb: He’s down there, doing it for days, covered in ink. He’s a monster. We’re very specific about our aesthetic, and it is very polished because Dave, our designer, is a genius.

AZ: I’ve heard you call the sound of the label "dark". What are some of the bands that bind you together?

Taylor: Caleb and I grew up having really similar tastes in music. We both veered towards the darker end of things. Sisters of Mercy would be a big one. Bauhaus. Gun Club. There’s obviously The Legendary Pink Dots. Death in June. Killed by Death, and Christian death.

Caleb: Germs, and Wipers. Disco zombies. Early DIY punk. Just that whole post-punk gritty, desolate, dark, grimy rusted thing… Rusty, dusty, musky. You know? That’s kind of the whole deal. But they are pop songs at the core. And we like Fleetwood Mac, early 4AD, Factory Records.

(img credit= Jenn Pelly)

AZ: How has that "darkness" thread evolved over time?

Taylor: It’s a timeless sound, as opposed to a sound of the moment. When the label started, lo-fi was certainly the buzzword. There were a lot of labels getting lumped together as “the Brooklyn sound". But we work with bands from all over the world. A lot of our bands are going into studios and working with producers. The next Zola Jesus record will be in the studio. Gary War, too. Moon Duo just did a record at a studio in Berlin. We’re doing a record for a band called Cult of Youth from New York, and there’s a new band called Trust from Toronto.

Caleb: Lo-fi, hi-fi, mid-fi…we’re just gonna do a bunch of cool records. Next year, we’re doing a record for a band called Slug Guts from Australia, and Circle Pit.

Taylor: We’re also doing the solo record from Jesse from the Dutchess and the Duke. And we’ve got two Chilean psych bands called Föllakzoid and The Holydrug Couple, coming out in January.

AZ: What did you want the name Sacred Bones to evoke?

Caleb: I wanted to evoke mystery…but it’s just whatever people want it to be. I don’t mean it to be anything specific…

Taylor: A lot of the label was anonymous at the beginning. The first 12” Caleb put out was Blank Dogs, when he was still anonymous, and Jacqueline did the video. They shot the whole video with Mike [Sniper] wearing a bag over his head in the Academy basement.

AZ: You guys leave for Europe tomorrow. Is there a strong Sacred Bones following there?

Taylor: We have distribution there now for the first time which is really exciting. The coolest thing yet was in London; I was on tour with Zola Jesus, and the opener was a gentleman named Haxan Cloak. He had a Sacred Bones logo tattoo.

Caleb: I toured through Europe with Gary War in January, the dead of winter. Greg and I drove the whole time. We’re international creepers-- that’s the Sacred Bones motto. The Europeans really get it. They know the secrets without having to ask.

(img credit= Jenn Pelly)

One week later, in Europe, the Bones crew met up with Zola Jesus and Gary War. We caught up Sunday, November 28th.

AZ: How has Europe been?

Taylor: We are currently in Barcelona. Zola Jesus participated in Primavera Club, which seems like a European version of SXSW or CMJ, but geared more toward fans than industry. Itri was an incredible experience—totally surreal and beautiful. Stefano Rossi from Holidays Records in Milan coordinated it with the cultural center of Itri, a medieval town. We were granted full access to a 1200-year old castle. Someone from a local recording studio set up a full analog studio for us to record with, using the amazing acoustics of the castle. Gary War and Zola Jesus spent three days improvising and writing music for this special collaborative project, which will be a split release on Sacred Bones and Holidays sometime in 2011. Thanksgiving was the last day we were in Italy. We celebrated by taking a train to Rome at 6 a.m. to catch our flights back to Madrid to resume tour. There was no turkey, only ham sandwiches and pizza and pasta.

MP3: Gary War: "On It's Head"