Red Scare Industries was founded in 2004 by Toby Jeg. The label started in San Francisco and some of its earliest releases were from bands like The Falcon, Teenage Bottlerocket and The Lillingtons. Eventually Red Scare would relocate to Chicago and quickly establish ties with a variety of Midwestern acts. Over the years, the label has gained a reputation for consistently putting out quality music and today it’s widely regarded as one of the country’s leading independent punk rock record labels. A few of the most recognized bands that they’ve worked with include: The Methadones, The Copyrights, Cobra Skulls, The Sidekicks and The Menzingers. We recently met with Jeg and talked about Red Scare’s beginnings, as well as how it’s grown, future plans and more. Throughout our conversation, Jeg provided detailed responses, resulting in an in-depth look at how the label operates.

Bill – When did you realize that you wanted to start a record label?

Toby – Man, if I could only turn back the clock and un-realize it, haha. It was 2004 when we did our first releases, kind of outta necessity too, so I suppose it was then. I was working at Fat Wreck Chords and I’ve always been a guy who thinks about moving forward and doing new, bigger, better things. I’m not super ambitious, but just ambitious enough to get myself into this mess. Back then piracy wasn’t nearly as rampant and bands were only up against CD burning and crappy ol’ Kazaa, so the biz wasn’t such a bleak landscape. I was friends with two bands that were looking for a new label: Enemy You and The Falcon. Truth be told, I always wanted to put out records and help bands on my own, so this was my chance. I really lucked out too, because both those releases are great.

Bill – What were some of the main challenges you faced during your first couple of years in business?

Toby – It was when I first realized that I was no longer buffered by being “Toby from Fat.” There were lots of people in the scene that acted like they didn’t know me because I was no longer working with Fat Mike. That’s understandable, and to be honest, I don’t have time for everybody either, but it was weird to see that from people who identify with the punk community. On the flipside, there were plenty of people who did honor that previous friendship: the dudes from Punk News, Deborah from Devil Dolls Booking, Scott from Alternative Press, Vanessa from Mutiny PR, a ton of great people in bands, etc. And you know, challenges aside, going out on our own wasn’t such a terrible thing and in the end I’m glad Red Scare took the plunge.

Bill – Was there an individual or band that was instrumental in getting Red Scare off the ground?

Toby – No man, like Romney said, I built that shit. Me! Kidding, kidding…one of the obvious people instrumental in Red Scare is Brendan Kelly. Where I deal with the nuts and bolts, day-to-day bullshit, Bren contributes to the creative/A&R department. Bands seek his counsel on a lot of stuff and we’ve always had fun collaborating on ideas, so lots of credit goes to him. As for specific bands, there’s too many to list, but I’ve always aspired for Red Scare to be the punk label equivalent of the band Randy. That sounds weird, but I love their music and message and imagery. And along those same lines, I was very much inspired by what the band Propagandhi did with their label, G7.

Bill – What’s the best advice you ever received in regards to owning a record company?

Toby – I don’t know if I got much advice. I had already worked full-time at a label for seven years and interned at labels prior to that, so I had ample experience. You also have to remember that, for better or worse, the industry has both changed and eroded around us, so prior experience can’t be applied to what we’re doing these days. But to answer your question, I’ve had some awesome conversations with guys like Mike Park from Asian Man and Jeremy from CI Records, both of whom I really respect. They’re firm and confident when it comes to band relations, and they’re frugal and sensible when it comes to business operations. Basically the best advice for labels is this: keep it lean and mean.

Bill – What was the first release that you feel legitimized your label?

Toby – Shoot, one? All along the way we’ve had records that legitimized Red Scare. Having The Falcon being the first release was huge, then Teenage Bottlerocket came along and blew everybody’s mind, then we reissued one of the best records ever, The Lillingtons’ Death By Television. Then Cobra Skulls came outta nowhere and people were stoked, and then The Menzingers over-achieved and gave us one of the best albums I have ever heard. After that we had The Copyrights’ North Sentinel Island, which was not only a great record, but the first time we had done three albums with any band. And now it looks like Masked Intruder is going to be a breakout band. It’s a good thing that we have had ample mile-markers over the years and I just really hope that we can keep the catalog strong and keep finding new bands that people enjoy.

Bill – How has operating Red Scare changed over the years?

Toby – Well, I moved from San Francisco to Chicago, but it’s always been me in a crappy apartment, so that hasn’t changed. Low overhead for the win. One thing that has changed is that the world of physical distribution has gotten worse and worse. A few years ago, Dirk from Lumberjack/Doghouse Records burned dozens of labels like us and Alternative Tentacles, Asian Man, Sympathy, A-F, etc. He owed all the labels something like $400,000, but was still writing checks to himself. Sigh. Then our next distro died, then…you know what, this is depressing. People get bummed about vinyl and distro and all that, but we’re doing the best we can in a pretty harsh world. Not much else has changed. We just kinda plug away and try to stay above water.

Bill – Was there ever a point when you considered quitting?

Toby – Not really, but after we did The Menzingers’ Chamberlain Waits things were looking so grim (our distro Lumberjack stiffed us, see above) that I thought that would be a nice release to end on. It was such a great record and it would have been a fitting closure. But as it worked out, we barely scraped by and that album brought renewal instead of retirement. Sort of like in Star Trek when they jettisoned Spock because they thought he was all cooked, but as it turned out, he gave life to that desolate planet. Whoa, man.

It’s daunting to think that I will have to deal with the taxes and accounting for this shit for the rest of my life, which is really hard for a one-man operation like we have. So every once in a while I can’t help but think that it’d be a major relief to merge with another entity or another label in the interest of pooling resources. Does that count as quitting? I dunno, it’d be better for the bands if I could focus more on press and tours and whatever, but such is life. I could be peeling potatoes or shoveling goat shit for a living…wait, what were we talking about?

Bill – How has illegal downloading affected Red Scare?

Toby – What is this “illegal downloading” you speak of?  I’ll tell you how it’s affected us: it’s filled up pages and pages of interviews with this same fucking mundane question and answer dance! Kidding, Bill, I love you…Illegal downloading is like the sex trade or corporate sports or the parking ticket racket here in Chicago: a group gets exploited while others benefit and we’re all resigned to being helpless about it. People steal Intellectual Property because they can, and that’s that. I don’t rely on Red Scare for my livelihood, so while I’m not so much affected, it really hurts the bands. What’s most depressing is when we try and budget for recording a new album, but there’s just no money in their budget.  Even for bands that are getting “bigger,” it’s becoming harder to recuperate album costs, so it’s starting to prohibit the creation of music, which obviously sucks. But on a positive note, there are plenty of people who do support bands by paying for music, and in my opinion the best way to do that is through iTunes and Amazon.

Bill – In what ways is Red Scare representative of the Chicago music scene?

Toby – There’s the obvious geographical tie. Many of our bands are from Chicago, or nearby. This city has a super vibrant music scene, and one way that Red Scare reflects that is how this town is the best market for lots of our bands. Chicago was the first place where Teenage Bottlerocket ever sold out a show, same with Cobra Skulls. I hesitate to say we’re representative of this town because I’m not from here, but we’ve certainly been welcomed by the music fans, and I’m grateful for that.

Bill – Would you say that Red Scare is often associated with a certain genre of music?

Toby – Sure, most of our bands are considered punk bands, and I think we skew heavily towards what I would call “traditional punk.” The first punk bands I fell in love with were the basics like Ramones, Misfits, Stiff Little Fingers, Dickies, etc., and I think that’s reflected and represented in the Red Scare roster. Of course we also work with artists like Sam Russo and Sundowner, who have ties to the indie-punk scene, but are doing something very different with their music. The Sidekicks have pretty much outgrown the label of being a punk band, and I am not sure what to call the music coming from Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds. So there’s some diversity in the catalog and I’m open-minded about any good music, but we’re primarily an indie-punk label.

Bill – What do you enjoy most about running a label?

Toby – It’s like an alarm clock for me. When I’m not already up and at ‘em for my day gig, I am being awakened by some band that needs help. It could be anything, (vehicle problems, merch shortages, life advice, whatever) but it usually starts no later than 9:00 AM, and it’s a really cool feeling to be able to help your friends in an effort to share their music. I’ve made so many friends and got to see so much neat stuff. The Lawrence Arms have dragged me all over the land and The Menzingers took me to Australia, which was probably the nicest thing any band has ever done to repay our efforts.

Another really gratifying thing is when we pay royalties twice a year. I hate crunching numbers and it’s a real pain in the yarbles, but bands are stoked when they see money from album sales. Whether it’s hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars, that money goes right back into making more music, so it’s cool to be a part of that. Music consumers should be aware of that too, supporting the arts is a gratifying thing and something to be proud of!

Bill – What advice would you give someone looking to start a label today?

Toby – Hmmm, either I lie or come across like a dick? Here’s the answer: don’t do it. There’s already too many bands and too many labels. Unless you have some significant resources at your disposal, you’re just going to do a disservice to the bands. I guess if you inherited millions of dollars and absolutely had to start a punk label…I would base it around strong mail-order and digital sales. Do what you can to keep the bands healthy while they are out on the road and compel them to always be working on their craft: writing songs and playing shows. Your label is only as good as the music you put out, so it’s up to you to set high standards.

Bill – What are some of the releases that you have planned for the future?

Toby – There’s a new Druglords of the Avenues record that is getting finished up, (That’s a side project from Johnny of Swingin’ Utters, who is one of my favorite punk vocalists ever). There will be a new Elway record out in 2013 and I expect them to be the next band that does really well for Red Scare. Their recent EP blew me away and the new songs I’ve heard are even better, so I’m pretty excited for them. Masked Intruder is actually gonna do something new too, and I expect that we’ll be involved in that…what else? I’ve heard the demos for the next Direct Hit! album and it sounds really good and really interesting, so we might work with them? We’ll have some new/old stuff from The Lillingtons, which is always awesome. I guess beyond that I’m looking forward to 2014, which will be our tenth year as a label. I’d like to put together a cool comp with exclusive songs from each band, and we’ll commemorate the anniversary with a crazy-stupid show where we drag bands out of retirement to play. I don’t care if it involves guns or goons or money, if your band was on Red Scare you have to come party with us. No excuses.

I also look forward to seeing y’all out and about at shows. That’s the best part, right? Thanks for talking, Bill!