Last Friday, Red Scare released a 17-song compilation titled 20 Years of Dreaming and Scheming, which of course commemorates the record label’s 20th anniversary. In addition to the compilation, they’re also marking the event with release shows this month in Chicago, Wisconsin, Portland, Seattle and Las Vegas. We recently spoke with label cofounder Toby Jeg about reaching this impressive milestone. We discussed how he went about putting this compilation together, what he’s looking forward to about the upcoming release parties, the future of Red Scare and more.

Preparations for this compilation began roughly two years ago, when Jeg began approaching bands to see if they’d be interested in participating. Having released compilations for both Red Scare’s 10th and 15th anniversaries, Jeg knew that he wanted to go with a different method this time around. To do so, he went about sequencing the record in more of a thematic manner. The first song is from The Falcon and the second is a cover of an Enemy You song, and these were the first two bands to have releases on Red Scare. The next three bands, (Cobra Skulls, Dead to Me, and Nothington) all hail from San Francisco, where Red Scare was founded. By roughly the tenth track, there’s a collection of several Chicago bands, and the album concludes with a pair of Philadelphia acts. “I remember approaching it and thinking about how the bands might fit together like a puzzle piece,” Jeg said. “The other thing about this sequence is that it barely fits on a record. You’re not really supposed to go over 20 minutes per side, but we crammed some bands on here. Unfortunately, and I won’t name names, but we did have to leave some bands off. I hate to say it, but we literally couldn’t fit everyone on there.”

When asked if there was a band that surprised him with their entry, Jeg was quick to mention Cobra Skulls. He said, “I was kind of shocked because Cobra Skulls hadn’t made music in years. And there’s a lot of that on here by the way, like Nothington and The Holy Mess, these bands are pretty defunct. I really love the Cobra Skulls song because I kind of grew up on traditional punk rock stuff, like The Clash and The Misfits. The Cobra Skulls song sounds like a ripping Misfits song, so I really love that one.” He continued, “I was really happy with how it all came out. On the one hand, people think that compilation songs could be throwaways, but that’s not what happened here. We had bands go out and specifically write songs for this. People have asked me that question, like ‘Oh, was this a collection of songs that weren’t good enough to make the album?’ That’s not the case at all. These songs were specifically recorded for this. You can tell the Menzingers’ song is about Chicago, which is obviously a hat tip to Red Scare.”

Regarding some of the more inactive bands who were able to contribute a song, Jeg expressed his shock when Dead to Me confirmed that they’d be joining in. He said, “Dead to Me was one of the bands that was put on the wish list or was like a unicorn of sorts. No one was more surprised than me when Chicken, (singer/bassist Tyson ‘Chicken’ Annicharico) wrote back and was like, ‘Yeah, we can do a song.’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay. Wow. I did not see that coming.’ I have a relationship with the band because I’m still technically their booking agent, but they haven’t really played any shows recently. They still get offers and they do consider them. Logistically it just doesn’t come together because they live in different parts of California. I know that they create things amongst themselves. They’re not dead to us, they’re just…I don’t know.” He also referenced a recent interview that Chicken did for Sirius Radio, where he mentioned that he and singer/guitarist Jack Dalrymple currently send each other songs and collaborate over email. Jeg added, “I know they’re doing stuff. I just don’t know to what extent. And that’s part of their mystique, I guess. The mythos that surrounds Dead to Me, like ‘What are they doing and when can we know about it?’ And I don’t know the answers to those questions. I know there’s so many people that love that band. I’d like to think that they know it too.”

Now that it’s been released, Jeg reflected on the compilation and said “I think it’s really neat that we have so many bands from Red Scare’s past on here. I know the term ‘family’ gets thrown around a lot when it comes to various festivals or other entities in the punk rock world, but we still have a longtime relationship with a lot of these bands, even if they may no longer be working with Red Scare or they may no longer be a band. I really like that we have a personal relationship and a friendship with everybody that’s related to the label. I know people can kind of feel that and recognize that, because we’re still all friends. I also hope that, for lack of a better term, those good vibes are conveyed to the people who are listening. There’s a lot of comradery and good will among all these bands. I hope when people listen to the record they can hear and appreciate that.”

This Friday, Red Scare will host its first of seven release shows that are planned in various cities across the country. In terms of his motivations for this sort of tactic, Jeg said “I just wanted to book rooms that I really, really like. Beat Kitchen is one of my favorite rooms in the world and we’ve had so many great Red Scare bands there. So, I wanted to capture some of that 2012 energy and bring that back for 2024. And now that I don’t live in Chicago it’s a little hard, but I figured we could do it right and have a good party. Not just for the sake of nostalgia, because I don’t want Red Scare to be a reissues kind of platform, but I think there’s a good mix of upcoming bands and older, traditional bands.” He further detailed the shows in Chicago this weekend and said, “You have The Methadones, who only play Chicago once a year or so, so it’s cool to get them off the bench. Brendan, (label cofounder Brendan Kelly) doing a Wandering Birds set is pretty unique too. So, we just tried to make stuff that was special and at venues that we really like. There’s so much competition for festivals right now, I just kind of wanted to try something different. I hope it’s cool. I’m hoping we see a lot of good friends and make some new memories.”

In terms of Red Scare’s future, Jeg hinted at a special release for Record Store Day next year. He also mentioned that releases from Arms Aloft and Elway are in the works. When speaking about the label’s future in a more general sense, he said “I’m still very much interested in working with active bands and it’s hard to find those. Maybe this is the call-out for talent. If you’re a band that has new music that wants to do compelling shit, hit up Red Scare, because we’re always looking for new stuff that I think is exciting. That is the vision moving forward. I don’t want it to be a nostalgic situation, but it’s hard to find new bands. It’s a weird time for punk rock right now and I don’t really know what the future holds. But you have to be optimistic and so far, so good. To make it 20 years is a small victory in and of itself. Now we’re just playing with house money.”

Tickets for the shows at Beat Kitchen this Friday and Saturday are still available.