Interview: Wormwood Grashopper Records

Wormwood Grasshopper Records is the baby of Hobart musician Ben Mason (Drunk Elk / Que / The Breeze). So far, it has proven itself to be a small boutique label releasing underground pop music from Tasmania and beyond. That kind of pop music that gets called 'demented' in PR, with an apparent heavy influence from New Zealand pop. Wormwood Grasshopper looks to be focusing on recordings of both the past and present, with previously unreleased material from defunct Hobart bands like Que, Wendy In The Mountains And The Caves With The Salves and Hammering The Cramps either already released or in the works.

I recently briefly spoke to Ben Mason about his new label, and where he plans to take it:

What have you released so far on Wormwood Grasshopper?
So far it's been predominantly the Drunk Elk LP [Under Neon Lights] and Mad Nanna 7", although I did put a Wormwood Grasshopper logo on a few CDRs for Julian Teakle's music stall a while back (The Que's Fern Tree Recordings and Drunk Elk's "Pieces Of People...").


What are the future plans for Wormwood Grasshopper?
Just around the corner would be the Hammering The Cramps LP, which has been in the works for some time now and it looks like it's nearly there. I can't wait to release this one. They were an incredible Hobart band that, I think, are totally underrated.  There's vibes of Roky Erickson, Xpressway bands and - the best song in the world - Brian Eno's 'Here Come The Warm Jets'. After that would be some tapes from Wendy In The Mountains And The Caves With The Slaves (first one was sent off to be duplicated today!). I wouldn't mind doing another Drunk Elk 7" soon, and hopefully we'll get our act together and record a Breeze EP. There's also a couple of projects I'm toying with that aren't Hobart bands, but I need to figure those out a little more still.


Hammering the Cramps - Jesse's Vampires by Wormwood grasshopper

What connects the bands on Wormwood Grasshopper? Are they musical, social, aesthetic...
I guess mainly aesthetic connection's because it's music/sounds/feelings I like. There's bound to be some personal connections too; I think Simon Krause is the best musician in Hobart, so he'll pop up a bit.

What labels did you look at for inspiration?
Xpressway, Siltbreeze and early Flying Nun have been pretty inspiring. I get a nerdy thrill out of reading interviews with Bruce Russell on running Xpressway. Some labels that are currently active and inspiring me would be Breakdance The Dawn, KYE and Negative Guest List. Breakdance The Dawn has heaps of interesting releases, and is ran in a way that still has a degree of mystery about it in the internet world. It's also not 'flashy', which I like. KYE (ran by Graham Lambkin of The Shadow Ring) and is another label that holds some mystery. Pretty much all the releases are of a high quality and to me they all follow on from each other in a really nice way, each being a chapter. That's something that I hope to apply to Wormwood Grasshopper. Negative Guest List just keeps churning out releases, which I get a bit of a buzz out of the rate Brendon works and seeing what's going on next (The Lost Domain's "Blondes Chew More Gum" double LP is an amazing thing!). Oh, and there's Albert's Basement and Quemada Records, who feel like comrades, they inspire me too.

Drunk Elk - Bones of A Blackbird by Wormwood grasshopper
 
Is vinyl the main idea for Wormwood Grasshopper?
It is the predominant medium of the label and that's partially because I've always wanted to release music on vinyl and it was more achievable with the dollar doing good. It's also because I thought some music might stand a better chance of being noticed in that form.

What's the hardest thing about running a label in Tasmania?
My biggest challenge has been keeping the price in check for overseas stores and not losing too much money each time. It costs a lot to have records sent from the pressing plant to Australia, and then it costs a lot to send them back to stores overseas. I've now got a few connections in the states which will hopefully take a portion of the pressing direct from the plant, so that'll keep the price in a good area I hope.

Anything else you wanted to tell us?
Keep on rocking in the free world! Keep music bad.

-&-

You can grab Wormwood Grasshopper releases from Tommy Gun Records in Hobart, or through the post via the Wormwood Grasshopper blog. Follow them on Twitter at @wwgrasshopper.