First Pressing

For Skinny O’Leary, the most rewarding part of any video game is the sidequest. In life, he’s said yes to a lot of side quests too…including developing a career in music and artist management through SIDEQUEST records. 

SIDEQUEST is both a label and a management company. A multifaceted project championing indie sounds across Perth including Ursula, Mal De Mer and Smol Fish.

Forming in 2021, the project emerged as the music industry was starting to recover from the COVID 19 pandemic…uniting once again in venues and at gigs. It was the perfect time to champion powerful connections that local music can make between people.

On this episode of First Pressing Mark is catching up with old friend and mentor Greg Sanders of Gun Fever Music.

Growing up in Armadale, the musician and label head first remembers getting swept up in the magic of indie rock listening to Weezer on his walkman. 

This love extended into adulthood with the birthing of Gun Fever Music, an independent record label championing local indie sounds from the the likes of Mezzanine, Dead Owls and beloved local outfit Pat Chow.

He’s currently spending time on his own projects while continuing to spread the word and champion some of the finest indie music in Boorloo.

You can’t talk about WA punk without talking about Kyle Gleadell. 

Like many Perth artists Kyle moved to Melbourne and while he was there discovered the underground punk scene, warehouse gigs and fanzine culture. Upon his return he was invited to join Helter Skelter as their bass player and in 2012 launched Helter Skelter Records, distributing records and producing punk music across Boorloo. The rest is history. 

In this episode, he speaks with Mark Neal about his love of punk, being an artist as well as a distributor and navigating the costs of the music industry…

Sourced from Reckless Release.

Today, things are about to get a little bit louder…  

In a growing digital world, Ben Docherty of Televised Suicide Records prefers to let the wax of his punk label sell out before he releases his music online.

Launching in 2015, Televised Suicide strives to keep physical merchendise and music alive in a growing digital landscape. 

Since its inception it has featured some of the best of what Australian Punk has to offer, from Sewercide to Territory, Drowning Horse, Nerve Quakes and Gaoled. 

It’s going to get loud on this episode of First Pressing as Mark Neal speaks with Ben Docherty of Televised Suicide Records.

A mainstay in the local music community, Adem Kerimofski knows a bit about independent record labels.

You may remember Adem from a little project called Turnstyle. Emerging out of the grunge tinted sounds of the mid 90s, Turnstyle bucked the trends of mainstream music cementing their unique sounds through the use of Casio keyboards. 

Around this time, as a budding young Perth based musician, Adem K launched Igloo Records… a label to accompany his extensive musical discography, from Turnstyle to The Community Chest.

Over 30 years later, Adem’s influence on the scene stands strong, championing Perth and Australian bands of indie rock, garage rock and pop synth persuasion.