Nick Hertzberg (Wet Cassettes)
Billy on the left and Nick on the right of Wet Cassettes
What are your top five albums that were released in 2023? (In order 1-5)
- END - The Sin of Human Frailty
- Stenched - Gorging on Mephitic Rot
- Year of the Knife - No Love Lost
- Leg Yield - Engine Check
- Dead Times - Dead Times
What band did you discover in 2023 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? How so?
Although it's not like I never heard of them before this year, I never gave them the time they deserved: Chuck Schuldiner's DEATH. I have this thing where I am (typically) averse to stuff that other people like or talk about. It could be an ego tick. If so many people talk about it, it can't be good. I don't know. I probably gotta work that out, but DEATH was one of those bands. You couldn't listen to heavy music and not know who they were, but because they were so talked about and praised, I never wanted to dive in, and this year I did. It also helped that there's a documentary and that Relapse reissued so much of their catalog over the past couple of years. I love that you can hear and see stuff like rehearsal audio, demos, and more. Getting to touch and feel the building blocks of a band is so important to me. I think it impacted me because I see myself in Chuck, for better or worse. The need to control projects, the stubbornness, the singularity. While we know that mindset can pay off artistically -- you also need to make adjustments and check yourself before you wreck yourself and become alone or dead.
How will you remember 2023 (in terms of music)?
I'll remember 2023 as a year in music that was nostalgic from a listening standpoint and quite puzzling for the industry. I spent most of the year diving into death metal, screamo/emo-violence, and mosh-metal, along with many albums that I used to listen to when I was younger. Rediscovering bands like Fromasecondstorywindow, Found Dead Hanging, or Anapparatus reminded me why I love newer bands, like some of the ones found in my top five. Someone at work recently quoted a motivational speaker to me, saying, "There's no value in looking back." To which I rebutted, "But what about all of the remakes, nostalgia buys, and reunions?" It's definitely something to consider: why we return to things from 20 years ago.
Oh, and puzzling because of the whole Bandcamp fiasco (where will we go? AmpWall?) and Spotify cutting royalties altogether for smaller artists. Most people love to post their yearly wrap-up the day it comes out but don't like to support their friend's endeavors or are completely blind to that side of things. Bands and labels like mine rarely think we're going to make a living off of this -- I do it for the sake of doing it -- but making enough to cover my distribution costs yearly would be nice.
What can we look forward to from you in 2024?
In February, my wife and I are expecting our first child: a baby girl! So the record label releases will take a bit of a backseat starting in the new year while I figure out how to be a dad. I am sure I will find time to listen to new music weekly and will hack away at the tens of musical projects I have sitting around that need finishing touches (vocalists - get in touch!), but yeah, things will probably slow down a bit -- for the better!
What records are you looking forward to most in 2024?
Oof, not sure. So many of the albums I love are ones I stumble upon without knowing they existed or were released very suddenly. What's a formal PR and marketing plan for a heavy album in this day and age, anyway? While they have some stuff coming before the end of the year, if history serves us, I am sure we will get new stuff from Full of Hell and The Body before the end of 2024 - and they are always worth looking forward to.
With physical media sales seemingly less popular than ever, what are some the best ways that fans can help to support the musicians when they go to a live show?
From my perspective, I wouldn't say that physical media sales are necessarily less popular -- they do quite well, as long as they are specialized. Limited editions of records from all sorts of labels are selling out in a matter of minutes from artists every day. For instance, we are a small fish, but Wet Cassettes released an album by our horror-synth project, Night Gospel, last year. The limited edition version was housed inside a carved-out bible and paired with a "vampire hunting kit," and sold out in minutes. Our fastest album sales ever. The standard edition? I still have copies...for cheap...if you want it. Not to mention, various heavy-music-adjacent outlets are co-releasing limited record variants now, too (like Decibel, Brooklyn Vegan, etc.), so there has to be some financial incentive for them to want to get involved.
With that said, going to see your favorite bands live is important (remember during COVID when we thought we'd never have live music again!?), but also beware of the physical merch cuts some venues take, which many artists haven't been shy about calling out. Even though it seems like every record is $28 and every shirt is $35 now, if you love the band, buy it. If you just like them, shout them out on social media -- you might have your message seen by someone else (like me) who is constantly absorbing new music, and they might buy it.
Nick Hertzberg – social media links
- Instagram: @wetcassettes
