Bob Farley (Mayfly Records)
1. What are your top five albums that were released in 2013? (In order 1-5)
- Chelsea Wolfe - Pain is Beauty
- Modern Life is War - Fever Hunting
- True Widow - Circumambulation
- Pity Sex - Feast of Love
- Daughter - If You Leave
Honorable mentions go to Native, Raspberry Bulbs, Balance and Composure, Widowspeak, Wild Nothing, Cloakroom, MBV, Into It Over It, Beach Fossils, Whirr, The National, Youth Code, and Dead in the Dirt. I, of course, loved my releases but chose to leave them off.
2. What band did you discover in 2013 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? What made them significant?
Wild Nothing was that band for me. Although I may have checked them out in late 2012, it was early 2013 when I started grabbing all of their past releases and couldn't believe I had slept on them so long. Nocturne is an absolutely perfect record, and everything else is great too. I saw them play here earlier this year and they blew me away.
3. How will you remember 2013? (In terms of music)
For me, it was hectic. I feel like something bizarre occurred with every release Mayfly did (weird delays, etc). I thought this year was cool though. I feel like, more then recent years, there was a really diverse group of artists getting recognized for their work in underground music.
4. What can we look forward to from you in 2014?
This year will be a step back in production at Mayfly. We plan on doing fewer releases and spending more energy promoting each release and artist. We have a few records we shipped to the plant in 2013 we expect to see soon by True Love, Ages, and Lovechild. We have LPs by Young and Heartless, Whenskiesaregray, and Crisis Arm planned for spring and summer.
5. What records are you looking forward to most in 2014?
Pianos Become the Teeth, Sneeze, and bunch of stuff not coming to mind.
6. There is a lot of debate over streaming sites and royalties, namely with Spotify. What is your stance on the economic policies behind the current streaming services? Do you have a preferred one?
For me, although it isn't perfect, I think ultimately it is helpful to a small label with smaller artists. [It] gives people an easy way to check out our releases. This helps sell records to those who enjoy the physical format, and helps get kids into shows Mayfly touring artists are playing far from home. I can cry about pennies I'm not making, but in a lot of instances the kid listening on spotify never planned on buying a record from me regardless.
