In part two of our interview with Mistletone’s Sophie Best, we discuss the label’s unique collectivist spirit, trans-Hume expansionism and the state of the Melbourne music scene. Part one here.

There seems to be a real collective atmosphere at Mistletone; a diverse line-up of like-minded bands. How important is that and how do you maintain it?
We don’t think about that when we sign people. But, especially with the Australian bands that we have, there are a lot of connections and friendships. That’s probably how we discovered those bands or fell in love with their music because of those circles of friendships. I love the fact that the bands on our roster are friends and they collaborate and organise shows together.

Did you initiate that or does that happen on its own steam?
Both. A lot of the people were friends before we came along. They’d been doing things together and continued doing things together. I think Melbourne is a pretty friendly place for people involved in music. There are strong social networks that make things happen. Most people in Melbourne are in three bands [laughs]. It’s just because people keep finding new ways to work together – and it comes down to friendship.

What’s your take on the Melbourne scene at the moment? It seems to be a particularly fruitful time.
It’s amazing. I keep discovering new bands and getting blown away by the creativity in the scene, and also the diversity of it. But also, there’s a kind of purity among Melbourne bands. The really good bands in Melbourne have received very little recognition outside and even within Melbourne. People are doing things without commercial expectations and that’s why there’s such good stuff coming out of this place.

Was it always the intention for you to release records from your hometown?
Yeah, totally. We started off by licensing overseas stuff, and we’re going to continue doing that. But we wanted to target the local scene. We want to release bands not just from Melbourne as well. We definitely want to release some Sydney music because there are some really great bands in Sydney that we like. Ash is from Sydney so we spend a lot of time there. It’s kind of like our second home. We want to see more action in Sydney. We organise shows there, but now we want to get more involved.

If there is one criticism of the label, it’s that it’s pretty Melbourne-centric.
It’s natural when you live somewhere and you want to be part of your community. But we definitely want to start doing things in Sydney as well.

There’s a real New Zealand flavour about your roster as well with bands like Lawrence Arabia and Bachelorette.
There is. Lawrence Arabia, which is our latest New Zealand release, contacted us through mutual friends … He sent us the demos for his new album and we were completely infatuated with them. We also put out Bachelorette’s last album. Our label has distribution in New Zealand so we’re building a bit of a fanbase there.

Does the camaraderie in the local scene extend to rival labels as well?
Yeah, totally. We’ve been inspired by a lot of Australian labels, and continue to be inspired by them. People who run indie labels are a certain breed. We have a lot in common. We do share a lot of information, we go out for beers and talk about stuff. It’s really important to do that because knowledge is power. You have to share it.

Label-wise, who are your benchmarks?
I guess initially Spunk was our first role model. We always admired what Aaron [Curnow] did. Sensory Projects is another one of my favourite Australian labels, run by Steve Phillips. He goes about things in his own quiet way and completely follows his own tastes. That’s something that’s important to us. I really like Aarght! Records, their whole philosophy and the way they approach things is really cool. Alberts Basement is great as an up-and-coming label that are doing thing on a totally grassroots level. Also, all those small labels and CD-R labels that are around that are doing things in a really pure way. Lexicon Devil is another one that we really dig. We appreciate their aesthetic and their approach.

Moving on to Summer Tones. How did the concept start? Was the initial idea to bring Melbourne bands to other parts of Australia?
Even before we formed a label, Ash and I were organising shows in Melbourne mainly as a way of bringing different bands together. I guess sometimes Melbourne can kind of be, not cliquey, but bands can sometimes stay within their own circles. They’re reluctant to ask other bands to play with them who are outside of their normal circles. So we got a kick out of organising shows that bring together bands from different spectrums. Once we had a label we’d invite bands on our roster, but also curate the line-up, so there were other bands as well.

The last three Tones have also been vehicles for our own overseas artists. It means that if we’re touring relatively unknown artists like High Places, Lucky Dragons or Beach House, we can put them in front of a larger audience and in a more interesting context than just playing a show at The Tote [in Melbourne]. Booking shows is probably the most fun thing about our job. Thinking who you want to have on the bill and putting it altogether is really fun.

Is Mistletone a full-time thing for you now?
Pretty much. It is for Ash and I still do some external work for other people to pay the bills. We’re kind of hoping that it’ll get to the point where we can pay our rent from the work we do with Mistletone.

How far off is that? Are you seeing a profit for what you do?
We always break even, or make a small profit on what we do … But we’re not going to be settling into retirement anytime soon, put it that way [laughs].

+

SUMMER TONES

Friday, February 27
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney, NSW
Buy tickets here

Saturday, February 28
The Esplanade Hotel, Melbourne, VIC

Sunday, March 1
Venue TBA, Adelaide, SA

Friday, March 6
The Zoo, Brisbane, QLD