FFWD REW

A pressing issue

Much to the dismay of Canadian record collectors Montreal-based vinyl pressing plant RIP-V — the last remaining plant of its kind north of the 49th — announced last month that it was shuttering. Yet mere days after RIP-V bid farewell another conversation began and this time it centred on Calgary: A plant named Canada Boy launched a website posted job listings and promised a renewal of the record-pressing industry in Canada only this time it’d be pulling industry away from its historical centre out east.

Exciting? You bet. And outwardly it’s a huge win both for music and Cowtown: As vinyl aficionados will remind you record sales have boomed and are now 12 times higher than they were 20 years ago. Jack White’s Lazaretto broke decades-old sales records in 2014. And far from being the nostalgist’s game Mac DeMarco’s Salad Days and Lorde’s Pure Heroine jostled with Beatles and Bob Marley LPs as the year’s bestsellers. Vinyl — or as a new generation of tweens incorrectly refer to them “vinyls” — is no longer that game of craft-minded mini labels or Record Store Day collectors.

Canada Boy has yet to release specifics like a set opening date for example. In fact while they’re currently advertising careers on the Canada Boy website representatives from the company told us they aren’t ready to discuss it just yet. Nonetheless the plant has been met with enthusiasm both from within Calgary and beyond its borders. Shawn Petsche who cut The Unconditional Love of Napalmpom with Napalmpom last year didn’t have a problem using RIP-V and duplication.ca. But he acknowledges that he’s lucky and when it comes to pressing vinyl Calgary bands have an inside joke: “When you see a poster for an LP release show in Calgary you better plan your schedule to see the band again a month later when the LPs actually arrive.”

Most smaller local bands want small runs and Petsche says they tend to face delays “either because their orders aren’t seen as a priority or because the pressing plants are running at capacity…. Or because Jack White decides to press thousands of novelty albums or Record Store Day rush jobs push everyone back in the queue.”

Having a local plant allows Calgary bands to be part of the record-pressing process. Montreal-based Tessa Smith who runs Fixture Records used RIP-V to press records by Freelove Fenner Chevalier Avant Garde and Femminielli. From her perspective having a plant close by helped her label manage the oft-complicated process of creating a record.

“For us it was the convenience of being able to drive 15 minutes to pick up our records and the money we saved on shipping and brokerage” she says.

“Being so close to the plant when small problems came up as they inevitably do in a complicated multi-step production process it felt better knowing we could reach them quickly and even go over to the plant and talk to them if needed.”

Beyond developing a relationship with industry Petsche adds that a local plant can also help lessen the pressure on existing pressing plants. (He’s right: this week Nashville-based United one of the pressing-game big shots announced it wasn’t accepting any new clients.) “Canada prides itself as being a music and arts-friendly country” he says adding that along with the National Music Centre a pressing plant would serve as a symbol of Calgary’s reputation as a music-friendly city.

Outside of symbolism a pressing plant in Calgary can offer benefits to the Western Canadian market — namely they can reduce shipping exchange and duty costs to B.C. Saskatchewan and the rest of Alberta. Vancouver-based Tim Clapp whose Kingfisher Bluez imprint has used plants like United and L.A.-based Rainbo says the plant could thrive in Western Canada — so long as it offers quality product for competitive prices.

“If I could avoid the expensive importing charges all the international phone calls shipping rates I’d be thrilled. I’d drive out [to Calgary] for the ribbon cutting” says Clapp. “It won’t take much for everyone out here to start using them but they’ll have to have the right price quality records and customer service to keep people coming back. So far they’ve been very secretive about what we can expect.”

Flemish Eye founder Ian Russell whose handled records by Women Viet Cong and Chad VanGaalen agrees. He says that in order to succeed a plant in Calgary must thrive where other plants fail. “Guaranteed timelines and cheap grouped shipping rates would help keep them competitive” says Russell. “As most of their clientele will be bands making it ultra-simple will help a lot.

“It’s really exciting to hear about someone taking on something like this…. There have been a lot of people dreaming about this idea for a while and it would be a really interesting thing to have on the map — if it works out they could be shipping vinyl across the country which is totally the reverse of the usual flow from East to West.”

Still the Field of Dreams mantra — build it and they will come — doesn’t necessarily apply here; there are still specific challenges to operating in Calgary. The city Russell says doesn’t yet have the cultural industry of cities like RIP-V’s Montreal or Toronto. For example Flemish Eye presses vinyl in Montreal prints sleeves and packages records in Toronto and sends them to a Hogtown-based distributor. Pressing vinyl is only part of the process.

“Calgary offers a lot of opportunities while oil prices are high but there are a lot of challenges too” he says. “One of the obstacles that we’ve always had to face is the lack of a native music industry nearby. Toronto and Montreal have a huge infrastructure of artists labels publishers distributors and other music companies and being located in Calgary means we are removed from all of that. Shipping is brutal.”

Kingfisher Bluez’s Clapp adds that thanks to high shipping costs they may not attract the same high-profile clients as RIP-V who handled pressing for Epitaph and Merge. “Their clients will be 90 per cent Canadian labels and artists” Clapp wagers. “It’s a lot smaller of a pool. And it’ll be mostly Western Canada as well” he says. “It would help for them to have a major label or a distro deal to start pressing Canadian versions of big records by the tens of thousands.”

It’s a sentiment the Napalmpom’s Petsche echoes. Further he adds Calgary isn’t on major tour routes meaning that much of the plant’s business may come from bands and labels located nearby. As for challenges Petsche says the plant might expect “high up-front capital costs relatively low margins and the need for trained experts in every stage of the vinyl production process. Which given the low number of pressing plants in the world can’t be that many.”

Those very challenges might explain why RIP-V ceased operations. “I imagine it’s hard to find skilled labour to operate the presses and probably hard [and] expensive to maintain the machines and fix any problems” says Fixture’s Smith. “It doesn’t really make any sense to have just one pressing plant in an entire country. I’m not surprised RIP-V shut down and don’t blame them for their decision.”

So yes there’s a lot of what-ifs surrounding Canada Boy. The plant will have to embrace a smaller Western Canadian market; it’ll have to be open and communicative; it’ll have to deliver quality product within promised timelines.

“So long as they can keep their prices competitive and have experts running the presses a plant in Calgary would always be my first choice. I’m rooting for them” says Petsche. “I sincerely hope that they embrace the steady stream of excellent small-run pressings by Western Canadian bands and thrive for years to come.”

And if they thrive Canada Boy could become a significant cornerstone of a resurgent industry in Canada. “For me” adds Smith “it’s important that these places are opening up in Canada because it means there’s a reason for Canadians to learn to press records again and there’s a place for people to train and work which is a step towards improving the quality of records being made everywhere.”

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