Yosuke Konishi, has played something in some bands, has also collaborated doing artworks, logos or production… but he is certainly much better known for being the owner of Nuclear War Now! Productions, a Texas based record company involved in multiple publications – several hundred in over twenty years of activity – of black metal, death metal and thrash metal records… music almost always played by underground bands, those bands that fuel the essence of metal with impetus and extreme fury. Now Yosuke has jumped into a new adventure: Helios Press, a brand new vinyl record factory! And not just for his own label… rather for the music world, which seems to being in desperate need of new facilities to press that black (or colored!) record, that object we music lover do love so much. But aren’t there enough vinyls already? Was another establishment really needed? Why? Well, we asked this to Yosuke himself! (Versione in Italiano QUI)
MH: Hello Yosuke. Glad to talk to you, after all we’ve done hundreds of reviews for the albums your put out with your label. Speaking about that, it’s been more than 20 years that this label is around, doing mostly extreme underground metal. In this market that keeps on changing , with costs and everything, in a time that everybody with a computer can put out one or two albums per year, with millions bands doing something every single days… how could your label last so long? I mean, as press, we receive way more communications, news and album press kit than what we can handle even in our wildest dreams, but out there also there’s way more music than what the public can humanly absorb and listen to! So, let’s talk about your new adventure, the Helios Press, a high quality record-pressing plant in Texas. Frankly I simply buy LP, I buy vinyls. My knowledge end there: is there really any big and rising need LP, to justify another pressing plant? I’ve heard the world needs more press pressing plants, but I don’t know why!
YK: I have been running nwn for 24 years now we are stronger than ever so there must be something to it I suppose. The role of any record label if it’s worth a shift is to curate music that is worth listening to and to market those albums to the audience. I agree that there are way too many things coming out these days in the metal Underground it’s hard to keep up with it all. As with anything the best bands don’t always get the attention they deserved and useless bands are often hyped for the wrong reasons. I will continue to push the bands that I think deserve attention as long as I feel inspired by underground metal. The day that it no longer is inspiring is the day that I stop the label and focus on something else. Helios Press is a totally separate venture with its own goals and vision. Our mission is to produce high quality vinyl LPs for the underground and beyond. We will not limit ourselves to servicing only metal bands or labels because we feel that this type of service is needed in all genres of music. We would like to focus primarily on independent labels and bands that are often neglected or de-prioritized in today’s music business.
MH: I would have probably ignored the news, but since I was setting up this interview, I got attracted to this thing from my country, Italy: there’s this Italian-based company with a staff that has been manufacturing injection and extrusion presses for the plastics sector for over 30 years, that now is putting on the market this this new pressing plant machine, due to -as they claim- that the great demand for presses in the vinyl record manufacturing sector. Is there such a big market around the globe, for having new press plants popping up? Can you provide some numbers? (source HERE)
YK: I have no idea about numbers but they are very strong. The vinyl market will never go away for metal, punk, noise, indie rock, and other underground genres so I am not worried. Many of those reports are for bigger labels so I don’t really pay attention to them. I have enough hands on experience running NWN and seeing the up and downs of the market on a daily basis so I have enough data points to make my own decision. I have the pulse of the underground in my fingertips at all times.
MH: On this new business, are you alone? Any other partners already working in the music business? I also know you’re about to start a crowd funding. A lot of money must be needed, after all you are craeting a factory. To start a pressing plant from zero, buying/renting a place, a warehouse (which cannot be small), buying machines, buying raw material, paying bills… what business size are we talking about, just to start up this new thing?
YK: I have one business partner named Greg. We both cashed out all of our savings and retirement funds to finance the initial investments in the building and machinery which added up to roughly $600,000! From here on forward, we will try to raise about $300,000 through our fundraising campaign and we will most likely take out a loan to get us to the finish line. We tried our best to NOT take out a loan until it was totally necessary because we didn’t want to have a loan payment each month.
MH: I know you aim to quality. What do you mean with ‘quality’? Me myself I own and buy a lot of vinyls, and the newer ones are nice, well done, nice gatefold, the LP (maybe colored) looks and sounds high quality… so what are you going to do to make a difference?
YK: If you deal in bulk as I do, you will come across more defects on records and printed parts. I get a lot of warped LPs from other labels (this is the most common defect) and some have bad sound due to bad mastering. Every factory will have some issues, but the goal of any manufacturing plant should be to produce the best quality item as humanly possible. That is our goal with Helios Press.
MH: Among extreme underground metal fans, the LP is something that people love. Someone even prefer tapes, go figure! But since you are setting up a LP pressing plant, and not a ‘metal only’ pressing plant… what other music styles are, nowadays, loving the LP? Because you claimed you are thinking for all genres.
YK: Every genre of music still presses on vinyl. I think there is a market for practically every genre of music out here except for maybe classical music? I have no idea but it seems like every genre has new LPs being produced because I see them at local record stores here. Of course my connection to the metal scene will help in finding business in the underground metal and punk scenes first, but our plan is to offer our services to everyone and anyone. In fact, we’ve already discussed pressing some country LPs for a local record label out of Brady Texas that specializes in TX country music from the past and present. It should be an interesting partnership since I also like old country music myself.
MH: Young people, or just anybody for comfort and the sake of it, subscribes to streaming services: Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal, you name it. This access to music is quick, is cheap, and it is cheap on the provider side, since it costs way less to offer: we cannot compare the whole production process, from raw material up to it being shipped to my door, with a streaming which only needs an internet connection and a good server somewhere, a sever used also for other services. So, again, how LP pressing is gaining market when the competition is against these online monsters?
YK: Streaming serves as a very convenient and casual listening experience for busy people at work, or while exercising. There are many ways to consume music and not every situation requires music to be listened to very carefully. Vinyl LP format is the best format if you really want to sit down and listen to an album as it was intended by the musician because it’s much harder to skip over songs or jump around the album as you can with digital formats. I also find the larger artwork to be more engaging and visually appealing compared to that of a small CD cover or files on the internet. Other people must agree with my assessment because the vinyl market continues to grow each year!
MH: In the end, how many LP per hour or per minute do you think you will be able to press? Is this really one of the problem, or are you focusing on other aspects?
YK: Each of our machine can produce about 700 to 800 LPs per day in an 8 hour shift. That’s assuming that we don’t have to change the stampers so much, or there aren’t any external issues. Pressing LPs isn’t always an exact science so the experience of the press operator will either slow down or speed up the pressing process.
MH: Given how the market is shaped up today: who is going to be a potential customer of yours? Music labels directly, or is this market structured in another form?
YK: Anyone who has stuff to press. The distinction between a label and a musician is non existent for us since we’ve always operated in a DIY manner with NWN. I am now an established label but in the beginning I was operating as a novice and learning on the job like anyone else. We will service all and any customer that comes to us with music that the would like to press, and assist them in the process of getting everything ready in a proper manner.
MH: What’s the whole process starting after the record mastering is ready to the vinyl being shipped? Can we summarize it?
YK: Audio mastering is something that many labels or bands skip out of ignorance or laziness. It usually comes back to bite them in the ass later on when the record comes out sounding like shit. Basically, the vinyl format works best for certain frequencies and the audio should be optimized to take advantage of vinyl’s strength and to minimize their weaknesses.
MH: Will you take care also of covers, gatefold, and whatever else needed to pack the LP and have a finished product? If so: you need printing machines, machine putting discs inside folders etc, up to the final packing.
YK: We will outsource all printing to other companies like Ross Ellis, Stoughton, and Dorado. That being said, we will still offer full assembly and packaging in-house so customers will be able to get store ready products.
MH:Any guess about the first label or even the first band you will press in the new born Helios plant?
YK: The first record we will press at Helios will be someone from NWN of course!
MH: Well, thanks for your time. Thanks for explaining me, explaining us all these things we usually do not see at all!
YK: Thanks for this interview and support for NWN and Helios Press.
(Luca Zakk)
