I spent last Thursday under the Melbourne sun with 'Johann' from indie label 'I OH YOU'. We chatted and ate at a rad pub called 'Beretta's Vaucluse Hotel' in Richmond, before Johann took the time to answer some questions on the company's name, rad parties and some awesome bands. Check them out here: http://iohyou.com/
How did 'I OH YOU' first come about? "Well the story goes that we didn't have enough money to pay our gas bill, whilst at the same time two of our friends bands were touring (Comic Sans, Neon Love) and their main Melbourne show got pulled out on them, so we decided to have them play in our backyard. We ended up charging people $10 'donation' to come in, and it ended up going really well. I guess word of mouth spread and a good group of kids came down, like it was 200 people or something. In the end we raised more than enough money to pay the bill so we were kind of like, we should keep doing this. The guys who were involved during the first party obviously had their Uni and other jobs, but I was like, well fuck it I'm going to try and run with this and see how far it can go. And so far its gotten this far."
How many parties have you guys thrown all up? "To be honest I don't actually know exactly how many parties per se we've thrown. I think if i had to count, it wouldn't be no more than 7 or 8 of our own parties, but we're occasionally involved in other people's parties or DJ sets. But we have a pretty strong rule that we don't throw parties unless we think its 100% right, we just don't want to throw some half-ass party. So that's why we haven't thrown a lot of parties but we've had really good acts play live or done DJ sets."
At your first party, which was located in your backyard, you had a lemon tree which everyone was jumping and climbing. What have you done at your other parties to re-create the atmosphere of that lemon tree? "The lemon tree sought of came around naturally, but at other parties we've had foam pits and snow machines. One of our guys used to work at 'Crown Casino', so we borrowed some industrial blowers and used them to make snow machines. We've also thrown a party under a bridge in 'Richmond' which was really cool. It was something that people didn't have to pay for but we still did it because we thought it would be fucking awesome; and it was, it was fucking rad! So we've done things like that, which help promote the idea of an atmosphere that is far from the norm/clubbing experience. Because in Melbourne at least, kids can go to clubs literally any night of the week. So its not exciting anymore. And bands play the same venues over and over again. So we're trying to put them in different circumstances, or at least a venue that perhaps no-one's ever heard of before, which is fun because its a different experience."
You guys have hosted Foals DJ’s, Yeasayer DJ’s, the Philly J’s, the Death Set, and many more acts as a part of your parties. How do you get in contact with such high quality international and national acts, plus persuade them to play at your parties? "Well with each different band its come around around a different way. Like at the start we could only get our friends bands to play. Then slowly word started to spread about these parties. Like the Philly J's actually hit us up because they wanted to film a video clip at one of our parties, even though they didn't end up filming it. And after you have someone like the Philly J's play, things begin to take off. Then I helped book some Foals DJ sets for the 'Wicked' guys up in Brisbane when they were first touring with Foals DJ's, so thats how we met Edwin. And then once you have Foals deejaying at your party its pretty fucking good. We're also friends with the guys from 'Last Dinosaurs' because they played a party, and they've started doing really well. So to be honest its been a real natural progression. But now I think we're at that stage where promoters know us enough to trust that we will do a good job, so they're happy to just go, alright yeah cool. But also at the end of the day everyone wants to make money as well, so its not like we're in the position to say hey 'Yeasayer' come deejay for free. So I guess its that combination of people knowing we throw cool parties and the fact that we've built our brand up enough that we know we're capable of getting the amount of people we need to pay these acts what they need. So going back to the original question I guess its been a really natural progression, where we've just slowly built up and as the acts who played our first few parties have gotten bigger, we've been able to go to promoters and show them how thats impressive."
Besides throwing rad parties, you guys are also a record label. What bands are currently signed to I OH YOU? "Signed at the moment we have 'DZ Deathrays', 'Bleeding Knees Club' and 'Hunting Grounds', who used to be called Howl."
Both DZ Deathrays and Bleeding Knees Club are tearing up in AUS and the UK, plus Hunting Grounds won Triple J Unearthed in 2009. So how does it feel to have such high-quality and stable bands as a part of your label? "I still think there's a very long way to go for all the acts, but to be honest its something that you never get to sit back and appreciate, and I think its very important to do that. But during the couple of times that I've actually looked back, it makes me feel really proud and also appreciate the fact that I get to work with these bands, because they are fucking amazing. It was never luck that we started working with these bands, but its always good to appreciate all the good things that are going on, cause its fucking amazing, and its fucking awesome. But that being said, we're going at about 10%, and there's still another 90 to go. So if we begin to think that we're killing it, that's when we'll stop killing it. But its promising."
Are there any up and coming bands that I OH YOU are keeping a close eye on? "We're always looking for bands, and I guess we're sought of lucky that I'm friends with a lot of dudes, and those dudes happen to play in awesome bands and be really fucking talented. There's a band called 'Millions' from Queensland who are fucking rad. There's a band who aren't necessarily up and coming cause they've been around for a long time but are writing some fucking great songs called 'Ghostwood'. There's a chick from Brisbane called 'Emma Louise' who's really cool and sought of writes stuff similar to 'The Jezabells'. I really like this band called 'Northeast Party House' from Melbourne and also another Melbourne band who are fucking amazing called 'In Tongues'. There's another Melbourne song writer called 'Will Wagner' or 'Will Wagner and the Smith Street Band', and that dude is just fucking incredible. Like I don't think Australia has had a real storyteller for some time now besides 'Paul Kelly' and 'Neil Finn', but Will Wagner is fucking unbelievable. And to date only a certain group of people know of him in Melbourne and Sydney, but he has so much fucking potential, and he's one artist we would love to work with because we just think he's incredible."
I noticed that I OH YOU have started a new project entitled ‘I OH YOU CREATIVE’. What exactly does this involve? "I OH YOU creative is a funny thing because we just started doing film clips for the bands on our record label because we couldn't afford to pay other people to do it, and that started to go really well. So we began to think, well maybe we should be doing film clips for other bands, so we started to do a couple of them. But to be honest we've kind of put a halt on it. Just because the record label's going really well at the moment and we need to focus on that. But I OH YOU CREATIVE also came about because we decorate our venues when we throw parties, and different band managers began to realise that something cool was going on and that maybe it would be a good idea for their bands to have that sought of stuff going on in their venues when they play their normal shows. We've also done graphic design work for a club in Melbourne called 'CANT SAY'. But its more like a thing where we're lucky to know a lot of really talented kids who are amazing at whatever they do. And because most of them are relatively new, they don't have the connections to help them climb. Whereas, because we've been around for a little bit longer, we have the contacts to hook them up."
And lastly, the name I OH YOU, what does it mean and how did it come about? "The name I OH YOU came about when I was sitting backstage at the 'Corner Hotel' with the first band we ever released called 'Neon Love'. Anyway, I was telling the guys about my idea of starting my own record label, and they asked me about the names I had come up with. I wanted something that was kind of like a play on words and a little bit quirky. I used to really love this record label called 'Bellow Par Records' who were started by a bunch of 16 year olds and they ended up signing 'Kisschasy', 'Something With Numbers', 'The Scare', 'Die Die Die' and other great bands. But I always loved the fact that they called themselves 'Bellow Par Records' and turned out to be shit hot. Anyway, it was actually 'Michael Belsar' who plays in 'Hunting Grounds' now who said, "why don't you call it I OH YOU Records?" And I was like, fuck that's an awesome name! I originally thought he just meant the letters, but funnily enough 'Neon Love' have a song called I OH YOU which they never released and its spelt the exact same way we spell it, and I thought the name was just fucking genius. So the next day I went and registered that shit.
