Our Label Talk series is only continue to grow and we are extremely proud to be introducing our next feature in the series with Louis Posen, the founder of Hopeless Records. Hopeless Records has been one of the most influential labels in its lifetime and can certainly be recognized for signing Thrice in the beginning of their career. 2010 ended with the label signing bands like The Wonder Years, Yellowcard, and Silverstein, among other great bands. Louis and I discussed the these signings, the business side of the label, his thoughts on the music industry, and the future. Read up and learn more about one of the best labels in this scene!

Modesty aside, 2010 was an unbelievable year for Hopeless Records in the eyes of music lovers in this scene. Putting aside releases from We Are The In Crowd and Anarbor, the label inked The Wonder Years, Yellowcard, Silverstein, For The Foxes, and Divided By Friday. Can you go into detail about how you view the past year?
A lot of things have been the same as they always have and there have been a lot of changes. In a nutshell, we’ve always been a company that’s been about artist development and finding opportunities that are the best ways to develop artist’s careers. We’ve been fortunate enough to make some adjustments that have made us not only survive, but grow in the past few years in an industry that has been declining. I think we also really hit our stride with being together long enough so our flywheel is really spinning so now we know what each other are doing and what each others strengths and weaknesses are. The length of time that the team has been together has definitely hit a stride over the last few years. Last year was also the third year that we had our international infrastructure in place and they’ve also started to really hit their stride. A lot of our bands are doing better than ever outside of the US. The percentage of our business outside of the US has been higher than it ever has in seventeen years.
 
The Wonder Years released The Upsides just a year ago via No Sleep Records and it was announced just five months later that they had signed to Hopeless. When did talks with the band start, and how quickly after the release did they catch your eye?
That’s a good question. We were in touch with each other well before The Upsides came out. It was from communicating with Chris at No Sleep and seeing what the timing of things was going to be and when everyone thought it would be the right time to get involved with the band. I think we knew for a while that we wanted to work together. It was a question about where Upsides would be released and if we would rerelease it or do the next record. Those conversations took two to three months.
POZ: Would you say the reissue was a success?
Louis: Definitely. We feel like it got new legs after the rerelease and sales have definitely increased. It made a lot of new fans at a higher and faster pace. It’s helped us transition from this record into the debut Hopeless release a lot easier because we’d been working hand in hand with the band on the rerelease.
 
Yellowcard’s return absolutely stunned an incredible amount of people, but what was interesting to many was that they signed to Hopeless instead of a major label. How proud are you to have Yellowcard at the top of your roster and family currently? And how did all of that come together?
Super excited about it. I’ve been a huge fan of the band for a long time. We’ve worked with the band over the years too and I think that’s part of why they felt comfortable here. We’d had the band involved in Take Action compilations before and at point we were offered to put out an EP for them when they first signed to Capitol and they were going to have an indie put out an EP for them. We’ve had bands out on tour with them. There’s been a relationship for years with their camp. It felt good to us. So far we think it’s been great. The record came out amazing, so we’re very excited for everyone to hear it.
 
Silverstein was an interesting signing as well because they fit in the least, in terms of sound, compared to the rest of your 2010 pickups. Did that make the choice difficult at all, or was it just a natural fit from the start?
Well, if you look at the history of the label and the types of bands we sign, it hasn’t been a genre-specific formula. Our philosophy has always been to find great bands that fit in the underground rock scene and that could be heavier or poppier. We’ve done everything from Avenged Sevenfold to All Time Low; two bands that are at two different ends of the spectrum in terms of sound and personality [Laughs]. We’re interested in a lot of different types of artists, it’s just that they have to be great and have to standout from other bands. They’re another band that we’ve had a long relationship with. They’ve played Take Action Tour and we’ve been friends with them for years and years.
 
The only negative portion of 2010 for bands on the label was really the incident between The Dangerous Summer and the other bands on the VersaEmerge fall tour, which featured fellow-Hopeless band, Anarbor. Is it worrying to have bands on the same roster that have underlying issues with each other?
We want everyone to be a family, but just like any family, there are those people who don’t get along with each other. My experience with The Dangerous Summer is not that they don’t like anyone personally, they have strong musical opinions and they like to express them publicly. That’s just their personality. I don’t put any deeper meaning on it than that. It is hard for us as a key partner in developing their career when they’re going things that we don’t condone, but at the same time, we’re a company that gives artists a lot of freedom and creative control. If that’s the way they want to do things, that’s the way they want to do them. I do think there are consequences to behaviors, so they’ll have to deal with those. It’s not always nice to hear that one of your bands is saying mean things to other ones. We tend to tell people a disclaimer; you know the history of the band, so if you want to take them on tour you know the risk that you’re taking.
 
What’s your regular day like at the label? It is it more managing how your roster is doing as a whole and prepping releases, or is there a lot more to it that most people wouldn’t think of?
I mainly sit up with my feet up on the desk and drink a glass of wine and eat cheese and crackers. No, I’m usually first or second in, but my role is kind of in categorizing four areas: Artist relations, dealing with the bands and managers on big picture plans, team leadership, which is trying to help our team get the most out of who we are and help where I can, and then the two other areas are business development, we’re always looking for new opportunities for the company, and business affairs, which is where I oversee all of the contracts that we do.
 
Giants like Universal can, essentially, manage lower sales for their bands and artists because those names are more likely to sell out larger arenas like MSG or Staples Center in LA. How do you, as a smaller label, handle the same issue of decreased music sales?
For us, music sales haven’t declined. They’ve gone up for us other the last few years. We’re not quite in the same position that we are. We do understand that there is a decline in physical sales and we’ve always felt that we’re the key partner in developing the artist’s career so that there should be a return in that investment in all of the different revenue streams, but we understand that early on in a band’s career some of those revenues are how they’re building their own business. Most of our deals are a hybrid of where we get involved with the artist.
 
We’re obviously in a new age of media for music in terms of downloading and the lack of physical purchasing. Could you see a day where Hopeless stops releasing physical CDs?
It’s hard to tell. I’m not a good predictor of the future. I see it declining more, but vinyl didn’t go away either. CDs may never go away or may take a long time to tally go away. The format of music is not really that important to us. It’s more about the music and bands themselves and how they’re connecting with fans. Then we just have to be smart enough on what are the formats and avenues that fans want to get the music and what are they willing to pay for it.
 
What adjustments has the label made since the recent swing of the music industry has occurred to ensure that Hopeless can continue to operate at a high level in the future?
We’re making changes all the time and are looking at which revenue streams are going up and which are going down. For a while everyone was thinking that all of the CD sales would move to digital download sales, and it didn’t make up for the loss of CD sales completely. Now everyone is looking from downloads to streaming. We’re definitely taking steps to prepare for that type of transition as well.
 
With the industry struggling the way that it is, how do you make decisions about who to bring into your family and how to market them? It was in a way peculiar that Hopeless welcomed five new bands to the roster last year.
Yeah, it’s always a tough decision for us. We have a quality over quantity philosophy so we don’t sign many bands. So therefore each time we do it’s a very big decision for us. There isn’t a checklist of things that have to fit right to sign a band. It’s really a combination of a lot of things combined with general intuition. We look for the same stuff everybody looks for: Songwriting, performance, personality, and online presence. The one thing that has to be there is the ability to make an emotional connection with fans. If you can’t do that then we can’t create there.
 
Was there just that much quality out there in the past year?
Part of it has been that there was more quality things in the past. Part of it has been that we’ve made a more proactive effort as a team to go out to look at what’s available.
 
That being said, does Hopeless have any more announcements regarding signings in the near future?
There probably will be. Not one that is in the pocket to come out yet.
 
Sub City is sort of due to announce its Take Action compilation and 2011 tour. Will we be seeing some announcements soon?
Yes, you will this month. You’ll see it within the next twelve days.
 
Are there any other plans for Sub City this year that are different from past years?
There is. We have at least two things that we’re working on that are new this year. One is what we’re calling “Take Action Tracks.” We built a low-fi studio in our warehouse and we’re going to have Hopeless and non-Hopeless bands come in to record one to three acoustic tracks. They’ll pick a charity and the proceeds from the sale of those tracks will go to that charity. We might do things like combine several of them as well. It will be an ongoing series. It will hopefully be good for the charities and for bands who have been looking to connect their talents and resources to something they care about. We’re going to be giving the racks to their labels for free. So it’ll be good for the labels as well.
POZ: Can you discuss the second thing as well?
Louis: The second thing this year is that we will be celebrating donating over $2 million to non-profit organizations. We’re going to be doing some sort of celebratory event during the year. It’s exciting. If a small company like us can do it. Part of our mission with Sub City is to show anyone that they can make a difference, even geeky music fans like us. We hope we’re letting the world know that our community is out there doing stuff.
 
To close things up, what can we expect from Hopeless this year in terms of record releases besides Yellowcard, The Wonder Years, and The Dangerous Summer who all have new material coming out soon?
Expect a There For Tomorrow full-length and a We Are The In Crowd full-length. Expect an EP by Divided By Friday and For The Foxes. We picked up Damion Suomi who we picked up though P Is For Panda. Hopeless will release something with him as well.