Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions, please tell us a little about your label

Hi Jonny, thank you! I’m very happy to have this spot talking about my label. I Buy Records is born around October 2012. In the beginning it was just a webzine created in a period of my life while I was travelling a lot around Europe and I had a lot of time to kill at the airports. Slowly, I started to book shows in Milan-area (where I live) and in late 2015 I release the first record, a 7″ of my band Ratbones called “Ratwars”. I released it because I was looking for a label but I couldn’t find any decent deal that could let me 100% satisfied. I love to have full control of “my stuff” and all the deals I found back then were too weak. Now IBR is mostly a label, distro and booking-agency. During the past years some friend gave me help to run the whole thing, right now I do almost everything all by myself, so how you can imagine there’s no big time left for blogging anymore, even if sometimes I do ahahaha!

Anyway, IBR is focused in old school punk rock and pop punk, but I’m always open-minded to valute other genre.

What/who inspired you into setting up a record label ?

Like I mentioned before, In the beginning I run the label to handle my band’s stuff. Then I started to help my friends’ band and bands that I like. A big inspiration was surely Lookout! Records, but I really had no idea how to run a label and of course I did a lot of mistakes along the path, but after 3 years I can be very very happy. I really love each record I released and that’s what mean the most to me. My purpose with IBR is to help the bands, is not just about putting money and logo on a new album and hoping to sell some copy to make some cash back. It doesn’t work with punk rock, forget it! I try to give a concrete help with promotion, booking shows for the bands and distroing as much as possible their album. Who join IBR knows that will be part of a net, and this net means family. All the bands that “worked” with me know this and I think they are happy about it.

What’s been your highlights as a label to date ?

I can’t say if there is any highlight in IBR story, more or less all the albums I released sold as I expected and had great feedback. Of course I’m very happy that labels such as Stardumb Records (EU), Monster Zero (EU), Striped Records (EU), One Chord Wonder (EU), Moms Basement Records (USA), Rad Girlfriend Records (USA), Waterslide Records (Japan) ecc ecc, worked or traded records with me. I guess this means that I’m working well enough and the bands that I support really deserve my help and contribute.

How have you managed to keep a record label running in an age of easy access digital streaming ?

If you run a punk rock label to make money, you’re wrong, don’t do it. If you do it for passion.. it makes sense. That’s what matter to me. Being a DIY label, all the bands that work with me are free to do what they want with their music, so I’m totally ok if they want to stream their album. I just don’t want they put it for free, because to me it’s like not giving the right value to their music. 16/18 years ago (maybe more?) when the MP3 format invaded internet, music industry wasn’t ready to a change, slept on it and tried to fight a war lost before it really has begun. Stream services many years later made everybody happy: you don’t pay (or pay few bucks) for music and big labels get money, just in a different way. Not like in the past, of course, but as you can see Metallica are not whining anymore about  
Right now, who buy vinyl records, especially in the punk rock world, is a collector: so if a nerd on the other side of the world have a chance to listen for free an album that I released and he likes it… I’m pretty sure he’s gonna buy it.

Well, that’s what at least I do: I use a lot Spotify to evaluate new albums or to look for new bands, and if I like what I’m listening I buy it.

Any funny stories you can tell the readers about your label, or the bands you have put out ?

Oh boy, I could tell sooo many stories. You can even imagine how many weird and funny messages I’ve got in the last years about booking or label stuff related. I guess weirdos are very attracted by me and IBR. Anyway, I will copy and past the last email I got from a band from Ulan Bator:

“We suck !
Your label suck !!
We have something in common !!!
I think we should work together, what do you say?!”

Funny enough?

What inspired the name you have given your label ?

The name was inherited from the original webzine born in 2012. The meaning was “I-Buy-Becords” and I review those albums. It’s a clear statement that means supporting bands and labels and punk rock music in general. Keeping the same name for label activities was natural given the common thread that binds the two activities with my real aim.

Any rad releases you have planned you can tell us about ?

Right now there is no any planned release, 2018 is over with School Damage – Hello, Cruel World that you kindly reviewed. I already had a few talks with 4-5 bands that I love, I won’t say anything just because they still haven’t recorded yet but 2019 hopefully will be a great year for I Buy Records! I can say they are italian bands and they always released solid material, I’m so excited about!!

If you could put out a record from any band still going/or split up, who would it be?

I’m a Ramones addicted so without doubt that’s what I really would dreamed. Also Riverdales would have been super cool. A band still going? I would say Screeching Weasel, Queers, HEAD or Huntingtons that are my fave punk rock bands ever.
Thanks for this talk dude, and keeping on rocking with the blog: you are doing a great job!