415 Records - History

History

415 Records was founded in San Francisco in 1978 by entrepreneurs Howie Klein, Chris Knab, and Butch Bridges. Klein was a writer and entertainment promoter, Knab owned the eclectic San Francisco record store Aquarius Records, and Bridges was a music collector and retailer. Klein and Knab had become friends when Klein did some photography for his friend Harvey Milk, whose camera store was next door to Knab's Aquarius Records on Castro Street. They worked together on various radio shows around the Bay Area, including an alternative radio show on KSAN, and they started recording and promoting local musicians out of Knab's record store.

Klein ran the label from a tiny office in the Mission, a district of San Francisco, where he kept a pushpin-covered United States map on his wall, bearing a sign that read, "All Bands on Tour All the Time." Klein used his own late-night weekend radio shows to showcase his artist's records and he promoted them all over the country to nightclubs, record stores, and a newly blossoming array of other alternative radio stations. His artists were part of the 1980s San Francisco rock underground, though Klein leaned more toward the accessible, fun, new wave bands than the thrash metal and hard-core punk bands who were also part of that scene. 415 was the first North American record label to focus on punk and new wave music and they featured mostly musicians from the San Francisco region, though the label eventually also included artists from other areas. The British label Stiff Records had done similarly two years earlier; marketing England's emergent 1970's pub rock scene as punk and new wave and releasing their first record in August 1976.

415 Records enjoyed early and sustained support from Bill Graham and from David Rubinson, owner of The Automatt recording studio on Folsom Street. Bill Graham managed many top-name acts through his management and promotion agency, Bill Graham Presents, and from the start of the label he booked 415's artists as opening acts for major headlining bands to help them gain broader exposure. Queenie Taylor, long an employee of Bill Graham Presents, purchased Butch Bridges' share of 415 Records in 1979.

Rubinson discounted fees for 415 label bands to record at San Francisco's The Automatt studios; sometimes recording them on speculation, such that the studio would share in the profits from those record sales. David Kahne, operating out of a closet-sized office upstairs at The Automatt, worked as 415's A&R director, doing artist development and in-house production and engineering there for 415 until 1982, when he left Automatt and went to work in Los Angeles as Vice President of A&R for Columbia Records. Even so, he continued to produce records for artists on the 415 label.

Their first release was a 1978 single by the The Offs, entitled Everyone's a Bigot, with 0° on the B-side (cat#911-39, 1978). Subsequent early releases included 7" EPs by SVT (cat#S0005, 1979), The Nuns (cat#SUB01, 1979), and Pearl Harbor and the Explosions Drivin' (uncatalogued, 1979). Later records included a 7" by The Mutants (cat#34859, 1980), an album by The Units (cat#A0003, 1980), a 12" 33⅓ RPM album by Romeo Void (cat# 415A-0007, 1981), a mini-album by New Math (cat#A0008, 1981), and various other releases for many other bands.

In 1981, 415 released Romeo Void's successful first LP, It's a Condition and then they built on that success by signing a co-branding contract with Columbia Records that gave Columbia first rights of refusal to produce, manufacture, and promote their artists' recordings. Many other independent labels would form similar alliances with major labels over the coming decades. 415 retained (nearly) full artistic control over which artists to sign, all recording, and the selection of songs and artwork. Columbia co-branded albums for Romeo Void, Translator, Wire Train, Until December and the Red Rockers under this arrangement; while outside the Columbia deal, Monkey Rhythm, the Pop-O-Pies, and The Uptones all recorded albums that were released and promoted independently by 415 Records. Like many other independent labels, 415 had struggled to reach a national market, but by partnering with Columbia's knowledge and its established connections with radio, television, and retailers, they were able to bring their records to a much broader audience.

Following Kahne's departure in 1982, local musician and producer Daniel Levitin began working in the A&R department and in 1984, he became Director of A&R, serving as staff engineer and handling in-house production as well as development of new artists. In the early 1980s, Queenie Taylor had begun managing Wolfgang's nightclub in San Francisco, and later, in the early 1990s, Slim's nightclub, owned by Boz Scaggs. Christopher Knab sold his share of the label in 1985 and he moved to Seattle, Washington to manage the University of Washington's alternative radio station KCMU, now KEXP 90.3 fm. Klein joined Sire Records in 1987 and he was named General Manager of Reprise Records in 1989.

When 415 and Columbia severed their co-branding contract in 1989, Levitin was supervising A&R for three new artists, The Stir-Ups, The Big Race, and The Scene, and also three other artists that Levitin had produced for the Columbia partnership. These three, The Afflicted, The Furies, and Rhythm Riot, were given to a different independent label, for whom Levitin was also producing records, San Francisco's Infrasonic Records; where they flourished.

In 1989, 415's co-owner and President, Howie Klein, was named General Manager of Reprise Records and Levitin stayed to help run the label after Klein left. Three months later, Sandy Pearlman bought 415 records and named Tom Schedler head of its A&R department. By this time, Al Teller, who had been president of Columbia Records when the 415 partnership began, was now president of MCA Records. Pearlman changed the record label's name to Popular Metaphysics and formed a co-branding alliance with MCA, ending the 415 label.