Popping the shoegazer bubble: a talk with Longinus Recordings about the wider world of shoegaze
This label is dedicated to bringing music made by groups of people historically excluded from the genres of dream pop, shoegaze, noise rock, and noise pop to the bigger audiences they deserve
On an impulse a few years ago, Matt from Longinus Recordings got so excited by an album on Bandcamp that it birthed a label. In this interview, we talk in-depth about the passion that goes into all these releases by both the artists and the label. If you are even tangentially interested in shoegaze, you do not want to miss all the hidden gems that Longinus Recordings has been helping to uncover.
What was the impetus for you to start Longinus Recordings?
I found Parannoul's album To See The Next Part of the Dream while looking for new shoegaze releases on RateYourMusic. It was getting minor positive attention, so I set aside some time later that night to listen to it. While listening to it, I thought I was so good that it compelled me to reach out to him and see if I could help him in any way with the record. I contacted him on Bandcamp over email, and asked him if I could make cassettes of the album. That was the genesis of Longinus Recordings.
What was your process for actually starting the label? Did you talk to some other small labels to get some guidance or did you just dive in headfirst and figure it out on your own?
The decision was pure impulse. I didn't look into the logistics of starting a label or give it that much consideration, I just wanted to be involved with this incredible album I had just listened to. The decision was very spur of the moment, so the label wasn't exactly something I was planning on making a formality, I just sort of went with the flow. I wasn't expecting it to become something as quickly as it did, but the internet and press rallied around Parannoul so quickly that I had to do some serious consideration on what I was actually planning to do. To See The Next Part of the Dream is unusual in the sense that the album exploded in popularity after a very short period of time, so I made the choice to commiting and prepare myself for whatever came next. I just sort of dove in headfirst, and tried to tread water the best that I could. I figured most things out on my own, but I had to consult an accountant after a while because I was out of my depth in running something that became closer and closer to a real business.
I remember after Spring Finals I spent the entire day generating labels on Paypal, and sending 500 cassette tapes across the world in manila envelopes that were too large for individual cassettes, with labels that were improperly scaled for the size of label that I was using. I genuinely had no idea what I was doing, but I was trying my best to figure it out, and deliver on the promise I made to Parannoul and the people who purchased from me.
How did you define your mission statement for the label? As I understand it, it's your goal to give "a platform that eschews western sensibilities and represent groups of people historically excluded from" the genres of dream pop, shoegaze, noise rock, and noise pop. What made you want to have such a specific focus for your releases?
It took a while for me to figure out what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to position Longinus. I wasn't expecting to have to run a label or have attention on it as quickly as it occurred, but that also caused me to consider exactly what I was doing removed from the impulsivity of my decision making. I originally was involved with the Emo scene, but shed that as I realized it was Shoegaze that brought us together and ignited my passion for music. Many of our releases are still tied to and influenced by Emo music, but I consider Longinus to be a shoegaze label.
I have listened to shoegaze for a very long time, and around the time of starting my label, I had become bored with a lot of acts and developments in the United States. A lot of bands that people were praising were/are not ones that I am fond of. Shoegaze in online circles has a tendency to be a bit of an echo chamber surrounding what is happening in the United States. I generally look at shoegaze through a lens of innovation and texture, and at the time, the innovation wasn't coming from domestic bands. I saw people across the world were pulling from more esoteric influences and composing music in a more ambitious way.
While people were fawning over a run-of-the-mill 3 minute shoegaze song, I was really captivated by some of the longer songs my artists had written, like "White Ceiling", "Circumstances Telling Me Who I Am" or "anime de mecha". I thought that these musicians I had suddenly found online had brilliant intuition for texture, pacing, tension and performance. Not only that, but there was a distinct musical skeleton in their works that I wasn't finding in the United States. Music from other countries is informed by different cultures, different styles of music, and different approaches to doing things.
A lot of Parannoul's music takes cues from Japanese Shoegaze, Korean Indie and the western canon of shoegaze among other things. I could recognize how Parannoul was unconsciously diffusing these influences into his music, but building on them opposed to imitating them. It was clear to me that the album was made by someone who loved music, and had a deep understanding and appreciation for the same genres that I did. The same goes for Asian Glow and sonhos tomam conta. A lot of Lua's (sonhos tomam conta) music has a noticeable jazz influence because she is Brazilian. I think that cross pollination and artistic nuance made the records I aligned with my label sound more distinct than others, while also adding a level of "novelty" that helped them be positioned stronger to prospective listeners. A sudden global shoegaze scene coming out of nowhere sounds interesting, no?
Outside of being inspired by the quality of the music I was distributing, I questioned why I found it so "fresh" in the first place. The excitement I felt from that innovation pushed me to focus on what other music could be out there that we haven't heard, and how much of it might be compromised by a perceived "incompatibility" with the way we stereotype shoegaze -- a Western, English genre. After that realization, I wanted to try my best to amplify the voice of others by leveraging my label as a platform, and to use the attention we were getting to make shoegaze a bit more equitable. With the mounting interest, I felt it would be better to play into a niche. There are many labels that publish specific types of music, but I wanted to show people more than just shoegaze or noise pop, I wanted to show how it was interpreted by people who didn't "fit the mold" or belong to the same culture.
The way that I see it, great shoegaze acts that speak a language other than english will struggle more than a bland shoegaze band that speaks english. The music is easier to promote and position, and journalists and listeners can more readily identify with it. I wanted to try to show other people different executions of my favorite genres of music by people they wouldn't think of as typical shoegazers. I think in general the times are changing to where shoegaze and other music genres are becoming more widespread and democratized, with shoegazers being increasingly from many different countries from many different backgrounds. It caused me to think about more than just "How do I help these people out" and It became a larger issue of "How do I leverage the attention I currently receive?" and is there something greater going on that I can shed light on?
I think I'm trying to offer an alternative to the narrative of shoegaze as something uniquely western. I am trying to kill the icon of the shoegaze musician as a White 20-something from Leeds and the genre as strictly steeped in western styles. I don't think people necessarily think of the caricature I described as the "de facto" shoegazer, but far too many people are complacent regarding the sound of the genre and never look past the borders of their own country for music. I aim to showcase the cosmopolitan nature inherent in music, and its cultural diffusion using my label as a source. At the very least (and in context to shoegaze specifically), I am trying to make more different, subversive, or challenging styles of music easier to access.
I don't think that I'm saving shoegaze or that my label is a monolith of taste, it is purely an extension of myself and what I want shoegaze to resemble. I think through my work in cultivating artists and releasing music, that I've found a way to engage people with its developments from outside of the United States by people who have not historically been represented in shoegaze, which is incredibly important.
Have you found most of the albums you've ended up releasing through your own exploration or through demos submitted to you?
The majority of what we have published has been found and organized by myself. I found the music of Parannoul, Asian Glow and sonhos tomam conta by myself looking for new releases shortly after I established my label. That being said, I trust the taste of my friends and look towards them for guidance. Parannoul is somewhat of my litmus test for shoegaze, and I greatly value his opinion.
Asian Glow showed me 비타민과 우려 Vitamins and Apprehension by Della Zyr, which prompted me to offer to publish Della's music. Parannoul showing me Xinlisupreme and Walrus, which motivated me to see if I could reissue albums by those projects somehow.
There have currently been two demos that have been accepted and released as part of our catalogue: TURQUOISEDEATH's Se Bueno and sunshy's i don't care what comes next.
I always tell people when they submit demos or ask for feedback that I am just one guy who likes a specific genre of music executed in a specific way. Just because I like something doesn't mean it's good, and vice versa.
You've recently done a landmark reissue of the album Hikari no Kakera by Walrus. How did you first hear this album and what made you fall in love with it enough to set out on a quest to reissue it?
Parannoul showed me the album when we began talking and sharing music during Longinus' inception. I am very well versed in many styles of shoegaze across many eras, so I am not easily enchanted by releases unless they are truly thinking of sound in a unique way. There are lots of "competent" shoegaze records, but there are not many progressive or experimental works of shoegaze.
Hikari No Kakera I think set itself apart in a very unique way that beckons the listener to be enraptured by the album. It functions very differently from many shoegaze albums because it uses a more conventional structure steeped in experimental production techniques, both for shoegaze and in a wider context. The production is intensely textured, but the flow of energy and the dynamic movement more closely resembles alternative rock. The songs are much more straightforward in their presentation, which isn't the same for bands like My Bloody Valentine or Slowdive. There are technical guitar solos, breakdowns, and moments where each musician shines. These aren't inherently forward thinking in music, but they are in complete contrast to how shoegaze was being made at the time. A lot of shoegaze comes across as a wholly unified work -- pieces of a greater wall of sound; However, these pieces are never at odds with each other, and serve to fit together very tightly. Hikari no Kakera rejects that, and presents its pieces individually, while still retaining their cohesion.
At the same time, there is also unconventional production underpinning other aspects that appear more "by the books." In shoegaze, a lot of feedback loops are meant to be seamless to not break its sense of atmosphere; On Hikari No Kakera, they are used more obviously to create an increased sense of textural contrast - it's almost like they have to be navigated around to properly coexist. "Exit" demonstrates that beautifully, and slowly builds around an idiosyncratic drum loop. "Wade" uses vocal effects to give lead singer Akitomo Tanaka's vocals a digital and robotic quality to them. It sounds as if an android sang a shoegaze song, and the effects are the only moment on the album where the vocals across an entire song are in-line with the way shoegaze had been traditionally mixed. The album is very self aware of the textures it employs. It is noisy and chaotic, but it is also incredibly nuanced.
Compared to a lot of other shoegaze from the same era, Hikari No Kakera also has incredibly rapturous vocal performances and a unique sense of angularity in its sound. Shoegaze has never been a genre where vocals are at the forefront of the songs, they usually act as a textural inclusion to tie everything together in a bow. Not on Hikari No Kakera. Tanaka's vocals are front and center in a way that is incredibly uncommon in shoegaze. The passion found in songs like "Matataki", "Dyed" or "Spit" will not be found on other shoegaze records, and even the most theatrical classics in the shoegaze canon fail to reach such stratospheric heights. The effects on the percussion creates a very granular sound, almost furthering the synthetic feeling of the record. It's as if the drummer, Kenroh Wakasugi, is continually shattering cymbals made of glass opposed to metal. The music is so energetic and dense that some songs seem like they might spontaneously combust at their edges. It's volatile and explosive, but against all odds never seems to immolate.
The self titled track is the best example of Walrus as a creative force. The song is the greatest display of how Walrus uses production and performance to build gargantuan walls of sound with an immediate physicality to them. Their atmospheres don't just tower above you -- but race past your head at breakneck speed. The record's sense of passion and intensity is incredibly rare in shoegaze. Many records can only dream of accomplishing one of those things, not to mention both. Tanaka's vocals on Hikari No Kakera are akin to an exorcism of sound from his being.
I could go on and on about why I think this record is great, but all the imagery and verbosity pales in comparison to listening to the album itself.
6. What was the process like for tracking down all the proper rights to reissue the album?
It was a headache. The past reissues we have done have been through artists who own the work in question. Hikari No Kakera is our first proper reissue in the sense that we had to navigate a corporate environment entirely by ourselves opposed to a "handshake" between the artist and I.
To start off, the parent label was unsure of the rights themselves when initially asked, and it wasn't until I contacted Walrus' old manager in a last-ditch effort that I was able to get anywhere regarding the record. To contact him, I had to track him down, where I discovered he was teaching music business at a university in Japan. I then had to mail the university admissions office of where he teaches and there wasn't a guarantee that I'd receive a response. Luckily, it worked out and he was able to verify that the rights of the record belonged to the parent label, and helped me begin the process of securing the rights to reissue the record.
The deal for the album was negotiated entirely using DeepL. I communicated with every person in Japanese using an online translator and even filled out the licensing form in Hiragana. From start to finish, the process took almost 2 years from "I am going to try and reissue this" to announcing the release. Sometimes I didn't hear back for months, but bureaucracy in corporate Japan is a beast of its own.
This album was reissued because I'm incredibly stubborn and I wanted to try and reissue a work because I had the resources and interest to do so. It was not easy, but seeing the finished product, it was all worth the time, effort and expense, and I'm glad that I could give an album that I love the treatment it deserved in a physical reissue.
7. In the process, have you actually talked to any of the members of the band? If so, what are their thoughts on the re-release and the legacy of their music?
I have communicated with Akitomo Tanaka, who was the lead singer, guitarist and lyricist for Walrus. One of my efforts during the reissue process involved cold messaging people on his social media accounts to try and see if he held the rights to his old band's works. I was that dedicated. I was facebook messaging people in Japanese I had never met because they were tangentially related to the lead singer of Walrus. It's arguably unprofessional, but I had to exhaust all possible options in my quest to reissue this record.
Akitomo did not seem to have any opinion on my efforts to reissue Hikari No Kakera and unfortunately was not able to provide materials for use in the packaging of the album. He seems to have left his days as a musician in the past, which I respect.
8. There are a lot of labels out there right now doing a ton of great work. Do you have any other labels that are inspirations for you?
As mentioned, the decision for me to start a label was impulsive. Longinus was a means to an end for a product idea before I decided I wanted to take it further. I didn’t start my label with the intention of copying other labels or set out to try and create "Creation Records 2" or anything. I just slowly cultivated Longinus into "my" label to enable the work of people I had befriended. One of my early inspirations was Factory Records, because Tony Wilson's approach to music was something I deeply respected. He saw something coming that nobody else did, and actively contributed to several important genres of music. He just loved music.
That being said, I am not trying to create my own "Factory" per se, I think of Longinus as a boutique label that carefully curates its sound out of passion. I don't aim to work in the music industry or grow my label to be a major player in the music scene. I only aim to share and help create music that I love to listen to. Despite what my degree says and the fact I pay Longinus' taxes every year, I am not a businessman -- I am a music listener.
There are a lot of amazing modern labels. One is 7th Heaven Recordings - Brock is awesome and just as dedicated as I am about reissuing gems from the past. Shelflife Records has always put out quality shoegaze from bands domestically and across the world. Reasonable Records and Plantasia Records are two wonderful labels that have helped us distribute records recently and are doing their own thing in their own genres. deadAir Records are trailblazing the indie scene. bvbvhoo records is a newer label that is reissuing a lot of great noise pop and shoegaze from Japan. Definitely keep your eye on them. Sello Fisura is championing a lot of wonderful noisey indie rock in Santiago, Chile.
What do you have coming down the line in terms of new releases for the label?
We've got some exciting reissues in the works for 2025.
We just released Asian Glow's latest record, 11100011! That's taken up a chunk of my January already. Lua Viana (sonhos tomam conta) is releasing a samba inspired avant garde metal EP under her new moniker, Antropoceno.
I'm teaming up with 2 of the mentioned labels (Plantasia and Reasonable Records) for a vinyl press of The Now Now and Never by what is your name? at the end of the month, another beloved Shoegaze record from the online sphere.
We will be reissuing Weatherglow later in the year on vinyl, which has been one of our most requested physical repressings for years. That'll be nice to finally give a proper LP issue.
I am working on a Dream Pop reissue from Japan, but I have to wait and see how tariffs play out because of cost reasons. Hopefully that will pan out because that has also been about a year in the making for us. It would suck for that work to go to waste, but nothing I can control about that.
Other than that, we will just have to wait and see!
Be sure to support Longinus Recordings and the artists on their roster by visiting their website and Bandcamp page!
Written by Conor Ryan. If you’re interested in submitting your music for future features, please send an email to littlelostrecords@gmail.com!