20 YEARS OF DEATHWISH

20TH ANNIVERSARY INTERVIEW WITH FOUNDERS JACOB BANNON

AND TRE MCCARTHY BY MARIKA ZORZI

“ T here’s no real Deathwish sound, there’s really no Deathwish visual aesthetic,” says Jacob Bannon. “It’s bands that have their own, unique individuality and character, and we do our best to empower them.”

When Bannon (Converge, Wear Your Wounds) conceived of starting his own label with Tre McCarthy in the year 2000, their only mission was to support underground music. In 2020, having released and distributed over 600 titles, Deathwish Inc. celebrate their 20th anniversary in the suburbs of Massachusetts, where everything began.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CALEB GOWETT

“When we started Deathwish, New England overall was in a really good place,” Bannon remembers. “You had a lot of bands in a variety of styles. You had the more straightforward, hardcore world; you had the more metallic hardcore world; you had our weird, punk-metal-hardcore-hybrid. You had bands like American Nightmare starting to take off. Converge, we were obviously doing our thing. Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage were starting up. There was a lot of cool stuff happening at that time.” “The mission has always been release tered all over it; we just want to get “Boston has always had a strong good music; treat artists fairly,” Banthe records out there. We do stores backbone of labels and bands, and non says. “We’ve just been trying to for other bands; I do a lot of print the time of our inception was no build a good, ethical world. Trying work for other visual artists through exception,” McCarthy adds. “The not to get bogged down in a lot of Deathwish. It doesn’t have to be like big ones at the time being Bridge 9, things that bog other labels down. ‘Jacob Bannon Presents.’ It’s just, sell Hydra Head, and Big Wheel RecreWe try to treat people fairly and as your art, and I’ll take care of it for ation. This is also around the Jane individuals. You just make a good you.” Doe era for Converge,;American and healthy environment, make evNightmare and Hope Con were at erybody happy.” “I went to art school, and I was alfull strength, Cave In and Piebald ready putting out Converge records too. There was also the huge, more “Honestly, all I’ve ever really wanted by then, but that wasn’t really what punk side of things happening with to do is help awesome people do I was concerned with,” Bannon conbands like The Trouble. Boston has awesome things,” McCarthy says. tinues. “What dreamed of was havalways been an awesome place for ing a place that I could go to work hardcore.” “One thing that’s different about us is every day where I could make art, that we don’t care about ego,” Banmake music, I could have like-mindSince the beginning, Bannon and non adds. “So, we help out bands ed people there and have it be a McCarthy have always had a clear and labels all the time, and we healthy environment. That’s what I idea of how Deathwish should be run. don’t have to have our logo plasenvisioned.” “I remember thinking that would be the coolest thing because at the time I was working at a furniture store, and I was trying to become a junior designer at any place that would have me. And I was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if I could just do my own thing, make enough that I can pay the bills, and everybody could be happy and live normal lives?’ And that was the goal. And that’s what we built. We’re not trying to be a monster conglomerate. We’re just trying to do good work,” he says.

The label has overcome many difficult moments over the years, but it has always carried forward the desire to support underground music.

“We’ve survived,” McCarthy admits. “We’ve always had to fight tooth and nail to do what we are doing, and it’s always felt like an uphill battle. We came up in the fall of the CD, and we survived. We had a distributor go out of business and steal tens of thousands of dollars from us, and we survived. We’ve just figured out how to change and adapt to all that’s going on and struggled and persevered.”

“I always have advice for anyone who wants to start a label,” Bannon adds. “Just put out music that you believe in and that you love. Everything else is secondary. Be smart about how you spend. Ego gets in the way of everything. So, try to be ego-less and try to just put out good-quality records. Try to communicate clearly. Every band is different. Every person is different. No one is going take a conversation the same way, so you can’t approach every band the same way. You don’t approach every relationship in your life the same. It’s the same deal. You learn the best ways to communicate with people, treat them with respect, and that’s it.” �� �� ��