(Interview Answers by Chase Stain - Co-Frontperson of Numbers On Napkins & President of Bad Stain Records)

The first time that I ever visited Phoenix, Arizona was in July of 2011. When I returned home to my state of Washington, I jokingly told my friends that I had been to heel and back, and tried to explain just how extremely hot it was in Phoenix. It was a genuine shock to my system to step outside into 115 degree temperatures in the shade, with the blazing heat not ever letting up. I think the low temperature was around 85 degrees when I was there, and that was around 3:00AM in the morning. I was much happier to be there in November of 2018 when I interviewed Bad Stain Records president, Chase Stain.

In the mid and late nineties, Bad Stain Records was by far the most successful record label in Phoenix. The small independent label had signed some of the local punk scenes most popular bands, and was especially known for releasing compilation CD's and records featuring popular national of the underground punk scene like Less Than Jake, At The Drive In, The Weakerthans, Buckwild, FYP, and many more. In the early 2000's, home computers came standard with CD-R burners, and people started to use the internet for much more than just looking at porn and wasting time in chat rooms. Everyone started file sharing MP3's and burned their own compilation CD's. The drastic change hit the music industry hard, and Bad Stain Records started struggling to stay afloat.

Bad Stain Records continued to release compilation CD's at the turn of the millennium, but even with popular bands like Yellowcard and Plain White T's being featured on the discs, the album sales were not nearly as strong as they had been just a few years earlier. Chase Stain was forced to downsize the label, and even started a jewelry store with his father to help generate the cash flow that Bad Stain was no longer able to produce.

In 2003, Chase Stain formed Numbers On Napkins, and signed the band to Bad Stain Records in 2004. By the end of that year, Stain released the bands debut album, "Waiting for Tomorrow" on Bad Stain, which surpassed all of the projected album sales, and quickly became the highest selling album on the label from a single artist. It was a much needed win for the label, and in 2005, Bad Stain Records generated a profit for the first time in over five years.

Following the success of "Waiting for Tomorrow", Chase Stain recorded and released his debut solo album on Bad Stain, and signed the Canadian anti-folk hero, Mr. Plow, and Ukraine punkers, Doping. Bad Stain also signed the local skate punk band, ATM (Against The Majority), hailing from Glendale, Arizona.

Bad Stain Records once again became a huge part of the local indie scene in Arizona, and over the next few years the label released albums from an assortment of artists. Chase Stain was also very successful with his jewelry business that he had started with his father, which had generated over $1,000,000.00 in inventory.

In 2008, Chase Stain and his father made a tragic mistake when they trusted a salesman that they had hired with far too much of the inventory. The salesman stole the company vehicle, which was a 35 foot long bus that had been modified to help showcase jewelry and southwestern decor that Stain's business sold. He also stole over $850,000 in jewelry and over $80,000 in other merchandise. Stain and his father attempted to press charges against the salesman, but the Phoenix Police Department stated that due to the fact that all of the stolen property had been sold or pawned outside the state of Arizona, they were unable to prosecute because it wasn't their jurisdiction. When they contacted the police stations in the cities and counties where he had sold the stolen products, those police stations informed Stain that they could not prosecute, because they had been stolen in Arizona. After nearly two years, the only place that Stain could obtain a warrant for the salesman's arrest was in Keystone, South Dakota, and the salesman never returned to that state, so was never prosecuted.

Chase Stain lived off of the label over the next few years, but in 2013, when his band announced that they would be going on hiatus, Stain was forced to once again get a job. Stain returned to the occupation that he had when he was younger, working as an installer of Air Conditioning and heating systems. I think that Chase Stain is nuts to go into that field living in Phoenix, because I can't imagine working in 115 degree heat all summer. Plus, Stain informed me that he spends the majority of his days in attics. Due to the lack of ventilation in attics, they often get to around 150-170 degrees on average in Phoenix, and Stain informed me that he's been in attics that are 195 degrees or more at times! He actually told me that he has spent so long in hot attics that the batteries in his head lamps have exploded. That's some serious heat. I may have spent my summer in hell, but Stain spends his days living in the heart of hell!

Bad Stain had not done much after 2013, but then in 2017 the label signed Johnny Laundromat and The Drycleaners, 946 West, and Daisy Moonshine and Her Redneck Brothers. In December of 2017, Numbers On Napkins announced their return from hiatus. The band started working on a new album, and it appeared that Bad Stain Records was making a comeback to the scene. Then, in October of 2018, Chase Stain announced that he was making his daughter, Nova Kaine Stain, the new Vice President of the label, making it clear that it was time for a new generation to take the label into the future.

For starters, I just want to point out that Bad Stain Records is not some huge label that generates all this cash. You have always claimed that the label is a way to help the local music scene in Arizona, and the overall underground music industry. In fact, you don't even earn a paycheck, right?

Yeah, I don't take a dime. In fact, I have invested thousands in the label over the years, and have never paid myself back. In my late teens and early twenties, I did make money from the label, but it was a different time back then. The label was making $10,000 to $12,000 profit every month. During that time period, for about 18 months, I did take a paycheck. Shit, I took a few paychecks! (Laughs) I was living like a fucking rockstar, dropping five grand at the bar on a Friday night, just having fun. That was the only time I didn't have a job though. To be honest, pretty much everyone in the underground scene has a day job. I remember when I first met Mark from Guttermouth, it was in 1995 and they had just headlined a show for around 1,500 kids. Their album, "Friendly People" was selling awesome, and they were known as a very popular and successful underground band. I was shocked when he told me that he installed commercial fire sprinklers for a living. I had assumed that he made enough from being in Guttermouth to live fairly decent, when in fact, he had to have a day job or he would have starved. It's not about money though. It's about punk rock! As far as the label goes, I'm not concerned about making a lot of cash, but I do want to make enough to continue to release new albums and properly promote the bands on the label.

Just a few weeks ago, you promoted your daughter, Nova Kaine Stain, to Vice President. What made you decide to promote her to that position?

Our former Vice President, Moe Money, felt as though he did not have the time to stay on in that position. Bad Stain Records has been doing a bit more in the past year, and Moe didn’t have the time to perform his duties like he did back in the day. When he stepped down, I needed to find a good replacement, and even though I had hoped to get my daughter up to speed a bit more before promoting her into that position, it was always my plan to someday make her Vice President and groom her to take over the label, just not so soon.

But even though you promoted her sooner than you had wanted, are you still pretty confident that she can handle the position? Oh yeah. She’ll be fine. Honestly, it isn’t a whole lot of work. She can get everything done in less than 20 hours per week. She’s still in high school, so she is gonna have a lot of crap going on in her life, but she is gonna do great. The thing that impresses me the most about Nova is the fact that she has always had a great ear for amazing bands. Even as a kid she just had great taste in music, and was able to determine what bands would be a success. When she was three years old, I remember her introducing me to great bands. One night in May of 2007, I woke up at 2:30am and noticed that my TV was on. I looked around my room and realized that Nova was sitting next to me in my bed, eating a bowl of Fruity Pebbles and watching television. Confused, I asked her what she was doing. She told me that she had a bad dream, but didn’t want to wake me so just crawled into my bed. Then she said that the dream was scary and she couldn’t stop thinking about it, so she turned on my TV to get her mind off of the nightmare. Then, she said that she realized that she was hungry, so went and got a bowl of cereal. I remember being so confused cuz she had never made cereal, so I kept asking her how she got it, and she kept telling me that it wasn’t hard to put cereal and milk in a bowl. Then, she asked me to be quiet because her favorite band was on the TV. I sat up and watched a music video featuring a young girl singing to a really catchy guitar riff. Nova told me that the band had a new CD coming out in a month, and that she wanted to get a copy of it, and also requested that I get her a copy of their last album. Then, she asked if we could go see them live when they came into town. I asked her how she had heard about Paramore and she told me that it was from someone that I talked to. I was so confused, but then she explained how she became a fan. I guess Fueled By Ramen must have sent me a link promoting Paramore a few months prior, and my daughter said that she found it from that email. Apparently, She went to my computer to play Webkinz, and noticed that I had an open email on the screen. She was about to close it when she took a closer look. She told me that she thought that the singer of the band was super pretty, and looked really cool, so she clicked on the link to check them out. After that, she was a fan! (Laughter)

Wow! That is actually pretty crazy that she was that intense about music at such a young age. I mean, at three years old most kids are in to “Old McDonald Had A Farm”, or “Three Blind Mice”, or “B-I-N-G-O”, and that type of stuff. It is pretty cool that she was that devoted too.

Yeah, it was interesting, and I was really amazed at everything about that night. Now the following week....(Laughter)....I wasn’t as proud and amazed....(more laughter)

What do you mean?

(Laughter)....Ohhhh man. I’m a good dad, okay. I mean....uhhhh. Okay. So like a week later, I wake up around 3:30am, and there is Nova sitting on my bed, eating a bowl of cereal, watching TV again. I was like, Deja Vu, then I looked over at the TV and it was a Girls Gone Wild infomercial. I was like, “Okay Kiddo, we need to put something else on.” She was like, “Okay”. Like she didn’t care at all. She was just watching whatever was on. It just so happened that a half hour long special on dirty little hussies and college hoe-bags was what was on at that moment. I was literally a bit afraid that we would be out somewhere and she would all of a sudden lift up her shirt and scream, “Wooooo! Girls Gone Wild!”, cuz they must have had like fifty girls do that in the two minutes it was on before I could change the channel. (Laughter) Sorry.....I’m getting off topic. You may proceed my good man.

Well it’s good that you feel so confident about your daughter becoming a bigger part of the label. So at some point, do you plan on stepping down all together, or are you always going to be a part of the label?

I don’t know. I mean...I want her to have the freedom to run the label however she wants. Plus I honestly think that she is more in touch with a lot of music out there. She is the one who introduces me to new music, and I feel like she needs to have the freedom to take the label in whatever direction it needs to go. I plan on sticking around as President for a few more years, but then I will probably step down and she will take my place. When that first hsppens, I imagine that I will stick around and have some position at the label for a bit just in case she needs anything.....I honestly don’t know what the future holds. My main focus is what’s going on with the label over the next year or two. I’m not concerned with the next fifteen or twenty years. The bottom line is that Nova will do fine. Like, she has only ever told me that I should sign one band. Last year, she told me that she found an amazing band and that I should sign them because she thinks they are super talented and are something really special. I asked her what made them so special and she told me that it was an all girl band, and they were really talented, especially the guitarist. She also said that they were all attractive, and had a great style about them. She said that she felt as though they wrote some really good songs, and said that they had an awesome live show, adding that the singer and bassist had a really strong stage presence, and she felt like the singer was the perfect front-woman for a band. The band was called “Dollskin”, and I had never heard of them. I did a quit search and found out that they were already signed to a new indie label that was created by “Little” Dave, the guitarist for Megadeth. In fact, he started the label because he thought that they had so much potential, he wanted to invest in them somehow.....so he started a label and signed Dollskin. Then he signed like 60 or 70 other bands over the next year.

I’ve never heard of them. So they are from Phoenix, right? I mean, they are pretty good then?

Yeah...like Yeah, they are from Phoenix. And yeah, good is an understatement. They are one of the best bands I’ve heard from Phoenix. I have heard so many amazing bands from Phoenix...... The Format, Lydia, Scary Kids, Job for a Cowboy, BlessTheFall, Authority Zero, Stereotyperider, Subject Mad, Jimmy Eat World, Redfield, ummmm....Fivespeed, The Generiks, The Stiletto Formal, Greeley Estates, A Change of Pace, Digital Summer, Kongo Shock, Sam the Butcher....shit man, there’s... D.I.X., A.T.M. that was Against The Majority, but then had to change to Ask The Man....ummm....Plinko, Landmine Marathon....I could name off a hundred more just really amazing bands that never got the exposure and credit that they should have. Dollskin is high up on my list of greatest bands from Arizona, lets put it that way. And like, actually....I would have to say that they are the best all female group that I have ever heard in Arizona. There have been a few pretty good all girl bands come from Phoenix. Like, I think The Dames were a really great band. Ohhh, and My Doll was good. But Dollskin is just fucking amazing. My daughter and I are actually going to see them tonight. They are playing at a small all ages venue called The Trunkspace with a few other local bands. They have been playing all over Europe the past year. They were also on The Warped Tour all summer. They only play locally every 3 or 4 months, and I think the last time they played in Phoenix was actually at The Warped Tour. You should come along and check them out, they put on a great show.

I actually have plans already, but I will have to check them out sometime. Actually, I just assumed that they are a punk band, what style do they play anyway?

Yeah. I would actually say that they are a pop punk band, with some metal influence, and a bit of post hardcore mixed in. Bottom line...they fucking shred!