*****Interview Answers by Chase Stain (President of Bad Stain Records) & Nova Kaine Stain (Vice President of Bad Stain Records)*****

Bad Stain Records is a small independent record label based in Phoenix, Arizona, that was founded in 1996 by a local musician named Chase Stain, and twin brothers Kris and Kelly Johnson. Stain purchased the Johnson brothers shares of the label in 1997, making Stain the sole proprietor of the label. Bad Stain Records only signed local bands in its infancy, including Stain’s own band, Dirty Laundry. Over twenty years later, Bad Stain Records has released over forty albums from various bands from across the U.S., Canada, and even the Ukraine!

Roughly a year ago, Bad Stain’s long time Vice President, Moe Money, announced that he was stepping down from the position, and would be taking on the duties of Bad Stain’s Head of Distribution and Merchandising. Money listed that his reason for leaving the position was due to his silkscreening business becoming more successful, and he was needed more often at his own business and feared that he would no longer have the time to properly focus on his position at the label.

Chase Stain promoted his daughter, who was Bad Stain’s Online and Social Media Manager at the time, to Vice President. Stain claimed that even though his daughter had only been working at the label for less than a year, he felt confident that she would be a powerful asset to the label, and pointed out that she had worked as an intern for the label since she was a child, and had gradually learned a good amount of valuable information regarding how to run a record label, and had witnessed the label making very successful decisions, as well as financially devastating poor decisions.

As 2019 came near its end, Bad Stain was hit with troubling news. Daisy Moonshine and her Redneck Brothers, and 946 West had both announced that they were breaking up due to “creative differences” and “internal issues with band members”.

I had a chance to meet with Chase Stain and his daughter Nova Kaine Stain to discuss the future plans for Bad Stain Records, and how losing two bands at once will effect the label next year. The tall, thin, tattooed label President, Chase Stain, dressed relaxed for the interview, sporting jeans and a brown ringer style shirt that said, “If a Fat Girl Falls in the Woods, Do the Trees Laugh?” He was accompanied by his stunningly beautiful daughter, Nova Kaine Stain. Nova Kaine was wearing a cute black skirt with black Doc Martin’s, and a rainbow ringer style shirt that matched her bright red and dark blue hair. Her vibrant makeup seemed to make her stand out in the middle of Starbucks, and I watched as every male in the coffee house proceeded to adjust their viewpoint to Nova Kaine. We placed an order and and took a seat at a table in the back of the coffee house. The father and daughter both made me feel welcome with their friendly mannerisms and bright smiles.

- Stephanie Pratt -

- Chase Stain -

- Nova Kaine Stain -

So for starters, I guess this question is more for Chase, but what was the reason that you started Bad Stain Records? What made you want to start a record label.

Well I had another label, prior to Bad Stain Records, called Dirty Records. I started Dirty Records in 1994, just after I completed recording enough material for an EP with my first real band, Dirty Laundry. We had recorded a few songs on an eight track recorder a few months earlier, and sent demo cassettes to about a dozen small independent record labels that we hoped would consider signing us. (Laughter) Man, the songs we sent were so horrible! It’s actually really funny that we even got our hopes up at all. (Laughter) We never heard back from any labels, so I started thinking that I should just start a label for the band. I was thinking about how one of my favorite bands at the time, D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles), was signed to Rotten Records. Rotten Records was owned by D.R.I., and as a matter of fact, D.R.I. was the only band on the label at the time! So, following in the footsteps of D.R.I., I started a record label called Dirty Records. I ended up releasing Dirty Laundry’s first release, the 9 1/2 Months E.P., in 1994. A year later, after pressing Dirty Laundry’s second release, the All Washed Up E.P., I started thinking more and more about the label. Actually, I had been focused more on all independent punk rock labels. I was a huge fan of Fat Wreck Chords, and also loved Epitaph, Nitro, Recess, and Fearless. I decided I wanted to do more with the label, and release music from some of the amazing bands that I was friends with. My friends Kris and Kelly liked the idea of starting a label, and they agreed to invest their tax returns into the label, plus an additional couple hundred dollars, and I agreed to pay the same amount as each of the Johnson Brothers, making us all equal owners and allowing the label to invest five thousand dollars into recording and pressing albums.

So did you just stop doing Dirty Records, or did you make an announcement to your customers that you changed the name?

Well actually, my buddy Bucky was ....or, his name is Mike. (Laughter) Well, he became known as Dirty Mike in the underground punk scene. But anyway, he had been wanting to start his own record label and had asked me tons of questions about where to get CD’s and cassette’s made, or where to get vinyl or shirts made, and what distributors are really good, or really shitty. Like, he really had his shit together to be honest. He had even planned out his first release, and had the music from both bands to put out a split seven inch record as a debut release. Bucky just didn’t know what to call his label. He kept telling me that he loved the name, Dirty Records, and was bummed that I got it first. I had been thinking about the name for awhile. And like, Dirty Records is so...just.... ummm....it’s right there and just there. Umm, like, Obvious! (Laughter) Sorry, I couldn’t describe it for a minute. But it was so obvious that Dirty Records was associated with Dirty Laundry. I wanted something that was still obvious, but just a bit more subtle I guess. So, I came up with Bad Stain Records and Kris and Kelly both liked it so we decided to call the new label Bad Stain. And since Mike wanted Dirty Records so bad, I told him that I would sell it to him. I listed some conditions when I sold the label to Dirty Mike, such as, I still claimed all of the rights to all of the albums from Dirty Laundry that I already released on Dirty. I was granted the right to repress the albums on Bad Stain. Well, basically, all Bucky got was the name. I sold it for a six pack of Keystone Light, an order of cheesy garlic bread, and three scratcher lottery tickets (Laughter)

Bucky was super happy, and so was I. And actually, Bucky ended up getting so many questions about where to purchase Dirty Laundry music, that he asked Dirty Laundry to release a record on Dirty Records. It was cool, cuz he wanted it to be a special limited edition release, and we wanted to make it like....really original and rare. So we made a single sided seven inch vinyl record. So one side had the grooves to play music and the other was totally smooth. Ohh, and we chose red vinyl, and only pressed 500 copies, and then Bucky hand numbered each copy! It was pretty fuckin’ sick actually! So I guess, I started a label as a tool to help Dirty Laundry, but ended up changing my mind shortly after starting the label and created a new label that I hoped could help all of my friends bands, in addition to my own

And you ended up buying out the two brothers after a few years, making you to sole owner of Bad Stain, right?

Actually I think it was less than a year when I bought them out. Maybe not. Who Knows. I don‘t think it was longer than two years though, for sure. They just needed cash at that time for some reason, and they didn’t think that Bad Stain would be able to generate the amount of money that they had hoped to get as a return on their investment. So I bought each of their shares.

All of a sudden I heard the barista call out our names and I raised my head and saw Chase Stain rise to his feet and make his way to the counter. As Chase got all of our beverage’s, it gave me a chance to ask Nova a similar question to her father’s.

This one’s for Nova. Why did you decide to start working in the music business? Do you plan on starting a band someday and pursuing music yourself?

Music has always been a big part of my life and is very influential to me. To answer the second question, I do plan on starting a band someday, hopefully in the near future.

Nova has always been really into music, ever since she was still in her Mommy’s belly. Nova would always get really excited and move around whenever we listened to The Mars Volta. (Laughter) When she was almost three, I woke up in the middle of the night, and Nova was next to me, eating a bowl of cereal while watching TV. Confused, I asked her what was going on. She told me that she had a bad dream and got scared so she crawled into bed with me, being careful not to wake me. Then, she said that she got hungry, so she went and made a bowl of cereal and brought it to bed. (Laughter) Then she decided she wanted to watch something on TV while she ate, so she turned on the TV. (Laughter) So I was just amazed, because I didn’t know she could make her own cereal, then all of a sudden she popped up all excited and was saying, “Oh yeah! Awesome! I love this band so much! Dad, do you know this band? They are my favorite!” Now I didn’t even know she listened to any music other than “Old MacDonald” or maybe some Disney Princess Soundtrack, and I was caught off guard at this little three year old girl bouncing around at three in the morning, singing along to what was apparently, her favorite band. I slowly sat up and looked at the TV screen and saw a group of young kids, with a very pretty, younger girl. As I listened to the song, I really liked the guitar riffs and I thought that the female singer had a super powerful voice, and the lyrics were also very good, in a really bitch kind of way. As the song ended, the credits rolled up and I caught the band name