Half a Cow Records are a label from Sydney, founded by local Nick Dalton, perhaps most famed for being one third of Evan Dando's highly successful Lemonheads. Over its short life, HAC has rapidly risen to prominence, buoyed somewhat by the popularity of the Lemonheads, to the point where it could stand alongside the other premier Australian independent labels such as Au Go Go and Waterfront.

However, with success came the problem of managing a burgeoning quota of bands and the inevitable associated cash flow and so this year Dalton opted to surrender the exclusiveness of independence and switched to the comfort of a major label, with a view to "bigger" things. After negotiating with several companies Dalton eventually signed with Mercury, who offered the most attractive deal, and HAC is now out on Polygram.

While there have traditionally been many pitfalls for independent bands (let alone labels) thrust unprepared into the cut throat commercialism of major land, Dalton felt HAC would be better served by the network available through Mercury rather than struggling to get by on his own. Obviously, HAC will now greatly benefit from the increased exposure and marketing but only the future will reveal whether the new arrangement works generally.

From humble origins, HAC has grown to a respectable size with a well rounded selection of releases from the dozen or so bands on its roster. They include Smudge, Swirl, Crow, Sidewinder, The Daisygrinders, Captain Denim, Hippy Dribble, Godstar, Fuzzy, Sneeze and the original HAC band Love Positions which has featured Dalton, Robyn St Clare from ex-Sydney pop stars the Hummingbirds and interestingly, one Simon Day from the notorious Ratcat.

Smudge, of course, have been HAC's flag bearers with their two albums Manilow and Hot Smoke, with Sassafras attracting positive responses both in Australia and (even more so) overseas. For a band that started out with few expectations of success, their rapid rise to fame has even overshadowed Dalton and his HAC bands.

There are, however, a number of other bands waiting in the wings. They include the atmospheric Swirl who are very much in the vein of the classic creation bands of that ilk, Crow and the more traditional indie pop styles of The Daisygrinders and Canberra's Sidewinder.

Then there's the apparently limitless combinations of bands that Dalton and his buddies seem to form every day. If you thought New Order or Sonic Youth were big on side-projects, HAC has a band for every time of the day, although typically they will consist of the same familiar names of Dalton, Smudge's Tom Morgan, Evan Dando (and possibly even Juliana Hatfield) plus members of The Plunderers (Dalton's main project during the 1980's) amongst others.

To the general public it may all seem a little confusing, it's best not to worry about the intricacies but rather concentrate on the music which should please most aficionados of light melodic indie pop/rock. The current push is for the re-release of Swirl's album The Last Unicorn which has received a bit of airplay on certain stations and is definitely worth a listen, but there's plenty more to come.

Anyhow, here's Nick himself talking about the label:

You've pretty well spread yourself around - do you find it hard to keep track of where you're at?

Yeah, sort of. I personally don't but I think other people find it hard to see where my priorities are, like when the Hippy Dribble album came out, people were saying "I thought the Plunderers broke up" and "what about Godstar?" It is pretty confusing, but for me it's like, I'll do some recording and it'll come out in 3 months or 3 years later, y'know, in no chronological order. I don't get bored or restless with what I do, I just like to do records with different people under different names. To me it's all the same, it all comes from the same pen.

Is each band a vehicle for a particular style or sound or direction?

Hell, in the Plunderers I was only 1/3 of the band with Steve and Jeff but you could definately hear my style, it was my decision on what direction we took, but I really think it's a lot different to to Love Positions and Godstar which are based around, say, a fourpiece and is a lot more poppy, with what's called lo-fi recording. I think thats a bit of a trendy word, but I've always done it simply because I've had no money).

So what is your approach to recording?

Well the Plunderers would always record in a proper studio because we wanted to make a bit of noise. The others are recorded from home right through to a big studio, depending on the song. Usually when I write a song, I'll know straight away how I want to record it - home or studio. I don't like to re-record, so that's why I don't call the home stuff demos, to me they are valid recordings. Just because they were done on a cheaper, smaller scale I still think that's the way the songs are meant to be.

Would you regard yourself as indie pop?

Well, it sounds ok. I'm into pop music, but that's a pretty general term. I mean, I'm into rock n' roll really, some of it's psychedelic, folky.... and indie, well in the sense that we're non-mainstream, I suppose it is a bit more obscure, so, yeah, indie pop sounds ok.

It seems to me you're kind of isolated here in Australia in what you're doing.

Yeah, I've been doing the same sort of stuff for neary ten years, influenced by the Beatles, the Velvets (underground), the Saints and new wave.... so I haven't changed. I suppose the only band from overseas I can think of is The Teenage Fanclub, although they're a proper band and Godstar isn't, Chris Knox and a lot of the Flying Nun stuff, and also guided by voices. They take that home recording thing further than I do but. When I first heard them I thought they were something similar.

They've been aroung for ages as well, haven't they?

Yeah, they've been doing their thing without anyone knowing about it. And until the Lemonheads came along which made my stuff well known, it was similar as I was doing it and nobody was listening. But it didn't worry me and I'm sure it doesn't worry them as they're doing it for themselves and the people around them.

When you decided to form Half a Cow, were you inspired by some of the great US indie labels like K, Teenbeat and Ajax?

I was mainly inspired by Flying Nun and the Bus Stop label, a small pop label in America, and also Waterfront, Citadel and Au Go Go here in Australia.

Has your original idea come to fruition?

Well I never had an Idea as such, I just wanted to put out a Love Positions record then a Craven Pops record, then Swirl then Smudge... just friends and and things that were happening around Sydney that I thought were cool. So I didn't know I'd end up having a proper label, so it hasn't really gone to plan at all. No plan, but I'm really pleased with how it's gone. I keep thinking that if it had never existed there'd be a big gap, mainly in Sydney music, but also Australia wide. Y'know, the more the merrier.

Do you find the Sydney scene restrictive, or do you just centre yourself there and don't really care what other people are doing?

Well, I care what other people do, but I don't follow any trends and I don't let the label follow any trends. I also let the bands do what they want to do, if they're following trends, well good on them, but I don't think they are. They all seem to do their own things. It's good to be influenced by things around you, whether good or bad. I've never toed the line, even now, involved with Mercury records the label still does what it wants to do, its own little take on rock music.

How did that deal come about?

The label was growing and we weren't able to handle it being small and independent. If you've got a chance to make the music better and have more getting to it, you have to approach a major label, and Polygram had the best deal, giving us creative freedom but also the backing to make the records we want to make, and sell them. I haven't heard anyone go "you've sold out" because I don't think we have. I still own Half a Cow 100%. It's not like I've been bought out and I'm just some puppet and suddenly I'm going to start signing bands I don't like. All the bands on HAC I like personally, I won't sign a band because thay are the next big thing.

It's funny, because even before you were on Mercury, bands like Smudge we really quite popular. How did this come about?

Well it's got a lot to do with when I joined the Lemonheads because in every interview around the world Evan (Dando) would mention Smudge, HAC and me, so we got free press out of it, but Smudge were known before that because their Grant McLennan single got reviewed and John Peel played it and NME and blah blah blah, just from the one 7". It's pretty exciting to be known on the other side of the world. When Smudge formed they thought it would be just a little hobby and they'd put out the occasional record but suddenly it became a lot bigger than they actually anticipated. The same with all the bands on the label. Also I think the bands here should be a lot more well known than they are, considering their overseas success. People tend to take things in their own backyard for granted.

Do you find overseas audiences are different?

Yeah, I think all countries are, like, we get American bands who are huge here but back home thay play to audiences of about 50 to 100 people.

It's a real feature of the Perth scene as well. Bands like the Triffids and the Stems needed to go abroad to get the success they deserved.

Yeah, the Triffids were one of my favourite bands and they had to go overseas to prove themselves.

There's a fairly big buisness side to music, don't you mind that or does it get in the way of making music?

I've got to deal with it, I can't give the responsibility to anyone else when it hits the fan. It's the bad side of owning a rock label but you have to deal with the fact that music has a buisness side to it as well.

Kevin Gill
Originally published in the July 1995 edition of Pelican, the UWA student newspaper.