This is a label profile interview, but your bread and butter happens to be the Klasky Csupo studio...

That's what allows me to play. (laughs) To support and finance some of these projects.

So, how do you view the label, Tone Casualties? Is it more of a hobby?

It's not really a hobby! (laughs) I mean hobby is definitely a part of it because I love music and I guess once you love something and you're doing it out of pleasure, I guess you can call it a hobby. But it's more like a mission to me. I want to accomplish something.I want to support the movement of avant garde electronic musicians, and there are so many great artists out there who wouldn't get a chance. I believe in it and I give them a chance. And we have a pretty nice machine as far as putting it out to radio stations, of course mostly alternative college radio stations. We advertise, he have a web site and we sell a lot of albums directly around the world. It's kind of a nice little unit. It's still not a money making thing, but I didn't do it because i wanted to make money. I wanted to make music. That was my mission.

You've released some of your own recordings on Tone Casualties. Was your experience as a musician a key factor in starting the label?

Yeah, originally we started out almost like an accident by recording some music, and then it just kept going. And we realized we didn't want to just release our own stuff, but with some musicians who sent in tapes which we liked, and slowly we worked out a network of talented musicians. Yeah, I think we have about 37 or 38 releases so far.

Running a world class animation studio along side a record label sounds overwhelming. What are your responsibilities at the label? Are you mainly the A&R person?

Yeah, with Tommy and E.J., the three of us pretty much decide on... I mean, I'm the only one who has the final say, obviously. But I pretty much rely on their opinion, too. I wouldn't put something out which they don't like, because it really makes their work hard. To push something and promote something that they don't believe in. So my philosophy is pretty much that all three of us need to like what we put out, but, at the same token, if they bring something to me and I don't like it then that's not going to get released either. So it's kind of a balance.

As a fan of music, who have you been most excited about signing?

I mean obviously Paul Schutze, the Australian composer who lives in London, was a really nice bonus for us, because that really brought a lot of attention to the label. And now we have a deal with Holger Czukay who is one of the most respected electronic composers of all time, and that really, really makes me super happy. We're going to release his two brand new studio recordings, world wide. And we already released one live recording from Cologne.

The collab with Doc Walker?

Right. But we've got the rights to his two brand new studio recordings, which I heard when I was in his apartment in Cologne and it really blew my mind. And I just told him on the spot that I'd do anything to get it. And when I got back, I'd already had a fax in my office which said, "it's yours if you want it" (laughs). That was really nice of him.

And obviously we have cEvin Key, the Skinny Puppy, Tear Garden, Download guy, who did an album for us which got really great response and reviews, and we're selling a lot of those. I want to do more albums with cEvin, because he's not only a talented musician but also a very brilliant, nice guy. He's just very easy to talk with and a great down to earth person.

How did you hook up with cEvin Key?

Through Paris, who was in Christian Death. I released an album by him called Face, and he wanted to do another one and he told me he was going to see cEvin in Canada. And he said if he talked cEvin into doing a joint project would I be interested, and I said absolutely. So he got up there, and we got on the phone with cEvin. We made the deal in like ten minutes. We agreed on what he needed to get paid, and it was just that fast. And cEvin asked Paris before he signed to the label to bring him some of our catalog. He listened to them and then he called me up and said "You know, what you guys are doing is really great. I really respect all the stuff you're putting out. I want to be on your label." So that was really nice.

Did your involvement in animation help you hook up with Drew Neumann, and to release his soundtrack for the Aeon Flux series?

Oh, yes. Drew is also doing some shows for us, and I've known him for years and years. I met him just when he started to do the sound design and scoring for Aeon Flux. He did the show Real Monsters for us and he's doing the new Wild Thornberrys prime time animated show for Nickelodeon. He's a very good friend and a super talented musician. So he did that for me. He wanted me to release the Aeon Flux thing. Of course, we needed permission from MTV, but being in the same family: Viacom, Paramount, MTV and Klasky Csupo (we are the animation arm), it was kind of an easy thing to get permission from MTV. And Drew is doing a new album for me. A totally brand new composition.

Being of Hungarian descent yourself, you've really pushed the Hungarian musicians with the label, most notably Lazslo Hortobagyi.

Oh yeah. I want to do some more with him. The only problem is that I got to know him a little too late, and he had a pre-arrangement with (German label) Erdenklang. I think he had a three album deal. But as soon as that runs out, he really wants to be on my label exclusively.

I'm sure a lot of people don't think of Hungary as an electronic music power house.

Right. No, there is not much. I mean lately it has started to go underground. Would anybody think that Sweden is really big in electronic music? But look at the label. Cold Meat Industry. They relese so much unbelievable stuff. And most people think Sweden is just Abba.

One of the first things that struck me about the label was your great artwork and designs.

Yeah. We have inside designers. We have a giant art department with the animation studio, a bunch of computers. We pretty much pay a lot of attention to typography and color, design and images. We want to make the music feel like its art music, not your top 40 disco music.

What parallels have you found between running the label and running the Klasky Csupo animation studio?

Well you know film and music pretty much go hand in hand. They're both super creative fields of art. And a film can't really exist very well without music. So you always have to keep your ears and eyes open for new talent. My original background, I went to a music school when I was young and then I switched over to an art school. So I kind of have both things in my brain. That's what i breathe for, music and film.

It would seem to me that in running an animation studio, you wouldn't be as free to take risks as you would with running a music label.

We pretty much know already that we are the most far out animation studio, anyway. Only not imitating the classic Disney style or the Warner Brothers style. We have our own. A lot of people call it "Renegade Style" of animation. It's more modern, more based on inspiration and artsy stuff. We're always pushing the limits of television. Obviously we can't be so avant-garde in animation that we just do art films like you would send to animation festivals. Because then it would have a very limited appeal, and a very limited audience, and then we couldn't be successful. There's kind of a very fine line of what's artsy but still at the same time accessible and with good story telling and all that kind of stuff.

Have you thought about licensing some material from overseas?

We haven't really gotten into it yet. There are a couple of albums I want to release, but we'll see how that goes. Especially from Dr. Walker. He has a lot of stuff in Cologne and in Air Liquide which I like. Actually, what I would love to do is pick from them because he is so prolific. He puts out like two, three albums almost every month. And I have to be honest about it. Some of it is really brilliant and some of it is just kind of run of the mill kind of a thing, which I don't really like. He's so talented, don't get me wrong, but he just cranks out so much stuff that some is not as memorable as others. And I would just like to pick the cream out of that stuff, and be very selective and release those. A compilation kind of thing. That's what I'm after right now.

Has America met Tone Casualties' expectations, consumer-wise, given that this country isn't exactly known to have a wide audience for the electronic avant-garde?

I think it's a little bit easier in Europe and japan than in (America). There's certainly a great base of customers or fans (here) who like this kind of music, but I wouldn't say the ratio is as big as Europe. For some reason, they're more open there for experimentation than here. It's a little bit difficult, but I'm thankful to be here and I wouldn't want to go anywhere else. (laughs)

Given that the label isn't yet making money, what future do you see for it? Is Tone Casualties here to stay for awhile?

Oh yes. We have already planned 1999. 14 new releases. I mean we didn't even get into the calendar year and we have 14 new releases lined up. And it's just going to keep growing. And now with the new Holger Czukay releases, I'm going to be really, really proud. And we have a couple of other things, but we don't want to talk about it until it eventually happens. There is some interest for major labels to get involved with us. We would be like their side, experimental operation and that would be really cool. And that's happening right now, but again I'm not at liberty to talk about it until it's going to be anounced.

What about your sister label, Casual Tonalities, which is touted as a more commercial version of Tone Casualties? Are there plans to develop that more?

Oh yes. That's basically the same operation. It's just that we're calling it differently because there is more song-oriented releases coming out. One is Blue and Holding, which was not released yet but it's already mastered and mixed. It's a very beautiful Cranes kind of an album, a little mixture of gothic meets electronic... a little Portishead in it. You can go on and on. But it's more song oriented. Some of the songs could actually be played on KROQ or some of the bigger stations. It's more commercial, but it's still artsy music. It's not anything goes kind of crap. It still has some integrity to it, but we needed to separate it. Another one is called Guadaloop, which is another nice, brillant local band who is just finishing up the album, and again the same kind of direction.

You've had your hand in art, music, and even the food industry with the opening of your Hungarian restaraunt, Lumpy Gravy. What else are you involved in?

We started a little publishing department. We've already released one book about the making of the Rugrats movie, but we have three of four art books coming out as well. It's going to be supporting again the more upscale avant-garde, more of their style of artist who could never be published in a more conservative outfit. We will give them a chance and put it out. And we made a deal with Simon and Schuster that they'll be distributing our books.