Blunt Magazine (South Africa):  What’s the history behind Long Beach Records?

Greg “Mudd” Lowther:  Michael “Miguel” Happoldt (Skunk) and I have been friends since he moved to Long Beach.   I was bugging him to put out a Das Klown album, to give Skunk some punk-rock edge.  He thought it would be easier if I started my own label.  I looked up  the name and nothing came up, so I figured what the f*ck, Long Beach was as good a name as any.  Das Klown’s Antidote album was my flagship 1998 release.  I was soon out of money, so a friend donated “venture capital”.  He and his wife (Mike and Kendra Wells) became partners.  We are a DIY label.  We don’t have contracts.  We don’t hire producers.    Around 2006 we expanded by franchising the label to friends: Gernot Krebs of Mongrel in Europe and Simon “Subb” Michalski of Live@Subs in Australia.