Meet The Labels: Big Stir Records
How Christina Bulbenko & Rex Broome Built A Thriving Guitar Pop Community
If there’s one word that define’s Big Stir’s aesthetic, it’s this: “community.”
Founders Christina Bulbenko and Rex Broome originally launched Big Stir as a guitar pop concert series in 2016; a place where their band, The Armoires, could share the stage with other artists who were similarly frustrated with LA’s pay-to-play club culture. Word of the good vibes swirling around the new scene spread fast and they soon found themselves being approached by out-of-town bands as well.
As an ode to their growing community, Big Stir put together a compilation of all the bands that played their shows that first year—with no intention of launching a label. Then, in 2017, their friends in the band Plasticsoul asked them to release the album Therapy. Big Stir Records was born and soon started building an impressive catalog.
Today, Big Stir is one of the most well-respected labels on the international pop rock scene with releases by sparkle*jets u.k., Leslie Pereira, Amoeba Teen, The Corner Laughers, Dolph Chaney and Walker Brigade, among many others. That’s in addition to a string of digital singles and the occasional fanzine.
I floated into Big Stir’s orbit in late 2018 when my band The Brothers Steve wanted to book some LA shows. I was blown away by what they had built in such a short amount of time. (Full disclosure: We’ve since released two albums with Big Stir, and I’ve worked with them on writing projects; but don’t let my occasional collaborations keep you from discovering Big Stir and the many other bands they champion.)
Like many small businesses, Big Stir faced some challenges in the wake of a worldwide pandemic but continued to release great music. Last year alone saw several stellar albums/singles from Nick Frater, Popular Creeps, Librarians With Hickeys, The Flashcubes and Crossword Smiles, while 2023 is off with a bang thanks to Maple Mars and Steve Stoeckel (a founding member of The Spongetones).
I caught up with Christina and Rex by email to find out more about their origin story and to see what else they have planned for the future.
Can you tell us a little about the history of Big Stir Records?
CHRISTINA: Big Stir started out primarily as a live concert series, around 2016. It was born out of the lack of a sense of a like-minded musical community in LA and the need for a guitar pop “scene”. Pay-to-play was crushing artists’ and bands' souls as they sold tickets or pleaded with friends and relatives to attend their allotted 30 minute set that was sandwiched between the rap band and the heavy metal band. There was rarely a time where people would arrive early and stay late to hear the other bands.
We met and played with many wonderful local bands and when the word got out, artists from all over the country and even all over the world were asking to book a gig with us while they were on tour. And before Big Stir even had “Records” attached to the name, we were DIY-ing singles compilations from all of the artists that played at Big Stir live shows that first year.
By 2017, Steven Wilson of Plasticsoul told us “I want to put my album out on Big Stir “Records”. We hadn’t thought about going into business as a label before but it made sense—the “branding” was right there, we had a burgeoning musical community and that makes us all stronger together, right? It was trial-by-fire and a tremendous learning curve but we were making dreams come true, including ours.
Christina Bulbenko on the ‘Big Stir Sound’:
“Rex and I know it/feel it when we hear it. Usually it’s got something in it that’s pushing the form forward, some kind of twist or surprise… we love that.”
REX: I’m sure you’re finding out that nobody starts a label “on purpose”—it’s always a sideline that can only take off if you accidentally happen to be the right kind of person. The two of us together turned out to be adaptable enough to be those kinds of people. And we needed to be adaptable: we’re still a young label, just into our sixth year now, and wherever we were going from those early days, the pandemic reshaped it completely. Those live gigs went away, and we looked around at all these artists not knowing quite what to do, and realized we were among the few who were in a position to do anything for them.
And yeah, we dove in deep and built our reach and got better at what we do. But it’s kind of crazy that half of our lifespan was defined by some really abnormal times, and some seismic, ongoing shifts in the industry. Maybe if we’d been more established we would have been more intimidated by having to reinvent the wheel. We get a lot of gratitude from a lot of people in the pop community for that, but we’re still grappling with it and saying, “How’s this going to work? It deserves to be bigger than it is, how do we get it there?” It’s a labor of love, but it’s more challenging to live up to our own standards all the time.
You've got a deep and eclectic catalog, all swirling around various forms of guitar pop. Do you think there is a core 'Big Stir sound'?
REX: I think the goal is to achieve what the great indie labels have historically done, and have a sound that’s so specific to the label that it’s not interchangeable with a genre tag. It just becomes its own thing, as with all those key ‘80s and ‘90s labels from SST to 4AD and all points in between. A few folks have been kind enough to say that we’re achieving that, which is the highest compliment we can imagine. But it means it’s difficult to describe much better than you did in your question. You can call some of it power pop, psych, jangle rock, punk pop, retro-pop, neo-glam or whatever, but if it’s “just” any one of those, it probably isn’t “the Big Stir sound”!
Rex Broom on the ‘Power Pop Resurgence’:
“Just about everyone wants to write that perfect pop song, right? And I think they always have, but it’s easier to admit it now that the era of rock and roll hits is essentially over.”
CHRISTINA: I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I call it music that “scratches the itch”, a phrase coined by the venerable Robbie Rist of Ballzy Tomorrow and a few other fabulous bands. Rex and I know it/feel it when we hear it. Usually it’s got something in it that’s pushing the form forward, some kind of twist or surprise… we love that.
Power pop, which threads throughout your catalog, is having a moment right now. What do you make of the genre's current resurgence?
CHRISTINA: Power pop has never really gone away; it has just tended to be released by smaller labels who have smaller audiences. Larger labels have the money to market to the mainstream which drives independents more underground with more of a cult following. There are new guitar pop bands that break through, but it’s not easy to figure out what the magic is. TV shows and commercials have been licensing a lot of original power pop and power pop covers lately. That may have something to do with the resurgence. It’s actually falling on new ears that are “Shazamming” what they hear because the songs turn them on just like they did us when we first heard them.
REX: Just about everyone wants to write that perfect pop song, right? And I think they always have, but it’s easier to admit it now that the era of rock and roll hits is essentially over. There used to be this thing where “edgy” bands seemed to feel beholden to acting as if they didn’t like their own poppy hits, remember that? But you can’t sell out if you’re not gonna sell much either way, so I think there’s a weird freedom that comes with the waning cultural currency of rock and roll.
A lot of songwriters who used to feel like they had to keep up their street cred can admit that maybe they’ve always wanted to do the kind of fun, melodic stuff that hooked them on music in the first place. What better tag is there for that than “power pop”? I think that’s why both the kids and the veterans are gravitating towards it… because they can. It’s not something they have to pretend is a guilty pleasure anymore.
You two are also the singers/songwriters for The Armoires. What's happening with the band these days?
REX: Well, while it’s been tough to balance the business with the artistic stuff, the band seems to be in a really good place creatively! We spend a lot of our time watching what works and doesn’t work for other artists on both fronts, and with the glut of material out there, it really feels like the main thing that cuts through the clutter is when an artist leans into exactly what’s odd and unique about them.
So we carved out some time late last year to write a record all in one go doing just that, doubling down on and even exaggerating some of the core quirks of the band. We took those near-constant co-ed lead harmonies that make us sound like one ambiguously androgynous entity, and let that become a character in itself. It just clicked into a set of songs that’s quintessentially “us”. We’re really excited about it.
CHRISTINA: Solo artist Michael Simmons (also of sparkle*jets u.k.), has graciously agreed to produce the album and is already pouring a lot of love, heart and soul into the details. Aside from our signature harmonies, the record is chock-full of things that are unexpected from us but that we thoroughly enjoy. Rants and chants and spelled-out words, heavy psych rockers and piano ballads and even a tiny bit of twee. It’s sort of deep and juvenile all at the same time, which is kind of what we love about rock and roll.
What are some of Big Stir's biggest releases in the first half of 2023?
REX: It’s quite a potpourri! Every year seems to have its own narrative: 2022 started out sort of glammy and psych-ish (Amoeba Teen, Maple Mars, Spygenius) and then pivoted to a whole run of midwestern bands who covered pretty much the whole spectrum of ‘80s college rock sounds (Librarians With Hickeys, Crossword Smiles, Popular Creeps). Maybe our accidental theme this year is fresh starts for legacy acts.
There’s the solo debut album from Steve Stoeckel of The Spongetones in February, plus a whole record of Tony Valentino of The Standells ripping through the band’s hits, and a new and amazingly diverse album from Arthur Alexander (of Sorrows and The Poppees). There’s also the first record in a couple of decades from sparkle*jets u.k., who were a big part of that late ‘90s LA pop scene everybody’s always saying they miss so much… this record is a love letter to that scene and a veritable rallying of the faithful, but it’s also going to introduce a Nuggets-sized chunk of great tunes to a whole new audience.
CHRISTINA: Chris Church never makes the same record twice and his new one Radio Transient, out in March, is magnificent—it’s his third record with us, and totally different from the other two, in a way that’s going to surprise and delight a lot of people. April brings another interesting twist, and our first bonafide reissue, although of course it’s unique. Santa Barbara-based band Popsicko whose lead singer died tragically 3 weeks before their album Off To A Bad Start was re-released are finally getting the album released on vinyl for the first time, along with the rich printed oral history of the band and its members… it’s been really special working to get that one out there, as you’ll know having had a big hand in making the oral history happen. And there’s some really exciting stuff in the mix for later in the year, from some younger artists and some esteemed veterans. We’re still sorting it all out… every year’s a puzzle, until it turns into a story.
REX: And let’s just add that we really appreciate what you’re doing here at Remember The Lightning. I mean, we won’t fail to disclose our mild conflict of interests seeing as how you’re the drummer in one of our favorite bands on the label (The Brothers Steve) and have had a hand in a few other BSR projects, but your goals here are right in line with ours in terms of fostering musical community, and hey, you’re doing it with style. Thank you!