Meet The Labels: Dandy Boy Records
Bobby Martinez Talks About The Oakland Indie Label's New Sampler
Dandy Boy Records was born four years ago out of the scrappy Oakland music scene.
Friends were sending musician and label founder Bobby Martinez new music and he wanted to support them. That tight knit, community-based approach continues to this day and has resulted in 40 Dandy Boy releases so far, with many more on the way.
“Dandy Boy just felt like an opportunity to cultivate a scene and bring people together. A bunch of talented people that just needed someone to get behind them and encourage them and help take care of things they might not know how to do,” Martinez told me for the interview below.
“It feels like there’s always a new band or project popping up or someone wanting to work on something together so I am always trying to hustle up money and energy to get stuff out.”
I first discovered Dandy Boy Records in 2023 thanks to an excellent 4-song EP by The Goods.
“Rob Good from The Goods and Ryli is probably one of my best friends in the entire world. He is the kind of person that makes your day better when you see him. He was in a band that I dug a lot and booked a bit and then he did some time in Cocktails and Sob Stories until he took a break from music to focus on his career as a sound engineer,” Martinez said.
“A few years later when he started The Goods he asked me to come down to his studio so he could bounce some ideas off of someone and get a fresh pair of ears on what he was doing. It was perfect Redd Kross meets Cheap Trick meets Lookout!-era Green Day power pop that was right up my alley. I had to put it out.”
I caught up with Bobby Martinez by email to discuss the new Dandy Boy Records sampler We Wouldn't Change A Thing, his approach to running an indie label, the artists he chooses to work with, and what he has planned for 2025.
Bobby Martinez Interview
Can you tell me a little about the history of Dandy Boy Records?
Bobby Martinez: Dandy Boy Records is really just an extension of friendship and a bunch of people making cool music. Coming out of the pandemic the Bay Area music scene was experiencing a big metamorphosis. A lot of new bands popped up and really embraced hooks and melodies. Jangle pop bands likeThe Umbrellas, Reds, Pinks and Purples, and Chime School were leading this ‘Fog Pop’ scene across the Bay in San Francisco, but here in Oakland there were a lot of scrappy underdog bands doing something a bit different and maybe a bit overlooked.
I'd met enough people from working in record stores and booking shows that I figured I could help my pals and apply what I'd learned by starting a bedroom label. I put out a few tapes just so they'd have merch and a Bandcamp presence. They sold well enough to do a few more and a compilation or two. Then I got really ambitious and decided to press some LPs.
I love the new sampler. What was the inspiration for that collection?
Bobby Martinez: When I was a kid I was obsessed with Lookout! Records. My first exposure to punk rock and underground music was via Green Day and the Hi-Fives and the Mr. T Experience. I remember getting this cheap sampler CD called Heide Sez and it had tracks from all of the records the label was putting out that year. It was the perfect way to explore the catalog. I wanted to bring that same vibe. I wanted to capture the same excitement and energy and offer a cheap way to get hip to what we’re doing.
I love everything I put out (obviously), but some people who might want to check out Kelley Stoltz maybe never heard of Ryli; or someone that digs the label might be excited to hear a few unreleased/unannounced tracks by The 1981 and Above Me. The sampler feels like a good way for people to get familiar with everything we’ve put out this year.
Can you tell me about the sampler’s title and artwork?
I wanted the cover to look very cut and paste like the fanzines and 7” sleeves I grew up with so I asked my friend Frankie Koeller from Mouth Magazine to put something together. I saw an old polaroid of Frankie from back in the day and he just had that timeless East Bay look. I thought it really captured the vibe I was going for. He put it together in that xerox fanzine way and it looks marvelous.
The title is kinda a reference to how indignant and defiant we all are. You cannot get a single Dandy band to compromise their artistic vision or integrity. I get a lot of people telling me how to run my record label, ‘Put out less stuff and only release a few things by established bands.’ ‘Do this. Do that…’ Or I’ll log on to Threads and it’s some fucking verified account run by some industry person I’ve never heard of and don’t give a fuck about saying, ‘Pro tip…,’ ‘Here’s how to expand your brand…’, all of this total bullshit engagement bait. Some ‘industry consultant’ reached out to me on Instagram and said for $1000 I could hire them to teach me how to break through the music industry. I get these messages all the time via social media and emails via Bandcamp, etc. I’m really skeptical of these things. They all seem like Ponzi schemes and scams and it grosses me out. But I was so irked that she was messaging me repeatedly that I finally responded and told her I wasn’t interested and was fine doing things on my own. She replied, ‘Do you want to be in the music industry or just put out records with your friends?’ I said, ‘I just want to make records with my friends’ and she blocked me!
So, We Wouldn’t Change A Thing is pretty fitting for our general ‘We’re going to do this our way’ mindset. Also, none of us—me or the bands—are trying to reinvent the wheel. None of us have disillusions of changing music by being so original and revolutionary that we’re going to burn it all down. That’s goofy and so self-important. We’re just doing this thing we can’t help but do.
Is there a core "Dandy Boy sound"?
Bobby Martinez: Dandy Boy doesn’t have a set genre or sound. I think DBR releases all sound different, but fit well together. I don't think any of the releases are just one thing so the label isn't just one thing: James Wavey is psychedelic hip hop soul; Yea-Ming and Ryann Gonsalves are both introspective songwriters but have very different sounds; The Goods and The 1981 are big hook power pop with completely different vibes; Aluminum, Seablite, Nothing Natural and Blue Ocean all have shoegaze influences, but none of them sound the same; Planet Birthday, Magic User and Smile Too Much all have a ‘90s slacker rock thing going on, but don’t sound much alike; Funeral Cake do bubblegum pop punk; The Wind-Ups do fast, blown-out garage punk; Ryli are jangly pop, and Kelley Stolz is Bay Area psych pop royalty. It’s all a grab bag of good tunes.
Dandy Fam are just a bunch of music fans doing their thing. I like a lot of different stuff and I live in an exciting and diverse city. Dandy Boy reflects the people I am lucky enough to be surrounded and inspired by. I don’t think there’s a ‘core sound,’ but there is a vibe that connects everyone. We’re all just a bunch of music nerds getting stoked on music. We’re all a bit neurotic and put a lot of effort and love into what we’re creating but aren’t too wrapped up in what’s popular or hip so our music feels very authentic and genuine. You can hear how personal each release is. Yea-Ming and Ryann Gonsalves both put out albums that felt like journal entries set to music. Even the big hooky releases like The Goods or The 1981 just ring with earnestness and a degree of vulnerability. It’s music you can sing along to when you are feeling sentimental!
How do you find the bands that you work with?
Bobby Martinez: For the most part every single band on Dandy Boy is a friend. I never really have to ‘find’ a band to work with, most of the people I know and I’m friends with make music. Everyone on the label is from the community or they are someone I have greatly admired and have been introduced to. If it makes sense and our ideology and visions coincide we’ll put something out together. I have absolutely zero desire to think of what I do by ‘industry standards.’ Nothing against those who do —but I just want to do cool shit with my friends and have fun together. It’s kind of hippy, but it’s really all about friendship and sharing music and experiences.
Working with strangers doesn’t interest me. I’m a bit quiet and standoffish in person unless I’m comfortable around you (then I’m a fucking chatty muppet) because I am hesitant to put energy into people unless I feel like they’re on the level. If I wouldn’t vouch for someone as a person I don’t want to work with them. It seems elitist or like I’m a dickhead, but after years of watching sus people social-climbing and exploiting others and all of the inappropriate behavior that everyone saw but ignored, I don’t feel like I need to be everyone’s friend or to chase clout.
When that disgraced Anaheim-based tape label imploded I was just getting DBR started. I really didn’t want to be compared to them or called a tape label. I didn't want to be anything like that label—even though they had a lot of fanfare and put out some good stuff and released albums by people I knew—I didn’t want to be considered a kitschy party dude label. No alien head stick’n’poke tattoos and bong rock, brah. They did put out the first Yea-Ming and The Rumours album, but they only did it on tape and then just kinda brushed her off. Yea-Ming and I have known each other since college and I’ve always loved her music. She is one of my favorite songwriters ever. Everything she does breaks my heart and she has this low Nico-if-Nico-could-sing voice that is so powerful and vulnerable at the same time.
When that label collapsed she was pretty bummed on what she was going to do next. During the lockdown I watched a film she was in called I Will Make You Mine. Her performance was wonderful and she wrote the title track to the movie. Before the credits rolled I texted her to check in, praise her performance and ask if she was working on any new material. She told me she had an album mostly done before everything shut down but didn't know if she'd complete it. I told her if she finished it I'd put it out. She was kinda taken aback by the offer. I immediately knew I wasn’t going to do just another tape for her. She deserved better. Her music deserved to be on vinyl. We pressed up a few hundred LPs of So, Bird… and we learned everything about putting out records together. This year we put out the follow up LP, I Can’t Have It All, and the debut single by her new project, Ryli. She is one of the most talented and wonderful people I know and working together continues to motivate me to level up and push harder. Our friendship is the epitome of how the label works.
I was introduced to Kelley Stoltz at my friend Jason’s bachelor party. I’ve been a massive fan for years. When Jason asked ‘When are the two of you going to put something out together?’ and Stoltz said ‘Let’s do it’ I kind of lost my mind a little. I had a surreal out of body moment where I was watching it happen very slowly and processing what had just been agreed to. Between the imposter syndrome, figuring out if I could financially swing it and the fear he might be too pro to fuck with my rinky-dink operation, I was really nervous. He’s a San Francisco psych-pop legend! He was a touring member of Echo and The Bunnymen! He plays with Robyn Hitchock! He was on SubPop and Third Man! He’s a big deal!! But I didn’t know him. A lot of my close friends had recorded with him or just knew him for years and years and vouched for him as a person. And then we chatted for a few weeks and I got to know him a bit. Kelley Stoltz is salt of the Earth and the coolest, most laid back dude. If there was a book about the Zen of Being Cool it would be written by Kelley Stoltz.
The 1981 is my band. It’s hard to say what we are doing without sounding like a dork but I think RTL readers will dig it. It’s kinda dreamy and has a lot of synths but it’s also very poppy and has cool guitars and a lot of hooks. I suppose somewhere between Darklands-era Jesus and Mary Chain, The Chills/ The Clean/ Flying Nun Records, and the Power Pearls comp series. I get bored with by-the-numbers-retro-power pop and I don’t think I could write that kind of stuff even if I wanted to. A lot of power pop is kinda ‘Why baby why? You bitch!’ lyrically and that’s absolutely not what anyone should be singing about in 2024. So, I wanted our album Move On to take cues from a lot of the music I grew up with and love, but lyrically I wanted to make it about a relationship falling apart and write it from both partners’ perspectives and wrap it up with some songs where the narrators are looking back on their time together saying, ‘Hey, it didn’t work out but I’m happy you’re doing okay.’ Fuck me, that sounds so cheesy. See! Talking about yourself just makes you sound like a dork!
I can say a million great things about everyone I’ve put out and a million more funny moments we shared. Every release feels special to me because of how much trust and respect and admiration comes with it. Meeting Aluminum very early on in their existence as a band and putting out their first EP led to me doing Nothing Natural's EP (because Austin played in both bands) and then putting out Ryann Gonsalves’s solo album (because they are also in Aluminum). Just getting to know all of them has been such a treat because they are all such lovely and talented people. Re-issuing a remastered version of Seablite's debut LP gave me butterflies. It was a really special project. Not only are they one of my favorite local bands but Lauren is also one of my best friends and DBR feels like the perfect home for that album.
The Bay Area has a long indie label tradition. How do you think Dandy Boy fits into that?
Bobby Martinez: The Bay Area is cool. Not like LA cool or NY cool. It's not ‘industry.’ It's cool in that, ‘We don’t care what’s going on elsewhere, we’re doing something here and everyone else will either catch on or ignore it’ way. Underground music and art and DIY are just ingrained in our DNA and it always has a different vibe to it. We have had so many indie, garage, punk, psych, etc.. revivals it’s kinda like we’re always a season or two away from something going off. So many labels ushered in these eras of bands it’s hard to remember them all.
Lookout! was of course the big pop punk label in the ‘90s, and Slumberland has always been the cool hip indie pop label. Now there’s a lot of new bedroom labels popping up that feel like the center of their scenes—Paisley Shirt do this rad lo-fi kinda arty psych thing, Speakeasy Studios is doing a cool Americana thing, Cherub Dream is doing queer neo-grunge/goth rock/whatever-the-fuck-they-want thing that’s really showcasing young Oakland. It’s very exciting and prolific and for once it doesn’t feel dismissive or competitive. We’re sharing some bands, doing shows together and generally supportive of one another. Where Dandy Boy fits in is not really for me to say, but I’d like to think we make the scene stronger and more connected.
What are some of your favorite Bay Area indie labels of all time? Did you look to any of them for inspiration?
Bobby Martinez: I can’t stop putting Lookout! and Slumberland over.
Lookout! was started to document the then fledgling Gilman St. scene in the late ‘80 and was pretty eccentric. It’s always had a lot more going on than just pop punk. I appreciate that a lot more in retrospect. They became so massive in the mid-90’s because of Green Day, but also a lot of the other bands on the label got a pretty strong cult following and I think that was in part due to owner Chris Appelgren’s design and layout. He made some very iconic and famous logos and covers, and even the promotional ephemera—catalogs, posters, ads, etc… all had this really cool retro aesthetic that was very much part of the boom period of the label. I’m really grateful to have had his help with layout and design on a few of our releases. The 1981 and Sob Stories LPs he designed for Dandy Boy are both gorgeous.
Slumberland is another label that’s just been visible since I started digging through record bins as a teenager. If Lookout! was more on the juvenile and teenage boy side of pop punk, Slumberland was way more twee and cool and a little bit older and more mature. I remember the Lookout! offices/ record shop was on 1942 University Ave. in Berkeley and you’d see teenagers in blue jeans and leather jackets buying Groovie Ghoulies records or whatever and maybe four or five blocks down the street was Mod Lang records where Mike Schulmann worked and it was all hip indie college students in cardigans picking up Henry’s Dress and Aislers Set records.
I look at those guys now and take in all of the history and try and contextualize their importance in the scheme of things. I don’t listen to a lot of the Lookout! stuff now for various reasons, but I’m still inspired by what they did. And I see Slumberland as a legacy label that is still putting out records and still being true to what they created and that’s also inspiring.
I’m very lucky to be friends with Christoper and Mike and they’ve both been such integral guides to doing this. Whenever I need a pep talk or some encouragement or just to ask questions they’re both my guys. I’d like to think that what I’m trying to do is somewhere between the two labels. Maybe not musically per se but I think they both were such huge parts of their scenes and everyone wanted to feel connected to them. I want Dandy Boy to grow into that kind of reputation where even if you don’t know the band, the fact they are on DBR means they’re probably doing something cool so let’s check it out.
Mt. St. Mtn. in Sacramento is another big inspiration and helping hand. Mark Kaiser is another one of my dudes and is always willing to help me out. Labels like Secret Center in Sacramento in the ‘90s and Dirtnap in Portland in the ‘00s were also influential to me. I really admire when labels are more focused on their local scene over moving units.
During the pandemic I read three books about Creation Records. I love Alan McGee. I am very inspired by the way he started the label and all of the rad music he put out. That was definitely the spark that made me decide to start putting stuff out. I’m currently reading Roger Shepherd’s I’m In Love With These Times memoir about his experience founding Flying Nun Records. Early Creation and Flying Nun are where my musical tastes are for sure, but the way those guys found success was completely different than my own personal ambitions and it was during a twice-removed era on different contents. Nothing about their stories applies to me other than, ‘Don’t get fucked up and have a nervous breakdown.’ That’s kinda good advice for everyone though.
In your experience, what are the benefits and challenges of running an indie label these days?
Bobby Martinez: The benefit of running a record label is of course making someone feel seen and supported. I always say the two best moments of running a record label is the moment I ask a band if they want to put out a record together and when I hand them their copies. Everything between those two moments and after is a pain in the ass.
The hardest part of running a label is definitely trying to find the money and energy to put out all of the stuff I want to. I think this is the most exciting era of Bay Area music that I can remember, so it's hard to say no to a project I am very excited about.
Another hard part is how fucking expensive it is to press records and how turn around time is still a bit unpredictable. You have to do pre-sales to help finance a release but if something gets delayed you miss your announced release date and that always makes me feel like an asshole. It drives me crazy. I try to plan accordingly but this year a lot of things went wrong at the plant I was going through and really made things messy. Luckily there are more plants popping up and prices are going down a bit.
Also the logistics of planning projects out and doing press and making sure everything is paid for takes a lot of energy and organization. I have to make sure whatever I commit to happens and if problems come up that no one is feeling left in the dark about things.
I think communication and transparency are so integral to any sort of partnership or relationship and I consider everyone a partner in their release. We’re Dandy Fam. I’m going to work as hard as they do because they trust me to share their music. We’re in it together! I think sharing the experience together feels like an accomplishment no matter how many copies we sell. Being in a band—especially now and especially in the Bay—is a real mind fuck because you’re constantly feeling like you’re spinning your wheels and not connecting with anyone. People don’t go out like they used to. Shows are smaller unless you’re the local support for a national touring band. It rattles your self-esteem. Having someone in your corner willing to invest not only financially, but also willing to put the time and energy into your music and you as a person is something that I really feel everyone deserves. I try to be label dad/number one fan for all my Dandy Fam.
Working pretty much entirely with friends makes communication easier. I'm completely transparent about everything from pressing statuses, to sales, to distro, to press—literally everything that's going on at all times. I make sure I respond to every text or email immediately and make myself available for anything the bands need, if it's feedback and planning or questions answered, or sharing the excitement or offering a boost of confidence. At the end of the day we're all just friends trying to do cool shit together.
What's next for Dandy Boy Records?
Bobby Martinez: My goal for the label is just to continue to grow an audience and continue to support my friends. I never want to chase clout or status. I just want the label to continue to be (mostly) self-sufficient and (mostly) break even so I can continue sharing music I'm excited about and building up the people I love. I’m going to continue to be equal parts excited and stressed and maybe turn the Dandy Fam into a full on cult…. I mean ‘cooperative commune.’ Just kidding!
As far as releases go… I don’t want to jinx anything by bragging about everything I have on deck and then stuff getting delayed or falling off the calendar (like they did this year), but I’ve got a dozen or so things I’ve committed to and another half dozen projects that might also come out next year depending on dates of completion and finances. We’ll see! All I know is that we’re going to be busy and my apartment is going to be even more packed with records. But for sure you can expect some new material from Ryli, The 1981, Above Me, a new synth project called Rhymies from Lauren Matsui of Seablite and the debut LP from Grey Causeway (an East Bay post-punk project featuring Christopher Appelgren!) all before Spring. As well as a 7” I can’t quite announce yet but jangle pop fans are going to be very excited about it!
We’re doing dandy and we wouldn’t change a thing!
What a great interview! I love a lot of what DBR has put out and it's great to get Bobby's perspective on music and his history with the East Bay scene.
DBR 🗣️ DBR🗣️ DBR🗣️