Green Owl Records Interview Notes

Here are my notes from a recent interview with President and co-founder of Green Owl Records, Stephen Glicken.



Purpose:

All musicians all love music no other way to support what i love
More than needs to be done than just entertainment
World is at a point where things need to switch need to step up and make things happen like a revelation- these two things work perfectly together
Not trying to preach environmentalism – we want to act in a sustainable fashion

Music + environmentalism going together:

Many people get things from their favorite musicians – using this as a platform to get another point across
Gore has sparked this huge interest in ENV
Average person thinks ENV = hippie tree hugger
Negative connotation that’s pretty ridiculous
Change the vibe – more digestable through music

Bands:

Muse and Bloc Party were inspiration for everything – gave weight for everything else
Wish list of artists that we like – hit them up
Pretty complicated process – talk to artist/label/lawyer/manager
Not every artist is geared towards ENV
We helped people with better jobs on packaging/touring green
Artists know they need to do something
Use the reach of the demographic of bands that aren’t green to extend their
Artists are more the vehicle – acting as an example

Next compilation:

Want to be careful to have direct action, purpose involved.
Specific cause

Greenness:

Throughout anything we produce – we take as many ENV pra
Post-consumer paper for package
Recycle dvd/cd for free
Offset any energy we spend
Carbon offsetting – co.’s producing energy with little to no co2 emitted
Negative co2 impact
Symbol more than anything else
You can audit energy spent to press cds all the way through the consumer
In effect, creating the same amount of energy spent sans carbon output
People aren’t going to stop flying so you offset – donating money to alternative energy source
Infrastructure of world isn’t going to change overnight – can’t be sustainable right away
Merchandise – organic cotton recycled materials hoodies from wind power
School bus on veggie oil
Zip code engine 1.0 find all biofuels in area
Carbon calculator youth based how many

Goal:

Just like any other record label – put out good music at the end of the day
Music company rather than record label – many facets to what we do
Put out good art/film/music in a sustainable fashion
The debate is over
Function as a business in this way
More demand – cheaper things become – trickle down to becoming the norm

Financial matters:

Not at all beneficial financially
Made conscious choice to do things this way
I don’t even use a dryer – why not run my business this way even if it cost a little more money
Way more important than that
Makes things harder
Reducing energy – saving money

Possible Trend:

Trends go away – I’m so afraid of that – gets exploited
At the same time it’s tangible – food riots
A lot of people that are actually in it for belief not for press recognition
Gore IT more of a catalyst
Related to smoking with cancer – NOW I HAVE CANCER so I’ll stop

Future:

Alternative energy market is gigantic- hedge funds doing AE entirely
500mill around the world
creating new money, creating new jobs
if these stick you’ve got new markets, technology
not an overnight thing – ground swell of people changing with policy change
w/o policy change, nothing’s happening
you make things economically viable and things will happen
some need to be convinced (Morally, for world) other will never hear that – so help them make money from it.
GEs of the world everyday brands doing it
Even Walmart is doing green

New thing?:

People in the arts have been close to important issues
We’re not just going around preaching – we wan to live like this
More about the action yourself – I don’t want to be special, the only person doing this
I’ve talked to a lot of companies, helping other people see it.
Even Warner is doing things – making all their paper at least 30% post consumer