Jordan Cooper 20 Years of Revelation Records
 
James: Hey Jordan, first of all I'd like to congratulate you on the 20th Anniversary
of the label and the great records you've given us. Looking back did you everimagine you'd be doing this into your late 30's?
 
Jordan: Thanks James. Ha, yeah, I'm so old I don't remember if I ever thought about
the future. Actually I probably didn't give it much thought. Time just passes
and things don't change much for me or Revelation.
 
James: Do you ever wish you had chosen a different path in life? Maybe became a
farmer or an accountant or the accountant of a farmer?
 
Jordan: Funny that you mention that because back when Ray was living in the Hare
Krishna temple he used to talk about living on a farm some day. He might have
lived on a farm at one point. Steve Reddy did for a while. Sometimes I think I
would have been better off if I kept my job and stayed in school, but now that
I finally finished college, there isn't much that I can think of that I blew
off in favor of the label any more.
 
James: What was the idea and the plan when you first started Revelation?
 
Jordan: Really it was just a way to be a part of it all. I tried being in a band
(Violent Children) but I wasn't good enough at guitar. It just came up as an
idea and Ray, some other friends and I talked about it a lot and eventually we
just got it going. The initial idea was to just put out a 7" for Warzone
because they were splitting up and we thought it would be good if they had a
record out. Things just kept rolling from there.
 
James: Did you want to keep it as a regional label like say Dischord?
 
Jordan: I didn't really have a vision for a label beyond a name and the first release.
Ray was pretty much directing me at that point. I'm sure Dischord, XClaim, Touch & Go, Positive Force, BYO, Wishing Well and Dangerhouse were all in his mind when
he thought about the label. For me it was just something to do for fun and to
be a part of the scene.
 
James: Did you have a long list of bands you wanted to work with for that release or
was Warzone the plan from day one?
 
Jordan: I keep having to go back to talking about Ray, but really he was the guy with
the vision. I liked a lot of the older bands and he was in Youth Of Today and
knew all the current bands so I think he was the one thinking about what to do
next. I pretty much just handled the logistics in the early days as far as I
can remember. I got a little more involved when we were working on The Way It
Is, but Warzone, Sick of it All, Gorilla Biscuits, Side By Side, No For An
Answer, Bold and Chain Of Strength were Ray's friends so I think that's how
they all ended up doing records with Revelation.
 
James: Was there anyone to turn to for advice on how to going about doing things in
the beginning or were you pretty much on your own?
 
Jordan: Yeah, a lot of people were in bands or ran labels and put records or zines out
so there was always someone to ask about getting something recorded, pressed
or printed. The first few records we put out were all pressed by Kane Boychuck
who worked at a pressing plant in LA called Macola. He did all the pressing
for a bunch of punk labels including (as far as I remember) Positive Force,
BYO, Wishing Well and whatever label put out the Doggy Style record with the
cartoon cover. Kane explained a lot of the pressing stuff to us and helped get
things done on the first couple of records. Eventually Macola went out of
business and Kane ended up working at a distributor so we had to find a new
place to get the records done.
 
James: What were some of the names you played around with before finally choosing
Revelation?
 
Jordan: Actually I chose the name Schism, but Ray didn't like it. One day, after I'd
already had the labels done for the Warzone record with "Schism Records" on
them (Jim Martin, a great artist from New Haven, did them), he said that Bold
agreed to let us put out their album (which was supposed to come out on
Wishing Well). Then he said that the only way they would do it was if we used
the name "Revelation" instead of "Schism." Even though I preferred the name
Schism, I thought Revelation was ok too and just didn't care THAT much so I
agreed. Years later I wondered if Ray came up with that whole story just to
get me to agree to use the name he liked better, but I think I asked him a few
years ago and I think he said he doesn't remember. In the book All Ages
there's a copy of the back of an envelope that I wrote a bunch of names on
that we were thinking about using. Most of them were pretty embarrassing.
 
James: So Ray’s input and decision making in choosing bands was a major influence in the early days of the label.
 
Jordan: Although there was a lot of discussion about every band we put out in the
early days, Ray deserves most of the credit for the label's early roster.
After Ray left was when I started sort of leaving my mark (Slipknot, Judge,
Quicksand, Burn, Into Another, Sensefield, Engine Kid, Shades Apart, Farside,
etc.) with the help of friends like Dylan, Walter and Porcell of course.
 
James: It's kind of interestiing that a kid from Connecticut went on to release the
most important document of New York Hardcore. Was it easy choosing the bands
and are their any bands you regret leaving off?
 
Jordan: I'm actually from NY but only met Ray and got into hardcore when my family
moved to CT when I was in high school. My friends from NY were into hardcore
and even liked Violent Children, but I was listening to Pink Floyd, AC/DC,
Van Halen, Yes and all the other classic bands and had no interest in punk because
as I understood it, it was all joke music. Ray introduced me to some great
stuff that I could take seriously and after a while some of my favorite bands
ended up being the ones with a sense of humor (e.g. Dead Kennedys, Meatmen and
Adrenaline O.D.). About picking the bands, it was pretty easy for us because
Ray was in Youth Of Today and made a point to get to know everyone else who
was at hardcore shows whether they were in a band or not. The kids that were
at CB's every Sunday or at the Anthrax on Friday or Saturday were people we
talked to and that was the scene we wanted to document. There are probably
tons of bands that I liked that we couldn't or didn't put out, but at the
time, I just felt that as long as someone was putting it out, it was cool. A
funny story is that one day after we'd starting working on the Gorilla
Biscuits 7", Walter's brother Dylan called me and asked if I'd mind if he and
Duane (from Some Records) put out the record instead of Rev. I said "sure, no
problem" but when I told Ray he freaked out and talked to the band and told
them that we really wanted to put out their record and they ended up on Rev.
Ray had much better business sense than me, I just had the patience to
actually do all the stuff that needed to be done. There were other bands that
I really wanted on the compilation we did (The Way It Is), but for whatever
reason it didn't work out (Underdog and Straight Ahead). I can't remember any
other bands specifically that I wanted to put out but didn't / couldn't, but
there were definitely plenty (and still are). I remember going through a box
of old demos one time and found a few from bands that ended up on other labels
and being really popular. That was pretty funny. Similar to that was New Found
Glory. Chad was in Shai Hulud and sent us a demo of his other band. Someone
here listened to it and thought it was too similar to another band we were
already working with so we said that they should find another label to do it.
 
James: What was the first tour you went on and how did it influence or change you?
 
Jordan: The first Youth Of Today tour was the first "tour" I'd been on. Before that
I'd tagged along with 7 Seconds when they played in the Northeast for a few
shows or went with friends' bands to Rhode Island or Boston, but that was the
first time I was really "on the road." It was a great time. They toured with 7
Seconds so we got to know those guys pretty well and they had friends in every
city so we got to meet a lot of people. It opened my eyes to the similarities
and differences between various scenes and cities/towns. I wish I had been
paying more attention, but I got what I could get out of it at the time and it
was a lot of fun.
 
James: What about this obsession with switchblades and stilettos you had? I hear a
lot of stories.
 
Jordan: Actually, I think you're talking about my nervous habit of clicking things
constantly.  I've never been a smoker, but if I have something I can do with my hands (like
“In 1989 Jordon came to Europe with us (Youth of Today), he bought a stilleto in Italy (I think) and would sit in the back of our shitty little Euro van clicking the knife up and down, up and down, again and again. It was so annoying and when we would all ask Jordon kindly to stop, he would simply say with a little smirk, "no"... Love that dude.” Sammy Siegler (former Youth of Today drummer)
 
flick open a knife), sometimes I'll just do that over and over. I
think every kid who goes to Mexico or Europe either gets a switchblade or at
least thinks about it. These days I have a folding screwdriver on my Swiss
Army Knife that I keep in my pocket and I still sometimes catch myself
flicking that open repeatedly.
 
James: Were you trying to strike intimidation and fear into the bands on the label
and your competition?
 
Jordan: The switchblade took care of that. Just kidding of course. We could use some fear and intimidation sometimes when we're doing compilations. It's pretty hard to get everyone to get things done on time. Luckily there's usually someone who takes care of most of the coordination and gets it done. We've got a compilation coming out next year that has a lot of different bands old and new covering the early Revelation bands songs. There's some great stuff on it so I'm looking forward to that coming out.
 
James: In the early days I remember you guys were trading for G.I. Joes? What was
your fascination with that "Real American Hero"? Have you kept them all these
years?
 
Jordan: The G.I. Joes were Ray's thing. I wanted to collect Batman stuff. We made
flyers and put them in a few pressings of the records offering to trade
records for old G.I. Joe figures (the real old ones, not the little 80's
ones). We both used to have G.I. Joes when we were kids, but Ray had a rich
neighbor that had a lot of them and Ray really got obsessed with certain ones
that were hard to find. Then, when we were going to NY a lot and after Ray
moved down there, he found this weird store called "Love Saves The Day" that
sold vintage toys and it re-ignited the obsession I think. In the end we
mostly got G.I. Joes. I gave most of them to Ray, but I still have a few,
including the talking one that appears on The Way It Is.
 
James: Early on Revelation had such an amazing reputation that people would buy
every release regardless of whether or not they were familiar with the band.
Was it hard to sustain that kind of pace?
 
Jordan: That's hard to answer because it's not something we planned or even tried to
maintain. When our tastes were very clear cut and there was a tight knit group
of bands that pretty much all of our friends liked it was probably reasonable
to think that a lot of people we didn't know would also like them. I just
didn't really think much about that. Then as bands split up and new ones
formed that were all doing something different it wasn't as monolithic as it
was in the beginning even if most of the people in the bands were still the
same.
 
James: When do you think that started to change?
 
Jordan: You can probably look at the catalog and see it. Probably the first record
that was outside the realm of the first few releases was Slipknot. Then
Shelter, Quicksand, Into Another, Farside and Iceburn. From there I think the
label had moved on from that state and people couldn't just expect a
straightforward hardcore record if they bought a Revelation release. Rob Moran
(from Unbroken, etc.) used to come by Revelation before he worked here and
used to imitate what a hardcore kid would say after hearing Into Another for
the first time. He would scream, "Richie, how could you?!" We used to joke
around about it because we knew that people who were expecting a new Bold
record when they bought Farside or Statue or a lot of the other bands from
that time would be (hopefully just initially) disappointed. But there really
wasn't anything we could do besides put out the stuff we wanted to and hope
that people would like it.
 
James: Going back to that time there was that one record that had everyone scratching thier heads  Revelation 13... the   self titled Slipknot EP. There's so little information
about Slipknot or the release. It's also never been re-issued. Can you give
me a little background on the band and the release? Do you get calls from fans
of the rubber mask band that was around a few years back?
 
Jordan: For a small record, this one's got some pretty good stories. They were three
kids from New Haven that played really noisy metal tinged hardcore. The singer
once said that they sound like a "cross between COC and COC" (Corrosion of
Conformity). They went by the name Evil Dead for a long time, but barely ever
played shows. They would just practice and people would go to their practices
and watch them and hang out. They had a tape of one of their practices that we
used to listen to and I really liked it so I asked if they'd do a record. They
didn't really seem to want to, but somehow it ended up happening (with a lot
of coercion and help from their friend Brian). They thought the name Evil Dead
was too stupid - they were using that name just as a joke - so the singer came
up with the name Slipknot because I think his grandfather used to call all the
kids using that name (i.e. "come here you little slipknot"). They only played
a few shows but some people really like the record. The newer band that used
the name Slipknot did actually send us an email that sort of threatened legal
action a few years ago, but I just sent a reply telling them that the New
Haven band Slipknot used the name first and I never heard back from them after
that. It's pretty funny if you go on iTunes you can read people's comments on
our Slipknot release from people who obviously wanted the other band's music.
We got Apple to clearly separate the bands, but they still get more downloads
than they probably would if that other band didn't start using their name.
 
James: How did Ray's leaving the label effect you? Did it change the direction or
the focus of the label at all?
“To make a long story short I learned that weapons are useless against earthquakes.”
 
Jordan: His focus changed and that is pretty much why we decided to part ways with
respect to the label. Without him being there, I started to rely on other
friends (notably Dylan, Walter and Porcell) to talk about bands to put out. In
the end, the music my friends were making was changing and my taste was
changing so it wasn't that one led to the other, it was just the way things
were going.
 
James: What prompted the move to California? Was it more of a business or personal
choice?
 
Jordan: It was completely personal. After going on tour with Youth Of Today and then
Gorilla Biscuits in Europe I realized that there was a lot of the world that I
needed to see so it was in the back of my mind to make a move somewhere.
Porcell had some friends out here and asked if I wanted to take a trip with
some other people to Huntington Beach. We had a good time and talked about
moving out here. A few months later I just packed up everything in a rental
truck and got a few friends to take the trip with me and drove out here.
Porcell moved out a few months later but ended up missing NY and went back. I've been here ever since.
 
James: I understand Steve Reddy was a big boost to your staff at one point. Can you
tell me about his footprint on the label?
 
Jordan: I think he was on tour with Into Another or someone else and ended up just
staying with me when the tour passed through this area. He worked for Rev for a few months and took care of mailorder and a lot of other stuff, but this was before he took over EVR so I don't think he had a huge influence on the label. I don't remember him talking to bands that we ended up putting out or anything, I think it was just something to do while he was deciding what to do next with himself. He'd just moved away from the Hare Krishna farm I think so he was probably just doing some thinking and having some fun. You'd have to talk to him though for specifics. Other people who worked for Revelation during that time were Dennis Remsing (from Outspoken), Chris Lohman (from Blackspot), Popeye (from Farside) and probably a bunch of other people who either worked there or just came by and helped out, hung out or both.
 
James: Were you disappointed when he left and bought  Equal Vision from Ray?
 
Jordan: I don't think he left Rev to buy Equal Vision, but I'm not sure. I think he
might have moved back to the east coast to be closer to Kate (who is now his
wife). I think then he worked with Ray and Porcell for a long time running the
label for them and then eventually taking it over. You'd have to ask him
though, my memory is bad for things I actually experienced, stuff people told
me is even harder to recall.
 
James: What about the Inside Out EP. The record included no band or member info. Was that intended to have an air of mystery?
 
Jordan: As I remember it, the members' names were listed on the 7" insert. Are you
talking about the CD?
 
James: Yes, it’s ben a while since I’ve had the 7 inch.
 
Jordan: It's possible something got left off when it got re-done. It was originally done in a paper CD sleeve and then later we put it in a regular CD case because it turns out that the only person in the world who thought those paper sleeves were better than jewel cases. The other issue with that record is that I think Chris Bratton played drums on the record, but by the time they were getting the artwork done, he wasn't in the band and Alex Barreto was playing drums.
 
James: How hands on are you about choosing the bands for the label?
 
Jordan: I haven't done anything regarding that for years. I get somewhat involved in
the reissues and stuff like that, but I don't listen to much hardcore anymore
so if there is someone here who I trust who wants to put out a band, I usually
let them deal with it.
 
James: As much as Revelation helped to  catapult the New York Hardcore scene in the late 80's you were also pioneers in a sense when it came to the 90's post Hardcore
movement. Has it been hard recognizing the trends and changes in music and
what people are listening to?
 
Jordan: It may look like we are part of shaping trends from the outside, but really we
are a product of the trends in the scene we're connected to. The music that
people we are in contact with make is what we have the possibility to release,
so if it works out, that's what we put out. Hopefully all the good bands get
their music heard one way or another so a label isn't really determining where
music goes, it's just documenting the bands that the people running the label
like. Obviously popular bands lead to popular labels and those bands influence
musicians, so on that level I guess a label can influence a scene, but I think
Rev has been more about documenting a scene rather than trying to recognize it
and get in on it. That's at least how the label started and after that early
stage when you probably could say that the label was closely tied to what was
going on, we just put out the bands we liked and if they happened to end up
being seen as part of a trend or genre, that was incidental.
 
James: Anyone I've talked to has said you are the most laid back nice guy and you
don't have any trace of an ego. Have there been any tales strippers, fear and
intimidation and guns being waved around Jordan Coopers office? I want dirt.
Jordan: That's really good to hear. I don't know how well liked I am by the bands on the label, but I feel like I've made some good friends over the years. There are always going to be tensions though when business is involved. There have never been strippers here, but there have been some funny and stupid things that have gone on here. People who have worked here could tell you a lot more. An old story some people like to tell has to do with an earthquake and a pellet gun. I was still new to California and I was sleeping in the warehouse late one night and there was an earthquake, which I mistook for a break-in. To make a short story even shorter, I learned that weapons are useless against earthquakes. Something funny I remember that has nothing to do with the office happened at Jeff Caudill's bachelor party. He drank too much and threw up in the sink of this strip club. I walked into the bathroom and saw him pointing to the sink asking various people he didn't know "hey, do you want some spaghetti?"
 
James: Are there any bands that you regret letting slip through the cracks?
 
Jordan: The cracks are pretty big at this point and I think more slips through than
gets caught. There are a lot of bands that we wanted to put out but didn't get
to or couldn't work with. There are also a lot of other things that I wish we
did that we missed out on.
 
James: Is there a record you yourself are most fond or proud of?
 
Jordan: There isn't really one that stands out above the rest. I put a lot of energy
into the early records, especially the NYC Hardcore "The Way It Is"
compilation and those will always stand out in my mind. I did the layout for a
bunch of the records (mostly under direction from the bands) so those are
pretty memorable - Shelter "Perfection of Desire," Judge "The Storm," Iceburn
"Hephaestus," Farside "Rigged," Sense Field s/t, Engine Kid "Angel Wings."
 
James: In the 90's Revelation released "Reflections on Straightedge"
Your getting ready to release the "Anti-Matter Anthology" Are you planning on
delving further into publishing?
 
Jordan: Not really planning on it, but if someone is doing a book that looks
interesting and wants us to put it out, I'm all for it. Porcell is currently
working with Ken Salerno on a photo book right now.
 
James: Has it become increasingly hard to survive and turn a profit as an indie
label? Has distribution helped pay the bills?
 
Jordan: Really, I don't even know the precise numbers. I am sure distribution has
gotten us through some dry patches though. We treated both the distribution
and the label as one big thing for years. Now they're separate so we'll see
what happens. We're lucky to have some really good old records so that helps
pay the bills when the newer stuff doesn't do as well. Thankfully some of the
newer bands have done relatively well too (Sinking Ships, Shook Ones and Down
to Nothing).
 
James: What about surviving the digital age?
 
Jordan: It's tricky. I like the idea of not having to mold plastic into discs so
people can hear the music, but file swapping and cd copying are so easy that
download sales aren't fully replacing cd sales as those decline.
 
James: Tell me about this compilation your working on. When is it due out and how did the idea come about?
 
Jordan: We always see bands cover some of our older bands especially Youth Of Today, Inside Out, Judge, Chain Of Strength and of course GB. A friend of mine, Jon (who you probably know and was in the band Backlash) came up with the idea of a covers comp where you had to cover Rev band. I thought it was a great idea, but was a little concerned that people would think it was too self-indulgent or vain or whatever. He was so enthusiastic about the idea and suggested that we make it a benefit that it just won me over and we started putting it together. He knows a lot of bands and started putting the word out and it's looking like it's going to be great.
 
James: What was tougher? coordinating the bands or figuring out who would cover what
song?
 
Jordan: It's not completely done yet, so I don't know if I can say what the hardest part was, but so far Jon has done pretty much everything on it. Actually I think the bands decided which songs to do and Jon only had to get involved in that when there were two people covering the same song or something.
 
James: What are some of the bands you've enlisted and are there going to be any last
minute surprises?
 
Jordan: There are going to be a lot of great bands on there including Sick Of It All (doing a Warzone song) and Ignite (doing a Youth Of Today song). Once the comp is closer to being done we'll be posting the list of tracks and bands.
 
James: My friends and I went to the opening of "American Hardcore" here in New York
this past year. We were incredibly disappointed with the coverage New York
got.   I hear Ray Cappo was working on a film about NYHC and you are currently
sitting on it. What stage of production is the movie in?
I would bet my eyes that there are a ton of people that would kill or at least put down twelve hard earned dollars to see this?
Are you planning on finishing and releasing it?
 
Jordan: I actually really liked that movie, but yeah, they definitely missed a lot of stuff. Ray was working on a movie that focuses on 80's NY hardcore from before he was even going to shows to the late 80's when Rev started. He was getting close to finishing but family life and his work ended up taking too much of his time and he had to stop working on it. I agreed to take it over and find someone to finish it which is something I'm in the process of doing. It will definitely come out, but there are more interviews to get and we're pretty much starting from scratch with the editing.
 
James: How do you see Revelation moving forward in the 20th century?
 
Jordan: Hopefully we can keep doing what we've been doing and change enough with the times to survive. We've put world domination on the back burner for a while,
but we might have to turn up the heat now that we're 20 years old.
 
James: How do you feel about the legacy and impact of the label on todays music?
 
Jordan: We get a lot of positive feedback from people so I'm really happy that we're a
part of people's lives.
 
James: Do you see yourself heading up the label twenty years from now?
 
Jordan: I don't know who else would do it, so I guess it's going to have to be me if
it's anyone.
 
(Interview by James Damion. Pictures and images provided by Revelation Records.)
 
Revelation Records / Rev Distribution - P.O. Box 5232 - Huntington Beach, CA 92615
Phone: (714) 842-7584  -  Fax: (714) 375-4266
iChat AV: JordanRevelation
 
 
 
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
    About  a month ago I got an email from John Backlash asking me if I wanted to do an interview with Jordan for the 20th anniversary. The first thing I thought was “Is this a joke?” I returned John’s email with that exact quote. I could think of at least a dozen people closer to the man and the label. I also wrecked my brain trying to figure out who recommended me or threw my name in the hat. I had done a lot of interviews with bands and artists on Revelation through the years. Heck, I lived with members of Gorilla Biscuits, Quicksand, Burn etc. etc. The first person I thought of though was Norman Brannon. I had interviewed him a few days previous to the email. It turns out my buddy Ted Dougherty was college roomates with John and I guess my name just came up.
Call it dumb luck but I was honored. JD