The Two Bucks Records Story

Two Bucks Records started in August 2002 in Adelaide, South Australia. At the time I started the label there were not many shows happening here in Adelaide, after a wave of bands had recently broken up or moved on to bigger things. I had always wanted to be more hands on involved in the scene because I had been going to shows for a long time, so I thought I’d have a go at putting on some shows. I had recently joined Stolen Youth and wanted to help build the profile of the band by playing more regular shows. I finally came around to booking my first show in August 2002 and while I was making up a flier for it, I thought I should do it under a certain title so I could continue doing shows under that name so bands knew who to come to if they wanted a show. After much thought I came up with the name "2 Bucks Entertainment", named after an old Adelaide group of friends whom we called ourselves the "Two Bucks Crew" (see Two Bucks Crew).

Around the same time there were also many younger punk bands starting up that were also looking to establish themselves in the Adelaide music scene, but were struggling for shows. So it was then that myself with the help of my now wife Laura set the aim of booking shows and helping to establish some of the younger bands that were coming up through the scene and to put a lot of our time and effort into the Adelaide music scene. We really wanted to concentrate on the DIY ethic, as originally portrayed in the early days of punk and HC scenes around the world. That meant our shows ranged from pubs and clubs to halls and alleyways, learning more and more each step of the way. Our original goal for booking shows were once a month, but the amount of interest that we had from bands kept us really busy and shows once a month turned into shows every weekend.

In mid 2003, myself and Laura, with the help from our close mate Josh Mann, started booking a venue in the heart of Adelaide's CBD called "The Underground". This proved to be a lot of hard work, booking one to two shows a weekend for about a year. During this time we helped bring over many interstate bands as well as help build the names of some of Adelaide’s well known bands. This experience helped further the our knowledge of putting on shows and touring bands, however due to the workload and other personal reasons a call to finish booking the venue was made, which then allowed us to concentrate on the label on a full time basis.

The idea of possibly expanding 2 Bucks Ent. into a record label came in 2003 when we decided to put out a small sampler on tape to showcase some of the bands here in Adelaide. Bands kindly donated demo tracks for the tape and we sold them at shows for $2. The tape turned out to be very successful, selling all the copies in a very short time. Shortly after the sampler Stolen Youth finished our first CD "Smurfer", which we decided to release under the label. Also around the time, long time friends The Jerk's were about to release their first album called "Revolution Time" and they were also keen to be a part of the label, which was released on the label at the start of 2004. With both releases being very successful and pressings selling out, the name of the label started to get out there. The next release was a demo by The Brews called “The way of the Barracuda, also released in 2004, which sold out very quickly as well.

With 5 releases now under our belt, we decided to slightly change the name from 2 Bucks Entertainment to Two Bucks Records in mid 2004 to which it still is today. Now ready to establish ourselves as a proper record label, we needed more hands to help run the label. Laura continued helping with many various jobs such as bookings, helping to run the shows and art related jobs. Also a very close mate Jason Illman, who is talented in a lot of areas and also plays for The Brews, became a member of the team and also started helping out with many different jobs such as bookings, live engineering, recordings and much more. With the team and roles set, there was only one thing left and that was the bands because there is no such thing as a record label without the bands. With Stolen Youth, The Jerks and The Brews already apart of the family with releases under their belts, we took on up and coming bands Before It All Ends, Bad Taste and Equal Minded. This then went on to produce releases from all of the above mentioned bands.

With a whole heap of releases on the way, and a wider demand for the releases, the label needed a better way of distributing the CDs into shops. After much research, at the start of 2005 we found a distributor that we were happy with and were a similar match to what the label is about. Reverberation, run by members of You Am I and other good Aussie bands, kindly took on distributing our releases Australia wide and have really helped the label out heaps since becoming involved with us.

Now Two Bucks is a fully established record label, growing from nothing and learning a lot through the journey, we are still booking more shows and looking after more bands then ever before, from local, interstate and overseas. The label puts 100% into each and every band and every show and has managed to gain much respect because of this. To this day the label still holds all the same ethics and beliefs in regards to helping bands and the music scene. Who knows what the future holds for the label but it will definitely involve the continuation of working with bands, doing shows and putting 100% into everything it does so that both bands and punters can remain happy.

Thanks you for all your continue support
Matthew “Footy” Horvath
-Two Bucks Records