‘It’s Just A Whole Big Family, Really’: The Sprawling Community Of Adelaide’s Pee Records

Running an indie record label has always been a labour of love, a way to give back to a scene or community rather than a road to wealth or status, but never more so than in the current music climate.

With the rise and rise of streaming and associated internet-related chicanery, physical music media has been fighting tooth-and-nail for relevance (sometimes even survival), a battle which – even taking into the account the ongoing vinyl resurgence – has hit the independent sector, already often running on the smell of an oily rag, the hardest.

Adelaide-based independent punk label Pee Records has been fighting the good fight since blossoming out of respected punk publication Pee Zine back in 2003, releasing over 100 albums, EPs and singles by a wide variety of Australian and overseas bands who are singularly united by all worshipping at the broad altar of ‘punk’.

Pee Records’ founding owner-operator Pete – who prefers going by just his first name, despite being known to the wider music community as Pete Pee – started his incredible musical odyssey virtually by accident, being roped into guesting on a mate’s late night community radio show.

“I was born and bred in Mildura – in country Victoria – and it was the mid-‘90s, back before they even had triple j up there and everything,” he recounts. “A workmate of mine had a weekly two-hour show on Friday nights from 10 to midnight, and the guy that he was always doing it with got sick of doing it, so he invited me in once and that was the start of it. 

“Then we just really expanded on it, and because we were basically it as far as alternative music went, it just blew up. Being a country town, at the time it was pretty much all Barnsey, Farnsey, and cover bands, so we started putting on local gigs and they were going off, and it just kind of went from there. 

“Back then I was regularly going down to Melbourne for gigs,” he adds. “Whether the Big Day Out, or gigs at The Corner, shows by Jebediah, Magic Dirt, all that sort of stuff back then – and when I was there I used to go into [much-missed indie store] Missing Link and grab every single fanzine that was sitting on the shelf, and come back home and read them all, and then that sort of inspired me to start a zine.”

Pee Zine released 49 issues between 1996 and 2013 – growing in both size and influence as the years progressed – in many ways giving a voice to Australia’s burgeoning punk scene, which was itself reflecting the genre’s rise in stature all around the world. 

Pete himself came late to the punk realms, fittingly introduced to his new passion by a band who knocked back numerous major label overtures over the years and in some ways came to personify ‘indie ideals’ in the increasingly commercialised punk milieu.

“To be honest, I began listening to hip hop and rap – like Beastie Boys and The KLF and all that sort of stuff – back in the early, really early, days,” he smiles. “And then the first punk single I ever heard – my mate said, ‘Here, have a listen to this’ – and it was NOFX’s Don’t Call Me White single. I was hooked from then on, that was it. 

“That was ground zero, that was the first punk song I’d heard. And then I thought, ‘Shit, I’ve got to get that album!’ and that was the beginning of it. They had me hook line and sinker. 

“I used to just buy CDs and play them on the radio and then we got a bigger and bigger following,” he continues. “It was kind of amazing how many TAFE and uni students were up there and kind of latched on and started ringing us and requesting stuff, like ‘Play Frenzal!’ or, ‘Play Bodyjar!’ or something. 

“And then half the time you wouldn’t have it – and then the station wouldn’t have it – so you’d have to go and buy it, and then you’d go, ‘Shit, this album is really good! This band’s good!’ So it was kind of a learning experience and then just expanded from that. That’s how I got into it anyway.”

As Pee Zine grew, Pee Records emerged as a DIY mail order business for bands that Pete had met through the zine, especially when he relocated and his community began to take root in the South Australian capital.

“All I wanted to do initially was basically use the zine as a tool to promote the gigs we were putting on and interview bands that we were trying to lure up from Melbourne and Adelaide to play there,” Pete continues. 

“We also wanted to get word about local bands out because there were a whole bunch of original bands around, essentially just garage bands, but the only pub gigs always went to cover bands so it was basically just trying to create a bit of noise about that.

“So the zine just grew and then grew and grew and grew and it came with me when I moved to Adelaide. Then the bigger the zine got the more bands were asking me ‘Hey, can you help us get our CD in [long-running indie store] Big Star and other local record stores and so then the mail order distro sort of started from that. 

“I was a big fan of Greg from [revered Adelaide label and distro] Spiral Objective – I used to buy lots of CD’s and records off them – so I went, ‘Well I can do that too!

“So I started it and then next minute I’m getting asked to actually release the first record and then the label sort of just, happened… I thought, ‘Alright, the zine’s already called Pee Zine, so the label’s called Pee Records’. I probably didn’t think too long and hard about the name, or consider that it might still be around 20 or 30 years later. What do you do?”

Even though he got heaps of traction from the very beginning, Pete never viewed Pee Records as an ongoing endeavour at the outset.

“No, no, no,” he laughs. “I mean it was always fun and everything – it was just a side thing, but it was fun. And you know, when things are fun you keep doing them, don’t you? 

“But if you’d come up to me when I released that first CD – it was CDs back then all the time and first first one I released was [Melbourne hardcore band] Away From Now’s Sic Semper Tyrannis EP – and you said, ‘This is going to be CD number one, and you’re going to probably release another 100 in the next 20 years, and another 60 LPs and seven inches, what do you reckon about that?’, I would have said, ‘I reckon I should spend a bit more time thinking of my label name!’ 

“The zine was just Pee Zine because I loved stuff like Mambo back then – Poo Shooter and all that – and I was, like, ‘It’s a pissy zine,’ in that it always took the piss out of itself and everything, so I just went ‘Pee Zine.’” 

Among smaller scenes zines were incredibly important in the pre-internet era, acting as a conduit between people who loved music that was largely ignored by mainstream outlets. 

“That’s why I used to grab every zine I could,” Pete reflects. “Through them I learned a lot about music and bands, I found so many new bands just from reading zines. And it’s the same as how you used to read the ‘thank you’ list in the album credits – bands thanking other bands – and if you’d never heard of one you’d go and check it out. 

“We didn’t have the internet much back then so you’d go hunting for those bands, and that’s how it sort of reaches people. Fanzines did that – you’d pick it up having never heard of this band they were interviewing and you’d inevitably check them out.”

Once Pee Records being established as a viable musical outlet they started fielding advances from bands of all persuasions, but most new relationships started out entirely organically.

“As the roster was growing, bands started approaching me quite regularly, but I was mostly still working with bands that I’d seen and knew – I’d seen them live and had connection with them that way” Pete offers. 

“So that was originally how it happened, they were flowing in that way, but if a band sent me their album and I go, ‘Shit, this is really good!’ – I enjoy it – then that’s it, if I can do it, I’ll release it. 

“I can’t release everyone and everything, but if I enjoy it, then that was all it took. The main things I look for is that they’re a good band, they can play live and they’re not a bunch of jerks – which is important.”

Pee Records’ roster has drilled deep into the punk and hardcore genres over the years, and Pete explains that this is merely his personal taste shining through rather than some sort of musical manifesto. 

“That’s all it is,” he grins. “I was into the heavier stuff for a long time there, but the older I get, I’m going back to all the skate and melodic punk stuff, that’s more my thing. That’s how I started, and it was later that I got really into a lot of hardcore and everything. I still enjoy listening to hardcore, but I don’t listen to it as much as I did back in the day.”

Pete’s passion is what keeps Pee Records facing towards the future, even if running an indie label can occasionally seem like a pretty thankless task.

“It’s very time consuming at times,” he concedes. “We probably don’t sort of push our label as much and hard as what we should do and others do. I’ve just always got on a soapbox and spoke about something if I’ve got something to say – it’s always been that way. 

“But these days, with algorithms and stuff, you’ve got to be posting every day – if not more, twice a day – and to me that’s just annoying. It seems to be the way it is, but I’m too busy doing graphic artwork and stuff to be fiddling around with social media. So it takes a lot of time and effort – there’s not a lot of us here.” 

As well as doing graphic design for the label and many of its bands Pete also does freelance commercial design to help with the cash flow – these complementary skills no doubt contributing to Pee Records’ longevity – but he agrees that the music world has changed a lot since he started the label over 20 years ago.

“Everything’s more digital, less physical,” he muses. “Though there’s the shift back to vinyl, which compared to CDs is damn bloody expensive to press and most of the expenses these days is in the freight because they’re so heavy and Australia Post has gone from posting an LP for about seven bucks Australia-wide to now bloody nearly 12. So just things like that can be pretty frustrating.

“And sometimes pressing physical product is a bit of a slog because you’ve got to have storage room – vinyl takes up so much more space, and we’ve got a lot of shelves full of LPs and CDs and merchandise – so just having all that has probably been the biggest difference over the years. 

“I haven’t really embraced the online side of things fully, I’m not a massive streamer. I listen to Spotify and listen to podcasts and stuff, but I still like getting a record out and putting it on the turntable. I’m a bit more old school in that regard too.”

One old school Pee Records trait which continues to resonate is their use of free giveaways, no package from the label arriving without a healthy spread of bonus stickers and often promo items like fridge magnets for that value-added glow. 

“Everyone loves getting free shit!” Pete chuckles. “I probably adopted that from back in the Greg Spiral Objective days, when I’d order four or five CDs or seven-inches or something and then there’d always be free stickers or flyers or something in there, even sometimes an extra CD.

“If I’m spending a hundred bucks, I’d know there’d be another CD in there or something and it was so cool in that it sort of made you feel appreciated for your custom. So I kind of adapted that, and I’ve always just whacked free stickers and shit in there. 

“I’ve even had regular customers go, ‘Stop sending me Pee Records stickers, I’ve got a box full of about 20 of them!’ Go stick them on street signs or something, mate!”

Despite being based in Adelaide the Pee Records roster spreads all over our wide brown land, with the label having put out releases by bands from almost every Australian capital.

“I’ve had no-one from Darwin, and I’ve never signed a band from Hobart,” Pete ponders. “It’s never mattered where a band’s from, it’s really just been as simple as encountering bands that have got something coming out and I like what I hear and they’re good bands. 

“I don’t know what it is, but I’ve got about six over in WA – mainly Perth and Geraldton – and then my only current active Adelaide one was Hightime, and they’re kind of on hiatus at the moment because Reubs has found himself love over in Europe and hasn’t come back. 

“Or say with Nerdlinger, it’s been seven years since their last album and that’s because there’s about five babies born so there’s been little kids running around since then. Sometimes life gets in the way of your band, you know?”

Pee Records has also released albums in Australia from bands all over the planet – America, UK, Europe, Scandinavia, you name it – which Pete concedes can be a tough ask given our comparative geographic isolation. 

“Yeah, they’re a hard slog,” he says of the label’s intentional forays. “Because half the time they say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to come down and tour!’ and then they don’t. And I get it, it’s a long way to come and it’s really expensive to get down here. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been to the States three times, as well as Europe and other places, but I know how expensive it is. 

“And we are a bloody long way! Those bands are spoiled, especially in Europe, because they all live so close to each other. And then we’re on the other side of the bloody globe. 

“I’ll have people from Canada, and they’re, like, ‘Oh, you should get your band and come here on tour’. They’re really well-intentioned, but it’s, like, ‘Mate, grab an actual globe, now just look at it and put your finger on where you are and then put your finger on where we are – we’re the opposite ends of the planet! You’re up the top, and we’re down the bottom! So it’s not that easy, I won’t see you this weekend’. 

“But a lot of the overseas stuff is collaboration with other labels, a network of labels. Other bands of mine they’ve played with bands on these labels, that’s where a lot of it’s come from. Being a DIY independent label you kind of have your own network of like-minded labels who look after each other and help each other with distro in their territories.

“I’ve got Disconnect in the UK as well Cat’s Claw and Lockjaw records, three labels in the UK that have all helped us get our records out there for us. So now and then they’ll have a new album coming their way, and they’ll send it to me and go, ‘Are you interested?’ And if I like it I’ll go, ‘Yeah, I’ll jump on that!’. 

“And if you can not get too heavily invested in the release if they don’t really have any inkling of touring then then it’s not a big gamble. But it’s the times that they say that they’re gonna tour and then it doesn’t happen, that’s when it hurts a bit. 

“I had that with [Californian melodic punks] Ten Foot Pole, I thought they were going to come down but then COVID and everything happened. The same with [Chicago skate punks] Much The Same – I kind of invested pretty heavily into that, and nothing happened because our borders were closed.”

For Pete and others in the indie label realms, what gets him through the hard times isn’t the promise of future wealth or fortune rather that warm inner glow you get when you kick a goal for a band you love who you’re working with – at the end of the day, it really is all about the music.

“I really just keep going because I enjoy it,” he tells. “I’m pretty privileged, you know, that my job’s hanging out with a bunch of punks, half of whom you call your best mates. Good people and good music – that makes it a bit easier and that’s what keeps you going.

“And there’s always something around the corner. Just this morning [UK skate punks] Making Friends sent me two demos of new songs for their next album, they just landed in my inbox. So there’s always something, it’s just new music all the time. 

“And there’s so many bloody bands out there that never get the recognition or coverage and no one’s ever heard of, let alone me hearing of them. It’s like The Bakers Punk Podcast [where Pete does a weekly segment], he’s always playing new stuff and digging up new bands every bloody week. Where’s he finding all these guys? And it’s the same – half the time they find him.” 

Pete refuses to play favourites among the many Pee Records releases – being far too close to both the music and the musicians – but there are still some releases which stick out in his memory.

“There’s been a few that have sold out within the first year and the first press,” he tells. “That’s always good. The most recent album that’s sold within 12 months is the [WA pub punks] Ratsalad debut album, [2024’s] Bent Trees & Swan Deez. 

“And I knew as soon as Ken sent it to me – because he’s from [fellow Pee Records alumni] Alex The Kid – and when he started Ratsalad he was bugging me every single time he had a new single. He’d be like, ‘Listen to this, listen to this, listen to this!’ And I was, like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me know when you’ve got an album’. 

“So sure enough, when they had the album I went, ‘Oh shit, I’ve got to release this’. And the timing was really bad, it was the beginning of 2024 and my schedule was maxed out. I said, ‘Can we bump it three months? Can you give me three months?’ 

“He was, like, ‘No, we really want it out, because we’re going on tour and need to do this’. I said again, ‘Please, can you give me three months?’. And he’s, like, ’Nah, we’ll just release it digitally, and we’ll worry about the physical with you later’. And I’m like, ‘Don’t do that, don’t let everyone hear it and not have physical product that they can’t buy, because that’s just a death knock for the album and no one’s going to pick up the physical!’

“So I had to dig real deep and I’m glad I did, because I love the album and I just didn’t want to not be part of it. So that one’s always very pleasing: when you go to the storeroom, and you’re down to your last box of LPs, and only a handful of CDs left, and then suddenly they’re all gone. That’s a great feeling.”

And it’s little wins like that which keep indie labels going. Pete’s not a big one for blowing his own trumpet, but every now and then something will spark a flash of pride for the work he’s done and the community that he’s helped forge.

“When I see a stranger wearing a Pee Records cap or t-shirt or whatever, that makes me grin,” he admits. “I love that, I’ve seen that quite a lot. And just support from our bands’ fanbase – we’d be nothing without our bands and our awesome bunch of punks who support the label and our bands. 

“I’m more proud of my bands like when they tour – [Victorian melodic punks] All Hope Remains recently got on a jet and headed off on their first European tour too, and that sort of stuff gives you a bit of a proud dad moment. And it’s just that you’ve been able to help them get their music out there enough for them to be able to do that. 

“So yeah, I don’t know. I’m not a big one for trying to shine the spotlight on myself. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for [label and life partner] Mel’s support, and then we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for our customer base and their support, and wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have the bands. It’s just a whole big family, really.”