Label Feature: Smalltown Supersound

“I need to be really moved or form a personal connection with the artist in order to bring the best out in a project,” says Joakim Haugland, who founded the independent record label Smalltown Supersound over 30 years ago in Norway.

For Haugland, it’s always been personal, from the label’s name and its DIY beginnings to its varied, ever-evolving output. “The label is like a soundtrack to my life. It always represents music that I listen to at the time.” Given its wide-ranging releases, many may have discovered the label through anthemic tracks like Todd Terje’s Inspector Norse; or others perhaps through its expanding roster of artists including Kelly Lee Owens, Lindstrøm, Neneh Cherry, and Actress.

Today, Smalltown Supersound continues to defy categorization, with recent releases like From Where You Came, by Canadian composer Kara-Lis Coverdale, and Stochastic Drift by the Berlin-based, British electronic music producer Barker.

For this edition of Carhartt WIP Radio, we spoke with Haugland, who shared how Norway’s sparse music scene pushed him to create his own, why staying a curious music ‘fan’ remains vital, and how making the mix for this month’s show shifted his perspective.

You're currently based in Oslo - has that always been the label’s home?

Joakim Haugland: No, I started it in Flekkefjord, the little town where I’m from on the southwest coast of Norway.

That makes sense considering the label’s name.

Joakim Haugland: Yeah, it was just the name I came up with because I wanted to release a tape with my brother at the time – one of the many things I was doing then. Then in 1996, I moved to Oslo to study, and I've been here ever since. I've been in Oslo longer than my hometown, but the label still carries the name, as Smalltown Supersound came to life in a bedroom in a small town.

What was the music scene like in Norway at that time? Was there something special going on?

Joakim Haugland: That’s a good question, because we never had an indie scene in Norway until then. But in the early 1990s we had Motorpsycho, who brought over the grunge sound that was popular back then. For the first time, us kids realized that there was something going on here that was also relevant abroad. We saw what was happening with grunge, we were listening to it, then realized someone in Norway was doing the same thing. So Motorpsycho was really important for me.

"The label is like a soundtrack to my life. It always represents music that I listen to at the time."

In addition to a few labels – like SST, Drag City, Sub Pop and Warp – there were two small labels from Norway that inspired me. One was T23, who released music from a band called Munch, that was a mixture of The Residents, Einstürzende Neubauten and Throbbing Gristle. The second was the Oslo-based label dBut, run by a man called Per Platou who released some early Deathprod records. dBut was always releasing special things, usually extremely experimental music that had an almost ‘literature’ vibe of trading. It was more than a label, it was like poetry. I had a full circle moment, when I released some Deathprod music in 2019.

Another thing that was very influential to me was the Twin Peaks series, because the town looks very similar to where I'm from, and I was more interested in films than I was in music at that time. Twin Peaks totally opened my mind, and I went down the cinema rabbit hole into French New Wave and Italian Neorealism. When I was in high school, I used to do lectures on film. I even started a film club at the cinema and worked there. I also worked in an advertising agency, and together with friends, opened a rock club venue and organized a festival. I did all this when I was around 16 or 17 years old, as there was nothing in my hometown. We had nothing to do. I remember I went to Oslo in November 1992 to see Sonic Youth and the opening act was Pavement, who hadn’t released any music by then. And through Sonic Youth, the whole avant-garde thing came to me.

So you launched a lot of special projects due to your fandom. Would you still consider yourself a ‘fan’?

Joakim Haugland: Yes, very much so. This fandom led to friendships and opportunities. In 1999, I invited Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Jim O’Rourke to Oslo, and hung out with them for five days. I organized a show for them – there was poetry, noise, and acoustics. A few years later, I was kind of friends with those guys, and that changed a lot. Later, I released music that Sonic Youth recorded with Mats Gustafsson. The same thing happened with Aphex Twin. I bought his albums in 1995, and in 2001, I invited him over. We hung out, and I organized four shows with him in Oslo without ever talking to a booking agent. That’s how nice it was back then.

Although things came together quite naturally for the label, wasn’t it challenging to run at such a young age?

Joakim Haugland: Sure, I had to learn everything from the beginning. I didn't know anything. And it wasn’t easy, as I didn’t have a large demand or market at home. Labels from the US or UK got that. So, everything for me was basically an export, and running a label only with exports is much harder. But in a way, that's been a good thing, because it means that I connect to artists in a different way and build real relationships. Sometimes it starts with a remix, sometimes just by me reaching out, and sometimes someone will come to me. But I need to be really moved or form a personal connection in order to bring the best out in a project.

What’s helped you stay motivated all these years?

Joakim Haugland: As you mentioned: I am a fan. To this day, I still buy a lot of records, that’s how it is. I’m more curious and excited now than I was at 17, because I’ve got more knowledge, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Your label has gone through a few shifts in its history, initially releasing club-leaning music from Norwegian artists like Bjørn Torske, Lindstrøm, Prins Thomas, and Todd Terje. Today, the sound is more varied, with electronic artists like Actress and Barker, as well as classical composers such as Kara-Lis Coverdale.


Joakim Haugland: That’s a very good observation. I think running a label for so long encourages you to develop. And as I’m the only one deciding what gets released, naturally the label grows alongside my tastes. There are labels who have A&R people and scouts keeping track of what’s happening, but I don't have that. It's all personal. And If I get it wrong, I can only blame myself. The label is like a soundtrack to my life. It always represents music that I listen to at the time. I think it's a big advantage not being based in a major capital like London or New York, where it can be easy to get caught in a rat race after the same thing. I don't do that. I'm looking for the ones who will have a long career. Like Actress: I see him as an avant-garde, contemporary music composer when he's older, making operas or something like that. That's the stuff that I want. I want Smalltown to be above trends. Throughout the label’s history, I have released several things with Jim O’Rourke. I find his artistic transformation to be a great example of true artist development, from when he was in Chicago to what he is now in Japan. For Smalltown Supersound, I find this kind of musical development very inspiring.

Do you still enjoy discovering new artists?

Joakim Haugland: Yes, I do. But I’ve never been one to constantly chase the new thing. I don't need to be first. There are people who like to go online, find stuff all the time and listen to mixes, things like that. I mostly just buy records. And sometimes I come across something I really like – the artist isn’t on a label, or they’re self-releasing, or maybe they’re looking to change. I’m still as curious about new information as when I was 16 or 17. I like to meet artists, just for a coffee. Sometimes it doesn't go anywhere, but it doesn't need to. And sometimes it does. I'm still curious to hear about what artists are listening to, and the music they love, as I’ll start listening to it, too.

"The mix is very listenable and smooth. It revealed a direction of the label that I had never seen before."

How did you go about selecting the tracks for your Carhartt WIP Radio show?

Joakim Haugland: Working on it has been special. I'd never done a mix before, and I thought that it would sound more minimalist, ambient, and cosmic, with experimental excursions in between. That was the way that I thought that I would go. But it turned out completely different. It has been a beautiful experience. What happened was that I heard the playlist Aphex Twin made for Supreme called Mostly Mellow. It stuck in my head and I really liked it. It influenced my whole approach. So now, the mix is very listenable and smooth. It revealed a direction of the label that I had never seen before. I was revisiting older albums that I had stopped listening to, records I thought I was done with. Some tracks from those albums are now key elements in the mix, and I'm very surprised. This felt like an opportunity for me to dig deep. I thought that I knew the label catalogue so well, but I came up with something completely unexpected. In the beginning it was a bit surprising, but also really good for me, because I could see the quality in the older material. It might even shift the direction of the label. This mix made me find a connection, one I hadn’t found before. I'm very enthusiastic about it and that is a beautiful feeling.