How Split Singles Club Is A Little Piece Of Melbourne Music History In The Making

Milk! Records co-founder Jen Cloher is already seated at Pellegrini's Espresso Bar, having smashed a plate of ravioli, when this scribe arrives. Bedroom Suck director Joe Alexander pulls up to the Bourke Street curb on his bicycle shortly afterwards and joins us at the bar before we both decide to follow Cloher's lead and order ravioli.

Split Singles Club is a collaboration between Milk! Records and Bedroom Suck whereby subscribers receive six limited-edition 7" vinyl - each pairing one of Milk! Records' favourite Australian artists on one side with one of Bedroom Suck's on the other - over three months, with two vinyl records arriving directly to your mailbox per delivery. The second batch (Split Singles Club volumes 3 and 4) have recently been shipped off and, in addition, subscribers score six original artworks by Steph Hughes and six short film teasers by Hayden Somerville. "In 20 years time, if you pull this [Split Singles Club collection] out - it's a piece of history," Cloher enthuses, "and any music fan is just gonna be like, 'Fuckin' no way! I totally didn't even know that existed! That is so cool!'"

On how Split Singles Club came to pass, Alexander offers, "I had the idea of a Singles Club, like, originally I kinda sat down and [we] just tried to do it ourselves and then I realised it would be way more interesting if someone else was involved as well. I think that was the masterstroke - getting Milk! involved."

"It's funny, because it ticked so many boxes for us," Cloher enthuses, "because Courtney [Barnett] and I had been pitching about subscription-based ideas for a long time - even just for our bands, like, offering something every few months; just keeping people engaged. And also we'd been talking about a Singles series, but hadn't talked about collaborating with another label. So when Joe came along with the idea, we were like, 'This is right up our alley'." Alexander adds, "It was really exciting, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was obviously meant to be," Cloher allows.

"Cannelloni! Rigatoni," One of the waiters hollers, holding the dishes in the air and looking around, waiting for customers to claim their orders. "It's almost like they don't like you having a conversation," Cloher chuckles of this Melbourne institution's extremely vocal wait staff. Alexander ends up passing a couple of bowls back to diners behind us. "Ah, you're a gentleman, thank you!" the waiter acknowledges.  

"I like the way Jen put it is that we can't commit our love, you know? 'Cause each record on the label is such an all-encompassing experience, I guess."

Alexander and Cloher first met when they were on the Indie Labels & Community panel at BIGSOUND 2015. But the pair's first Split Singles Club pow-wow went down over lunch at "Munster Haus in North Fitzroy... Jen seemed really keen", Alexander reveals. During this first conversation, the fact that Split Singles Club would allow both parties to work with artists they admired who were not necessarily signed to their respective labels was immediately identified as a benefit. "Even though we'd love to work with them, we just can't commit financially," Alexander laments of these Split Singles Club artists who are not signed to either label. "Or, I like the way Jen put it is that we can't commit our love, you know? 'Cause each record on the label is such an all-encompassing experience, I guess."

"I think it's really interesting, like, when I listen to the sides you can tell the Bedroom Suck side and you can tell the Milk! side," Cloher opines. "Like, there is an aesthetic... even though they're not all signed to the labels, you can hear, I think, Joe's ear and mine and Courtney [Barnett]'s ear and perhaps our preferences or what we'd automatically be drawn to. And that's cool, I like that. I like that labels have an aesthetic and a sound."  

When it came to pairing their chosen artists up and working out who would share each 7", Alexander recalls, "We just went away and picked our six artists each, separately, and then kind of went back and forward about what might fit well."

"It was very organic," is how Cloher remembers it. "I mean, the only one that we knew was going to be [shared] before was Courtney and Blank Realm; at that stage we wanted to have one split that our audience would know." As well as the aforementioned artists who will grace the same 7", subscribers' ears will also be treated to songs by Cable Ties (Poison City), Dag (Bedroom Suck), Primo!, LA Mood (Hotel Motel), Jade Imagine (Milk!), Emlyn Johnson, Treehouse (Bedroom Suck), Hachiku, The Maraby Band and Lehmann Smith.

"It's 110 dollars plus postage," Cloher says of the Split Singles Club subscription price, "which is quite a big financial commitment for anyone, and I'm just amazed at how much trust people have shown. I think a lot of [the subscribers] are people who are fans of either label or both labels. Or even the art and everything - both of the labels have such a strong visual element."

"Yeah, Steph Hughes plays a big part in the whole thing," Alexander tells of the illustrator/Dick Diver drummer/triple j Home And Hosed presenter whose illustrations have been used on T-shirts and cover art for both labels. "When we talk about Milk! and Bedroom Suck, we kind of share the same values," Alexander continues. "I feel like Steph's part of that as well, her approach to music is on par with us. So she just has such a good time doing it and she just loves what she does and she's very unassuming."

"That's what I really love, actually, about the whole little labels scene is that everyone's sort of doing their own thing in their own way," Cloher praises, "and so it's really interesting to see how everyone approaches bringing out music, how they kinda think about stuff... I'm sure it's always been there in Melbourne, but I just feel like maybe it's a bit of a purple patch for all our smaller labels 'cause there kind of like was that time where, you know, 15 years ago the major label structure lost the seat of its pants... And I feel like in the last sort of five to ten years there's been this kind of blossoming of, like, third wave of independent labels that have a real sense of who they are and what they're putting out. And they don't care about commercial success, it's just about being sustainable and putting out good music and that's exciting."

"I was at Milk! HQ yesterday packing our next round of [Split] Singles with Anika [Ostendorf] who plays as Hachiku," Alexander shares. "So we were packing the records and I was just kinda like talking to her and she was like, 'Oh, yeah! This is my [Split Singles Club] record!' And then she was like, 'I haven't seen it yet,' and kinda like took it out and looked at it and for a second. She was like, 'Fuck!' and then put it back and then went straight back to work. And we just had this little moment."