Interview: Ronnie Portugal of Digital Regress
Journey to the East of The Bay
When I first stepped toward this interview, I knew very little about Digital Regress. Couldn’t even tell ya the name of the person behind it, just that they’d put out a smattering of killer releases mixed with things I knew nothing about or went way over my head. But even with this gaping hole in my smooth brain, I felt fit to throw an interview request their way. As soon as I got the go-ahead, I did a search and Free Form Freakout Podcast #164 saved my ass from an interview of solely basic bitch questions. Chris Farley meets High School journalism style all the way. Maybe it still reads that way? You tell me. Seriously though, check the link. It’s a deep diggin’ interview broken up by chunks of the label’s sublime sounds.
Digital Regress has been on my radar for a while. The early days of the label saw releases from Violence Creeps, Marbled Eye, and Beta Boys, all of whom I’d already had an eye on. Known names like Liquids, The Shifters, and Erik Nervous popped up in the ranks alongside a peppering of local talent. The faucet was full blast from 2017 through 2019. 30-some releases is a lot to handle for a one person operation, but when you’re on a roll you just keep rollin’. Isn’t that Newton’s First Law of Motion?
The last three years have slowed the manic output while maintaining the high quality quotient, releasing all shades of the punk spectrum. A handful of first-class reissues joined the roster (No Trend, Maxine Funke, Alastair Galbraith, Kiwi Animal, Slug Fuckers) followed by an avant side step. More recent offerings dabble in musical density. Not always easy listening, but compelling ones at that. Inquisitive listeners will keep going back until they crack that nut. Thus, we’ve got one of the more interesting labels churning. Give it up for Ronnie Portugal.
What prompted the start of the label? What year did it start? Had you put out records previously?
I started the label around 2014 or 2015, the first years I was living in Oakland after living in co-op housing in Berkeley and subsequently a literal pantry in South Berkeley. I kinda started the label to put out my own bands material and also that of friends, which of course expanded and changed a lot over the last 10-ish years. I had never released records before and kinda started with tapes and went on from there.
Was the initial impetus to document the local scene?
Yeah totally. When I first moved to Oakland there was so much happening and it felt like no one cared outside of the Bay Area. Lots of shows at houses, squats, warehouses, old churches, DIY skateparks, that sort of thing. It was cheap to live here at the time, the usual story, unfortunately almost none of those spaces exist anymore. I was 21 when I first moved here and pretty wide-eyed about trying to have a hand in documenting projects via physical ephemera.
Early in the label’s existence there was the Ghost Ship tragedy, how did that affect the local scene? How has the scene progressed in the time since then?
It was incredibly devastating. Everyone I knew, it felt like, lost someone they were close to or knew indirectly. In the following months and years it was a green-light for the city and developers hand-in-hand to evict anyone living in spaces that were not "permitted living spaces". Of course a lot of these were DIY venues/ art spaces as well so a lot of our kind of "DIY infrastructure" got turned into condos/ high rises etc. It's really crazy how much time has passed since then, I feel old talking about how much has changed but I feel like a lot of Oakland is unrecognizable from 10 years ago. Lately I do feel a bit of optimism though, there have been some cool venues and other unpermitted spaces popping up and having shows again.
It seems like the label’s gone in waves, from local to reissues to avant garde, is that a fair assessment?
The label has changed a lot in its course, I think that's fair. If I was more of a "businessman" it would probably be more consistent, but that's so fucking boring. A label that I admire a lot is Siltbreeze Records and I also feel like their catalog has a lot of variation on genres which keeps it interesting. Everything that I've ever released has been something that I wanted to put out there and that reflected my music taste. Of course I started this thing when I was pretty young so a lot has changed in what I'm interested in, and the label is an extension of what I admire you could say. I think everything I've released though it might sound vastly different is at least united in some kind of ethos which ties it all together.
The Slugfuckers release seemed to be a bit of a coup when it was released, how did that one come about?
When I first found out about Tom Ellard's (Severed Heads) Terse Tapes/ Dogfood Production System labels I was listening to all that stuff a lot. All of the releases on DPS rule. The Negative Reaction and Slugfuckers records are some of my all time favorites. I believe Tom put me in touch with Slugfuckers to make that one happen, definitely a highlight.
What is the purpose of the Cost of Living sublabel?
Wanted to try out something different and have an outlet for stuff that is pretty far in left-field but wouldn't be able to sell enough vinyl copies for it to make sense. I bought a tape duplicator and have been doing all that stuff completely in house which makes it all cheaper to do and kinda brings back some of the early days when I was doing everything by hand.
Any particular favorites that you’ve released?
It's tough, I really admire all the stuff I've put out and truly appreciate people for trusting me to handle their music and help get it out in the world. Doing both of those Kiwi Animal reissues were really great, I put a lot of time into both of those and they are some of my favorite records of all time.
Any unexpected big sellers? Any records you loved that were surprisingly slow movers?
Man, it's hard to say. I still have most stuff in print, but I'm running out of space in my tiny office. These boxes are piling up haha.
Where do you see the label heading in 2024?
I have a couple records lined up early in the year from Slender, April Magazine, Marbled Eye, and Bobby Would. After that I think I'm gonna try to take a break for a year or so. Want to have more time to work on music of my own and try spending energy in other ways for a bit, but I think I'll come back to it. I've also started playing bass in Marbled Eye and we may try to do some touring after the record comes out so I'm looking forward to hanging with the lads and seeing some cities.