Who runs the company?
Brett Mitchell and Tim Harrison operate Think and Thunk in Sydney, while Phil Smart has recently relocated to San Francisco to set up the US office with none other than Sir Niven Bonar

What was the inspiration to start it?
A general lack of outlets for underground product, and to give access to this material to a world market

What kind of music do you produce? Does the label have its own distinct sound?
Think deals with more left of centre electronic material from pure ambience to electro dub, while Thunk is aimed more specifically at the dance floor/club type vibe

What do you have to offer that sets you apart from other independents? And the majors?
Really good looking girlfriends. As for the majors, well where do we start... Fundamentally our motives are different, we are primarily concerned with releasing quality music as opposed to selling chocolate bars

How many copies of a record do you need to sell to survive?
We don't need to sell any to survive as such, though the more we sell, the more we have to invest in upcoming projects

Have you had much international response? Are your releases distributed overseas?
The Environments series has achieved critical acclaim from the likes of Urb, XLR8 and Wired magazines in the US, DJ Magazine, Kiss FM (UK) and Intro (Germany). Environments is distributed throughout Europe by Semaphore in Germany and will be released locally in the US early '97. The first release on our new born subsidiary Thunk has already achieved very encouraging results within its first two weeks of release. On a recent club tour of the USA, John Digweed has been opening his sets with one of the Spect ral EP cuts, prompting touring partner Sasha to seek out his own personal copy. Even before its release Earth Link's Spectral EP was snapped up for license in the UK and Europe by pedigree London label Deviant Records, offering a very promising start to the label

What are your releases?

Think Communications:

Environments - a collection of antipodean soundscapes (cat no.think cd1)
Environments - antipodean armchair travel (cat no.think cd 2)

Thunk Recordings:

Earth Link - Spectral EP - (cat no. TR 001)
Head Affect - Hijinx EP - (cat no. TR 002)
Pocket - Untitled EP - (cat no. TR 003)
Infusion - Untitled EP - (cat no. TR 004)

What is your favourite/most successful release so far?
Depends on what mood you're in

What do you hope to do with the label in the future?
Promote quality underground Australian releases internationally

Where can people find you product?
The Environments series is available locally in Australia through Shock Distribution. Thunk releases will be available at all good dance stores on import only through Watts Music NY

from 3D World Magazine November 1996

More on THINK COMMUNICATIONS

Think Communications Official Web Pages