David Hansen Resigns Post at Dr. Dream : Music: ‘It’s just time to move on,’ says key figure in the development of the Orange-based rock label.

David Hansen, a key figure in the development of Dr. Dream Records, has resigned as vice president of the Orange-based rock label.

“It has been a great thing, but it’s just time for me to move on,” Hansen said last week, citing burnout brought on by his wide range of responsibilities at the label. Hansen, 28, has been vice president there since 1986.

“I’m here all the time, and I want to have more of a life than Dr. Dream,” he said. “I want to work for a bigger (record) company in a smaller role.” Hansen said he will leave his post at the end of March and will continue serving as a part-time consultant for Dr. Dream while hunting for a new job.

Hansen oversaw the label’s day-to-day operations, including marketing of its releases. Along with David Hayes, Dr. Dream’s founder and president, Hansen also decided which acts Dr. Dream would sign.

Starting with a core of Orange County-based rock talent, Dr. Dream has branched out over the past two years by signing such higher profile Los Angeles acts as Wall of Voodoo singer Andy Prieboy and Oingo Boingo offshoot Food For Feet.

“We’ve become a bigger independent rock force, and people are paying attention to what we’re doing,” Hansen said. “I feel really good about all we’ve done. There’s been a lot of highs, and a few lows. It’s been a great run.”

Hayes, in a separate interview, said he now will take a more hands-on role in areas he had delegated to Hansen while concentrating on the label’s finances. Hansen is leaving Dr. Dream on good terms, Hayes said. “There have been times when we were at each other’s throats,” he said, “but this is not one of them.”

Hayes, 30, said the main change he foresees is a greater emphasis on the original small-is-beautiful ideal he had in launching Dr. Dream.

“I’d rather have 20 bands selling 5,000 to 10,000 albums than a handful that have to sell 20,000 to 30,000 just to break even,” he said. That will mean less emphasis on bands that need a substantial sum of up-front money to make an album, Hayes said, and more cases in which Dr. Dream releases low-budget recordings that the bands already have produced on their own before bringing them to the label.

Hayes cited the Swamp Zombies’ debut album “Chicken Vulture Crow” and Eggplant’s first release, “Monkeybars,” as two homemade, low-budget projects that proved successful after Dr. Dream signed the bands and issued their work.

“The quality isn’t the greatest, but it has that raw energy, and that’s what an independent (label) is all about,” Hayes said. “We were getting a little too polished. I want to do a select few (larger budget albums), and then breed new talent from the ground up.”