Do you accept demos – do you have people sending them in to you?
No, actually, I don’t accept demos. Part of the reason is even if I like it, I’m not going to sign you. It’s really because the people that are on the label - like I said, because there’s a connection, they know me personally. There’s a little more of a trust factor. It’s easy to explain to you because I know you – if one of my friends has ADHD, you know what I’m saying, I know how long it’s going to take to explain to them. If I had to deal with someone from Indianapolis that I’ve only met once or twice in person, they could be the greatest artist in the world, but if I don’t know his personality to the point where I have to worry about him taking a flight to New Jersey and trying to burn my house down, you know..
What advice would you give to somebody wanting to start a label?
Uh, play baseball. No, keep in mind you need your artists, as frustrating as they can be. As much as they don’t read the emails, lose their cell phones, keep in mind that as a label you’re actually more than a label. There is no real job description once you start this thing. You start out saying, “yeah, I’m gonna put out cool records” and before you know it, you’re going to Starbucks for the guy while he’s recording his reel.
Do you find yourself as a small label acting as manager, agent, you know dealing with publishing and doing all of those jobs that at a major label level might be several different jobs worked by several different people?
Yeah – definitely. Without a doubt. Yes. Really, really yes. I’ve gone as far as to give up my spot on a tour to put one of my artists on.
So, do you see yourself as having a label first or being an artist first? What’s the most important to you?
You know, it’s very funny you say that, because after finishing that one a week project, I decided I wanted to be an artist. You know, I can’t really say I stopped being an artist, because I was still producing for people on my label, but it has been awhile since I put out my project, my vision. And while the label is my vision, there’s still more that I want to say and that I want to do. So, while there is still a Smacks, I arranged it so everyone has their own deal through the store that was putting out the one a week.
Will you try to shop around your record to other labels or will you go the digital route and go through Smacks?
Uh, you know what, I haven’t really thought about that because I really just wanted to make the record.
Have you started yet, or is this something you have just decided?
You know, this is literally something I just decided the other day. So, yeah, I’m gonna have to like rewire the studio and get it ready. But, it did occur to me that I could shop it around because I do have a bit of a sales history, but you know that can be time consuming, and you know, records are like cheese. You don’t hurry up and eat it, it turns green and people are done with it.
Well my last question was what is next for the label, but I guess that might be on hold for awhile while you do your own thing?
Yeah, well, you’ll see the label name around a lot, it will just have lots of other tags around it. No matter – it’s funny, I tried to shut the label down years ago, and the artists just wouldn’t leave. When we had distribution through Studio Distribution and they folded, I was like, “Well, I guess this is pretty much it” and everybody was like, “hey man, we know you don’t have distribution any more, but we’re going to hang around.” It was like, there’s nothing left I can do for you and they said, “well, you’ll figure something out.”
Well, you did, though.
Yeah, it’s encouraging, it feels good. Feels better than like when someone goes, “how come my record is not selling,” you know.
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