Some musicians, though, take their craft to extremes, and not only record and produce their own music, but create the very label and distro through which that music is released. That’s no easy feat, though: we got in contact with some of the musicians behind our favorite local labels and distros to talk about what it’s like to run your own label.
Killer Robot Music is a small independent cassette label run by Machinist! drummer Jeremy McGuire. The label was officially started roughly two years ago, though McGuire said that he'd always liked the idea of helping bands put out music. In high school he'd helped pay for friends of his to record demos, but after acquiring some duplication equipment decided to start putting out cassettes for bands he liked or were friends with. Eventually this led to his having extra tapes to take with him while he toured, and this led to his picking up records and tapes to sell—which eventually led to the start of the distro.
After getting the equipment and some startup money, McGuire recalls that it "kind of just fell into place." Touring with Machinist! allowed him to meet and befriend many bands throughout the country, and he began asking to put their music out. "Luckily," he added, "they said yes."
As he has to enjoy the music to want to put it out, most of the KRM discography is made up of bands McGuire has met and toured with. "I've had a few bands come to me," he said, "but usually they aren't my cup of tea so nothing really works out."
The physical medium of choice for KRM? Cassette tape.
Citing its low price and ease to work with, McGuire assured me that cassettes were definitely his favorite medium to work with. "I do everything myself," he said. "I make the master cassette, make the duplicates, print the inserts, and stuff the cases with everything, I do it this way to keep everything cheap for the bands." The problem is, of course, that cassettes don't sound quite as good as other formats. "But people know that going in," McGuire said, "so it's okay."
KRM primarily deals in small limited runs of tapes (two of their more recent releases, Mother's gone. and Without's Attic, were released in runs of 30 each), so KRM releases don't tend to wind up in record stores. "I found it easier to just work with the bands directly and also use my website to sell them," he said. "Stores don't make sense for my product."
Of course, there's the other problem with working in the music industry: "people don't want to pay for music, plain and simple." In order to keep people's interest, he says, it has to be made appealing in some other way. "Whether it's a collectible, sound quality, alternative artwork, limited edition items, or whatever," he said. "In that way cassettes are awesome because they're so different that people want them."
I asked McGuire what advice he'd give someone who'd like to start their own label or distro and he had this to offer:
"Do it. Have fun with it. Work with bands you like. Don't be stupid though."
Killer Robot Music is currently working on its first release on vinyl, a project McGuire has wanted to happen for awhile now. More details will be posted as they arrive.
Killer Robot Music can be found on the following sites:
"Men With Many Hats" is a series of articles highlighting local Georgia record labels run by local Georgia musicians.
Original article taken from MACON METAL February 2015.
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