We asked international Anthem all about their record label. See what they had to say!
What prompted you to start the label?
David and I played music, put on DIY shows and did some touring together a lot as young lads. Mostly heavy rock, punk, basement show type stuff.. But we always shared a curiosity for new/different/exciting music. When I started getting in to the avant-garde jazz scene, and putting on an improvised music series in Chicago, David and I connected on our shared interest in that music as well. David came to record one of the shows I was putting on, and from there we decided to start a label to release that recording.
What has been your proudest moment of the label so far?
When Gilles Peterson gave Ben LaMar Gay a Worldwide Award at Koko in January of 2019.. It was very special to see Ben being honoured on stage in front of so many people, by someone like Gilles who we’ve followed and respected for so long. Ben LaMar Gay is such an important artist to us and, we feel, the whole world. People just don’t know yet. His music brings the past and the present together in the most beautiful future that most of us can only dream of. Even with his successes and exposure since we released his debut in 2018, he’s criminally undersung, so to enjoy that moment of acknowledgement vicariously, from Gilles at the Worldwide Awards in 2019, was a very proud moment for our whole label family.
Which three to five albums would you recommend to someone who maybe doesn’t know the label and wants to start checking it out?
I think folks should start with our first two releases
Then listen to
If money was no object, which artist(s) – past or present – would you love to sign to the label, and why?
If money was no object, we would work with the same artists, but just give them a lot more money.
If you had one piece of advice for someone wanting to start a label, what would it be?
Work with the people around you, build a community of collaborators out of people in your immediate surroundings.