Maupin recalled how Mandolin Orange signed to Yep Roc in 2013. “One of my proudest moments was seeing Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin nominated for a Grammy and attending the ceremony with them,” Maupin said. Other notable artists include Nick Lowe, Los Straitjackets, Robbie Fulks and Billy Bragg t he North Carolina bluegrass band Chatham County Line Fountains of Wayne, a New York rock band best known for the Grammy-nominated song “Stacy’s Mom” and the English post-punk group, Gang of Four, from Leeds, England. Yep Roc works with acts from all around the world, such as The Fleshtones from New York, Tift Merritt from Texas, Born Ruffians from Canada, Eli “Paperboy” Reed from Boston, Chuck Prophet from California and Darren Hanlon from Australia. Working together is important, and we all play a crucial role in getting music out to the public.” “But everyone at Yep Roc is involved in the process of releasing music. “Every project has a project manager, so the musicians have one main person at the label to talk to, and that person can inform the label about the musicians’ ideas and needs,” Maupin said. The label and musician must decide if the music will be released only in the United States or worldwide, as well as the platforms for release-that is, if the album will be released in physical form, as a record, CD or cassette, as well as if it will be made available for streaming services. Once Yep Roc is interested in a band or musician, the company will sign the artist to a recording contract. Trusted sources, such as managers, publicists and musicians, are some of the most common ways Yep Roc hears about bands. Yep Roc records find bands by word of mouth, rather than through talent scouts. “It feels like we’ve been working on the release for Mandolin Orange for years, in the best way possible,” Mariah Czap, digital marketing manager at Yep Roc Records, said. Tides of a Teardrop was released on February 1, and it took the Yep Roc team about a year and a half to put out. The process of signing a band and releasing an album can be as short as a few months or as long as a few years.
There are art pieces and posters all over the walls with stacks of vinyl and CDs all over. However, the Yep Roc staff is more like a family, and the two-story office feels more like a house than a workplace. Record labels are often portrayed in movies or the media as business-minded corporations. It’s rewarding to have an idea or project and see it become clearer,” Maupin said. Its latest is the much-anticipated Tides of a Teardrop, by Chapel Hill-based folk duo, Mandolin Orange, featuring Chapel Hill alum Emily Frantz and her partner Andrew Marlin. Yep Roc produces about 18 records per year.
In 1997, Glenn Dicker and Tor Hansen started the independent record label in Chapel Hill before moving to Hillsborough in 2012, where the two have been releasing records from an old law firm on North Churton Street ever since. “We’re not part of the major-label echo chamber.”
“Here, it is about the art and where it takes you,” Yep Roc Records General Manager Billy Maupin said. Rather than focusing on the “next big thing” in the music industry, Hillsborough-based Yep Roc Records scouts talent it believes in.
0 kommentar(er)
