The lifecycle of any music scene necessitates the constant
emergence and departure of record labels, each unique. Maybe they’re centered around a certain type of music, which gives buyers a sense of what to expect as soon as they hear (or hear of) a new release. Or they’re given shape by a club, or handful of clubs, that the groups regularly play; The Way Out Club, for example, birthed the too-short lifespan of the artist-run Rooster Lollipop co-op. Oftentimes, a label can come about simply because of friendships, relationships being built on sound.
That’s the case for MapleHood Rekkids, an upstart label that’s worked since late 2003 with a group of young rock acts from around town. As you might guess from the label’s name, the imprint’s centered in Maplewood, the longtime home of co-founder Caroline Hackmeyer. Some of the acts, like Phil Browne’s intriguing, one-man-band Stendek, also call the suburb home, though it’s certainly not an exclusive factor in whether they’ll all work together. Not that it hurts.
“I grew up in Maplewood,” Hackmeyer said. “And Phil certainly did.” As for label co-founder Stephanie Myles, “She did not grow up in Maplewood. But she lives in Richmond Heights, which is part of the Maplewood-Richmond Heights School District.”
Hackmeyer explained the label’s ideals and business tactics in the same way that many upstart imprints do, though the artist-friendly relationship between act and label is stressed at all levels. For example, bands sign onto the dotted line for one record at a time, and money’s only taken out when a break-even amount of CDs has been sold. The label maintains a fairly thorough Web site, www.MapleHood-rekkids.com, and will go to whatever length the band needs in terms of merchandise support at shows and the sending out of press materials.
Production is similarly low-key and do-it-yourself. The label works on much of the artwork in house, and even burns the CDs by hand on a four-CD burner. Ink-jet printers supply the final coating of art on the discs. The inlay card may go out to a printer, but virtually everything else is handled in the office. Although still decidedly low key, the label has achieved a level of consistency with all the materials it puts out.
“Bands are around to play music,” Hackmeyer said. “It’s hard for them to think of all the other stuff that goes along with it, too. We wanted to see it done right. Before we started the label, we saw these guys we liked burning discs and slapping a Sharpie on them. Or they’d have liner notes with everything in it misspelled. We wanted to help them out with those aspects of it.”
Community is another central tenet for the MapleHood gang, and idealistic ends are stressed on various projects, including the now-annual “Will Rock for Food” event.
On Aug. 5, the Richmond Heights Veterans of Foreign Wars Post will again play host to the “Will Rock for Food” concert and CD release party, which will feature about a dozen tracks by the varied bands working with MapleHood, as well as a few outside artists who simply support the cause. Last year’s release highlighted music by 16 acts, and sales of the album throughout the year went directly to the St. Louis Area Foodbank.
Hackmeyer figures the CD and other efforts around the “WRFF” project raised over $1,000 for the Foodbank, plus a heady amount of canned goods. Not giving in to inflation, the admission for this year’s event is the same as last year: $5 along with two cans of food or $9 sans canned goods. Definitely playing the event this year are Adam’s Off Ox, Tok, The Unholy Effers, Shut Up & Drive, The Okay Club, Siam’s Steel Chested Rabbit Arcade and Fance. Other acts may well find their way onto the bill between presstime and show’s start.
“The idea came in 2001,” Hackmeyer said of the label and its signature event. “We wanted a strong community concept and social awareness.”
Actively involved in local music circles since her freshman year Washington University in 1996, Hackmeyer’s got an amusing habit of referring to acts on the label as “kids,” even as she’s far from the retirement age at only 27. But that’s been more than enough time to realize that as fun as running a label can be, there’s also a good amount of work.
Because a number of the acts are in a transitional phase right
now – one group’s going to college en masse, others are affected by youthful marriages and parenting – the label’s trying to figure out the next step, a situation that Hackmeyer readily acknowledged. Over a dinnertime interview at the Schlafly Bottleworks, I could almost hear the debate taking place within Hackmeyer.
On one hand….
“Everybody’s breaking up right now,” she lamented.
On the other…
“Everybody’s been really supportive,” she enthused.
Hopefully, the label weathers the present storm, finds some bands that won’t quit for things like college and has one of its acts – our guess is Stendek – break through to a wider audience.
This article appears in Aug 1-31, 2005.