INTERVIEW: Cropduster Records
- Al Muzer
The record industry as it's existed since the days of Elvis, Eddie Cochran and Jerry Lee Lewis truly is a thing of the past.
With just a handful of major labels still active, indie imprints collapsing left and right and anything remotely 'edgy' or challenging on the radio dial long since sandpapered into sing-along blandness - the long-predicted death of rock 'n' roll, it would seem, is just around the corner.
There is, however, hope. Pockets of resistance have begun cropping up around the globe in defiance of the Mariah-ization of music while the computer - long the exclusive domain of pale, intelligent, scientific-type geeks in cheap polyester lab wear - has been wholeheartedly embraced by pale, intelligent, musician-type geeks decked out in thrift store finery.
A popular method for recording, altering and sampling music for nearly a decade, the home-based computer - thanks to recent advances in Internet and MP3 technology - has leveled the modern musical playing field. No longer are major label contracts, saturation distribution, Van Halen-sized budgets and Billboard chart action the only tickets to musical success.
The Internet has made it possible for artists such as former Aquanettas drummer Stephanie Seymour and her band, Birdy; ex-Rain Deputies co-leader Chris Merola; one-time Winter Hours guitarist/vocalist Bob Perry; and singer Julia Greenberg to release new discs (respectively, the hit-packed Supernominal Paraphernalia ; the rootsy Straight Answer In A Crooked Town ; the tuneful Light Fuse, Run Away ; and the pop-friendly Past Your Eyes , all on Cropduster Records) that, with patience, luck and timing, have as good a chance of being heard by the masses as Beck's or Natalie Merchant's next efforts.
One of those "pockets of resistance" that make the independent music landscape so interesting, the Cropduster family (and the word "family" is used in its truest sense) in addition to Merola, Greenberg, Perry and Seymour with Birdy, also includes James Mastro's Health & Happiness Show and The Other 99 featuring former tabulaRASA guitarist Chris Flynn, drummer Alan Katz and bassist Sean Seymour working with guitarist/vocalist Jeff Epstein.
"We knew the first minute we got all five bands together in one room that we had something special," Sean Seymour has said. "Everyone told Wilbur and Orville Wright 'that thing will never fly,' yet, this Cropduster, like theirs, has really taken off."
"We're all different enough," Perry says of Cropduster, "that we don't get in each other's way. But, we're all close enough that it just seems to work. One of my favorite parts about being a member of Cropduster is what we call a 'Cropduster Night' " when there are three or four Cropduster artists on the same bill. It's such a nice night of music ... between Birdy and Julia and The Other 99 ... it's a very shared, very warm experience."
The Cropduster collective concept was initially realized in 1994 when band members Perry, Flynn, Katz and Seymour pooled their considerable talents and marginal resources to release tabulaRASA's locally-acclaimed Somewhere Out There. A valuable learning experience, the long road from tabulaRASA's debut to Cropduster has been surprisingly smooth and ego free.
"It's been great!" Merola, a graphic artist who has designed CD artwork including Perry's and Stephanie Seymour's and performs (with Flynn, Katz and Seymour) in Birdy, says of the Cropduster experience. "It's the only way to go. It's actually the way I've always felt playing music should be, but rarely found. Cropduster is all about shared joy, creativity and a positive...I hesitate to say, energy. Everyone here is working with the same goal in mind so when something good happens for one - it affects us all."
"This really has been a positive experience for all of us," agrees The Other 99 vocalist/guitarist Jeff Epstein. "It's amazing that you could put five or six bands together and have everyone be as supportive as they've been. Everyone actually likes each other at Cropduster! I mean, I deal with artists all day [at a local disc manufacturer] and I've seen fist-fights break out between band members, so when you can get this many people to get along this well ... honestly, I think this is the most fun I've ever had, and I've been doing this for a long time."
"I play in four out of six bands," explains guitarist Chris Flynn who also handles the Cropduster Web site, "which is fun for me on a purely selfish scale 'cause I get to play four sets in one night! I'm a project leader in a computer IT department in my day job - so I was the most familiar with the technology needed to set up the Cropduster Web site, which is how I wound up doing that. We all, however, brainstorm on ideas on how to liven it up and get a little traffic going, ya' know? Cropduster is a total labor of love."
"I'd always written songs," begins Stephanie Seymour, "even when I was drumming with the Aquanettas I kind'a had it in my mind that I could, I should, be doing this. I found my band through James [Mastro]," she laughs, "and, that was that. Being a part of something like Cropduster really makes the ride feel a little easier, a little less rough, this time around. I don't think I've ever had this many friends before. We genuinely love hanging out with each other and we really do love playing with each other."
"While it's not the most unique idea," comments Greenberg, "the response to Cropduster has been absolutely amazing. I mean, anytime I describe the concept to someone even vaguely connected to the music industry...there's, like, this long sigh of relief. [laughs] You know, I think Cropduster is a pretty positive response to the direction the record industry seems to be heading and I'm really excited to be involved, to be a member of the Cropduster 'family.' "
"I was at the point where I didn't care if the Health & Happiness Show ever made another record," Mastro says of his absorption into the Cropduster collective. "I didn't feel like looking for a new deal and was just tired of the whole industry...'thing,' in general. I produced and played on a few Cropduster records and, just being around these guys and seeing what they were doing proved to be pretty inspiring."
"I think this [Cropduster's Internet presence] is the way the record industry is going and that labels should be scared [chuckles wickedly]. I'm an old-fashioned kind'a guy," the former Bongo says when asked about the July release date for the 13-song Sad, And Sexy, "but this really seems to be a good way to enter the next century."
"Cropduster is kind'a like this big umbrella we all got under," offers Perry. "We all had records that were ready to be released, but found ourselves asking the same questions: 'Where am I gonna go? What label will release this? Am I gonna try to put this out by myself? If I do try to put it out myself, where am I gonna get the money?' When you put five bands together and everyone splits the cost and duties and everyone has the same goal in mind, well, it just seems like it's a lot easier to get things done and," he adds with the wisdom of experience, "a lot less painful getting them done."
For more information on Cropduster, check them out at http://www.cropduster.com .
