New label touts musical diversity, fair, green business practice

Villagers Eric Brown, left, and John Davis recently formed Hipgnosis, a new music production business dedicated to eclectic music and fair business practices.

By Cooper Fleishman

Hipgnosis Records will never be easy to classify. Its first album is a fusion of classical and smooth jazz, performed beautifully by area musician Christian Berg. Its second, soon to be released, is by hardcore-metal outfit Silk Abrasion. The up-and-coming record label, run by villagers Eric Brown and John Davis, will have reviewers baffled for years to come — it’s impossible to find a common stylistic thread in the disparate, eclectic sounds of its artists.

But according to Brown, who’s been a musician all his life, it’s the grassroots philosophy — not the sound — that ties all of Hipgnosis’ artists together.

“The art of music,” he said in a recent interview. “It’s about the creation process from the ground up. We look for musicians who are thinking this way. We’ve talked to hip-hop artists, even an Irish fiddler. Every genre is awesome if it’s done well.”

What sets Hipgnosis apart, besides its diversity of sound, is its commitment to fair, egalitarian business with the bands it signs. Brown, producer and consultant, splits “nearly everything” 50/50 with his clients.

“It’s about being a team and working together,” he said. “One of the reasons we started is that we felt artists don’t get fair representation with the labels they’re on. How it usually works is a label fronts money for the band to record. Then the band tries to make back as much of the initial investment as possible. If they don’t, they get dropped.”

In the music industry, most bands either falter or get rich, but Davis believes a good band should be able to make a decent middle-class wage.

“They should be able to do what they’re good at,” he said. “We take the opposite approach from a major label. We want the musicians to be our partners.”

As an indie label, Hipgnosis can avoid the mechanical rigidity of big business. Instead, the focus is on shaping a community of organic creativity. For Brown, community is key.

“We’re trying to be socially responsible!” he said. “The woman who painted the album cover for Silk Abrasion, Jenny Montgomery, we’re auctioning off the original painting, and all the profits go to a charity of her choice.” And when packaging the albums, Brown is adamant: recyclable materials only!

To further build a sense of community, Hipgnosis works with other Yellow Springs businesses. The label sends its bands to record at SoundSpace, located on Dayton Street near the high school, where sound engineer Chris Hertzler, the owner, earns raves from Brown.

“He’s been doing this for maybe 35 years, in every format — from reel-to-reel, to cassettes, to CDs,” Brown said. “He knows what he’s doing.”

And a few big connections don’t hurt, either. For distribution, Brown and Davis have a good relationship with the third largest distributor in the country, Super D.

When asked about his influences, Brown is quick to drop two names: Rick Rubin and Peter Gabriel. As a producer, Rubin recorded a wide assortment of artists — “everyone from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Slayer to Johnny Cash,” Brown said.

Vision is something Hipgnosis has to spare. It’s not often one finds a record label with the vision to detach from the norm, to incorporate its community, and to work with any sound, any genre.

“Art has always intended to be a small circle that branches out, instead of a big circle that collapses in. That’s our goal with Hipgnosis,” Brown said.

With recordings this diverse, the label has the potential to branch out in all sorts of directions, which is exactly what Brown hopes to do.

“There’s soul and beauty in every sound,” he said.

* The writer is an alumnus of the Yellow Springs High School class of 2005. He is now a junior at Kenyon College.