Secret to their Success

It all started with four people who loved music. Four guys with similar tastes in music dreamed of starting a record label to release albums by the bands they loved. The idea of Secretly Canadian Records was born in the cafeteria at Collins Center, where Jonathan Cargill and Chris Swanson both worked.\n"We were sitting there, sorting the silverware and talking about what we wanted to do," says Cargill. Two of Swanson's friends also took interest in the project.\nSwanson worked with Eric Weddle at WIUS, and his brother Ben Swanson was also interested in the project. Everyone had his own idea about what to do and how to run a record label.\n"At first it was really ugly," Chris Swanson says. Cargill researched on the Web for clues on how to get started. He compiled a notebook of information he got from the Web in the summer of 1996, but the Internet did not provide a clear vision of what to do.\n"It led me nowhere," Cargill says of his Web research. "The big problem was that we didn't know what we were doing."\nDespite the lack of experience, the four men pooled their money to press the first CD on the new Bloomington-based label. In September of that year, the label got off the ground and released its first record: a single from the group Songs:Ohia. It sold well, bringing distributors to their doors. Soon after, the June Panic Glory Hole album was released. It was not received with the same ardor as the Songs:Ohia single.\n"No one, no one bought that CD," Cargill says. "It was a big smack in the face."\nStill in the beginning stages, they still fumbled to successfully run Secretly Canadian. Cargill had poured his life savings into the project without a second thought. \n"Overall, the bottom line is, we were young, we were stupid and we were idyllic," Cargill says.\nDuring the past four and a half years, the label has grown, featuring 16 artists and distributing more than 10 other labels. The label developed from the traditional trial and error process.\n"We were so clueless. We learned the old-fashioned way, by making a lot of mistakes and losing a lot of money," Chris Swanson says.\nWeddle decided to leave the project to focus on school and work on his own label, Family Vineyard. Getting from the initial point, running out of Chris' home, to a new office on South Walnut Street was a struggle, but a rewarding one. About a month ago, Secretly Canadian moved into what used to be a hardware store. The building is now cluttered with boxes that make up the organized mess that is the label. The move gave Cargill and the label a sense of validity.\n"It legitimized what we were doing, having a real space," Cargill says.\nAs the label grew, they had to turn away some bands they enjoyed and respected to stay above water. Time and money limits what the label can undertake without going broke. The ability to do this has meant success.\n"We're friends with so many talented bands and musicians that we can't work with them all. We have to make tough decisions," Chris Swanson says. "We've had to tell them we can't do it." \nThis also includes not spending as much money on a band as Secretly Canadian or the band would like.\n"But we don't give up on a band. We spend what we think it will make," he says. "The bands know we won't go belly-up."\nIn addition to simply liking a band's music, the guys also want to work with people they like. Cargill says they become friends with many of the artists. Dave Fischoff, one of the artists on the label, agrees with Cargill's statement.\n"It's always remained really friendly," Fischoff says. "I'm working with guys I trust as business people, but more importantly, I trust them as friends." \n Also, Secretly Canadian likes to give bands a sense of security and looks for bands that plan on staying with the label in the long run. \n"We want to work long term with bands, so we look for bands that want to do the same," Cargill says. "We actually get demos from people who tell us that they want us to be their springboard to better labels."\nFischoff doesn't see the label as a springboard but as a catalyst for his success. \n "As an artist, I'm completely indebted to them. Before Secretly Canadian, I was playing the occasional Bloomington basement show and self-releasing cassettes," Fischoff says. "But since I've been working with them, I've managed to release two CDs, tour the U.S. five times, get write-ups in magazines around the world, and in a week, I'll be embarking on a three-week tour of Europe."\nAlthough Fischoff takes his committment to the label seriously, other bands simply send in demos with no idea of what the label is all about.\nAs Cargill and Chris Swanson dealt with random demos and with running the label day to day, they discovered where each person had talent. Instead of everyone trying to cover every aspect of the label, the trio decided to departmentalize.\n"Over the years, we've realized we can't all be hands-on for everything all the time," Cargill says. "We've found our niches at what we like to do and what we're good at." Cargill took over public relations, Ben Swanson deals with distribution and Chris Swanson handles finances.\nSimilarly, each person's motivation to run a record label sprang from different places. Chris Swanson and Cargill, both interested in music, had separate experiences that led them to their interest in music.\nWhen Chris Swanson went to high school in Fargo, N.D., he saw a performance by the band godheadSilo. It was a local band at the time and has since moved to Olympia, Wash., and has been on the labels Kill Rock Stars and Sub-Pop. While the band was still in North Dakota, Chris Swanson fell in love with its music. At the time, godheadSilo had no records available to buy, so it became his goal to put out its records. Although he eventually forgot about it, his interest was sparked again when he came to Bloomington.\n"I remember going to see Swaykiss and thinking it was a crime not being able to buy a record," he says.\nCargill has always dreamed of being in a band and becoming a rock star. After realizing that it wasn't going to happen, he still wanted to keep a connection to music.\n"I knew I wanted to be involved with music somehow," Cargill says. Secretly Canadian provides him the chance do something in the musical world and give back to the art form he loves.\n"I didn't think it would be going as well," Cargill says of his business. Despite the success of the label, his family still doesn't quite understand Secretly Canadian is a full-time job.\n"They still don't get what I do. I've explained it over and over," Cargill says. With a sister in business and a brother who's a doctor, Cargill became the black sheep. "I'm the rock 'n' roll guy."\nBeing the "rock 'n' roll guy" has put Cargill and his partners where they are now. Though the label started off a bit shaky, Secretly Canadian has developed into a label that Chris Swanson thinks is on stable ground.\n"The foundation is a lot more solid. Work is full-time. There are no more dogs running around the office," Chris Swanson says. "There's a lot more stress now, but positive stress of being thorough and not stress about not getting things done."\nAs far as location is concerned, Cargill enjoys the Bloomington music community, one that he says has had a remarkable music scene from Hoagy Carmichael to John Mellencamp. \n"A lot of people ask, 'Why not Chicago? Why not New York or L.A.?' I see no reason why," Cargill says. "We would get lost in the crowd. There's a certain charm being small-town Indiana"