IU sophomore Ben Wittkugel and graduate student Jared Jones recently added themselves to the list with their record label, Winspear Records.
Winspear came into existence as a way for Wittkugel to book more shows than the few he helped plan for WIUX, he said. He was looking for a way to get more involved with the music in Bloomington, so he had his first house show the second week of this school year.
Wittkugel shares a house with four roommates. Two are Jack Stanton and Jesse Gildner from local band Sunspots. Stanton said after going through several names for their house, from the Bat Cave to the Sock Drawer, they finally landed on calling the house the Big House, and ?it stuck.
Now the Big House hosts a show in its basement nearly every week, ranging from local acts to bands on tour looking for somewhere to stop and play. Stanton said he’s a little surprised by just how many bands have played at their house.
“We’re just a basement of 20-year-olds like, ‘Wanna come play in our basement?’” he said. “I don’t know why half these bands say, ‘Yeah.’”
The house shows make life at home a little ?unpredictable, Stanton said. On Monday, he said he took a shower upstairs and he found himself in his towel walking through a crowd of people when he went downstairs.
Sometimes the members of Sunspots don’t know they’re playing at a show until Wittkugel tells them to set up, Stanton said.
The shows didn’t stop at the Big House, though. Winspear began promoting shows at the Bishop Bar last November and at the Blockhouse when the venue opened at the beginning of the year. Now Winspear has booked shows for acts from rising Philadelphia musician Alex G to Amen Dunes, whose album “Love” was included in Newsweek’s “Top 10 Albums of 2014.”
“Starting out, the goal was just kind of to do shows, and eventually the goal was to start releasing our friends’ records and these other bands’ records that we thought were cool but were kind of small,” Jones said.
The idea of starting a label was on their minds since the beginning, Wittkugel said. They’re not trying to idolize Secretly Canadian, he said, but the local label has been a big inspiration in showing them that a group of college students can actually start a record label with the potential to grow.
“I was looking through their old photos, and they used to take all their press photos at the Union,” Wittkugel said about his time interning at Secretly Canadian. “So I just was like, ‘They did it, I might as well give it a shot.’”
Winspear Records announced their first releases near the end of ?February. The label began selling CDs of Evansville band ?Thunder/Dreamer’s 2014 self-titled album and cassettes of their 2013 self-titled EP. Jones said he has known the band for a while as he’s also from Evansville.
He also said these two releases were the perfect way for Winspear to get started as a record label because Thunder/Dreamer had already digitally released them on their Bandcamp page. The band wanted some tour merchandise, and Winspear stepped in, he said.
The label releases their next tape, “UNENJOY,” by Grand Rapids, Mich., band CARE, on March 31. ?Winspear also has plans to release new music from local acts Sunspots, Vista Kid Cruiser, the Tourniquets and more in the near future, Wittkugel said.
Alex Fowler from Vista Kid Cruiser said he met Wittkugel last year, but they were really just acquaintances at first.
“Once Vista Kid started trying to play more shows, he really helped us out with that,” Fowler said. “From there we just started to talk more about future label stuff and cassettes.”
He said he thinks Wittkugel wants to promote most of the music being made in Bloomington, and that’s why he wanted Vista Kid Cruiser to get involved with Winspear.
Andrew Olanoff, project manager at Secretly Label Group, said representing local music is what sets the small labels apart from big, Bloomington-based labels.
“The labels as they are now, we don’t represent any local music specifically,” he said. “At this level, we’re finding regional artists and people outside of the U.S. as well. So I believe smaller labels, especially the community-based ones, are so important in getting local voices and smaller bands we may not release on a bigger indie label, getting them the shine they deserve.”
Wittkugel said he wants to see Winspear expand to higher-profile bands beyond the local acts. However, the sense of community is important for him, he said, adding that being located in Bloomington has been ?helpful.
“I think it’s a small world, and it’s cool to be able to all come together and try to put Bloomington on the map,” ?he said.
Jones said he has high hopes for expanding Winspear into more aspects of the music industry, such as publishing, but for now they are just working on being the best at what they do.
“We’re just getting our feet wet right now,” he said.
