The Wolf Magazine

Issue date: 3/12/10 Section: Music and Entertainment

Media Credit: Courtesy of Peter Garea Ink Records logo.

Media Credit: courtesy of Peter Garea Founder of Ink Records Peter Garea.

Some say that everything in the music industry has already been done; there isn't any ground left to break. But independent labels might prove that notion wrong.

There is a small movement of independent labels that handle all of their artist's needs in house, and Ink Records is an example of this new trend.

Ink Records was founded in 2009 by Peter Garea, a Loyola music industry studies alumnus. Garea got the idea for Ink Records while working on his senior seminar project for John Snyder, director of the music industry studies program.

"I had been working on the idea for Ink for a few weeks. Then Snyder said, 'Turn in your project ideas now.' I was with my friend and we were like, 'Why don't we just do this?'"

Garea had come up with a plan for a record label that handled all the marketing, promotions, scheduling and production for a few select artists. This model, Garea reasoned, would allow the label to work closely with the artist and would allow them to create a mutually beneficial relationship.

"I didn't really set it up as a company, per se, but as a service to the artist."

Garea knew, in order for this company to work, he would need to get people who would work hard and want to succeed as much as he did. He turned to his good friend, music business senior David Buttrey, with whom he had already discussed his idea for a label.

"We had discussed, at MIDEM*, starting a label where everything was done in-house, one-stop shop style. I went abroad last spring and when I came back he had started working on it by himself, and I just jumped in." Buttrey says.

After graduating, Garea moved himself and Ink's headquarters to St. Louis, where Garea grew up. Garea explains that, while he loves New Orleans, he felt that St. Louis was a more reasonable middle ground and more conducive to productivity.

The next big step in getting Ink Records on its feet was finding an artist to sign. Garea found the man for the job - Loyola A'09 graduate George Stathakes.

"I had known George for years and a publisher friend of mine was like, 'Why not sign him?' And I thought it was a great idea. I went to him and he agreed," Garea says.

Stathakes, a member of the band Blue Party, had decided to try a solo career and thought that Garea's offer was perfect for him. Stathakes was the final piece of the puzzle crucial for getting Ink Records up and running. But there was still more to come for the new company.

Soon Garea found himself with more work than he and Buttrey could handle alone, so he turned back to Loyola once again to search for talent.

"I want to help open doors for kids at Loyola and give them the chance to get ahead. That program is bad a-- and those kids have a lot of talent."

Garea sent an e-mail to his connections at Loyola asking for students interested in interning to contact him. He soon received the resumés of current Loyola students Patrick Reagin and Ashley Fallon, both music industry seniors, and chose them to join his burgeoning business.

Now that Ink had a team in place, the real challenges began. The first became the task of running a business that was based in New Orleans and in St. Louis. Ink had to get creative to keep running smoothly.

"We have conference calls via Skype once or twice a week. People call me crazy, but it works." Garea explains. "Dave [Buttrey] and Pat [Reagin] are the best, they work so hard. It's an open forum. They shoot ideas back and forth, and that helps us."

The next big challenge for the group was how to effectively market Stathakes's music. The group decided that an unconventional marketing strategy would be just the thing.
"I'm all about guerilla marketing and friend-to-friend marketing. It's all about a trusted source, all about being viral. It's absolutely crucial," George says.

Buttrey became the director of radio commissions, with the important job of finding stations to play Strathakes' music and of priming the local market before Stathakes performs. Meanwhile, Reagin became the digital strategist and began using social networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook, to get the word out about Stathakes and his new album.

A self-described "alternative Americana-blues-old school rock-punk-folk" artist, Stathakes enjoys finding ways to "push the envelope of song writing and arrangement."

"One of the best things about playing music is I'm always excited about what's to come," he says. "It's [a] collective trial and error system: a limitless open road of opportunities in front of me. I'm just excited about making more and more music."

Soon after signing Stathakes to Ink, the team began production on Stathakes's first solo album, entitled "Drawings in the Dust," which was released a few weeks ago. Simultaneously, Ink created a Web site dedicated to Stathakes, http://www.stathakula.com.

Though launching projects such as these at Ink may be difficult at times, students find enjoyment in the process.
"It's really challenging. It's more about what we need to do and how we need to do it. I've really enjoyed it, I think it's a really cool thing," Reagin says.

Buttrey agrees.

"I love it 'cause I'm working with friends and we're all really knowledgeable about the subject," Buttrey says. "We have an artist we can believe in, and people tell us we're going in the right direction."

Garea gives insight to aspiring producers:

"You always have to be hungry, you can never be satisfied with the meals on your plate," Garea says. "But you can't eat it too fast either."

*MIDEM, or Marché International due Disque et de l'Edition Musicale, is an international music conference.

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