Will Hackney was barely in high school when he and Martin Anderson, a middle schooler, decided to start a record label. At first it was just a name they wrote on homemade cds for their admittedly terrible punk bands. Over the years, Trekky has grown into something much more. The label touts a lineup of wickedly talents local acts that are as much connected by their friendships as by their musical sense. This Friday, they will release their first compilation, Amalgam, at The Nightlight with Butterflies, Phil Cook and His Feat, Vibrant Green and a surprise guest there to celebrate.
Before things get too exciting though, it’s best we find out if one of their founders can handle a few of the hardest questions in faux business. Find out for yourself after the jump.
1. If your label were a game show, which would it be?
I’m going to say Legends of the Hidden Temple because we have lots of great “teams”, and occasionally we get surprised by the scary tribal man waiting behind the corner who might lake our life pendant away (metaphorically).
2. Why did you decide to release a mixtape compilation?
For years we’ve wanted to put out a label compilation, as a way for fans of any given Trekky artist to explore the rest of the artists in the crew. But we wanted to wait until we could release it in a special way, as opposed to just a CD (which many people just throw in a stack somewhere) or a digital download (which is just a bunch of computer files). A cassette mixtape holds a certain nostalgic value which goes well with how we feel about the songs that we selected. This is the mixtape of songs that we love from our artists that we would make for a friend.
3. Describe the biggest risk the label’s ever taken.
When I was a freshman in college, and we were still in our label infancy, we let our ambition get the best of us and released The Never’s “Antarctica”, which was a full studio album as well as a 50-page, full-color illustrated storybook. We’re really proud of the project, but in retrospect it seems crazy that we thought we could do that.
4. Who/what might be a few inspirations or influences that would really surprise people?
As a label, we were very influenced by Dischord Records in DC. While we both came of age listening to a lot of punk and hardcore (particularly Dischord bands), we haven’t really released much music in that vein. But the age that they started and the way they ran their label were very inspiring to us. We got to meet Ian MacKaye at a show we played with an acoustic Fugazi cover band, and it was a dream come true. Not surprisingly, he was extremely down to earth, and excited that we were also trying to run a label at such a young age.
5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? (How ’d that turn out?)
I always wanted to be a paleontologist because I loved dinosaurs so much. Of course, this was when I had no concept of science or what that job actually consisted of…I think I’d be bored out of my mind if I were a paleontologist. No offense to passionate paleontologists!
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Head over to The Nightlight this Friday, March 2nd to celebrate Trekky Records release of the Amalgam Mixtape Release show. And by all means, be sure to give Will a high five when you see him!