Boxing Clever is a growing creative group, a downtown ad-and-design agency with an eclectic range of clients. It’s also a record label—and soon, a book publisher, along with a few other things that slowly reveal themselves the longer that Jim Harper talks about his current projects.
As a partner in the multifaceted business, Harper was key in making the newish record label a reality. He says the idea spawned from an unlikely source. Having done work for Vintage Vinyl, the Boxing Clever staff spent its trade dollars on “the weirdest, rarest, coolest vinyl we could find there. It became a competition. It got to the point where we were so obsessed that a couple of us decided that this is a part of the music business that we don’t design, but that we wanted to design.”
The label started out with the release of a series of six letterpress-packaged split singles. “The idea was to have a band from around here linked with the farthest-away band that they knew,” Harper says. In one case, Chicago’s The Great Crusades (a group with Collinsville, Ill., roots) shared a 45 with Germany’s Planeausters. Another release stayed all-local, pairing Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship with The Vanilla Beans.
Though Boxing Clever has pressed just 500 copies of each single, the label’s found its way into some surprising corners of the world. Harper says he’s gotten job applications from the Middle East, and respected English music producers have expressed interest in collaborating. The range and enthusiasm of the response to the 45 series stirred the company to take the next step. Over the remainder of 2014, the label will begin developing full-length albums, offered in multiple media.
Reflecting on the move away from vinyl, Harper says, “A couple people at Boxing Clever were angry about it. What we found is that by using real distribution channels, we need to do it all. Financially, we couldn’t keep up, just doing vinyl. We learned that we have to make more product, more records, more CDs to get real distribution. Even for the bands’ financial sake, we have to do it.”
These musical efforts bring a sense of “straight-up unity” to Boxing Clever, he adds, in that “it’s a fun thing that ties our whole agency together. We’re ready to make it a real label.”
Harper brings serious experience as a working musician to the project; he’s been a drummer in St. Louis–area groups like Bionica, Snake Ranch, and Pave The Rocket, which was signed to Deep Elm Records. Being on that label, he says, helped plant the seed of eventual label ownership, letting him see the inner workings from the perspective of an artist.
And art really is the core of each release. Not content to just put music on wax (or polycarbonate plastic), Boxing Clever spends considerable time on the look and feel of its packaging. Each release is intended to be a collectible artifact. “I don’t think anyone expected the comeback that vinyl has had,” Harper says. “We analyzed a lot of things in our head. And what we want to do is make really beautiful stuff.”
Boxing Clever will continue to work with local acts. But Harper’s direct in saying that it’s not a “local label” in the traditional sense. “It’s really flattering when friends say, ‘Do you think this would work on your label?’ The networks we’ve built include people who are producing stuff, newer stuff,” he says. “We have good friends that are St. Louis musicians. But we really just want to release cool music. And we’re going to be signing bands that are touring, that are young. We need somebody who’s going to hit the road, which will support our efforts, too.”
Those efforts will include some nontraditional ideas. For example, the label is releasing skateboard decks in limited editions of 20, featuring the artwork from the early singles. “That’s probably the most favorite thing I’ve put out in any creative outlet ever,” Harper says.
“The bottom line,” he continues, “is that we’re all former art students who want to make awesome stuff. Whether we’re making those things for someone else’s creative efforts, or our own…either is okay. In 2014, we want to knock down the walls on what it means to be a creative house.”
For more info, go to boxingcleverrecords.com, and check out some clips on their nifty digital jukebox, here.
Now Hear This
FarFetched, Prologue III: It’d be a mistake to simply classify the local collective FarFetched as a hip-hop label, though in casual conversation around town, that’s likely how it’s often tagged. With artists that stretch any reasonable definitions of hip-hop, along with a refreshing sense of collaborative cross-pollination, the large roster of FarFetched acts covers a host of beats-based styles.
This third compilation by the collective brings together the current group of artists, who frequently guest on one another’s works, all under the creative direction of producer Damon Davis. Together, these acts have built another key release for any serious collector of St. Louis–produced works.
As collective member Stan Chisholm (a.k.a. 18andCounting) notes, “Damon has his hand in, and a number of other producers are involved, but as far as production quality goes, it reaches the type of sonic ambition that’s needed around here. Not to say that it’s not happened before, but FarFetched has got a face, it’s got attention, it’s got legs. A lot of people are involved, and there’s a quality and motion of sound in there that everyone’s curious about and hears in popular music. He can work with a lot of different artists, personalities, recording styles, and paces. That’s not an easy task alone. And products have come from that, so I’ve got a lot of respect for him. He bites off a lot, but it’s still happening. He’s on point.”
As is this album, an exciting compilation of St. Louis music, circa 2014. To hear it and learn more, go to wearefarfetched.net.
