On The Fringes Of The Flat World

Ten years is an eternity for an independent record label to survive. Without the financial backing or the marketing muscle of the majors, indies are most often thrust onto the sidelines of the music business.

As it happens, that’s just where the St. Louis–based label Undertow—which will soon celebrate its 10th anniversary— wants to be.

“We think contemporary culture is heavily corporatized and commodified,” reads a manifesto of sorts posted on the label’s website (www.undertowmusic.com), “and the most interesting creativity now lives in the fringes and margins of the independent creative spirit.”

That notion has clearly struck a chord with the bands from St. Louis—and indeed, from around the world—that have helped make Undertow an artist-friendly label on the rise.

“All of us are trying to get back to a real, true art aesthetic. It’s not superficial stuff like you might see on MTV Jams

“If you look at the kind of records we put out, they’re by artists who work on their own terms,” says Chris Grabau, an Undertow principal whose band Magnolia Summer released its latest album, From Driveways’ Lost View, on the label in May. “We try to keep their integrity.”

This year is shaping up to be Undertow’s busiest yet. In addition to Magnolia Summer’s new CD, the label has released Out of the Woods, by Waterloo (led by Undertow co-founder Mark Ray), and New Appreciation for Sunshine, by The Cush, a band from Burlington, Vt. In the pipeline are CDs by Murfreesboro, Tenn., band Glossary; Narberth, Pa.’s the Artificial Hearts; and others.

Undertow is more than just a record label, however. Under the larger umbrella of the name Undertow Collective, the company has found ways to expand and thrive in what author and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman refers to as the “flat world.”

The collective is highly decentralized, yet its membership is specialized. Work is done by phone, fax and high-speed Internet connection. Although the label is run from St. Louis by Grabau, Ray, and publicist René Spencer Saller (an occasional contributor to St. Louis Magazine), there’s also an artist-management wing run by Bob Andrews (another co-founder), who lives in Champaign, Ill. He’s joined by fellow artist managers Amy Pojman in Chicago; Ken Coomer in Nashville, Tenn.; and Chris Metzler overseas in London. Jefferson Macklin, who manages record producers and deals with music licensing, works out of Lincoln, Mass.

“The collective is gathering a bunch of people who are like-minded about how they see music and how they see the idea of creating art,” says Grabau. “It’s sharing resources, sharing insights. All of us are trying to get back to a real, true art aesthetic. It’s not superficial stuff like you might see on MTV Jams or something. It’s real people making art that’s truly their own vision.”

Undertow started modestly enough. Initially it was the name of a practice space shared by Waterloo and another St. Louis band, Nadine. The space evolved into a recording studio where both bands made their first albums and Chicago’s Dolly Varden also recorded. Andrews came on board and changed the name of his management 79company to Undertow as well.

  “From that point on, we said, ‘Well, logically, we ought to look into releasing this stuff ourselves, ’cause there are enough of us that we can share the chores,” Ray says. By 1997, it became a full-time business, incorporating music, management and commercial design work.

Andrews moved to Chicago and then Champaign; Nadine left the label for another indie, Trampoline, in 2003; the studio space closed. But the label was reenergized with the addition of Grabau, who, Ray says, “has picked up a lot of the activity that’s necessary to keep things moving.” Undertow signed a deal with Redeye Music Distribution to ensure that its CDs are available in the most important music stores and on the major digital-download sites.

There is no unifying “Undertow sound.” Instead, the label has released albums by a rich array of alternative-rock and Americana artists, including such notables as former Wilco guitarist Jay Bennett, the Redwalls (who, after debuting on Undertow, were snapped up by Capitol Records), Centro-matic offshoot South San Gabriel, Ireland’s The Amazing Pilots and revered St. Louis veterans The Love Experts.

In 2004, the label also put together an impressive multi-artist tribute to Chuck Berry, Brown Eyed Handsome Man: St. Louis Salutes the Father of Rock and Roll.

Andrews’ management roster, meanwhile, includes such clients as Jesse Harris, who wrote Norah Jones’ breakthrough hit, “Don’t Know Why,” and Festus’ favorite sons, the Bottle Rockets.

One reason Undertow has been successful, Grabau says, is that it limits itself to working with artists who already have a good sense of themselves: “Some bands give me demos, but that’s not what we’re about. We’re about dealing with bands that have a complete vision. The ones we usually end up working with are the ones that have a means to make their own record and have a fully realized insight as to what that record is supposed to be and what they’re supposed to be as a band.”

Undertow’s job, Grabau adds, is to help focus that vision, as well as to provide the nuts-and-bolts machinery needed to release a CD. “We help them with their art, packaging, stuff like that. We make suggestions as far as what the product should look like. The bands agree to a marketing plan and to the cost of manufacturing. Other than that, it’s their record; it’s their vision.”

“All we’ve really done is hang out with people whose music we love and help get that music out there.”

Earlier this year, the label enjoyed a sort of unofficial coming out party at the SXSW annual music and media confab in Austin, Texas. Not only were Undertow artists accepted to perform at the event, but the label was also given its own night-long showcase at one of the venues.

“Playing SXSW wasn’t part of any strategy,” Ray says, “other than to say that anything we do, whether it’s Bob managing artists or Chris and I managing the label, if we love a piece of music, we’ll do whatever it takes to get it heard by the world.”

Adds Grabau, “If we told somebody we were from Undertow, they’d say, ‘Oh yeah!’ They’d recognize the name or the bands that are on our roster. It reaffirmed to us that people knew about us.”

As for the label’s upcoming anniversary, Ray admits that he “freaked out” when Andrews mentioned it to him. “I don’t think we have any big plans, though Chris and I have talked about putting out a label-sampler CD,” he says. “To me, the understanding about Undertow has always been that if this loose affiliation continues to productively put good things out into the world, we’ll keep going. But there’s never been any plan beyond that. Had we been slugging it out trying to get bigger every year, it might seem like it’s been 10 years or more—but we haven’t. All we’ve really done is had a really good time hanging out with people whose music we love and helping get that music out there. It’s actually gone by really fast.”