7 Inches At A Time
Split Records Burlington VT
7 inches at a time
By Chris Murray
Wake up America, the Burlington music scene is coming 7 inches at a time! For the past year, Split Records, founded by Club Fub Records’ Brad Searles and Monastery Records’ Andrew Smith, has been sending vinyl 45’s of local alternative rock music bands to radio stations and press all over the country.
“Singles are a way to give bands more exposure,” Searles said. “Essentially we want to give bands an outlet they may not already have. Most bands do tapes,” he said, “but most radio stations can’t or won’t play tapes.”
“The vinyl format is probably the quirkiest,” Smith added, “because the mass consumer doesn’t really deal with it. But college radio eats it up, and the vinyl 45 as a promotional tool is very viable.”
In March of 1994 Searles and Smith debuted the first Split Records single. “We had decided in December or January that we wanted to share a single between our two bands (Hover and Chin Ho! respectively,)” Searles said, “and we had both just finished recording some new stuff.”
“A thousand dollars later,” Smith said “and Split was born. Once we named the project, we set a goal of trying to put out a single every couple of months… so we went looking for friends who had songs in the can that we could use. Although most of the bands (on Split Records)” he continued, “are people that we know, we look at bands that are actively making the effort to market themselves…bands that are playing regularly around town, making their own recordings.”
“We’d like to do more bands,” Searles added. Selection depends on a band’s enthusiasm and need. “A band that’s willing to put in the time and effort and needs the possible exposure they’ll get from being a part of the project.”
The Split singles differ from conventional singles by offering two bands on each record. It is very common practice in the record business to place less desirable tracks on singles as “B-side’s,” which Split avoids by having two “A-sides.” Both sides of the 45 are treated equa;;y in promotion and production, even going so far as to switch sides on the cover so that both bands share both sides of the artwork, Smith explained. “There’s a real community spirit at work here…we try to get the bands involved in everything from designing the inserts to assembling the packages to playing the parties. I hate to sound like a naive hippy, but we’re basically anti-profit in that everything we make gets rolled directly back into the project.”
“We’re not looking for the big payback,” Searles said. Split Records essentially borrows the song from each band and uses it for the duration of the project and the bands retain full ownership of their song and recording. “The sales of the Chin Ho!/Hover single helped pay for the Snowplow/Madelines sing;e and so on.” To celebrate each release, Split throws a party, proceeds from which also help pay for the next single. “I think that this has also really helped the music community involved because it has really forced a lot of bands to interact, '' Smith mused.
“The Split Records project has nothing to do with representing the Burlington music scene as a while,” Searles added. “These are the type of bands that put out 45’s and these are the kinds of bands that college radio stations play.”
“I think that every musical form is valid.” Smith said. “It’s really logical that an opera will work best on a compact disc and a short fast pop song works well on a single.”
“And,” Searles adds quickly, “our success as a label equals producing another single.”
Split Records is hoping to ride the wave of renewed interest in vinyl. In May of 1994 they joined forces with Dutch East India Trading Company, an independent, national distributor. “We’ve been buying vinyl all long,” Searles said. “We thought it’d be cool to hold a record of our own in hand. Then other bands wanted to do it. Kids are holding on to record players now, and they’re buying more vinyl.” The interest has helped with distribution, he said. “We wanted a good, solid national distributor willing to handle the 45 format,” Smith stated. “A lot of distributors are reluctant to handle vinyl 45’s because they come in little plastic bags, and they break a lot, and they’re very temperature sensitive, and they’re a relatively low-ticket item. However, the attention you can get from college radio with a 45 is worth the extra effort.”
Split Records presses 500 copies of each single. “We send out at least 100 copies to radio stations and publications,” Searles said. Press releases explaining the project and describing the bands are sent out with each copy.
“It’s really hard to tell just how effective we’ve been,” Smith added. “Unfortunately the only feedback we hear is when articles are mailed to us or we receive phone calls regarding the singles. We don’t have the money,” he continued, “to hire someone full-time to track all the write ups.”
“The headquarters for Split Records is basically a phone line between Brad and I,” Smith said. “I get the mail and he gets the phone calls.”
It appears that Split records has been effective. They have been written up in publications ranging from Georgia to Texas to California to Seattle, Washington. Virtually all of the articles help build up the recreation of the Burlington music scene by mentioning the cooperative energy, the good spirit of the project, and the great music on the singles. The Split singles have been getting regular airplay on radio stations across the country. “Some of the bands,” Smith said, “have been on larger stations like WBCN and WFNX in Boston. We build the story a little more with every single one. Some guys leaving Lollapalooza last year were listening to the radio in the Albany area where they heard the Slush/ Dysfunkshun single on WEQX. Those are the kind of stories we like to hear.”
With the singles mounting (five at press time) there is the obvious question of longevity. Searles said that once they got going, they decided to do 74 minutes worth of songs. “That’s what can fit on a CD. I estimate,” he continued, “that it’ll be eight singles, but it could be more.” The compact disc will compile all the singles into one cohesive collection. “The CD will document the project,” Smith said.
“And a lot of these songs,” Searles added, smiling, “can’t be found on albums.”
“And since we know that a lot of 45’s end up in collectors hands,” Smith said, “many of these rings may only fully get their deserved recognition when the disc hits the streets.”
In addition to the CD, Split Records is putting together a vinyl compilation.
“We’re taking a limited number of the singles,” Searles said, “for a hand-made, custom designed set called the Burlington Box Set.”
“The CD will be kind of a summation and may very well be the end of the Split project,” Smith mused. “Whether we’re smart enough to stop remains to be seen.”
“It’s definitely the end,” Searles added. “Of course, how I feel about that depends on when you ask me. There’s been a lot of frustrations and it’s been hard to maintain with only two people. The positives outweigh the negatives but it’ll be a great feeling to wrap it up.”
“I feel pretty good about the work we’ve done,” Smith concludes. “I think there’s a definite buzz about Burlington out there, and that’s cool for the artists in the community. Isolationism be damned.”
As a review from Atlanta, Georgia’s widely circulated Creative Loafing reads: “It’s not that the music (from Burlington, Vermont) is all that different from anywhere else, it’s just that somebody up there really gives a damn.”
Chris Murray is an educated transient willing to liquidate any assets he can find and write about the experience.