Interview: Frederick Kelly of the Rockwells, Migrant Records
First off, tell me about Migrant - pretend I don't know what it is.
Migrant Records was formed in early 2001 by several Knoxville and Memphis musicians including members of the Rockwells, the Passport Again, Johnny Romania, and Original Cyndi. We decided to call the label "Migrant", as our getting together usually necessitated a trip across the state, either east or west. A "record label" can be a lot of things: a collective for like-minded musicians, a name to slap on a CD, a source of promotion and distribution, and more. Migrant has been all of those things at some point or another. But until recently it hadn't been all of those things at once, which is what it takes to be a really good label.
By the end of last year, we [the Rockwells] were wrapping up our new CD. We were pitching it to a lot of people, but we wanted to make sure that the CD got some play even if no one picked it up…so it seemed like a good time to put a lot more attention into Migrant. Also, among the bands we had recorded over the years, we had amassed a considerable back catalog. We wanted to re-release some CDs as well as release some things that had been finished but had just sat around. So we started pushing Migrant Records as a legitimate label, as a means for producing and releasing all this material.
Now, tell me about the new Migrant website . . . What was the inspiration for the "Song of the Day" promotion? Has it helped to expand Migrant's audience?
By the end of last year we had realized that we'd compiled lots of songs since we had begun recording ourselves in 1999, including demos, unreleased tracks, released tracks, alternate versions, and remixes. DVDs contain special features with deleted scenes and extra footage, along with commentary. They Might Be Giants have had their weekly phone-in Dial-A-Song for around 20 years. Why not combine those ideas, mix in the ol' Internet, and have our own promotional tool, the migrantrecords.com "Song of the Day?"
So after the first of the year we started posting Migrant songs on Mondays and Thursdays. It pushes us to keep new material coming, and to reflect on what we've done in the past and what we plan on doing in the future. It's definitely expanded Migrant's audience. We have more visitors to migrantrecords.com now than we ever have before, and the number of visitors continues to grow.
What is the status of the new Rockwells album?
It's finished. It's called "Place & Time." The art just got wrapped a week or two back. The music is mixed and mastered. We hope to have a release ASAP. It's taken us two years, and hopefully it shows. It'll be our first CD in three and a half years and our first full length since 2002. We're pretty stoked about it. A filmmaker friend of ours is producing a video of one of the songs. We start filming next week.
As I mentioned before, we've sent the CD, in various stages of completion, to some outside labels and contacts…mostly in Canada. But no matter what happens, we're going to push the new CD as hard as we can, and get it to as many people as we can.
Are there any other Migrant-related projects coming up that you're excited about?
There are several, and we're excited about all of them. The Rockwells joint EP release with Makeshift (which is often called, simply, the Migrant EP, as it lacks a title) from 2003 is now out of print. We're going to give it a good remix and re-release, with a re-imagining of the original letter pressed art and new liner notes. The very first Rockwells CD, Raise the Radio, is also out of print, and we hope to do the same in terms of a re-release of it in 2008. Justin Jordan's Original Cyndi is gearing up for a full length release sometime this fall; it'll be another joint release with Makeshift, and it's going to be very, very good.
Migrant just bought an old Akai 1212 so we can transfer the old tapes of the henrys (one of several of the Migrant members' early bands) for a remix and re-release/retrospective sometime in the next year or 18 months. Jonathan and I are working on a musical called Zombies! A Rock Musical, and we're eyeing a 2008 release for that as well; we're only half finished with it at this point. We're busy remixing a CD Knoxville's own Slick, which might end up being an Internet-only release (at least at first). We're also recording an Athens, Georgia band called the Latchkey Kids, led by Matthew Lovelace, and a solo project by the Tenderhooks' Emily Robinson. A Tommy Bateman and the Thunder Thieves release should be finished by 2008, although we've really just begun that.
The ultimate goal (or one of the ultimate goals) is to build a catalog of such quality, number, and variety, that it entices a distributor to want to work with the label.
In a previous post, I spoke with Marv from Pezz about how fatherhood and how it's changed him as an artist. I know you are an expecting father - do you think it will affect you as a musician? I don't necessarily mean in the sense of it taking up a lot of your time, I'm asking more about your perspective as a songwriter.
I very rarely write about myself. I used to, when I was a much younger songwriter, but often those were very clumsy attempts at autobiography. On most of the music I write, Jonathan writes the lyrics, and even the lyrics I do write are not about me.
I don't know if that will change. Having a baby must be such a life-changing experience, I can't say for sure if it will change how I write. I've always been so much more a music person than a lyric person, and I don't think that will change, but maybe I'll feel I have a different perspective and that I have more to write about. I guess I'm about to find out.
Ok, I'd like to run an idea past you - you should call your solo project "the Fred Reich."
If only I had a solo project!
