Pairing the word “industry” with the word “music” was probably the worst thing to happen to it. When music becomes a business, it can stifle creativity and lead to reheated pop garbage, void of any real substance.
That’s where Midwest Action’s series, Indie Label Spotlight, comes in. We’re not here to bitch about the record industry and explain how major labels are ruining music. Instead, we’re here to talk about the independent labels that are doing things right.
Worry Records is a Chicago-based record label and dynamic duo by the name(s) of Joslyn and Joram. While Joram has a background in booking and currently plays in bands, Joslyn has a background in graphic design and experience working for record labels, making Worry Records a formidable force in the Chicago music scene. In November of 2016, Worry Records was just getting started, and as they speed past their 20th release, it’s as good a time as ever to learn more about this rad independent label.
How did Worry Records start?
Our first release was back in February 2017, Joram and I had been dating for 6 months at the time. I was working at Victory Records as a designer, and Joram’s band Rust Ring had just put out some live videos through Puddle Splashers. Joram had a Panasonic boombox at the time that we experimented with by purchasing some blank tapes from Duplication.ca and recording those live session songs directly from YouTube to tape.
The entire process was as DIY as it gets at this point. That boombox worked well for what we needed it to, and the sound quality was honestly a lot better than even some of the tapes we had in our own collection. We experimented with the printing too in the beginning by trying different paper types and printing methods before landing on 32# gloss laser paper and taking it to FedEx to be printed. We used that boombox for a while though, and after having some issues with recording longer tapes, we purchased an ONKYO TA-R440 from Craigslist for $20 and that’s what we’ve been using ever since.
What was your first release, and how did that come about?
Like I said before, our very first release for Rust Ring, so with Joram being in full control on the band end of things, we could easily put it out on our own with no trouble. The release after that was our first big test with doing tapes for someone else. We had known our friend Joe Marshall for a while, and he had a few songs he had recorded and wanted to get some physical media out there under the name Lil’ Bo and the Trash Burners. After he had heard that we were working on the Rust Ring tapes, he asked if we could put out Lil’ Bo. We’re still working with Joe till this day and plan on putting out more music for his new project, Gosh Diggity.
While we were working with Joe to get our first order put together, we also were approached by Katie from the band Pelafina to do the release of their album Pelafina 64. She had met Joram at a show that Rust Ring and Pelafina had played together, and liked the tapes we did for that first release. It all happened so quickly at the time from just experimenting with a two-song cassingle ripped directly from YouTube to having two separate projects for other people on our plate.
How do you decide which musicians to work with?
Most of the work we get is from word of mouth. It seems like once we finish a release we get someone hitting us up about another. Typically how it’s been we’ve been working on 2-4 releases at one time, and have about 5-6 down the pipeline. It’s been interesting especially when we get inquiries from people that don’t live in Chicago that have just heard about us online or from other people we’ve worked with. I post a lot of our releases on the subreddit, Cassette Culture, so I think that helps a bit with getting a small following.
How would you describe your label?
Our label is fairly different from what most typical labels do. We don’t really have a “genre”, our release range anywhere from folk, lo-fi, punk, instrumental, electronic, metal, and psychedelic. The only thing that we won’t put out is music that we wouldn’t enjoy listening to ourselves. We’ve had to turn a few people away due to tight deadlines too, unfortunately.
I guess I’d say our label is like an alphabet soup that only spells out your favorite words.
What’s been your biggest hurdle so far?
The biggest struggle so far for us is just how long it takes to make one tape. Each tape is done one-by-one in our apartment, so we have to be home and consistently keeping an eye on when we need to flip the tape. We did purchase another deck to keep up with the demand (a Pioneer CT-F550), but it needs a bit of love before it’s ready to dub anything.
Why do you decide to predominantly release on cassette?
Cassettes for us have just been a really fun medium to work with. We have a lot of control over multiple variables in the process. With the help of Duplication.ca, we can order tapes at custom lengths, colors, and boxes. There are so many ways we can package the final product that we can’t really achieve with CD and vinyl. Not to mention the cost, doing tapes we can keep the upfront cost to a minimum and so each release has a very low risk if we don’t see the return right away (unlike vinyl). For us, it’s a no-brainer to do cassettes, and we can do fun things like our scented cassettes, waterproof j-cards, and handmade miniature scarves.
What’s in the future for Worry Records?
We’ve got 6 releases right now that we’re looking to put out in the next couple of months, and we’re finishing up our first release with Victory Records for the band Jungle Rot as well as an album from Platoonia.
Tapes are coming as well as a couple videos from our newest endeavor, Worry Records Dead Sessions. We did our first with the band Bosley Mongo a couple weeks ago, and had Kelson Zbichorski (Joram’s brother) record and mix the live track. So expect more tapes, video, whatever else we think of!
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