(Editor’s note: Keeping up with our music vibe this week, let us allow Nathaniel Sutton to introduce you to Edmonton’s Oak Apple Records.)
Oak Apple Records: The autobiography by Nathaniel Sutton
If someone asked me in my early years what my future ambitions were for being involved with the music industry, I would never have answered “I’m going to run an indie record label.”
As a teen, I listened to music from such bands as Cross My Heart, Appleseed Cast, and Pop Unknown and it wasn’t soon after I started to realize that all these bands had something in common. They belonged to a record label called Deep Elm Records. I began to research each band from this label and quickly noticed several other artists that sparked my interest, which made me wonder what other labels are lurking out in that wonderful world of music. I became familiar with excellent record labels including Saddle Creek Records, Absolutely Kosher Records, and Engineer Records.
All the while, being a singer/songwriter, I decided that I needed a label to release and promote my own material. I explored different ideas of what to name this label and figured insect names would be a good place to start. If anyone knows anything about insects (which I don’t) you’d probably know that there are literally hundreds to thousands of different species of insects. I finally stumbled upon the Oak Apple Gall Wasp and the words “Oak Apple” had a certain tone that became appealing. It was officially declared on March 25th, 2009; the launch of Oak Apple Records.
What started as a label created to release solo material quickly branched into a full-fledged record company as I started to widen the roster by including artists such as The Shakedowns, A Troop Of Echoes, Fear Of Crime, Colin Close, Taking Medication, Bailey Sutton, Uncle Zygote, Making A Monster, and Zero Something.
I once said in an interview that “Music is my life and I’ll never stray from it.” which couldn’t be closer to the truth. I’m very passionate about my musical lifestyle and I have full intentions to continue to grow as a musician and a record label.
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Thanks to Nathaniel for filling us in on Edmonton’s Oak Apple Records label. More information at Oak Apple’s website and Reverb Nation. And here are a couple of samples of what Oak Apple tastes like:
Bailey Sutton: Spacey Sutton from the Oak Apple Records sampler)
Fear of Crime: Video Soul from the Oak Apple Records sampler)
