Hannah Judge and Michael Watson founded Club records like a joke. “We have had chemical club And fanclub wallet, which are the two bands that (we play in),” Judge tells me of the gay-owned indie label. “We were preparing a song together. I was like, “Let’s release it under Club Records, because we both have the word “club” in our band names. » From then on, whenever friends from the Ottawa scene (and, soon after, Ontario cities beyond the Canadian capital) were about to release music, Judge and Watson suggested using Club Records as a fictitious label, so that the name would be passed on to the “Released” label. by’ on streaming platforms and gives weight to booming musical projects.
Soon, the Club’s co-founders began supporting artists in other, more involved ways, after gaining a reputation as mathematicians of DIY music. A producer by trade, Watson knows everything there is to know about the ins and outs of making a record and has held this position for many Ontario artists (as well as their own songwriting projects, for example Chemical Club). Judge, meanwhile, is an accomplished songwriter as well as an interdisciplinary artist: she did the artwork for her 2023 EP. Little songs and helps bands with everything from tape design to music videos. Despite its namesake bands, the Club has therefore not become a private club but an altruistic operation, two music lovers determined to give back and ensure that the diversity of their artists (and themselves) is celebrated.
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fanclub wallet
“One of the key things that made Club Records a real, legitimate thing was that Hannah had the idea to make a bunch of resources available,” Watson says. “What started to happen was friends were constantly asking, ‘How can I do this?’ ‘How do I do that?’ We thought, “What if we put all this information in one place?” People will ask me something and I’ll say, “Here’s the link.” » The club’s website includes a dedicated site. resources tab– a treasure for any artist, even if it was curated with DIY musicians just starting out in their careers in mind. It offers guides on how to distribute music, lists of promoters organized by city to take the hassle out of booking a tour yourself, information on applying for a US visa, and even a directory of Canadian lawyers in music and advice on when you might need it.
“We both grew up in the music scene, so we’ve seen so many bands that are like the best band you’ve heard before, but they don’t know how to put music out there,” Judge says. “They don’t know how to get it out on streaming services or how to get anyone else to listen to it. And then they kind of died out and stopped being a band. I’ve seen so many of my favorite bands die due to a lack of resources. We simply want to give groups the resources they need to succeed, whatever that means for them.
“I’ve seen so many of my favorite bands die due to a lack of resources. We simply want to give groups the resources they need to succeed, whatever that means for them. — Hannah fanclubwallet judge
The only thing the Club can’t help with (yet) is providing a physical space in which Ottawa’s music community can come together. Pretoria, the city’s legendary concert hall, praising the song “170 avenue praetoria” by Backseat Dragon – closed during the pandemic. Since then, the scene has been crying out for a replacement. For Judge and Watson, the dream is a room-of-requirement type venue: a rehearsal studio, a recording studio, an office, a place where they can do screen printing for band merchandise, all in one. Above all, it would be a home base, a place where like-minded artists could come together and share ideas. That may sound like a big ask, but Watson is confident they can make it happen: “I always come back to what Phoebe Bridgers says, which is, trust your joke – the far-fetched dream – and then the joke becomes a real thing, it (becomes) what you do.
Hey, this worked for Bridgers, and it has worked so far for Judge and Watson. Here are five Club artists to prove it.
emmmersonHALL
Released in July 2023, the mini LP from Cole Emmerson Hallman – who creates whimsical, curtains-drawn emo-pop under the portmanteau emmmersonHALL – heralded a new chapter for Club. “I would say Club only got really serious when we released this version of EmmersonHALL. That’s when I created Instagram, launched the website; it was kind of the rocky launch of the whole thing,” says Judge, who sings on a few Hallman tracks, including “Kindergarten,” the laughing but also tearful assessment of his first day of school. It’s normal that emmmersonHALL coincided with the brand’s defining moment, its creation emblematic of the way Club likes to do things. Take the record’s instrumentation, which includes a Good appletoy cars and various other toys folded into a circuit – further proof that having fun with friends and indulging one’s impulses indeed turns into something special.
RIYL: confronting childhood trauma, vintage toys, Alex G
toothbrush2000
The SEO-friendly band names continue with Toothbrusher2000, aka Etta Gerrits, whose only release is 2022. Again and again EP. Gerrits works with the same components that endeared me to fanclubwallet: silly synthesizers, staccato power chords, and intelligent lyrics that seek to understand the world. In just five songs, it covers more ground than most albums, from rage against negligent planning policies (“Houses are being torn down and rebuilt these days”) to embalming relationships at their peak, all with arrangements that are infectious and sweet as pie. The highlight of the EP is the outro of “Again After,” when she reveals things that push her toward that certain elusive feeling: warmth, love, belonging, you know the one. On the surface, it can only be summed up by a puddle showing your reflection, or a photo from when you were nine, or water evaporating in the sun. It’s the pinnacle of an EP that’s cathartic, intelligent, and over too quickly.
RIYL: bedroom pop, dance on the couch with your shoes on, Wallice
Sorry Snowman
Emo collective Sorry Snowman were already a scene favorite when they teamed up with Club. “People love them…SO, so much,” Watson says. “Just by releasing music and playing shows, they’ve gotten to a really good point in their music career where they have a solid listener base. It’s a perfect example of how we were like, “This is so amazing, we can just do little things to really take it to the next level.” » » These “little” things include producing the band’s new single “House on Fire” (Watson) and providing them with a place to shoot its spooky music video (Judge’s House). Elsewhere, a track such as “This Bus Is 45 Minutes Late but How Can One Man Alone Stand Up to an Entire Municipal Government”, with its sticky octave chords and constantly shuffling structure, attests to the band’s new take on music. Cap’n Jazz ensemble. thing.
RIYL: Flanging Guitars, Wearing Your Winter Coat Indoors, Modern Baseball
Neurotypes
Multi-instrumentalist Nathan Resi creates hypnagogic rave-pop – or “mumblewave”, as they call it – a bath of minor synths and shifting noises that draws equal inspiration from shoegaze and drone music from the first wave than acts like Pet Shop. Boys. The sound is enormous and, in some ways, antithetical to the principles of room pop, the label’s bread and butter. Despite signing with PSNEAKY Records for their 2023 EP Spiritual Photography, the project maintains ties to Club: an alternate version of recent single “Bringing on the Shame” featured Toothbrusher2000, and the original EP includes fanclubwallet – and both were produced by Watson. They are certainly one big happy family.
RIYL: darkness, dance, Bleach Lab
Dart Shafts
Reappropriating the frat boy aesthetic for the nerds who listen to Silver Jews, Dart Trees describe their music as “drunk college rock for good times and bad.” You will want to start with Consider two beers, the EP released earlier this year. Its disjointed, raw and not-quite-right jangle-punk is a departure from Club’s electronic-leaning pop and emo sounds. Be careful though: this group doesn’t take itself seriously, at all. Each member is christened with a sardonic nickname (see: Nik “The Guy Writing This” Skilton), and each song sounds, well, terrible in charm. It could be the alcohol. Maybe they have a healthy relationship with their imperfections. Either way, it’s pretty awesome.
RIYL: foam drinking, sweaty house shows, Beat Happening