In this day and age, making music is easy. What's hard is getting somebody to pay attention.
"Anybody with a computer can make music," said Jeff Konrad, the founder of the Rock Island-based Radical Turf record label.
The 29-year-old Augustana graduate has been writing and making music since age 17, with more than 100 songs to his credit. But after Diskotopia, a label he recorded for, went under, he got tired of sending out demos to labels. "It's hard to send out unsolicited packages," he said. "I don't think most of them get listened to."
So he started his own record label, which earlier this year released an electronic-music compilation called Tales from the Oxygen Den, featuring 15 tracks from 11 artists, from the Quad Cities and far beyond. "I approached people I knew, and they approached people they knew," Konrad said of putting the debut release together. A second compilation is due in January, along with a full-length album from Konrad, called Holy Water.
Konrad (under the name Robotusa) will be performing at the Brew & View Film & Music Festival on Friday, with filmmaker Jeremy Bessoff (D7). The collaboration will be somewhat improvised; Konrad gives Bessoff a track listing for the set and some ideas for visual accompaniment. The filmmaker comes with an arsenal of video and film "samples," and a mixer to blend them, and plays off and responds to the music that Konrad creates.
"We don't really rehearse this," Konrad said, because Bessoff lives in Milwaukee.
This is not a standard live-music show by any means. There's no drummer, no guitarist, no bassist. "It is what it is," Konrad said. "It's not rock."
Konrad understands the reluctance some people might have to seeing an electronic artist - a guy with a computer - when they're used to seeing live bands. But that doesn't make it any less authentic. "It's my music," he said. "They're not going to hear it anywhere else." Furthermore, it's infeasible for Konrad to bring in a band. "For me to perform my music live on stage would take 15 people," he said. "It's just not realistic."
Although Tales from the Oxygen Den is almost wholly instrumental, Konrad anticipates moving the label into new directions. He himself is a singer-songwriter as well as an electronic musician, and Holy Water is meant to "coherently bring those worlds together," he said.
And he wants the label to gradually branch out. "I want it to unfold naturally," he said.
The organizing principle of the first compilation, Konrad said, is that nearly all the tracks could be used as film music. The collection is dense and diverse, by turns atmospheric and frenetic. It probably won't win many new converts to electronic music, but it's a strong testament to the variety of music that's being generated now in the Quad Cities.
Radical Turf so far has involved spreading the risk. Konrad invested $500 to start, with each artist contributing $100 per compilation track while retaining all rights to the music. The vision for the label is "eclectic modern music released on our own terms without compromise," he said. "I want it to have a little edge."
In the short term, Konrad is doing the grunt work related to a new label. He's sending out discs to college radio stations - 120 so far - and following up with phone calls and e-mail messages. At least nine stations have played something from the compilation.
The goal, he said, is to get a "market presence on college radio. You're just trying to build a reputation" for the label.
And that in turn should drive some sales, which in turn will provide some money for Radical Turf's next project. "Our plans are pretty realistic," Konrad said.
For more information on Radical Turf, visit (http://www.radicalturf.com). Tales from the Oxygen Den is available for purchase from the Web site.
The 29-year-old Augustana graduate has been writing and making music since age 17, with more than 100 songs to his credit. But after Diskotopia, a label he recorded for, went under, he got tired of sending out demos to labels. "It's hard to send out unsolicited packages," he said. "I don't think most of them get listened to."
So he started his own record label, which earlier this year released an electronic-music compilation called Tales from the Oxygen Den, featuring 15 tracks from 11 artists, from the Quad Cities and far beyond. "I approached people I knew, and they approached people they knew," Konrad said of putting the debut release together. A second compilation is due in January, along with a full-length album from Konrad, called Holy Water.
Konrad (under the name Robotusa) will be performing at the Brew & View Film & Music Festival on Friday, with filmmaker Jeremy Bessoff (D7). The collaboration will be somewhat improvised; Konrad gives Bessoff a track listing for the set and some ideas for visual accompaniment. The filmmaker comes with an arsenal of video and film "samples," and a mixer to blend them, and plays off and responds to the music that Konrad creates.
"We don't really rehearse this," Konrad said, because Bessoff lives in Milwaukee.
This is not a standard live-music show by any means. There's no drummer, no guitarist, no bassist. "It is what it is," Konrad said. "It's not rock."
Konrad understands the reluctance some people might have to seeing an electronic artist - a guy with a computer - when they're used to seeing live bands. But that doesn't make it any less authentic. "It's my music," he said. "They're not going to hear it anywhere else." Furthermore, it's infeasible for Konrad to bring in a band. "For me to perform my music live on stage would take 15 people," he said. "It's just not realistic."
Although Tales from the Oxygen Den is almost wholly instrumental, Konrad anticipates moving the label into new directions. He himself is a singer-songwriter as well as an electronic musician, and Holy Water is meant to "coherently bring those worlds together," he said.
And he wants the label to gradually branch out. "I want it to unfold naturally," he said.
The organizing principle of the first compilation, Konrad said, is that nearly all the tracks could be used as film music. The collection is dense and diverse, by turns atmospheric and frenetic. It probably won't win many new converts to electronic music, but it's a strong testament to the variety of music that's being generated now in the Quad Cities.
Radical Turf so far has involved spreading the risk. Konrad invested $500 to start, with each artist contributing $100 per compilation track while retaining all rights to the music. The vision for the label is "eclectic modern music released on our own terms without compromise," he said. "I want it to have a little edge."
In the short term, Konrad is doing the grunt work related to a new label. He's sending out discs to college radio stations - 120 so far - and following up with phone calls and e-mail messages. At least nine stations have played something from the compilation.
The goal, he said, is to get a "market presence on college radio. You're just trying to build a reputation" for the label.
And that in turn should drive some sales, which in turn will provide some money for Radical Turf's next project. "Our plans are pretty realistic," Konrad said.
For more information on Radical Turf, visit (http://www.radicalturf.com). Tales from the Oxygen Den is available for purchase from the Web site.
