YK Records’ Michael Eades on Running a Boutique Label in a Digital World

In our age of streaming media, “How much great music are we missing out on?” is not a question we’re likely to ask. But maybe we should. As Liz Pelly points out in “The Problem With Muzak” — published in December’s issue of The Baffler, the left-leaning cultural criticism magazine that ran Steve Albini’s widely cited essay “The Problem With Music” in 1994 — the algorithms that drive the playlists on your favorite streaming service are designed to serve corporate interests, not those of the musicians or their fans.

One person who’s been a champion for thought-provoking, well-crafted music in Nashville is Michael Eades, whose YK Records will host its second-annual showcase Friday night. Over the past nine years, his label has released nearly 50 albums and singles, running the gamut from symphonic pop to blistering post-punk, from cinematic electronic works to one of the most nuanced country records released in 2017, Little Bandit’s Breakfast Alone. Ultimately, the roster reflects Eades’ personal taste, but the thread running through every project he supports is a dedication to craft.

“There’s several artists on the label that are never going to tour,” says Eades, nestled amid the microphones and cables in the podcast studio that occupies a corner of his office in Wedgewood-Houston. “But they’ve pored over this album and this wonderful creation that they made, so I feel like they shouldn’t be restricted from reaching a wider audience or being on a label or being part of this thing just because they can’t be out in the world. And they work really hard to make the record. I’d like to work really hard to make it look great and do the best I can to get the word out about it.”

How Eades accomplishes that varies with each release. Sometimes he’s responsible for the graphic design, which is a key component of his day job in web development and design. Other times he works on music videos or social media campaigns. His passion for the experience of interacting with a record as a complete work — a thing to be listened to, looked at, held — grew out of a youthful obsession with They Might Be Giants. After graduating from MTSU, he gained music business experience working with Murfreesboro’s Spongebath Records in the late ’90s, when Self, The Features and other acts on the label began to attract national attention (prior to the label’s unfortunate implosion). 

Nearly a decade later, Eades made friends with Ross Wariner of the expansive pop band Kindercastle, who shared a cache of personal recordings with him: catchy instrumentals influenced by electronic minimalist composers, ’60s film soundtracks and more. Excited by what he heard, Eades decided to take a shot at releasing the record himself. The project, Uncle Skeleton, and the label, YK Records, made their debut together on March 10, 2009, with Pancho Chumley, an album with a distinctive visual style expressing another dimension of the music within. 

For several years after that (a span during which he moved to New York, then moved back to Nashville last year), Eades followed that pattern for a variety of projects: Records from Kindercastle and Uncle Skeleton, Forget Cassettes’ dark rock opus O Cursa, and Just the Tip, the lone LP from sex-positive party-rockers Tipper Whore, among many others. None are big money-makers, but what’s critical to Eades is how each artist represents a slice of Nashville’s musical diversity. His contribution: Even if they make only one record, it’s designed and executed with care and won’t fade into the noise of the digital-centric music economy. 

That’s the spirit of A Night of YK Records 2, which comes to Mercy Lounge and The High Watt on Friday. All of the acts have recent releases or ones forthcoming this year from YK, and most of them seldom play in town. The show marks the release of Patrick Damphier’s single “Under My Door” (featuring harmony vocals by Jessica Lea Mayfield). It’s Damphier’s first release since he retired the name Field Days, which he used between projects with The Mynabirds, Angel Olsen and others, and it also precedes a full-length. Jasmin Kaset (one-half of satirical country duo Birdcloud), who makes the literary songs in her solo catalog feel effortless, will perform cuts from the record she’s made with wry pop wizard Brett Rosenberg’s Quichenight. Quichenight will also play tunes from their own upcoming album. Brian Wilson-ian popster Cody Newman (who performs as New Man) and post-punk outfit Tower Defense also have releases on deck, while electronic trio Coupler (led by longtime local player Ryan Norris, who now lives in Chicago) released Gifts From the Ebb Tide last fall. 

Jamie Bradley and Scene contributor Ashley Spurgeon will emcee the show. They’re hosts of the podcast Hott Minute, a weekly examination of handsomeness and its cultural contexts. It’s part of a network that Eades is building around We Own This Town, a long-running regional music podcast (founded in 2005 by musician and videographer Doug Lehmann) whose reins he’s taken. The network is also called We Own This Town.

“I decided I need to double down on that and open it up to be more than just my subjective opinion of what music is good,” Eades says. “I think Hott Minute is a good example of opening up that diversity, because they’re not musicians, they’re not comedians. Ashley and Jamie are just funny, period. … I think them being from Nashville gives it a perspective that no one else would have. Being immersed in this absurd of a music scene, with all of Music Row — everything that makes Nashville a unique place influences who they are as people, so that influences what they’re gonna say on their podcast. That’s my general thinking when it comes to We Own This Town. I wanna a give a voice to a diverse set of people. Even if it’s not about Nashville, people from Nashville will have a perspective that’s unique.”