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PropertyOfZack Label Talk : : Run For Cover Records

We kicked off our Label Talk feature over a year ago with Jeff Casazza, founder of Run For Cover Records, and we’re stoked to be featuring Jeff and the label once again on PropertyOfZack. Jeff went above and beyond in the fantastic Label Talk to discuss how the label has grown over the past two years, dealing with an ever-changing roster, the popular subscription series and Mixed Signals compilation, what releases we should expect to see in 2012, and so much more. This is by far one of the best we’ve ever had on the site, so be sure to take your time and read what Jeff had to say!

Run For Cover had a healthy 2011 with full-lengths from Basement, Seahaven, and Young Statues, multiple 7”s/EPs, and a large compilation project that went over incredibly well. Can you just discuss the year for the label?
2011 was cool. Lots of things changed and improved which I guess is all you can ask for. Our sales doubled from 2010, which is awesome. We got an office, and a staff, and a publicist which was obviously a huge change from working out of my bedroom, which at that point was so far gone. It just wasn’t possible anymore and hadn’t been for a long time, but I didn’t really have a choice until I graduated. I still can’t believe I graduated, I think about it every day. It still feels too good to be true after going part time for 7 years pretty much.

The three full-lengths you did put out were all debut releases for those bands. Are you happy with the amount of exposure they’ve gotten to this point?
Yeah totally. The Basement record surprised both them and us with how well it did. It makes sense because the record is truly awesome, but for our first real international signing, it went really well. Seahaven and Young Statues have only been out a few months but the reception has been great. Those three records are my favorite three records that came out last year, so all I can do is hope other people like them as well.

I believe Run For Cover moved into its first official office as well and expanded its staff. I’m sure that’s something you ideally would have liked to do a long time ago, but how has that helped with the daily work flow and more at the label?
I can’t even really explain in words the extent it helped. I was putting out records for Title Fight, Man Overboard, Fireworks, Tigers Jaw, The Wonder Years, Transit, etc, all out of my bedroom, with just me doing the label by myself with occasional help from a few nice people. Thousands and thousands of records and hundreds of boxes would move through my apartment on a monthly basis. I don’t know what I was thinking. Someone who works for my building actually saw our hallway and my bedroom once, with a whole wall covered in shelving dedicated to hundreds of folded shirts and our 30 foot hallway completely lined with boxes of records. They were very weirded out. They told me I had to stop what I was doing, although I don’t think they really had any idea what was going on.

A lot has changed in the past year for Run For Cover Records since we did our first Label Talk. Something that I found particularly interesting was that you mentioned the label couldn’t actually finance an LP prior to 2010, but that’s obviously changed greatly over the past two years. Can you just discuss the label’s continuous growth?
In 2009 we released the Fireworks - All I Have to Offer Is My Own Confusion LP on vinyl as a licensed release from Triple Crown, but we had never funded a full length release ourselves. I think I had put full lengths in general on some sort of pedestal because I was scared of the initial financial undertaking and was pretty terrified if we attempted to do one, that it would get fucked up and ruin the company or something. I think doing the Fireworks LP sort of eased us into doing more expensive releases. Obviously not having to pay for the recording made that situation a lot easier. In 2010 we put out 7 or 8 full length releases, Transit - Keep This to Yourself, Man Overboard - Real Talk, Tigers Jaw - Self Titled, Tigers Jaw / Balance and Composure Split, Hostage Calm - Self Titled, The Wonder Years - The Upsides, Tigers Jaw - Two Worlds. That was a really crazy and scary time. I honestly didn’t know if it would work out because we were spending so much money. Even having that amount of money was so new to me, but almost two years later and pretty much every one of those records has had a part in defining who we are as a label. Luckily all of those releases ended up doing pretty well and are still doing well to this day. We’ve been really lucky.

Mixed Signals and the subscription series were two other large undertakings in 2011. How far in advance were you planning both of those?
Mixed Signals was very, very far in advance. The early planning stage started sometime in 2010. I had a list of bands I wanted to ask taped to my wall in my bedoom, some circled, some underlined, some not. Nearly everyone who entered my bedroom in the past two years saw it and asked what it was. When I first came up with the idea I knew how I wanted to do it, but hadn’t decided on how to approach it musically. I think it could have gone in a poppier direction or a darker/heavier direction, and it ended up being a pretty dark release I think. I at least hope it wasn’t exactly what someone would expect in a RFC compilation.

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