2013
– Our Best Year Yet –
What a year 2013 has been; growing bigger than our britches and filling up our shoes. First, foremost, thanks to all of the fans who came out to support your favorite artist, they love you; they’ve told us.
So, where to begin? Perhaps a quick recap on the year’s record releases.
In early-April we released W.A. Fite’s second full length record, Builds.with.Age, and the experimental, electro effort set the tone for what would be a year of limited edition CDs and vinyl albums. Builds.with.Age was a definite growth for the artist on a musical level, and during the spring we really started to line up the behind-the-scenes ducks at a higher level, bringing us into signing a few new artists; the first of which hails from Austin, Texas, Brandon Callies Band.
Callies and company came to the table with a fully loaded project already recorded; mixed, mastered and even printed to vinyl in the form of his second EP, Life is Still Good, released in July. This band of veteran musicians is the definition of professionalism; constantly advancing their craft and we are extremely excited to get our ears around their new full length project slated to begin work early 2014.
The next artist to sign on was Fort Worth psych-rock upstarts, Un Chien as they began to work on their self-titled debut full length album in early-summer. The latter part of the year was spent beefing up the band’s presence both digitally and physically, and we were ecstatic to finally get the limited edition disc, and its accompanying vinyl single out the door earlier this month! The album has already garnered some fantastic reviews, and even a top ten slot on a “best of” list by the Fort Worth Weekly!
Concurrent to signing on Un Chien, we brought on our wildest live act yet, Fort Worth’s Swindle Boys to release their new EP, Motion. Recorded with heralded rock producer, Alex Gerst, the new extended play does more than just rock; it dances too. The album also received some solid press and the band is tweaking their newly-targeted arena rock sound for some major live opportunities in the New Year.
Last, but in no way least, the final roster signing came this fall, when we grabbed one of our favorite artists, Denton’s Andrew Tinker. This guy has major chops and gravitas to burn. Already well-established as a piano man, Tinker is going to blow your mind out next year when his sophomore effort, Upon the Ecliptic hits your ears.
How do we know? We’ve already heard the mixes; and “spectacular” is a weak descriptor here. Seriously, it will be awesome.
Okay, so we released some records and signed some new artists, and that’s pretty cool. What else? Well, we’ll tell you.
Hand Drawn signed up as a partner with a burgeoning national music blog, On Tour Monthly, and they are literally blowing it up. Covering so many huge acts is great, but what’s better, is that we’ve got to have our artists included right alongside the likes of the big touring bands, and the crossover audience has really been great.
The last big news thing that happened to us was in November when Hand Drawn was voted “best label” in the 25th annual Dallas Observer Music Awards! We honestly can’t believe how fantastic all you supporters are; and our small, but mighty staff is truly energized and humbled by the accolade. So again, thanks.
That’s about all we have for recaps. As you can tell, 2013 was really swell, and with a new compilation album and full length releases from Tinker, Callies and Exit 380 already slated for early next year, we hope to have even better news to report in a year’s time!
Until then, keep on trucking. Plus, stay cool Pony Boy.
