April 4, 2010

I Had An Accident Records

I Had An Accident Records

From a hella occult underground base in Maryland, Julia and Justin run I Had An Accident Records which features work from a handful of interesting experimental artists which include Tenshun, Tim Kinsella, Walter Gross, and even Julia herself. With an emphasis on tapes and dope art stylings, Julia drops some background and foreground on I Had An Accident Records.

How did I Had An Accident Records get started and who are the responsible parties?

I had An Accident was started to keep two friends in contact when one moved across the country. At one time living in Jamaica Plain – Justin moved to Oregon leaving Seamus behind. In August of 2006 the two decided the best way to remain in contact was to start a business together and thus I had An Accident was born. Seamus disappeared sometime in late 2007 and I (Julia LaDense) took over his duties. We relocated to the Annapolis area in Maryland. We wish we were living somewhere else… We are a two person label and are constantly overwhelmed.

What does the name refer to (genius by the way)?

I had An Accident captures the moment. Seamus, Justin, and myself were recording a lot of sounds and music during the conception of the name and realized how beautiful imperfection can be. We realized that in the moment some of the best creations happened by accident. Ironically, the label’s name was developed by accident.

“CDrs have no personality – a cassette is durable, tangible, the artwork is fun as hell to make…”

What type of stuff has the label released so far?

The label started releasing experimental music and originally was going to be a noise type label. In 2007 the Tim Kinsella release brought attention from indie pop kids and we ended up releasing a few albums of that genre. We are more passionate about the experimental and lo-fi sound and more recently focused on releasing more hip hop sounds such as Walter Gross and Tenshun. The label’s past has a wide range to it.

What prompted I Had An Accident to emphasize tape cassette releases?

Our first tape release was the Tim Kinsella release – we released 500 cds and 20 cassettes. We enjoyed the whole process but had problems with finding cassettes and a decent recorder. When we finally got the necessary equipment together we had already released a bunch of cdrs. CDrs have no personality – a cassette is durable, tangible, the artwork is fun as hell to make and you can utilize colors in a unique way. The whole cassette culture is fascinating to us. With the age of digital downloads the cassette is making a great comeback and I think the tape hiss and lo-fi quality really compliments the artists we work with.

What type of projects will the label focus on in the future?

We have some really exciting projects coming up from Michael Nhat, Tenshun (Skrapez), Screwtape (Walter Gross and Bizzart), Big Epoch, Coyote Clean Up, Daytime Television and some others. We are more focused than ever and really thankful to have had contact with some great artists in the experimental/hip hop scenes. We are focused enhancing our relationship with these artists and build more connections to continue releasing albums in the experimental hip hop sound.

How can people access the label and distro?

We currently have mail order from the I Had An Accident Records website. We also have many of our releases available at Access Hip Hop in San Diego. We are working to get better distribution but it appears we are too small or not established enough to provide better distribution.

Shout outs?

We have to give shout to Walter Gross first and foremost – his contact has led us to meet and work with some of the greatest people ever. The future of ihaa is because of him and we love him. The ihaa artists, Coyote Clean Up for helping with artwork, Felt Cat Tapes for providing inspiration and support. Access Hip Hop for helping out with our cdrs and tapes. Fans, friends, blogs, David Dronevil.

ihadanaccidentrecords.com

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