State Life After Labels

Georgia’s Resilient Combo Lives Through a Mid-Record Label Meltdown, Re-Recording An Entire Album In the Process

By Harold Zimm
Photos by Catherine Asanov

Morning State drummer Dave Williams was eating lunch with his mother when he got the phone call. It was Colin Cobb, head of the band’s label, Livewire Recordings, and it was serious. Williams, along with singer Russ Ledford, bassist Joel Stevens and drummer Zachary Sharenko, had spent months chipping away at their full-length debut You Know People, I Know People at Vintage Vibe Productions, Cobb’s Georgia facility. Cobb had already produced and engineered all of the songs, and the mix process was well underway. This made it even more shocking when, according to Williams, Cobb said, “Bad news. Livewire is going under.” Despite its roster of hot, young, independent artists, Livewire Recordings could not keep making its bottom line. Like many indie upstarts, its street cred and artistic integrity had earned it more respect than revenue. “But,” said Cobb, “I never officially turned in your contracts, so you were never officially signed."

What follows is the story of how Morning State saw an album’s worth of work evaporate into thin air, and how they regrouped and learned how to start from scratch all over again.

Morning State’s indie pop anthems are straightforward and hook-laden, which many listeners find refreshing in these “more aloof than thou” times. Though the four guys have only been together for four years, they have a little experience in other bands, and their lack of jaded cynicism makes them stand out amongst their peers. Though they haven’t been inundated with offers, many A&R reps have expressed interest in Morning State. In early 2007, Colin Cobb took it one step further and offered them a record deal.

“He got in touch with us and said, ‘I hear you guys are wanting to make an album, I’d really like to help you guys do that,’” says Ledford. “We went back and forth and talked to him, and he offered a label deal. It wasn’t anything extravagant, but it was something that was going to help us out.”

It was in 2007 that Livewire Recordings also released a record by another Georgia band — Warm In The Wake. Their Cobb-Produced American Prehistoric went on to win critical acclaim and seemingly reaffirmed Livewire’s position in the independent music community. American Songwriter Magazine hailed American Prehistoric as “spellbinding,” and quarterly rag MAGNET declared it “worth contemplating for hours on end.”

Slightly more seasoned than their younger Morning State counterparts, the members of Warm In The Wake had suspicions of Livewire’s demise before Cobb made it known.

“We kind of got wind of some rumors here and there,” says drummer James Taylor, Jr., “and there was a time [in late 2007] where it seemed like some of their employees left and things were starting to slow down.”

This slowing down included a stall in releasing American Prehistoric on vinyl, which was slated for early 2008, as well as dwindling support by way of radio promotion. Although Cobb initially considered making Livewire a strictly digital label, as well as other business model reworkings, he eventually called the members of Warm In The Wake together and told them that Livewire was no longer operative. Though Cobb often referred to it as a hiatus rather than a cessation, he still pitched in to help Livewire bands find new labels to call home.

Since Morning State’s original deal with Livewire was never fully cemented, Cobb saw this as an opportunity to negotiate a fair settlement for the work he had done on the album. Like most producers, Cobb was working on “spec” when he had engineered and produced You Know People, I Know People. This means that he, along with business partners George Fontaine and David Steinfeld, absorbed certain expenses and deferred certain fees for delayed compensation. When a producer takes on a spec deal, it is a testament to his or her conviction that the project has commercial potential. Cobb believed in Morning State, so he was eager to weather the costs of helping the band put together a record. He had planned to make his money back by selling the CD once the label released and promoted it. What made this deal different from a typical spec deal, however, is that Cobb also helped run the label that had planned to release the album. Normally the Producer Agreement is drafted separately from the label deal. In this case, however, the lines between label and producer had blurred and crisscrossed. This “one big contract” arrangement made things simpler in theory, but proved more complex once the label closed.

“It was a one-record,” says Williams, “with an option to do a second record — which [Livewire] would have taken, because that’s when they hopefully would have broken even off the first record.”

The proposed deal, says Williams, offered to support the release (or releases) with “tour costs paid for, promotion, videos, [and] marketing.” He sums it up by adding, “They were going to be our bank for us.”

After breaking the news, Cobb offered Morning State a new contract that strictly dealt with his producer fees. This contract didn’t include label support, which would have covered not only promotion, but more basic things like mastering and CD duplication.

“We’re really sympathetic to where they were, cause they spent time on a record, so we definitely offered what we feel is a more than fair deal for them to take their record on and own those masters,” says Cobb.

Without a label promoting the release and making discs, however, the band saw little in the new contract that enticed them.

“We felt that, in our position, personally and as a band we could not afford it,” says Ledford. “Honestly, without going into too much detail, it wasn’t like, ‘money up front’ or anything, but it was definitely something that we were bound to on the back end. We looked at it, and there were so many things about it that we just had to say no to. We knew what that was, throwing away all that time and effort, and it was the same thing for Colin, we felt bad about that, but it’s like, this is what he feels like he wants or deserves, and we feel like he deserves something, but it just wasn’t in that contract.”
Helping Morning State through the contractual proceedings was Ian Wheeler, a college acquaintance who went on to work for Fanatic Promotions in New York before starting his own company, Indie Outlaw, which Wheeler has described as an “artist advocacy firm.” Morning State has been working with Wheeler for over a year, but the extent of his involvement increased greatly as Livewire and Morning State began to part ways. It was Wheeler who helped break down Cobb’s offer to the band, and it was Wheeler who encouraged Ledford and company to stick to their guns.

Morning State eventually opted to re-record You Know People, I Know People from scratch, and release it through Indie Outlaw.

“I got a call from Colin saying, ‘Hey, no hard feelings, it’s all good,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, no hard feelings,’” says Ledford. “That’s just how it went. It was tough to throw away that, but in the end we were like, ‘We gotta get this [CD] out.’”

“I had to walk away,” says Cobb. “As for them, they don’t want to be in debt, so they had to walk away. I felt good about the decision that I made.”

The band’s friend Asa Leffer, who formerly ran sound at Athens venue Tasty World, recorded the new version of You Know People, I Know People in about 10 days at Downtown Athens Recording Co. (DARC). Says Ledford, “It was a lot of fun to make, and it was really quick process.”

“By that point we had played some shows, all the parts that Dave had learned were more fluid then, and I was able to listen back and say, ‘Here is what I want to do differently vocally,’ and guitar-wise as well,” says Ledford. “It was just another pass at everything, and that’s why it was better.”

The second time around, Morning State came out-of-pocket for the recording expenses. Though this stung at first, the band knew that it meant the members would keep more of their earnings after the album’s release.

“If you can own all of your business, I’ll be the first one to tell you, that’s a great way to go”
- Colin Cobb

“We have no contract,” says Ledford, adding, “That’s honestly what we really wanted.”
Concedes Cobb, “If you can own all of your business, I’ll be the first one to tell you, that’s a great way to go.”

On the other end of things, Cobb still owns the master recordings of Warm in the Wake’s American Prehistoric, but he verbally released Warm In The Wake from their Livewire contract.

“Livewire isn’t going to keep artists under contract,” he says, “when they can’t put future records out on the level that they deserve to be put out on. That’s not fair to anybody, and I would never do that.”

“I believe that what’s needed to be recouped has been recouped, and hopefully it’s all good to break away,” says Taylor, Jr. “Livewire owns the masters, and if another label wants to come along and redistribute the record, they would have to buy the masters from Colin. But our interest is to make another record and put that out, and they’ve given us free reign to do so. We signed a three-album deal with them, so I think we owed them two more.”

Since its emancipation, Warm In The Wake has self-financed a whole album’s worth of new recordings, and has somehow also made music videos to promote their previous releases. The guys in the band are quick to stress that their experience with Livewire was a good one, and that they would not be where they are today if they hadn’t had Cobb’s guidance when they needed it.

“I’ve had the great pleasure of working with some great people,” says Cobb, “and we had a lot of fun on the way doing it, and I hope that Livewire is a tremendous stepping stone for these artists.”

Although recording is still Warm In The Wake’s favorite pastime, thanks to Cobb the band now sees the value of playing out as much as possible. “Colin was the guy that offered us a contract and said, ‘If you’re going to do this, you need to do it 100 percent, and you have to really go out there and tour, and you have to really treat it seriously.’” says Taylor, Jr. “I think without [Livewire], we never would have bought a van and hit the road, and really give it a whirl.”

Though Morning State’s experience with Livewire Recordings didn’t work out as expected, Williams acknowledges that the circumstances were more to blame than anything else. Furthermore, he, Ledford, Stevens and Sharenko chalk it up as a learning experience. Like their music, they remain focused and humble.

“We had a great experience with them, and any band that can record with [Colin Cobb] should, because he’s a good guy and he’s trying to do a good thing,” says Williams.
“The whole reason that I even started this company was I just came across so many really killer artists who I felt deserved to get their shot,” says Cobb. “I help artists make records, it’s what I’ve always done for a living.” Though he tried to help through Livewire Recordings, Cobb always knew that a label itself does not dictate success.
Somewhat ironically, he offers young bands this insight: “You do not need a label to succeed in this business. These days, what you need to succeed in this business are fans and great music. Period.”

www.morningstate.com