An introduction to Scholasticism and a brief history of FUDG Records
We met with Austin Frank (17) of Friday Underground Records and their current artist, Dana Gary (18) to get you the lowdown on Scholasticism and the FUDG Records mission. Dana talks us through her process and vision for her debut album while Austin walks us through the business and management side of creating art.
How do you even go about making an album?
Dana: Excellent question. I have no idea what the correct answer is, but here's how I did it:
I usually start with words. I collect phrases on my phone throughout the day as they are given to me and often lump them into poems later. My basement is very echo-ey and forgiving, which makes it my favorite spot to experiment with sound. I'll sit down there with my ukulele and my words, and I'll sing and sing and sing until I stumble upon something that either gives me teary eyes or a racing heart or both. Usually the song solidifies a day or two before a recording session when I'm pressed up against that deadline and forced to make instinctual decisions about structure and instrumentation.
(Above: Dana, the Artist, needs to eat, too)
Has the project changed over time or during recording sessions?
D: It's absolutely changed as a concept. It used to be about the problem and process of artistic inspiration, but now it's about inspiration in the context of the college experience. As we've gone through the process of recording, the songs started demanding equal amounts of cavernous and intimate sound. I didn't anticipate that duality, but now it makes sense:
Scholasticism is about living in your head - a traditional place of solitude - while your head undergoes expansion, an experience I particularly ascribe to my time at W&L.
Why should people listen to this? What do you hope people will get from listening to this?
D: Lexington is bizarre. Everyone who's lived here has the common experience of re-establishing contact with the outside world and discovering that this town is, in fact, an uncommon experience. My hope for Scholasticism is that it can serve as fuel for the eternal discussion about what makes Lex a crucible worth cherishing. I wanted to sing about how we all suffer and grow in the palm of this place. I hope this music can be a way of remembering what it's like to learn and create and fall in love in this environment.
What's been the best part of this experience so far? What's been the worst?
D: The best part - besides witnessing the avalanche of support for the Kickstarter - is the validation of accompaniment. If there needs to be a "reason" to make art, for me, that reason is human connection, so hearing other people or other instruments effectively voicing what I'm attempting to express indicates that what I'm expressing has the potential to be universally understood. That's such a hopeful moment, and it makes me feel as though I might be onto something. The worst part is that all too often I write or hear parts I'm not entirely capable of playing or singing (whoops). Sometimes I'll be learning how to play these instruments as I go along in the recording process. Austin has the patience of a saint, redoing all those takes simply because i couldn't keep up with the pianist/vocalist/ukulele player in my head.
Describe the album in one word (other than the title).
What's your favorite track off the album?
What have you learned about yourself through the making of this album?
D: These songs are meant to illustrate the college experience of saying farewell to previously held sources of inspiration or meaning in favor of new ones. "Scholasticism," in its title alone, evokes this mental and emotional tug-of-war. The turbulence of the past few years at school has been a necessary process in making both the spiritualism of my youth and the intellectualism of my early adulthood sing in harmony.
Anything else you want to add?
D: I love you, and I hope you like what we've done with the (concept of Lexington as a) place.
BONUS: Check out this playlist--created with Dana’s musical inspirations in mind- made by yours truly!
Austin: FUDG Records is the cool, musical younger sibling to Friday Underground. We’re pretty much an extension of the FUDG mission to support student art on campus. While we’re not technically the same as FUDG, we share a lot of the same people working on our projects.
We first had the idea last year when Elaina, Dana and I were listening to Ralston perform at Friday Underground. We loved his original music and really wished that we could have his songs recorded somewhere - so we just decided to do it! Now we’re working on our third album, which is so much more than I think any of us ever dreamed!
How has FUDG Records evolved with each new artist/project? What's unique about this current project?
A: With every record, we’ve set our sights a little bit higher. Ralston’s album was a big step because it was our first record. We pretty much learned how to work with big groups of musicians, figured out the best way to do the physical production, and how to do all of the recording, mastering, etc.
In addition to being our first full-length album, Elliot’s record was our first venture into crowdfunding. We were successfully able to raise over $800 to help make that project a reality thanks to a bunch of really generous backers on our Kickstarter project!
Dana’s album has been a huge step forward for us. We’ve pulled out all of the stops to help really make her vision a reality. Any of us who know Dana already understand that she has a brilliant, creative mind, and some of these songs have been huge undertakings to get recorded and produced - I think we’ve done really well so far, though! We’ve also set our fundraising goal much higher this time around at $2000. Amazingly, we hit this goal in under a week, which absolutely blew us away. Then we extended it to $2700 and hit that! I think by the end of the campaign (March 8), we want to be somewhere around $3000. We raised so much mostly to expand the kinds of products we’re able to offer. We’ll be doing our normal CD option, but we’re also releasing a 12” record as well as a photo book companion to the record. Printing a record has been pretty much a life-long dream of mine, so I’m beyond excited to make this happen.
How do you measure success?
A: I’m absolutely metric obsessed, so we go about doing this in a bunch of ways. On one hand, we want to make the best art possible. At the end of the day, if we’ve produced a record that we’re proud of, then we consider the project successful. I can say that I’m incredibly proud of every single project that we’ve done.
Another way that I like to measure success is through streaming and digital sales data. I check up on our artists every few days to see what’s getting streamed. Our music has had thousands of plays, which is incredibly exciting.
Finally, I feel that we’ve been really successful in how much money we’ve been able to raise to support student artists. Over the course of the last 3 records in the past year, we’re on track to raise well over $4500 for our projects, the vast majority of which has been put towards making our projects as good as they can be.
What do you hope the future holds for FUDG Records?
A: I’m really excited to see where FUDG Records goes after I graduate. Dana has expressed some interest in keeping the label going and searching for more great on-campus artists to work with. I also hope to stay involved on the business and production side of things since I can do that all from wherever I am after graduation!
Coolest promotional feature (for any artist)?
A: For Elliot’s album, I really enjoyed the CD launch/listening party that we had in the CGL. Student Activities helped us out getting some awesome food, and we lit the atrium with some awesome lights from the Production Club. The turnout was fantastic and we all had an awesome time celebrating an awesome artist and project!
For Dana’s album, I’m just unbelievably excited to print vinyl. I love vinyl, and I’m so excited to add a record that I’ve helped produce (and played on) to my collection. This is going to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine!
Follow FUDG Records on social media and stay up to date with all the developments as Scholasticism is gearing up for release. Also checkout previous artists, Elliot and Ralston, on Spotify!
https://www.facebook.com/fudgrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/fudgrecords/
http://www.fudgrecords.com
Don’t miss the pop up shop on Friday, 28th, taking over the CGL from 12-5pm in honor of the album’s release! There will also be a listening part from 7-8pm in the CGL.
