A career in music is not for the faint of heart. It is a gruelling path that requires talent, passion and hard work. Writing and rehearsing alone take up a huge part of a musician’s life. But add on the additional responsibilities of booking and performing gigs, managing social media, marketing, recording and distributing music and it’s easy to see why many bands simply burn out.
With this in mind, recording engineer Michael Williams created “Heartless Records” to help local Calgary musicians set a strong foundation for their career. Having spent over a decade touring and performing in various bands, Williams knows firsthand the struggles that come with being a musician. “It’s really tough for certain artists to hit the ground running, it’s hard to get good recordings, it’s hard to get people to give a shit. I want to have a movement and change that and get a whole bunch of artists working with me and get them noticed.”
Working with Heartless Records, artists pay a negotiated fee, subject to the length of the agreement and the number of services rendered, and enter into a partnership with the label that includes services such as recording, production, mixing, promotion, photography, videography and co-writing. “We want to be a fully functioning production label geared towards smaller local bands.”
Williams recognizes the importance of marketing but believes that the music always comes first: “Social media is the number one marketing tool for our demographic of art and business, word of mouth always helps, but you gotta be good, you gotta play good music and everything else falls into place.”
Heartless Records has already begun to work with a variety of artists including Hinterland, Loveless, and Above & Below. And Williams expects more contracts to follow. “Bands are starting to want to book with us. And then when we work with them, more bands want to work with us because of the work that we’re doing.”
The label’s current plans include producing a compilation CD for the end of the year and hosting their first artist showcase featuring the label’s best bands. Dates are tentative at the moment but you can stay informed by following the label on Facebook (@heartlessrecords), Instagram (@heartlessrecordsyyc), and SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/heartlessrecordingsyyc).
Originally published in Oh the Humanity, issue one, a 24-page magazine made at SAIT in 2017, reported, photographed, and laid out solo.