The Nothing Room is an independent record label and publishing house based in San Francisco. The label was born in a dim and filthy room and grew up in the loving hands of four musicians who wanted to create an organization providing a supportive and structured environment in which bands might profit and thrive. This is a secret so don't tell anyone: the founding group of musicians are also the members of Dubious Ranger -- Brendan Ahern, Alexander Eccles, Jonathan Eccles, and Aaron Sankin -- all of whom are delighted that their initial idea to create a fake record label metamorphosed into the better idea to create a real record label.
The Nothing Room stands for music that is creative, idiosyncratic, and never stale. We record, produce, promote, and distribute music both on-line and terrestrially. And more than anything, this label remains faithful to its commitment to never screw over the talented individuals who put every ounce of their creative juices into making their music.
The Nothing Room enters the music industry in a period of flux. The dominant paradigm, with major labels acting as monolithic musical and cultural gatekeepers, is being overthrown. These slow-moving corporate behemoths are basically crumbling gargoyles, and while they're still busy jumping on glass trampolines to find a song with a title that ends in "licious," the little guy (that's us) is poised to pounce by using innovative and far-reaching marketing and distribution techniques to build a huge and savvy-eared fan base for the most talented musicians we can find. Yeah, we're smart and we know special words. Disco, disco, disco.
The Nothing Room maintains a diverse roster of bands sharing a common commitment to, and passion for, their own brand of music. An artist signed to The Nothing Room is a true musician, not some flavor-of-the-month or talentless manufactured commodity. Rest assured that many years from now, a great man will stand on the cold shores of Pluto and proclaim, "It was never said that The Nothing Room ever settled for less." Also, for some reason he won't be wearing pants.
Can I send in demos?
Please don't. We won't listen to them and you're only going to waste money on mailing your CD that, for legal reasons, we're only going to use to throw at old people as they cross the street. That being said, we don't want to be like "there's no way to get in contact with us," because record labels who say that are dicks and if we wanted to work at a company staffed with dicks we would have gone to business school. Anyway, if your band is lucky enough to be based in the San Francisco Bay Area and have a show coming up, feel free to drop us a line and maybe we'll swing by and check it out. If we like you and you like us maybe something will happen. But, honestly, the best way for a young unsigned band to get on our label, or any label for that matter, is hit the road and build a fan-base gig by gig, blog post by blog post. And please please please please, whatever you do don't send us emails with big MP3 attachments (just send us a link to your web site, or some MP3s, or a YouTube video of your band dancing around in bear costumes). Big email attachments from bands we've never heard of make our server very sad and when our server is sad everyone is sad. Direct all inquiries to: brendan@nothingroom.com.
Can I play a Nothing Room song on my podcast or internet radio station or blast it from a boombox in my treehouse in the backyard?
Why yes you can. Consider this a blanket license for this type of thing just don't use more than two songs from any one album on a single podcast and don't use more than half the tracks from any album on a series of podcasts. But please drop us a line about it first so we can make sure you're not putting our stuff on the Junior Hitler Hour Podcast and so we can, you know, listen to it.
What about my blog?
Can I put some Nothing Room stuff on my blog? Yes. We are also nerds and, as such, love blogs. If you're using one of our songs on your blog put up a link back to us. It's kind of a we give you free music, you scratch our back kind of deal. If you're a blogger (and who isn't these days) and would like to be put on our list of the coolest bloggers in the interwebz that get all the hottest Nothing Room sounds first, drop us a line here: aaron@nothingroom.com.
How do I get a promo copy of a Nothing Room album?
You ask politely at this email address: aaron@nothingroom.com
I want to interview a Nothing Room artist for my magazine, website, blog, whatever.
That's a statement, not a question. A question is an interrogative sentence used to generate an answer. That was a statement, which is different in a very important way but there really isn't time to get into that right now. If you would like to have an on the record chat with one of our lovely and personable artists ask politely here: aaron@nothingroom.com
Can I use a Nothing Room song in my movie film for theaters?
Sure. We love movies and we love our music being used in movies. We give bonus points if one character in your movie tells another character in your movie, "this song will totally change your life man." Ask impolitely here: jonathan@nothingroom.com.
Can I send you a letter?
Yes. Here: P.O. Box 156560, San Francisco, CA 94115.
Will you go out with me?
Listen...umm....yeah....about that...I don't want to ruin the special friendship that we have and...umm...yeah.
P.0. Box 156560, San Francisco, CA 94115
contact@nothingroom.com
