I started the launch of my label Soundthing way before this exact moment, but 2006 is the actual launch year for my breathing baby. I guess the thing I like most about music is the recording end of it. I mean, I love the music, but records are just such a spiritual thing to me...the objects themselves, the vibrations captured, and the mystique of the studio, from the humming of electrical wiring, to the pushing of buttons, to the first "listening back". And then there is the whole presentation model and philosophies of promotion and artist development. In other words...the magical thing that is a record label!

Over the years, I have developed my production and songwriting styles, culminating in the "jerseybedroom" approach that will be the basis for the records I release on Soundthing. At the beginning, my mission is to work with and develop the artistry of female folk-based musicians, and to present the artwork in a folktronica and avantfolk package. I want this label to potentially be in the line I have always discerned in both my own writing and listening. This line developed around the productions of Phil Spector in the early 60's, and blossomed rather immediately in the work of Brian Wilson of Beach Boy fame, Gary Usher, and most specifically Curt Boettcher, who wrote and produced for The Association and Sagittarius among others. I would consider Curt Boettcher to be my primary, if not primal, influence and watermark for the Soundthing label. So the basis, both spiritually and musically, for Soundthing would be found in the flowering of "sunshine pop" in the mid to late 60's in Southern California studios. This "control-freak" producer approach found itself coming up for air bigtime in the ambient productions of Brian Eno and the DIY post-punkers in the UK in the late 70's and 80's, and also in the commercial successes of both ABBA and Fleetwood Mac (both with their resident producer-svengalis). Again, my personal take on this musical line finds it bending into the varieties of techno and house music of the 90's, while somehow it also twisted and shouted it's way toward both Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt and Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst.

My label mission is to produce warm, vibrant and human music based around the principles of friendship, trust and deep musical connection. The touchstone I have chosen is the wide-opened-eye optimism and sonically groundbreaking productions of the original "sunshine pop" producers. I only hope to tread lightly and with all due respect in the footsteps of those who first discovered the recording studio as the primary musical instrument.

- Rick Babcock
Winter 2006