| Persistence brings 'freak rock' to its audience
By Patrick Healy Staff Writer Company: Load Records Location: Knight Street, Providence Owner: Ben McOsker Year founded: 1993 Employees: 2 Type of business: Record label Annual revenues: WND While Ben McOsker can claim to have had more than 100 jobs in his lifetime, his record label is one occupation that has remained constant for almost a decade. After releasing 33 recordings, primarily by Providence musicians, he said that although the music is not always accessible, a lot of people are getting it. “A lot of the music I’m putting out is not the most obvious music,” he said “But it’s just good time rock n’ roll…and other stuff.” That “other stuff” included bands with names like Men’s Recovery Project, Landed, Olneyville Sound System and Lightning Bolt, a Providence instrumental duo who have sold over 6,000 copies of their second full-length release “Ride the Skies.” McOsker describes the band as “the most complicated and intricate music imaginable played with hockey gloves and masks.” A West Warwick native, McOsker started the label while he was living in New Jersey. After graduating from Providence College in 1990 and earning his Master’s degree in library science from Rutgers University, he was working in Newark for the global pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche. After being laid off, he took a settlement package and released the first Load seven-inch single by Providence band Boss Fuel for about $1,800. “I didn’t really know how much I’d have to start putting into the label until later,” he said. After the second Load release, McOsker returned to his native state and began a series of temporary jobs (which would turn out to be over 100) to finance the label. “In the early nineties there would be no way that this music would come out,” he said. “Sure there were bands that would put out their own material, but there was no outside label standing behind it.” McOsker said he paid out of his own pocket for many of the early releases, but now things are more stable. He doesn’t even hold a temporary job now. “Sometimes the business of music is not based on business as much as it is music,” he said. “It’s a leap of faith.” And that leap has paid off. Using several different distributors, Load releases its products throughout the country as well as in Europe. McOsker said England is “a tough nut to crack,” but when a record finds success with the critics there, it soon finds success with the record-buying public. “It’s really the easiest to see a response from press to sales in England, because it’s like they’re in a fish tank,” he said, “and it’s the smallest fish tank you could ever see.” Although Load is intercontinental to an extent, McOsker and his partner Laura Mullen, still have a grass roots approach. “I have a lot of relationships with record stores directly,” he said. “Laura and I go to stores up and down the East Coast, making sure they’re stocked.” With Load’s most recent releases, McOsker utilized a system of promotion he says he invented, called “smart promo.” He does the marketing for an album up to two months in advance of its release, and marks the copies with “smart promo” stickers so he can track where some of the actual items go. “It really engages people on some level,” he said. “People see a ‘smart promo’ sticker on a CD and they just wonder what it is.” He said scheduling is one of the most important elements in releasing records, and Mullen is a big help in that department. “She really helps me schedule things,” he said. “She’s got a skills set that’s a lot faster than mine as far as the amount she’s able to do at one time.” McOsker said the most recent Lightning Bolt has been the highest profile record he has put out to date, and he is interested to see the response next month when he re-releases the duo’s first album. “I can’t believe the response that second record has gotten,” he said. “People aren’t going to grasp (the first record) as easily.” McOsker said one of the reasons he runs a label is to spread the music he loves to as many people as possible. “When you’re excited about a band you want to take it to people you’ve sold other records to,” he said. “It really establishes continuity.” That continuity is summed up in Load’s mission statement: “Load Records, since 1993, releasing the sounds of the freak rock revolution on plastic records and CDs.” “Bring the family,” said McOsker. “The train is leaving right now.”Back |
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