by Dave Miller

Install was brought into the world on Halloween night in 2007, with inaugural releases by Ourson, Dan Crall and Brian Grainger. The label is owned and operated by David Tagg and Brian Grainger.

Conceptually speaking, Install, as well as our Second Sun Recordings imprint, came from the same ideas we were working with from about 2006 onward. We started SSR so we could have a vehicle for publishing our own work, in collaboration or apart, which adhered to very specific themes and recurring contexts, with emphasis on live improvisation, unorthodox use of instruments, textural and visual experimentation and generally an isolated attitude from other trends in experimental or ambient music. After running SSR solidly for a year, we realized that we were surrounded by a wealth of amazing art and music that was getting virtually no attention from other labels. Maybe it was the fact that these artists were relative unknowns, with our understanding that most labels wouldn’t risk releasing them for financial reasons, or maybe it was simply that many of them were working outside the realm of easily accessible music. We’ve both always had a real passion for what we do and we wanted to create a forum for artists who we felt shared our vision to release their work and ultimately be compensated for it. That probably sounds awfully generic for a reason to run a label, but I think it’s a labor of love that many artists are drawn to. Put simply: there is always someone who is doing something artistically unique, either in their home, in their backyard or in a studio, and very often they have no vehicle to connect their art with listeners and consumers. We strive to provide that as well as respectfully employ these artists, who definitely work just as hard for a paycheck as anyone else does.

For both of us, there’s the obvious benefit of always having a place to do what you want artistically and release it however you like. Although we have SSR for our own output, we’ll still release selected things we do at Install, because Install is just as much a musical concept as it is a visual, thematic or contextual one. Outside of that, we feel that it forges a deeper connection between Install and the records we release. This is music that we think is important, and so for us releasing it is on the same level as sitting down and improvising with these people. It’s all part of the same process for us. As if Install were a growing commune of people that come and go, with music and art being produced non-stop under the banner of a singular idea or mission, though it is never the same. Someone moves in, someone else moves out. Someone comes back for a month or two. Our catalog is just as much of an ongoing record of our musical and artistic passions as well as a timeline, a document of where we’ve been, with a revolving door of personnel.

INSTALL is not interested in trends or over promotion. We do not like to over saturate the market with the same artists that every other label is releasing in the so-called “scene”. We are very particular about the releases we choose to issue and are more concerned with it fitting in at the label. We think these traits make us different from some labels more than others, and we maintain really rewarding relationships with a lot of labels in the scene.

Install has always been and will always be a place where lesser-known artists can be given equal treatment and exposure as well-known artists that share the label. Frankly it has always been a big turn-off that so much quality work goes unnoticed in any genre or scene, usually due to money issues or other “bigger” artists getting better deals and more widespread exposure due to tenure, sales numbers and so on. Granted, while certain things like budget, timeframe and how feasibly we can sell hundreds of units are unavoidable when you’re running a label, there’s no reason that artists should have to settle for less in the way of exposure or compensation simply because no one knows who they are yet.

On a third, more topical level, Install is totally unique simply because of the way it looks and sounds. No one else out there can say they have David Tagg’s handmade cases or his trademark modern designs, and to reiterate a point made in question three, so much of our music is made “in house” by friends of ours who are otherwise totally under the radar. We’re firmly rooted in the idea of bringing back a unification of visual art and music, as it was centuries ago, when painters and sculptors worked in tandem with musicians and performers under a universal concept, such as impressionism or dadaism. From the business aspect of it, we’re making the total package easily accessible to modern people living in a modern age. Nearly everything is instant-gratification today, with the internet, home electronics, socialization and commerce all intertwined, so why shouldn’t the art made in this era be just as easy to get? We’re bringing art installations into the comfort of your home.

We are a strong supporter of the format. Time and budget willing, as vinyl is an expensive hill to climb, Install will continue to issue music on the format.

The Installation series is our way of really giving something back to artists, while simultaneously offering fresh music at a very low price. With some exceptions, most artists today find themselves to be the lowest rung on the ladder when it comes to getting compensation for their music. Many come to us resigned to never get anything in return for us releasing an album with them, which is totally unacceptable. Without delving too much into the politics of the situation, this series deals in runs of 50-100 copies, and is usually the debut release for many artists we work with. The series follows a uniform look and format, which is designed by David, and many of the releases are curated and arranged by Brian. The short-run aspect of it allows us to move a product fairly quickly, and faithfully get it to those who follow Install’s output, enabling us to compensate the artist within a reasonable amount of time. This also allows us to have a very frequent turnover in musical output, so we can release much more music in a few months than most labels do in a year. When the pressing runs out, the artist may do whatever they like with their music. There are no contracts holding them to Install or conditions that enable us to unethically bank on their work, and very often an artist that has done an Installation release will “graduate” to a sophomore release in our main catalog, which entails more detailed artwork and usually a bigger pressing.

DT: For the past 8 years I have worked as a designer doing 3D and print design for industry and have access to a variety of machines, printers and materials. This has given me the liberty to create whatever I conceive, no matter how obtuse. The SPLIT Series at INSTALL is a good example of my work. I do all the packaging and assembly myself. It is a true labor of love taking many hours of work for each edition; because of this my handmade designs are extremely limited and consequently sell out rapidly. As far as the main catalog, I do some of the design and layout. The artist usually has a pretty good idea of how they want their music to be visually represented so I usually start the process by asking the artist to give me pictures and ideas and I go from there. Peter Wright, Jason Adams, Joseph X. Burke and PAN have all contributed amazing designs.

Sadly Install, much like any label, is inundated with spammers or artists carelessly sending tracks to any label they can, with total disregard to what Install actually releases. Due to this, we only accept demos in the form of completed albums. We figure if an artist doesn't have enough of an idea on their own to assemble their work into some final form, we do not have the free time to devote to doing that for them. We don't release everything we get from demos, but several of our favorite releases have originated from a demo. Generally we have an open-door policy with this, as long as the sender has a good idea of what Install releases, meaning: do not send us electronic music or dance music, or something equally unlike what we're about. You're only wasting your time.

We have several new releases lined up in both the Installation series and our main catalog, from artists such as Ten and Tracer, Millipede, Hakobune, Bored Man Ganesh, Radere, Berber Ox and of course Brian and David. There will be a collaborative release between VCV and Shinobu Nemoto, a unique debut from Viking Destroyer, and more splits between David and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Summons Of Shining Ruins, Wood-Land and others. Our next release is an album called EINEANDEREWELTSTRASSE by Simon Whetham and mise_en_scene.

We'd like to take this time to thank our loyal supporters, our reliable distributors and our talented family of artists. Without you, Install would not exist.