On the top of his left knee, Chris Freedman has a stick-and-poke tattoo of the letters “G” and “T” etched inside a tombstone. The lines are rough and uneven; the letters in small hand-drawn sans-serif type, done by Bay Area street artist Trevni on a whim.

“It was awful,” Freedman said of the pain he went through to get the tattoo of his independent record label, Ghoul Tapes, logo. “But it’s the spirit of it. I want Ghoul Tapes to feel kind of reckless and stupid and it’s cool, I like it and it’s unique to me. So why not get a stick-and-poke tattoo?”

Freedman, a sophomore Bandier student from Los Angeles, started Ghoul Tapes last summer after reading an article about how the National Audio Company still makes cassette tapes, a music medium that went largely extinct during the introduction of CDs and digital downloads.

A music lover for as long as he can remember, Freedman didn’t grow up listening to cassettes, but instead mostly listened to the vinyl collection he started in middle school. Ghoul Tapes came about from an interest in audio quality instead.

“The first month I started Ghoul Tapes I had no product, but I had this idea and I had this vision and I was just like f*ck it, look at me, I own a record label,” Freedman said. “It was something that I always wanted to do and it just seemed like fun to me.”

Now Ghoul Tapes has put out two tapes for Super Defense and will soon release “Pinwheel” by minnoe, both Syracuse-based bands.

Creating the cassettes starts with the art, which either he designs or the artist gives to him. Then he and the band record the music and it’ll be ready to sell. Since Freedman loves all kinds of music, he said the Ghoul Tapes label can be anything and that he wouldn’t be opposed to putting out an electronic, hip-hop or death metal album as long as it’s good music. It’s a collaborative labor of love.

“As the first member of being on this label, Chris has done a really great job putting my needs at the highest priority, and I’m sure that’s something that he’s going to keep with every single band that he signs,” Andy Horvath of Super Defense and sophomore Bandier student, said.

Both in music and in life, Freedman is drawn to high energy.  Growing up in California, Freedman went to D.I.Y. venues like The Smell, an all-ages punk rock/noise/experimental venue in downtown Los Angeles, and Touch Vinyl, a half-record store, half-concert venue with a laid-back atmosphere. The latter parallels a skate shop, where Freedman spent years riding ledges.

Here, he got his start as a DJ, playing at events held between the two stores. Though he loves music and guitar, he doesn’t play any instruments.  DJing is only a hobby he picked up as a result of his vinyl collection.

“There’s a lot of people who play guitar, but there’s not a lot of people who are just go-nuts audio nerds,” Freedman said. “I get just as much joy collecting and taking in the music than I think someone playing it would. I think I’m just a big super fan.”

Over years of hanging around CD and vinyl shops in California, Freedman’s constructed a network of record stores around the country where he sends and sells his tapes. Now he buys blank multi-colored audio cassettes from Cryptic Carousel in New York City and records and releases music on them for $5.00.

There’s a magic in the ”crumminess” that comes with a cassette, he said, but he also understands that there’s a format for everybody. His just happens to be a little old school.

“The whole idea I even run Ghoul Tapes is weird to me; it’s all surreal,” he said. “I’m low-key going crazy doing this, but I love it and I can’t imagine doing anything else. Cassettes are my f*cking life.”

kasotelo@syr.edu

Published on February 2, 2016 at 10:35 pm

Contact: kasotelo@syr.edu