When Wire first opened in 2013, it became clear that Berwyn was turning into a booming music corridor. The venue’s neighbor up the street, FitzGerald’s, had already been successful in town for decades. The owners of Wire have decided to take the concept a step further by incorporating a recording label. To that end, on Oct. 16, Wire will host a release party for Wire Recorders, the venue’s new label, unveiling new EPs from three artists: singer-songwriter Terry White, the classic R&B stylings of Everybody Says Yes and the art-rock of Pipes.
The project is spearheaded by Chris Neville, one of the Wire partners, who is also lead singer and keyboardist for the cover band Tributosaurus.
“The idea of the whole facility in general is that it’s never supposed to be just one aspect of the music community,” Neville says.
While the idea of the Wire record company was always lingering in the background, it took one of the company’s artists to bring it to fruition. John Fournier has been a veteran of several bands on the Chicago-area scene for years, but in the last three, he’s been prominent with a band called Everybody Says Yes.
“I wanted to get more support for our next record. I approached Chris Neville and I said, ‘Man, you should start a label out of Wire.’ That was part of their business model already; they just hadn’t done it yet. So it was kind of fortuitous that I suggested it to him one night,” Oak Parker Fournier says.
Fournier likens the idea of the label to the smaller, hit-driven companies of the past, who set their sights locally. “It kind of goes back to the Stax/Motown/Chess model. You’ve got guys who are a production team with a studio, helping artists that are very much from the area.”
One of the interesting things about Wire’s flagship acts is that, in a move reminiscent of the “mini-LPs” of the ’80s, they’re all being introduced via EPs rather than full-length releases, with five short songs designed to show off their stuff.
“Whatever I personally need to say, I can say in five songs,” Fournier says.
Neville elaborated, “Part of that is by design. It’s tough to put together, in a reasonable amount of time, a full album that has a coherent thread and a level of quality. Also, the business has changed so much. The album is not as important as it used to be.”
Noticing how many artists release individual tracks online, Neville observes that “that seems to be the way the industry is working now. In a lot of ways, it’s a better way. It allows you to find out what people are liking about what you’re doing, find out what you’re liking about what you’re doing, and kind of pursue those angles much quicker. It’s a way for people to be more engaged with artists directly. You could never do that in the past. I could never tweet at Robert Plant and say, ‘I like what you did,’ it wasn’t going to happen!” Neville jokes.
On Oct. 16, Wire Recorders will do market research the old-fashioned way — by presenting its acts to the public in their own space.
“I think Wire Recorders is going to make some noise,” Fournier says.
Wire Recorders launch party
8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16
Wire, 6815 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn
More Top Picks Best Gym Bags For Men