Barn Burner Records is now officially owned and operated by Steve Layman, the only artist we have currently released an album for. He is moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the end of the month. To celebrate his move and new musical endeavors; he wants to offer up his first album Hope Is All We Have for 5 dollars on any of the available color variants of vinyl we possess. To read the full story, click “read more”.

http://barnburnerrecords.bandcamp.com/

http://stevelayman.tumblr.com/

https://www.facebook.com/stevelaymanmusic

https://barnburnerrecords.limitedrun.com

https://www.facebook.com/barnburnerrecords

In the spring of 2012, I received a text message from my good friend Tony Bucci, at the time coffee nerd extraordinaire in Albany and starting his newest project Broken Field Runner. He asked “How’s your record coming along, dude?” to which I replied “It’s written, but I want to arrange more full band stuff for it. It’s close to being done, I think”.



“Is anyone working to release it?”

“I’m not even a blip on a blip in the music business, so no, not really.”

“Can I release it?”



Tony, Ron Grieco and I spent the next eighteen months arranging, tracking, mixing and coordinating the release of my debut full length, Hope Is All We Have out digitally and physically on vinyl. At first we were going to split the responsibilities evenly and everything would be done in a collectivist manner. As time went on and deadlines rapidly approached, I found myself coordinating payments with the pressing plants, audio engineers and graphic designers while slowly tracking my album four hours every week for about twenty weeks. What started as an egalitarian partnership quickly became me being the brains of the operation with my fancy music industry degree from SUNY Oneonta while my good friends became my most valued benefactors. The record came out without a hitch, we played a handful of full band shows together, had an endless amount of fun and learned an endless amount of valuable and practical lessons from the experience of releasing an album.

Currently, Ron is the co-owner of Stacks Espresso Bar located at 260 Lark Street in Albany NY. Tony is working on releasing his debut album with Broken Field Runner “Clear A Heaven So This Earth Can Breathe” while helping educate the homeless population of Albany with the non profit organization Living Resources New York. Needless to say, these individuals are far too busy with work true to their hearts to run a DIY record label. They were impressed with the quality and dedication I gave the release of my album and decided amongst themselves that I should be the sole proprietor of Barn Burner Records indefinitely.

I have been conversing with my talented friends across the nation about their musical projects. We’ve discussed their current writing habits, tour plans and the level of devotion they give their bands as well as the possibility that I may one day release their music the way they envision it being released. Currently, there is no definitive course of action set in stone.

In the mean time, I am boldly going where no record label has gone before and wholeheartedly encouraging unsolicited submission from musicians anywhere and everywhere on this big ball of water and dirt. Be warned, I don’t intend to work with artists who treat music as a hobby. I want bands that pour every last ounce of who they are and who they want to be into every line, note and botched take in the recording studio. I want to work alongside the musicians that would have ended their lives if they were forced to sell their gear to survive. If you have a record you’re literally dying to release, send it my way at barnburnerrecs(at)gmail(dot)com



As you may tell from the girth of the sails that I’ve put into this “press release”, I am going to also take a stab at “music journalism”. I have always thought that I had a penchant for writing things (I mean, I’ve written over 30 songs since HIAWH came out last October) and quite frankly I don’t think journalists are doing the artists they write about semantic justice. I want to make sure everything those artists mean to say can be articulated fully on a shiny screen that you can read as your buttocks grasps porcelain following the first cup of coffee. The bands that submit their work to me that shake my guts up will be noted. Those notes will be published here for anyone to read and I sincerely hope you’ll follow me and read the words and then ideally be shaken by some unknown artists’ music.

If you gain anything from reading these words, I hope it’s the knowledge that you don’t need anyone’s permission to do what you love. As long as your actions do not harm anyone/anything around you, do exactly what you fucking want all of the fucking time. I hope you’ll stick around as I do exactly that. Thank you for reading. Take care.