Shockoe Records staff and supporters celebrate the 150th show of Shockoe Sessions, the weekly concert series that’s now under the record label’s umbrella. (Dave Parrish Photography)
Roughly a year since spinning out of a downtown sound studio, record label Shockoe Records is turning up the volume with a new business partner in the mix, more artists on its roster and a week’s worth of events aimed at amping up Richmond’s music scene.
The indie label that formed out of In Your Ear Studios is marking its first year in business, albeit coincidentally, with a cluster of concerts that kick off today and continue through the inaugural Richmond Music Week, an eight-day celebration of the local music scene.
In addition to a midweek show that’s part of its Shockoe Sessions Live concert series, Shockoe Records is putting on two events bookending Richmond Music Week: 804 Day, a multistage music festival at 17th Street Market (the name a play on the Aug. 4 date and on Richmond’s area code); and RVA Rapper’s Delight, a concert at the Hippodrome Aug. 11 highlighting the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
The events cap off a productive first year for the label, which has added two artists to its original roster of five, and added a new business partner, Alex Martin, who joined Shockoe Records as an investor and co-owner earlier this year.
Alex Martin
The CEO and founder of Ashland-based broadcast and production supplier Digital Video Group, Martin brought with him a business sense and an infusion of capital that Shockoe Records’ Carlos Chafin said was needed to really get the label rolling.
“We needed about $100,000 just to get the elephant moving in the correct direction,” said Chafin, who started the label with Craig Martin and Queon Martin (the three Martins are not related). “As personal investors, we were capable of coming up with something close to half of that comfortably, and then we were like, ‘Nope, we need to have other people invested in it.’”
Known to Chafin and Craig Martin through previous business dealings, Alex Martin came into the picture initially as a sponsor of Shockoe Sessions and then as a prospective investor. Having played in bands in high school, and with the growth of his business since he founded it 20 years ago, Alex said he jumped at the opportunity to reconnect with and support the local music scene.
“Music’s always just been an important part of my life,” he said. “They just needed somebody that comes from a larger business side of the industry, and they approached me about becoming a partner in helping them grow the company. I felt very fortunate to be able to do that.”
Alex declined to say how much he put into the company in both capital investment and additional equipment. He said the deal, for him, was about more than money.
“The biggest thing they needed was some financing, but the more important part to me that I made sure I told them is I’m in this 100 percent,” he said. “Whether it’s folding chairs after Shockoe Sessions or working the merch table or being involved with the talent, I want to be part of it and get my hands dirty.”
On hand for the contract signing were, from left: Carlos Chafin, Reese Williams, Alex Martin, Andrea Buchheit and Craig Martin. (Photo courtesy Shockoe Records)
Alex’s addition was welcomed by Chafin and the other Martins, who structured the label’s business model as more of a co-op than for-profit, where the artists are considered part of the company by providing an equal amount of investment.
The artist takes full profits after the label’s contribution is recouped, and the label makes money from the artists’ sales of CDs, vinyl, merchandise, sync licensing and specialty services provided for the artists.
“This is an experiment, but with Alex’s infusion of cash, we are doing OK,” Chafin said. “We’re not printing money, but we’re also not going broke either. We’ve got operating capital and we’re doing just fine.”
Ms. Jaylin Brown performing on Shockoe Sessions. (Image courtesy Shockoe Records)
Further adding to the mix are two new artists on the label: music producer Ant the Symbol, who’s curating the RVA Rapper’s Delight show; and neo-soul and jazz singer-songwriter Ms. Jaylin Brown. They join labelmates Rodney “the Soul Singer” Stith, rapper Chance Fischer, jazz pianist Weldon Hill, folk group Holy River, and blues-and-roots group Elizabeth Wise and Her Guys.
Over the past year, the label has held album release parties for Wise and Stith at venues such as Hardywood brewery and the Hippodrome. Stith, a Petersburg native, saw his Shockoe Records-produced “The Soul Chronicles of Rodney Stith” album reach No. 2 on London-based Starpoint Radio’s UK Soul Chart in February.
Ant the Symbol, the stage name of Richmond native Anthony Gillison, finished his album “I Know Who I Am” after signing with Shockoe Records in January. He said the label’s promotion and marketing, with support from Plan 9 Records’ Jim Bland and others in the Shockoe Records circle, have had an immediate impact.
Ant the Symbol performing in a Shockoe Sessions show. (Dave Parrish Photography)
“My album was already 80 percent finished and I was generating a little buzz about it, but that buzz just went astronomically through the roof,” Gillison said. “I was able to do a lot of different things. I never had my own merchandise tangibly. I would do it through Bonfire, but I never had T-shirts and stickers (in-hand).”
The label also has taken on the Shockoe Sessions concert series, which had been under the umbrella of In Your Ear. Chafin said the move was needed to separate the recording business he co-founded in 1990 and has based in Shockoe Bottom for two decades.
The eclectic concert series, which started in 2016 as a business-networking event and continued virtually during the pandemic, held its 150th show last month. It continues to be streamed live with a small in-studio audience. In Your Ear’s Andrea Buchheit directs the weekly show and Shockoe Records’ Reese Williams hosts each session. Williams also serves as the label’s business manager.
As for Richmond Music Week and its associated events, Chafin said they weren’t intended to coincide with the label’s first-year anniversary, but that the timing is fitting in how the events grew out of the label’s launch last summer.
Rodney ‘the Soul Singer’ Stith on stage at the Hippodrome. (Shockoe Records)
“We’re about hyperlocal musical entertainment and activity and artist development, so 804 Day fits perfectly within our model,” Chafin said.
804 Day evolved out of an overture from Rebecca Phillips with the city’s parks and recreation department, who oversees programming for 17th Street Market, Craig said.
“She invited us in to do that, which is really cool,” he said. “I think it comes back to our mission, which is to support artists who are diverse in their makeup, diverse in their music, and we embrace the idea that this is a contribution to our community. We want the City of Richmond, but specifically the neighborhoods and places like Shockoe Bottom, to be successful and to grow in a positive way.”
Featuring three stages and 18 performers, 804 Day starts at 4 p.m. today and includes performances by Shockoe Records artists and others. The free event will be held in and around 17th Street Market and areas beside the Main Street Station train shed.
Richmond Music Week is a collaboration of several organizations including HearRVA, Virginia Tourism and Shockoe Records. Daily events and more information can be found here. RVA Rapper’s Delight, a ticketed concert, starts at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at the Hippodrome with a lineup that includes local rapper Nickelus F.
Shockoe Records staff and supporters celebrate the 150th show of Shockoe Sessions, the weekly concert series that’s now under the record label’s umbrella. (Dave Parrish Photography)
Roughly a year since spinning out of a downtown sound studio, record label Shockoe Records is turning up the volume with a new business partner in the mix, more artists on its roster and a week’s worth of events aimed at amping up Richmond’s music scene.
The indie label that formed out of In Your Ear Studios is marking its first year in business, albeit coincidentally, with a cluster of concerts that kick off today and continue through the inaugural Richmond Music Week, an eight-day celebration of the local music scene.
In addition to a midweek show that’s part of its Shockoe Sessions Live concert series, Shockoe Records is putting on two events bookending Richmond Music Week: 804 Day, a multistage music festival at 17th Street Market (the name a play on the Aug. 4 date and on Richmond’s area code); and RVA Rapper’s Delight, a concert at the Hippodrome Aug. 11 highlighting the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
The events cap off a productive first year for the label, which has added two artists to its original roster of five, and added a new business partner, Alex Martin, who joined Shockoe Records as an investor and co-owner earlier this year.
Alex Martin
The CEO and founder of Ashland-based broadcast and production supplier Digital Video Group, Martin brought with him a business sense and an infusion of capital that Shockoe Records’ Carlos Chafin said was needed to really get the label rolling.
“We needed about $100,000 just to get the elephant moving in the correct direction,” said Chafin, who started the label with Craig Martin and Queon Martin (the three Martins are not related). “As personal investors, we were capable of coming up with something close to half of that comfortably, and then we were like, ‘Nope, we need to have other people invested in it.’”
Known to Chafin and Craig Martin through previous business dealings, Alex Martin came into the picture initially as a sponsor of Shockoe Sessions and then as a prospective investor. Having played in bands in high school, and with the growth of his business since he founded it 20 years ago, Alex said he jumped at the opportunity to reconnect with and support the local music scene.
“Music’s always just been an important part of my life,” he said. “They just needed somebody that comes from a larger business side of the industry, and they approached me about becoming a partner in helping them grow the company. I felt very fortunate to be able to do that.”
Alex declined to say how much he put into the company in both capital investment and additional equipment. He said the deal, for him, was about more than money.
“The biggest thing they needed was some financing, but the more important part to me that I made sure I told them is I’m in this 100 percent,” he said. “Whether it’s folding chairs after Shockoe Sessions or working the merch table or being involved with the talent, I want to be part of it and get my hands dirty.”
On hand for the contract signing were, from left: Carlos Chafin, Reese Williams, Alex Martin, Andrea Buchheit and Craig Martin. (Photo courtesy Shockoe Records)
Alex’s addition was welcomed by Chafin and the other Martins, who structured the label’s business model as more of a co-op than for-profit, where the artists are considered part of the company by providing an equal amount of investment.
The artist takes full profits after the label’s contribution is recouped, and the label makes money from the artists’ sales of CDs, vinyl, merchandise, sync licensing and specialty services provided for the artists.
“This is an experiment, but with Alex’s infusion of cash, we are doing OK,” Chafin said. “We’re not printing money, but we’re also not going broke either. We’ve got operating capital and we’re doing just fine.”
Ms. Jaylin Brown performing on Shockoe Sessions. (Image courtesy Shockoe Records)
Further adding to the mix are two new artists on the label: music producer Ant the Symbol, who’s curating the RVA Rapper’s Delight show; and neo-soul and jazz singer-songwriter Ms. Jaylin Brown. They join labelmates Rodney “the Soul Singer” Stith, rapper Chance Fischer, jazz pianist Weldon Hill, folk group Holy River, and blues-and-roots group Elizabeth Wise and Her Guys.
Over the past year, the label has held album release parties for Wise and Stith at venues such as Hardywood brewery and the Hippodrome. Stith, a Petersburg native, saw his Shockoe Records-produced “The Soul Chronicles of Rodney Stith” album reach No. 2 on London-based Starpoint Radio’s UK Soul Chart in February.
Ant the Symbol, the stage name of Richmond native Anthony Gillison, finished his album “I Know Who I Am” after signing with Shockoe Records in January. He said the label’s promotion and marketing, with support from Plan 9 Records’ Jim Bland and others in the Shockoe Records circle, have had an immediate impact.
Ant the Symbol performing in a Shockoe Sessions show. (Dave Parrish Photography)
“My album was already 80 percent finished and I was generating a little buzz about it, but that buzz just went astronomically through the roof,” Gillison said. “I was able to do a lot of different things. I never had my own merchandise tangibly. I would do it through Bonfire, but I never had T-shirts and stickers (in-hand).”
The label also has taken on the Shockoe Sessions concert series, which had been under the umbrella of In Your Ear. Chafin said the move was needed to separate the recording business he co-founded in 1990 and has based in Shockoe Bottom for two decades.
The eclectic concert series, which started in 2016 as a business-networking event and continued virtually during the pandemic, held its 150th show last month. It continues to be streamed live with a small in-studio audience. In Your Ear’s Andrea Buchheit directs the weekly show and Shockoe Records’ Reese Williams hosts each session. Williams also serves as the label’s business manager.
As for Richmond Music Week and its associated events, Chafin said they weren’t intended to coincide with the label’s first-year anniversary, but that the timing is fitting in how the events grew out of the label’s launch last summer.
Rodney ‘the Soul Singer’ Stith on stage at the Hippodrome. (Shockoe Records)
“We’re about hyperlocal musical entertainment and activity and artist development, so 804 Day fits perfectly within our model,” Chafin said.
804 Day evolved out of an overture from Rebecca Phillips with the city’s parks and recreation department, who oversees programming for 17th Street Market, Craig said.
“She invited us in to do that, which is really cool,” he said. “I think it comes back to our mission, which is to support artists who are diverse in their makeup, diverse in their music, and we embrace the idea that this is a contribution to our community. We want the City of Richmond, but specifically the neighborhoods and places like Shockoe Bottom, to be successful and to grow in a positive way.”
Featuring three stages and 18 performers, 804 Day starts at 4 p.m. today and includes performances by Shockoe Records artists and others. The free event will be held in and around 17th Street Market and areas beside the Main Street Station train shed.
Richmond Music Week is a collaboration of several organizations including HearRVA, Virginia Tourism and Shockoe Records. Daily events and more information can be found here. RVA Rapper’s Delight, a ticketed concert, starts at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at the Hippodrome with a lineup that includes local rapper Nickelus F.
What a wonderful way to wrap up the week with both local ballet and rock music stories. Thanks for all the good news. There ain’t nothin’ but bad news on TV!
Couldn’t agree more!