Murray Stassen
Drag City don’t chase hit records. What they look for in a new signing – according to Rian Murphy, the man at the helm of this storied Chicagobased business – is “someone with a sense of humour”. Humour doesn’t pay the bills, though, unless you’re a comedian, of course, and the vast catalogue of music this company has released is no joke.
However, Murphy’s brief answer to the question of how he would define a typical Drag City signing sums up the sense of community the label has developed over nearly three decades. If an artist shares the company’s outlook – whether that’s in terms of humour, creative freedom or acceptance of the collective weirdness of all the other individuals on the label combined – then there’s a good chance they’ll be working together for a long time, regardless of how ‘inaccessible’ their records may sound.
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