As you can imagine, there are a lot of questions that get thrown my way surrounding this label and how it is run.  Below are a few points I should bring up that might shed some light on the matter:

1.) Nobody gets "signed" to the label.  My friend Matt from Majority Rule puts it best: "Contracts are for people who don't trust each other."  The way that a record comes to fruition on Magic Bullet is really simple: I ASK the band if they would like to work together on their next project.  This comes about when the band involved is usually a combination of my friends AND an interesting or revolutionary group of musicians.  I have never released anything under any other premise - not for the money, not for the status, not for anything but the fact that I love the bands and their music and their people.

2.) The only band that asked for me to put out their record (and succeeded) was Boy Sets Fire.  This was because they were (and still are) awesome. 

3.) The only artists/bands who sent in a demo that totally made me want to put out their material right away would be Stephen Brodsky, Meneguar, and Textbook Traitors.  Again, awesome musicians and even more awesome people who have never made me regret a thing.

4.) Truly worthwhile and amazing bands don't just sit around waiting for some label to put out their material.  Every single band I've worked with has put out their own self-released work at some time.  If you want to impress a label, show that you don't need one.

5.) E'mails asking for our "A&R Contact" will be ignored.

6.) E'mails telling us to go check out Myspace profiles or Pure Volume profiles will be deleted. If you must send in a demo, then please do so via regular mail.



 

Magic Bullet started in late 1996.  I was attending Penn State University at the time and was great friends with a band from Newark, DE called Boy Sets Fire.  My friends were getting burned by one of the notable hardcore labels of that era and since we were spending so much time together, the band convinced me to start my own label for the sole purpose of releasing the 6 songs that the other label was clearly dropping the ball on.  They felt that I could do a good job and they knew they could trust me to help them grow.  I scraped together every cent to my name and in early 1997, released the first 1000 copies of Boy Sets Fire's "This Crying, This Screaming, My Voice is Being Born" (in conjunction with a State College label called Rosepetal - now defunct, but at the time, run by a wonderful friend named Jason Weller).  For whatever reason, all of us were instantly thrown into a flurry of activity.  Represses were (and still are) constant, other labels began contacting the band, and distributors began pushing to carry Magic Bullet stuff all over the world.

As time went on, there became more and more resources available to ensure that Magic Bullet could and should be more than a one shot deal.  I felt a strong urge to continue on and help other artists and bands release their music in an environment that was band-centered, ethical, and efficient among many things.  Afterall, I am a musician and I know exactly what would help me as an artist - why change that from the label's perspective?  The idea was to to create an alternative to both mainstream and crooked independent labels (of which there are many) while giving bands all of the benefits they would receive from a "larger" label (without all the debt and pressure).

And we have certainly succeeded at this over the years.  I truly feel that day in and day out, the focus has never wavered.  We continue to put out new and urgent bands that offer both unique sounds and thoughts, we continue to give people value in our releases via great recordings and packaging, and we continue to have the most sincere intentions and operating procedures that you will encounter this side of Dischord.  There are no contracts here, there is no Soundscan, and there is no horseshit.  We just give everyone (from the fans to the bands) what they deserve.

And as more bands of like-minded ethic and tradition spring up, rest assured that Magic Bullet will be there every time to lend a helping hand.