Services
We’ll (try to) help.
Artists make stuff. Whether it’s pop songs or a huge, sculptural installation, having to manage the real life parts of art - chase people by email, line up a venue for an event, come up with cash for a record pressing, or track down a piece of niche gear for a session - is a drag, and making the thing should be number one.
All the fiddly shit that comes with being an artist kind of sucks. Nobody picks up a guitar or a paint brush and thinks, “I can’t wait to write my first press release.” Nobody makes a record they believe in so they can realize, with no small dash of disappointment, that they’re a few hundred bucks short of what they need to release it on their dream format.
Strange Library Records is a small operation, and we can’t solve all problems entirely ourselves. But we can help - sometimes a lot, sometimes a little - in ways ranging from detail management up to putting out a record. If you’ve got something you’re working on, something you want to work on, or something you don’t have the patience to deal with relative to a project you love, get in touch. We might be able to help.
Logistics
After a few decades of making records and gigging in New England, some things have gotten easier by virtue of first-hand experience, or by living through mistakes. Can’t find the amp you need for a session? Maybe we can. Don’t have the patience to line up everybody’s schedule for a recording, photo shoot, or gig? We’re good at that. Trying to find a venue for your release show that won’t make you want to die? We’ve been there, and we’ll make sure there’s a seat on the can at the place we line up.
Production & Arrangement
Nobody hires producers anymore. They’re (normally) expensive, it isn’t clear what they have to offer, and it’s one more thing you’re stuck on the hook for at the end of a really expensive process.
We think producing records is as much an art as writing them, recording them, and mixing them. It’s a process of translation as much as discovery - what’s in here, and how can we make it shine the brightest?
We’ve produced records in genres of all kinds, from folk to shoegaze to noise. There’s a common thread running through them all, though: reverence for the work and for the artist. We aren’t going to make you sound like another artist we worked with, we’re going to help your record sound like itself.
If you’re trying to make a record and are stuck on arrangements, we can help. Bring as little as chord changes on paper and we can make something really cool together.
If you’ve said something like “I want to make a record that sounds like that one album by Bigwig from 2001, but can’t figure out what distortion(s), what amp(s), and what guitars they used, so my album doesn’t sound anything like that one album by Bigwig from 2001 and I’m bumming hard,” that’s something we’re really good at. That’s producing an album. Translating the language so you can focus on speaking it.
If you’ve got peanuts or less for a budget, we’re probably still interested.
Management
Booking shows sucks, booking the studio sucks, answering emails sucks, re-ordering merch sucks, renting the van sucks, it all sucks. We’re just trying to make stuff but we get stuck with all this SHIT to do. We’re not publicists by trade, but we can help with all the horrible “how to submit my new single to X playlist, I want to die thinking about this” stuff, too.
We’re good at email and we’re good at keeping track of the details. If you’re tired of herding cats, we might be able to help.
Graphic Design
From album layouts to stickers, we love making visual content. Whether we shot the photos, worked on the record, or went to grade school together, we can work with varying budgets and dreams of all shapes and sizes.
Photography
Tired of trying to book a photo shoot and some photographer quoting you enough for a destination wedding on the moon Titan with a second shooter that may be Anton Corbijn? We’ll work with most budgets to get you what you need. Sure - we can’t shoot every band at a reproduction of a Kubrik set while we all chug champagne, but we can probably design a good shoot without blowing your budget to pieces and without you walking away with a handful of photos taken on a cellphone that look like stills from a Tim & Eric sketch. If you’ve got an idea for your shoot already: awesome, let’s do it. If you want help coming up with something, we can do that, too. Live shows welcome. Just get us in the door.