Beneath the Loop, in a small room in the West Union Building jammed with rolls of Freewater films, instruction manuals, musical equipment and psychedelic banners, Duke's first record label has opened its doors.
A combination of various things-a word from an alumnus who expressed regret for not opening a label, a campus leadership course and a disappointment in the campus musical culture-led to the creation of Small Town Records.
"When we started, the music culture was decentralized, sidelined and fragmented," said Dan Corkum, a sophomore, who co-founded the label with former high school classmate and fellow sophomore Colin Tierney, a former recess staffer. "Four or five groups were convinced that they were the music scene, but other little pockets were all around."
Most of all, they shared a disappointment in music scene around campus.
Tierney and Corkum said they see themselves not so much as a record label in the traditional sense, but as a forum for musicians at the University.
"We're formulating this thing that is basically just helping musicians here," Tierney explained. "We'll go in any way we can to do so. We're offering recording time and we're making a compilation album later this year, as soon as we have enough recordings."
The compilation will feature tracks from campus bands working with the label.
Early in his time at the University, Tierney had exchanged e-mails with Ethan Schiffres, Trinity '05, now a marketing and A&R representative for Everfine Records (home of fratboy favorites O.A.R.), who expressed disappointment that his time at Duke didn't include starting a label for the campus.
Corkum and Tierney then began formulating a plan to do what Schiffres hadn't, starting the project in Public Policy Professor Tony Brown's Enterprising Leadership class, which they took their first semester-the same class that birthed Rival Magazine, the Center for Race Relations and Project XY.
"[Brown] helped this thing form in a lot of ways and opened a lot of doors for us," Corkum said. "We made a 30-page business plan and outlined why it was needed on campus. The class gave us a lot of focus."
The idea kept growing, mostly by word of mouth. They said they were overwhelmed by support given to them by not only the campus musicians but also the University's administration. Small Town Records became a committee of the Duke University Union in one-tenth the time it took the Duke Coffeehouse-three months compared to three years. That gave them the financial security to look at the project in the long term, they said, with funds to maintain the studio and replace broken instruments. In addition, they have been implemented into the plans for the new Central Campus as part of a unified student media building that will includes The Chronicle's offices and radio station WXDU.
They also stated an interest in creating a hub for student performers.
"We're trying to create a centralized system and an infrastructure for musicians here," Corkum said. "It's hard to make it off any college campus, but at Duke in particular [is difficult]. There wasn't much in place in terms of guidance and in terms of resources or even places to practice."
Small Town Records is not an idea original to Duke. Black Squirrel Records at Haverford College, Heavy Rotation Records at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Gallatone Records at New York University and Veritas Records at Harvard University were all predecessors to Small Town. Heavy Rotation in particular-whose faculty advisor, Jeff Dorenfeld, once managed the band Boston-guided Corkum and Tierney early on, after the would-be impresarios contacted the label seeking advice.
And the name? It stems from their shared past at the tony Milton Academy near Boston.
"It's actually a reference to Boston," Tierney said. "A lot of people call it the 'little big city'. It's actually a pretty small place, you run into people you know. We wanted to conjure up the feeling of community we're trying to create here."
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