In “History Lesson Part II,” the Minutemen nailed down the punk ethos with their classic line: “Our band could be your life.” Now a decade since its formation, the founders of Trekky Records, Will Hackney and Martin Anderson, have pretty much realized this aspiration.
The inception of TRKfest and Trekky’s origins sounds too good to be true, like an idealized fiction about what independent music ought to be. But the label’s flagship event, now in its fourth incarnation, is more a labor of love than extreme ambition—a tweaking of the maxim, keep your friends close, keep your friends involved in quality musical projects even closer.
Hackney and Anderson started their label in middle school as a means of releasing their own bands’ music. Since the beginning, Trekky has centered on the music of local friends’ circles; the quality of their output now is serendipitous, benefitting from an above average talent pool of burgeoning young musicians who have fortunately stayed local. Some of the artists playing TRKfest, members of bands like Butterflies and Embarrassing Fruits, have played together since childhood and are now signed with and employed by the label.
“Most of us have been really rooted in Chapel Hill, where a lot of our families live and stuff,” Anderson said. “It’s an evolving thing—a little bit of the old guard, but also people we meet along the way that resonate with us musically and personally. We’re open to new people to welcome to the family.”
Longtime friends and Durham music staples Midtown Dickens formalized their relationship with Trekky, officially signing on just a month ago, although Hackney’s been playing mandolin with the group much longer than that.
“With local labels, people help each other out a whole lot before—or even if—they decide to become part of the roster,” said Kym Register of Midtown Dickens. Register and her band are preceding their TRKfest appearance with a West Coast tour where they will support the Mountain Goats, a well-known folk band signed to independent music giants Merge Records.
The Mountain Goats leader, Durham resident John Darnielle, “is really bent on taking local bands that he likes with him [on tour],” Register said.
In the same vein, TRKfest will feature bands outside Trekky’s official artist roster. Those familiar with Triangle music will recognize names like Bowerbirds, Hammer No More the Fingers and Mount Moriah. But for a music circle this close, official label sponsorship seems like a mere technicality; among TRKfest musical alumni are people Hackney’s gotten rides to school from and who Anderson has had as camp counselors.
“They’re all about friendship and the community thing—more important than anything else,” Register said. “They do so much to help out, it makes it easy to want to volunteer and give something back.”
The community values and friendships extend beyond the artists involved to the venue and vendors. TRKfest’s original venue, Piedmont Biofuels in Pittsboro, will continue to host the event on its outdoor premises. In many ways this is the quintessential space for a summer festival. Trekky’s other flagship event, Christmas at the Cradle, is held at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, but Anderson and Hackney knew they wanted to host TRKfest in an unconventional space.
“It’s such a cool place to go—you drive down this long windy road and all of a sudden it opens up and you’re in this weird little industrial hippie town. It’s a great spot at night—a perfect, unique location,” Anderson said.
The connection to Piedmont, situated well outside the normal Triangle stomping grounds, was itself fortuitous. Starting in 2007, they began hosting shows and movie nights during the summer, and Trekky affiliates first got wind of the place after attending performances by Phosphorescent and Castanets in early 2007.
Piedmont Biofuels employee Chris Jude has been active in outreach to local musicians and witnessed TRKfest since its beginning. He described the space as the perfect, non-corporate venue.
“We have a strange mix of industry and nature here, so when we host a show, it’s like industrial plant, organic farm and tons of people dancing and listening to great music, it’s wild and very unique,” Jude wrote in an email. “We believe in a different way of being at Piedmont, so TRKfest is a great example of that.”
Concerted efforts to keep TRKfest sustainable and local also include serving food and drink only in compostable or reusable containers. Participating vendors like Only Burger and Angela’s Kitchen will offer organic and local foods; Carolina Brewery’s food and beer will even be served by employees who also work for Trekky—“a lot of us have worked there forever in the food house,” Anderson said.
Handmade art and goods from local artists will round out the mix of good conscience partnerships. Last year, around 850 people attended TRKfest, a free event that asks for donations to help support their internal label operations as well as Piedmont Biofuels.
The consistency of these values and business model is almost uncanny, but it is not the result of any intentional buzzword branding. It is simpler than that—harnessing the wealth of local talent present in their friendships, and community comes easy to guys as young and well-liked as Hackney and Anderson.
“Community and [TRKfest] goes beyond just a music scene,” Anderson said. “It’s pulling our world into one place for one summer day.”
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