Newz from Big Heavy World

By Tonya West

Amidst the Monday night chatter before an open mic at Radio Bean, 28-year old Vermont native andre.W discussed creating the independent label candyhammer lo-fi.: the “not so hi that you can’t do-it-yourself, not so lo that quality is compromised” record label. Three of its eight projects – Mac Dates and The Moderates, andre.W and Pink Crucifix – will be released July 21 at The Monkey House in Winooski.

I had come to this interview prepared with a riot of questions. A week prior andre.W had turned over the eight discs all within their own Nexpak case – the paperback-sized packaging that TV shows on DVD come in. Opening each was like the unexpected present of discovering that it’s really $11 you just found in an old pair of jeans and not $2. The covers, inside and out, are self-designed, some with chapbook-style lyrics, others with vinyl stickers, each with a presence of its own.

Inspired by Trent Reznor, the motor behind the machine of Nine Inch Nails, andre.W explained what fascinated him about starting a label. “Trent is an icon of a whole genre. He made his first album at a studio that he was the janitor at. He started his own label, gave his artists their own control. Seeing that led to my urge to do something like that.” Well, that and the mere fact he so aptly put, “I wanted my own backlog of albums to have somewhere to go, rather than sit around, go nowhere, and rot.”

andre.W has literally carted around a shoebox of recordings for over a decade from the most recent material previously mentioned and four other bands he was involved with – Yellow Squares, Nathanial Superfly, Transformers for Girls, and Cartoon Radio.

The Big Heavy World / Vermont Music Library office was visited this week by a delegation of Pakistani Fulbright Scholars participating in the University of Vermont's International Student Institute (ISI). Eight guests got the tour from Ryan, hearing about the projects we do as part of the ISI curriculum of discovering what's unique about America's - and Vermont's - politics, economy, society and culture. The work at Big Heavy World and our Vermont Music Library is accomplished by volunteers and at the same time gives younger adults the chance to pick up professional music industry and media skills. It was nice to share our kind of civic engagement with new friends from so far away. Special thanks to the Center for Communities and Neighborhoods for doing so much of the work of organizing the visit!