- Mike Force
On the night of June 10, Manic Pop! Records—a Rochester, Minnesota–based indie pop label—ceased to exist. In the midst of a busy release schedule, the label’s internet presence disappeared: Its Facebook page, Twitter account, website, store, and Soundcloud page vanished overnight. To make matters worse, label owner Mike Perry’s personal accounts went dark as well, e-mails bounced and phone lines were suddenly disconnected. It was clear that something was up, and rumors began to fly among the label’s signees.
Within hours, musicians took to Twitter and Facebook to sort through the e-debris; a blog post from Boise, Idaho, band the Very Most yielded some answers. Though Perry was unreachable, his father explained to the band by phone that Manic Pop! had become “extremely overextended financially” and had shut down totally, much to the disappointment of his growing number of fans and his signees—none of whom had any advance notice. As it turns out, many of the bands affected are mainstays in Seattle’s music community, so I got in touch with some of them to talk about their experiences, their forthcoming projects, the strange ways the internet works, and the business of working with a label in 2013. Blooper frontman Adriano Santi, Neighbors singer/guitarist José Diaz, and Mitch Leffler of Zebra Hunt (whose bandmates Erik Bennet and Robert Mercer joined us later) met with me at the Ballard Cupcake Royale, where my interview recording was drowned out by most of Barenaked Ladies’ Stunt.