From releasing singles with friend’s bands, to building an internationally-recognized record label.
When all of your friends are in bands and you can’t play an instrument or sing, what do you do? For me, the answer was clear: start a label like the ones I’d followed in high school and document the music they were making. The first release featured friends from my high school. Then bands that I met because of them. One record a year followed, which was all that I could afford until my roommates in Boston started what would become one of the most influential hardcore punk bands of the 2000s, American Nightmare.
I joined American Nightmare on tour in the U.S. and all over Europe, meeting bands in other cities and countries. Dozens of albums followed, from bands like Terror, Defeater, Death Before Dishonor, Ceremony, and Have Heart. Then albums from bands like H2O, New Found Glory, Slapshot, and Agnostic Front.
Bridge Nine went from a grassroots indie record label to one that was celebrated worldwide, but it didn’t happen overnight and it required the financial backing of a generation of Boston sports fans.
-
Starting an indie record label from a bedroom.
It started in a bedroom in 1995. Pressing the music made by my friend’s bands onto vinyl records and helping build awareness for them one fan at a time.
-
Documenting the best punk bands in the world by releasing hundreds of albums.
Those early bands gained momentum, and word of the Bridge Nine label spread. New bands wanted the push we were giving, and our reach expanded as they began to tour worldwide.
-
Becoming a worldwide recognized brand.
Now almost thirty years after we started, Bridge Nine is a name that is associated with the best hardcore punk bands in the world, with a following that was built organically and on our own terms.
