Jean here, 

                 I grew up in vinyl pressing plants, green rooms, recording studios, printing houses, on tours, stages and watching my mother run her own fully independent record label out of our apartment - as well as raising a family, managing her own career. Just shy of 30 years ago, I pressed up vinyl for the musical group I was in, with the record bearing my mothers label name: Ekapa. I’ve had over 27 audio releases (the majority created entirely myself) hundreds of features, and I’ve been producing/composing/arranging/engineering and performing even before 1996 - for myself, others, independent and commercial products.

Creating during a time of massive technological advances, I’ve always been at the forefront of finding new, innovative ways to release my works as independently as possible. And although I’ve pressed up one off dubplates for shows and had vinyl distributed - somehow, I never did a vinyl run of my own, fully independently. I have also never created a completely instrumental project (for myself.) Or, high quality goods - by my standards.  

As independent artists, so many times we're forced by deadlines of capitalistic threats and survival to release projects and products (even independently) that only keep food on the table, and don't live up to our standards and dreams. Or, to sign up with middle men and corporations that squash both our income and our artistic freedoms/visions - even if they seem like artist forward options. I've done that countless times, and it's broken my heart every single time. We are all not small (you too) and our ideas are not small.  

I say all this to let you know that I am not new to this general game, nor am I new to playing outside of the box - that's where I live. 212 Outside The Box Street, lol. BUT, I am new to the speed and quality level I demand from things I put out, and consume. This is not fast, mass consumption, mass produced shit. I am taking my time, and only interested in delivering small batch, high quality works. From the content to the packaging, paper, seams, smells and everything in between. If we are designing and building our worlds, we should do it in the ways that correctly reflect ourselves and our audiences.   

I like nice, fancy things. I want you to have nice, fancy things that I create. And as we see the rise of artists reclaiming their works from middle men and corporations, we know that it's past time to go to direct support for those nice things. AS WELL as support NON AI materials and tangible goods. We are all making investments in our lives and the future, so let's do it right. Fuck boxes, limiting genres, and a system designed to keep our dreams small. Again, we are all bigger than that. 

Thanks so much for your support and your time. I hope you are inclined to get further into slow, intentional, immersive world building with me.