Jack Stansbury’s (above) Tricot Records releases all its music on cassette.
“When we separate music from life, we get art,” said famous avant-garde composer John Cage.
This theory of sonic detachment — that we need to strip away everyday distractions to conjure something purposeful — is the reason great bands keel over and die at the height of their success. Life oozes into music, and the resulting cocktail is toxic enough to make art an improbable pursuit.
However, senior history major Jack Stansbury’s personal success contradicts this idea. He records under the ambient moniker Dew, a project that amalgamates both digital sound and found sound. It calls to mind everyone from Oneohtrix Point Never to The Books. But he is also the creator of Tricot Records, a College Park label initially designed to showcase and promote both his own musical endeavors and those of people close to him.
“I had some friends who were making music, and I wanted to celebrate and feature that,” Stansbury said. “I wanted them to have something physical that they could give to their friends or sell or have for themselves because [everything] is so digital now. They already have SoundClouds.”
This dedication to tangibility is a major component of the Tricot way. All artists under Stansbury’s watch release music via cassette tape, a stark antithesis and genuine kiss-off to the 21st century ideal of Internet file sharing. But while nostalgia may have been enough fuel to get the project off the ground, Stansbury attests there are bigger things on the horizon.
“College Park is a state school, and it doesn’t have an art-school vibe,” he said. “I kind of wanted to show that there’s people doing cool stuff here and start a little bit of a scene.”
Operating out of his home he calls “the cottage,” a small house just east of the MARC train tracks, Stansbury began working on the idea of this “scene” in small bits. The initial order of business was releasing the first EP by Sunset Theme, the bedroom-pop act of fellow classmate Alex Mamunes, a senior biology major. Both Mamunes and Stansbury go way back, which made the move only natural.
“I’ve been recording music with Jack since high school,” Mamunes said. “We’ve always tried to start stuff and it [wouldn’t] work out, but so far [Tricot] feels really good.”
Expansion beyond Sunset Theme included Morgan Spanner, a Towson student who writes stripped-down indie pop, and Wapinitia, the lo-fi project from junior journalism major Daniel Gallen (a senior staff writer for The Diamondback), as well as Stansbury’s own Dew.
Spanner, in particular, attested to Tricot’s help giving her the inspiration to record again on a consistent basis.
“I used to play a lot of open mic nights in Baltimore, but that was two years ago,” she said. “I was extremely flattered when Jack asked if he could put my music on a tape because I hadn’t done a lot in a while.”
Gallen’s connection to Tricot, while equally as positive as Spanner’s, is less about inspiration and more about focus and palpability.
“[Tricot] gives everything a purpose,” he said. “It’s like, ‘I’m going to write this stuff, record it and put it out.’ It’s something you’re putting your music toward besides just playing a show.”
A sense of purpose, right now, is fueling any future goals Stansbury may have for Tricot. Yes, he does see it as an outlet through which he can feature both his own work and his peers’ while dabbling in a mid-’80s nostalgic haze of cassette tapes, handmade posters and dirt-cheap merchandising. But down the road, he has hopes of creating a grander affair. Stansbury’s lasting legacy may, in fact, prove to be less about the label itself and more about his influence on local musicians who have something to say but lack the forum to say it.
“I’d just like College Park to be on the map,” he said. “And [I’d like] people to pay attention to College Park musicians and for the scene to grow and develop.”
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