Omaha's Indie Rockers
In 1993, a group of high school
friends and neighbors pooled their talent for making music into a home-grown
record label. What began as a handful of homemade cassette tapes distributed
by a small group of buddies has turned into the multimillion dollar company
of today, Omaha’s Saddle Creek Records.
Story by Molly Garriott, Photography
by Mike Whye
They performed in Omaha’s clubs
and coffee shops and recorded their music at home using old-fashioned portable
tape machines. No one knew it at the time, but it was the start of something
big.
Alternative rock was thriving in the
early 1990s, bringing small, independent (“indie”) record labels
into the mainstream music world. In Omaha, a network of young musicians found
support from fans, but the established record labels weren’t interested.
So the musicians created a company of their own.
Lumberjack Records, the first incarnation
of what would become Saddle Creek Records, was conceived in the bedrooms and
basements of its founding members: Robb Nansel, Tim Kasher, A.J. and Mike Mogis,
Matt Maginn, Ted Stevens, Justin and Conor Oberst, and Stephen Pedersen.
Pedersen, vocalist and guitar player
of Criteria, attributes the prolific songwriting of the label’s early
years to the need to fill a gap. “In the beginning, many of the bands
focused so much on music because, for better or worse, there was not much for
high school-aged kids to do in Omaha,” he said.
“So, we just hung out in each
other’s basements and played music or went to local rock shows.”
“The earliest of the label’s
recordings were made in basements, kitchens, and bedrooms on portable 4- and
8-track tape machines,” said Ryan Fox, Saddle Creek’s project manager
and member of the band The Good Life. “It may seem like primitive technology
to some people in this age of digital infatuation, but there’s a certain
charm in it. And really, it’s about presenting the song however possible
with the tools at hand.”
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It’s also about self-reliance.
“If we can make our records ourselves and release them ourselves,”
Fox said, “we can do it on our terms rather than having to compromise
for motivations that come from elsewhere.”
High school gave way to college, and
many of the original Saddle Creek musicians attended the University of Nebraska
at Lincoln, where the music making continued. In a business course, Nansel and
Mogis were required to create a business of their own. With Lumberjack Records,
they already had the framework for the assignment; all they needed was a plan
to present to their professor and class. While their classmates developed boutiques
and eateries, Nansel and Mogis distributed music they and their friends had
produced.
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Saddle Creek Records officially began
in 1996. A distribution company had already claimed the Lumberjack name, so
the musicians chose Saddle Creek Records, after a street in Omaha and the title
of a song by Polecat, a Lumberjack Records band. The name caught on. The musicians
were often nicknamed “the Creekers,” and the phrase was used as
a promotional tag for an evening concert in which the various bands shared the
stage.
Nansel conducted business out of a
spare bedroom, and band members pitched in and did what was necessary to produce
music. They wrote and recorded music, designed CD covers, packaged and distributed
the finished product. This “all hands on deck” approach was embraced
by the bands as a way to ensure Saddle Creek’s survival and independence.