20 years. Totally crazy. When I first Give Praise Records I was just two years out of high school. I had three other record labels before I even started Give Praise.
First was Skate Squad, I made cassettes and drew marker on white shirts and brought them to sell at local shows. I really only did demos and home dubbed cassette tapes. I remember I bought a $200 or so tape duplicator from a local music store. I bought all the blank tapes from them also and my mom would pick up cassettes anywhere she could find them.
Next was Teacore, my big claim to fame with that on was I did a CDR from 1-2 Go Crew! That started a very solid friendship with Ben from In Defence. 1-2 Go Crew was the project he had right before In Defence. With Teacore I would burn CDRs and buy empty jewel cases and assemble everything. This time, my mom and dad, would buy all of the blank CDRs they could find. Big boxes of them from the wholesale club stores.
One more until Give Praise: I had a label called Set In Stone and released one 7” EP – a split with 2 bands: Turn Cold and Award.
Finally Give Praise happens along. I started a zine previously called Praise To All and wanted the label to run along with the zine so kept the names pretty close. Hence, Give Praise.
Now, I’m here 20 years later. I have made a lot of mistakes, I made a few people angry, a few people got mad at me, and I got totally ripped off from 2 big(ger) distros. But stuff happens and you have to keep on pushing.
When I was a little kid my biggest dream was to become a sponsored skateboarder. I sucked and there was very little chance of that happening. But, after 20 years I’m bringing skateboarding into Give Praise and I am really excited about it. We have a skate team, a grip tape line and a lot more coming.
The next few years will bring a lot more releases and a bunch of new bands. I am not a very big label but every band I work with, I really try and make them become a household name in the punk, hardcore and sometimes metal scenes.
I have worked with so many radical bands and will continue too. We are slowly growing every year and the last 20 years have been awesome. I learned a lot and will continue to learn a lot.
The scene has come full circle and I’m so glad to see cassettes coming back. I love cassettes. I have since, got rid of the duplicator and now get everything done at a cassette pressing plant. Although I still get my own printing done and assemble everything myself.
I don’t know what the next 20 years are going to look like but I’m really excited to see a lot of growth for the label.
I don’t get to really travel, or tour anymore as I have a most radical family now. But I know there are so many people who still support what I and Give Praise does.
Thank you so much and let’s get radical for another 20 years.
