Washington University’s music scene is growing, and with that growth comes a need for an outlet to showcase the musical talent on this campus in all its forms. That new outlet is WashU Records. WashU Records is Wash. U.’s on-campus, student-run record label founded in fall 2018 by senior Jack Winkelman, who serves as its president. The group manages artists on Wash. U.’s campus, helps to promote them and gives them studio time. The student group is the go-between between the artists themselves and the on-campus recording studio housed on the third floor of the DUC in the Harvey Media Center—Studio 350. WashU Records also hosts on-campus concerts to increase artist exposure—the first was held in spring 2019 and their second concert took place last week, both in the Village Black Box.

“We adapt to what artists need,” said Winkelman. “There’s a gap in the Wash. U. music community between the artists, the designers and the producers. It’s a place where we can all get together and say ‘Hey, let’s make some music, let’s make some album art, let’s make songs together, let’s make a band.’ It’s a collaborative space for artists.”

Winkelman started WashU Records so that he could gain experience in the music industry and help artists. He hopes that the group will have “a lasting impact on the Wash. U. music scene for the better.”

“None of the [various music clubs] on campus fit what I wanted to do, which was help artists and promote artists and help them reach their goal of getting notoriety and putting their best product out with the best image on it,” said Winkelman. He and his partner, Vice President Terell Stevens—a senior who mainly works with the artists—do just that along with the rest of their 10-person team. There are sound engineers who work in the studio recording instruments and vocals, as well as a team who focuses solely on marketing and concert promotion. There’s also a subset of the team whose main focus is working with artists, but in the day-to-day, it’s Winkelman and Stevens execute this role the most.

The process for working with WashU Records is informal, but the output is not to be discounted. Described as being “as legit as we want to make it,” it is still a process that fully recognizes the legitimacy of the artists’ careers and goals.

The overarching goal is to have as many artists involved as possible with the organization. Currently, WashU Records works with around 15 Wash. U. artists—bands, solo acts, duets and more. At present the genres represented are limited to rap, hip-hop and rock, but there are hopes to expand the representation pool to other genres as more artists start to collaborate with the group. Currently, Rob Apollo, Gosha Guppy, Lacy Wilder and S.B.A. (Rah Rah and Ricky Wolfe) are on the WashU Records roster, to name a few.

WashU Records is focused on the creative journey of the artist. A huge impact on one artist is better than a lackluster impact on multiple in the eyes of Winkelman. Going forward, Winkelman shared his vision for the organization and where he hopes to see it go after he graduates. “I want the student body and the school to see WashU Records as a collaborative space where individual artists can work with each other, but similarly release their own music…while artist X may not have WashU Records attached to their name, people can still say they worked with WashU Records. Regardless, I want the club to have notoriety, but at the end of the day it’s for the student artists…I want the student body to know more about the artists and less about the club. We’re fine to be in the background. While we do want to market ourselves and brand ourselves on campus, it is still all about the artists.”