Record Ink

Record Ink. is a brand new label and is the vision of CEO Chris Lieck. Chris was a rock artist in the band KK WILDE in the 1980's on the Sunset Strip. He later went on to own Music Box Recording studio in Hollywood , CA.

He wrote and placed over 120 songs in film and TV and started enjoying the revenue generated by the business side of music. He sold the building and studio in the mid 90's and returned home to Texas and opened a world-class studio and Tejas Records. Tejas Records started with $10,000 of Chris' money and one artist. That artist went platinum and gold, was a Billboard, and BMI award winner and recorded 10 Cds under the label. The same label Sony and EMI said would last 2 years lasted 20 and still going.

Tejas was a house hold name in Texas and housed a studio, video and marketing staff. They and their 14 artists were the most endorsed record label in Texas history. Their annual party drew 5,000 and major brands companies crawled to endorse their events. Soon after all the SONY, EMI, RCA and WB acts were at the door of Tejas Records and within 5 years their competition closed their doors.

Tejas managed, booked and published all of their acts. Some perceived this as controlling, but Chris saw that as a positive. "We controlled the right aspects of our acts and we were so far ahead of the rest when it comes to 360 deals. I feel we were one of the true indie labels in the nation that succeeded at it. I didn't have to make three calls to book an act. I just booked them. I knew their radio schedule as I was the CEO of the label, their touring schedule and their studio scheduled. That was to our advantage and much of that template I am using at Record Ink.

Tejas cornered the market and had all the top acts from the other labels. They collected 23 Grammy Nominations, Grammys, Billboard Awards, charted records and over 180 catalog pieces. "The reason was we produced and developed quickly. That was our strong point. We branded every artist heavily. From CD Design to image to music, I was involved 24/7. "

I did this again on a rock band The Blowing Trees then upsold them to Glassnote and took over management at a larger percentage as well as a piece of the sales to ensure we were maintaining the brand that we built. I recently built a world-class new studio facility with offices, production room, video production. The building was built from ground up and that's what I want to do with each artist on Record Ink."

The most important aspect of a label is their talent and rooster. You grow to fast as an indie and you die. You have to brand and build one artist at a time. You must train them not to be prima donnas but to be team players.

Furthermore you need talent and you need the drive and will to want to take on all the things needed to succeed. Yes, social networking numbers matter but Record Ink. artist have to be talented. Talent dominates social networking. Major Labels love high numbers in the social media world. We frankly don't care about the numbers if the talent is sub par. The first signing was BEE. Immediately a major label contacted Chris to sign her. "We had released one song and a major label called Record Ink. We knew she was not ready and after a short time, we realized were right . The pressure created failure and we learned from her. She was the most talented singer we had heard in years of searching but the foundation was missing. "

Then in walked IZZY BELLA. Our talent scout was in a Subway sandwich shop in La Vernia Texas and she was singing behind the counter. The rest is history. She signed with Record Ink in 2016. We immediately saw a response from her and we produced track after track in the development stage of her career. IZZY BELLA has emerged as a true flagship artist for Record Ink.

We wanted a change in style so we spotted Brit Noir in a TV show and singed her on the spot. Brit's style was tweaked and tailored to her voice and songwriting talent. Brit is happy with the result of the development input from Record Ink. She is gaining a world-wide fan base and she continues to brand herself. SAXTON is an amazing new singer songwriter that Record Ink. is recording. We will be releasing the EP soon. We look at 2018 as a banner year for Record Ink. artists. We will be singing three more artist in 2018 to development deals.

It is our belief that the future of talent is based on the development of that talent. Talent development is a thing of the past at the major companies. The little that is done is mostly through producers and songwriters.

At Record Ink. we take a far deeper and wider approach to the art of development. We have in-house studios, rehearsal, marketing, and video. Our artist are involved in the development of their entire careers to insure we do not impose a style on them that is not true. Imposed artistry is not artistry. We do not impose their style unless they are searching and request our help. Song writing is the focus of their development and we require that every artist can song write. We do control management in the event of a step-up deal. We have two award winning publishing companies and our focus for new artist is creative first and foremost but fanbase and engagement in also a huge part of what we require from a new artist.

The future is new artist and so is their development so we feel that future is bright for Record Ink. We are focused on artist development and we designed and built a new studio facility that breads the perfect atmosphere for development. Furthermore, we house two production schools and a vocal-songwriting school which means we see talent from Texas to Arizona to California come into our doors daily. "Since we are the number one place to come for development in Texas I think a major label coming in and working with us would be a win win situation."
CEO Chris Lieck