Our pitch is safe adventure; our name suggests a jolt and the artists on the label provide the kicks. Each release by the label, beginning with the first one in 1998, has hopefully been representative of its genre and every title definitely has been a labor of love by the artists. With releases by artists from Australia, Sweden, the U.S., U.K., Netherlands and many more world locations, the music
is defined by accessibility and “independence”. Consisting primarily of pop and rock artists, Zip Records plays it somewhat safe, preferring artists with sparks of creativity and a sense of melody and style that will offend no one and please those who come into contact with the music. The thread which ties together the label’s releases may not be that apparent at first glance, but at least from the vantage point of Zip Records, each title has a sense of place – geographically as well as musically. In the beginning, much of the music came from Sweden (Dorian gray, The Merrymakers, Pineforest Crunch, Safari Season, etc), Australia (The Chevelles, P76, Pearson, The Wellingtons, etc) and the U.K. (thirst, Red Letter Day, Killing for Culture, etc). This covered the years from 1998 to 2004. From 2004 to the present, with the odd band from Serbia and Italy, Zip Records expanded to include more artists from the U.S. (Smash Palace, Ed Rogers, Mary Lees Corvette, Wanderlust, etc) and more recently allied itself with a Dutch label to release and promote Birgit (Schuurman) , Kensington, a Balladeer, Jelka van Houten, Samuel Wilson, Angela Moyra, etc. With distribution through MRI/SONY in the U.S. and Rough Trade in the Benelux countries, Zip Records remains a small label with an eclectic roster of guitar pop, singer/songwriter, punk, hard rock, hip hop and even jazz improvisations by Defunkt trombonist Joe Bowie and Ernst Glerum (due in the fall of 2013)!
