Some dreams die. Some dreams get deferred. Some dreams manifest… even after an 18-year dormancy.
Founded by Casey Horrigan, Iodine Recordings began releasing records in 1998 with explosive momentum. That year saw the label launch into the stratosphere with the Ghost in the Gears compilation, boasting tracks by Cave In, Converge, Milhouse, Indecision, Garrison, fortydaysrain, Jeromes Dream, Catharsis, Forcefedglass, and many others—including an oddly placed, but much appreciated, Good Clean Fun song. Iodine continued to grow with releases from There Were Wires, The Nationale Blue, Orange Island, Garrison, and more. Expanding from the corner in his parents’ house in Quincy, MA to an office in Boston, working full time seemed to be everything an indie label owner could want. But with the rise of digital music (Napster, Limewire, etc.) in the early aughts, Horrigan saw Iodine hemorrhaging money and a new reality start to rear its ugly head.
“The demand for CDs was dwindling.” Horrigan elaborates. “(on) the last There Were Wires albums (Somnambulists, 2003), we spent a lot of money. It was produced by Matt Squire, recorded at Fort Thunder, (and mastered by Alan Douches). It was a huge production for us.”
Horrigan recounts the shattering of a dream, the nadir of indulgent and supposed DIY diehards. “The day Somnambulists came out, I was on message boards, and hundreds of people were telling me they downloaded it. For a small business or label, every sale counts. We were selling fewer and fewer records. Our expenses were going up.” The sting of this new paradigm was confusing. “The irony is, our bands did better than ever. Their shows were packed. They would sell tons of merch. But our CD sales would be half of the previous release.”
Then, the inevitable. “The stress and anxiety just got to me,” he sighs. “(The decision to close the label) was hard. A lot of people depended on me. A lot of bands had faith in the label to take them to the next step.” But he knew the fate of Iodine. “It was the right decision for the time. It was a sinking ship.
“Eighteen years of not doing music, not a day went by I didn’t think of how I hated how it ended.”
Finally, 2021 offered a brilliant opportunity. There Were Wires’ stunning swan song, Somnambulists, was about to celebrate its 20th anniversary, and Horrigan was in a position with money and security. Iodine hooked up with Providence, RI’s Tor Johnson Records and reissued the album. This precedent would set a high mark for future reissues and releases. Not losing momentum, 2021 finished with five other releases on Iodine, including a stellar reissue for Jeromes Dream and others by Garrison and Ritual Earth. Last year witnessed a monumental ands impressive 18 releases, including Stretch Arm Strong, Smoke Or Fire, Onelinedrawing, Nathan Gray & The Iron Roses, and Her Head’s On Fire, among others.
To kick off 2023, Iodine shook the world with a gorgeous reissue of one the most important records in indie/alternative/hardcore/punk/rock music, the impregnable Slip from Quicksand. For the 30th anniversary of this cataclysmic album, Iodine had Slip completely remastered for vinyl by Jack Shirley at The Atomic Garden Recording Studio using the original 1992 reels from the Universal Music Group vault.
This opportunity was one that almost literally went up in flames. “The vaults burnt down,” Horrigan explains. “Iconic tapes were burned, like Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones.”
Staff members were running into the building grabbing any reels they could rescue without preference or discrimination. Luckily for everyone, Slip was one of those. Eschewing the hyper-compression and tin sound of the ’90s, they remastered Slip to “be up to today’s standards.” Horrigan reports not changing the sound but remastering for dynamic range and depth.
Iodine issued Slip on 13 variations of colored vinyl. One version includes a 64-page hardcover book which “chronicles the release of this influential album. Includes a foreword by Walter Schreifels, never-before-seen photographs, original art, rare concert posters, show flyers, and ephemera from 1990-1994. Written contributions from members of Anthrax, Helmet, Sepultura, Thursday, Rise Against, Refused, Youth of Today, Thrice, Agnostic Front, Snapcase, Earth Crisis, Cave In, and many more.” They had scrapped the idea of the book a few times until bringing on Tom Bejgrowicz of Man Alive Creative as project manager. He has worked on Scream With Me (The Misfits book), Optic (Snapcase), and projects for Eyehategod, Bad Brains, Richard Thompson, Steve Earle, The Band, The Beastie Boys and myriad books, campaigns, museums, etc. After that, Horrigan says, “it took on a life of its own.”
Horrigan continues, “we did not have to track anyone down. Everyone we wanted to be a part of this responded with ‘Yes!’ immediately.” And as for the forward by Schreifels, Horrigan lauds it as “just as much about New York Hardcore and how it changed over time as much as it is a history of Quicksand. They were just the ones to document the shift in sound. We wanted to give it that attention to detail to make sure it is the definitive edition of this record.”
But, restarting a label was intimidating. He got an investing partner and contacted an old friend, Joey Cahill of 6131, who “helped me navigate best practices for a label.” Also, being Deathwish’s first employee, Horrigan knew, “it made sense to come back to them. They’ve been doing it the whole time I have been out of the game. They helped a lot, especially Rich (Rossi, label manager), to guide us through how to work with bands (now).” This coincides with Horrigan’s motivation for doing this initially. “We have always tried to create an environment of us being a team, not some corporate entity.”
Iodine in 2023 will not just do reissues (although there will be a remastered version of Stretch Arm Strong’s A Revolution Transmission), but new material from new signings like The Darling Fire and others, over which Horrigan’s anticipation is palpable. “This year, we have gone out and been signing new bands: NØ MAN (ex- Majority Rule), A Death Of A Nation (ex-Defeater/Ex-Verse), Horsewhip (Reversal Of Man, combatwoundedveteran).”
On whether or not there is a formula to running a label, Horrigan concludes, “The interesting thing about Iodine is that there is no sound. I just want a stamp of quality behind it. Like back in the day, flipping through record bins. If you saw a certain logo on the back, you trusted it. You may not like it, but you’d check it out. I want someone to see the Iodine logo and think about the Slip reissue and take 10 minutes to listen. That’s what my dream is for Iodine.”
You can follow Iodine Recordings on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter if you want to keep up with the label.
Image courtesy of Casandra Marie Photo
