Frazee (COL'17) serves as co-president of Clock Hand Records.
“Georgetown has a great music community, it’s just underground, and we want to help it become a more mainstream community on campus,” states Melissa Frazee, co-president of Clock Hand Records (along with Walter le Duy), Georgetown University’s first and only record label. It was founded by the recently graduated Zoe Rosen during the fall of 2015 in order to open up spaces for musical performances on campus, but this year, under new leadership, Clock Hand Records seeks to go a step beyond, recording albums for artists, and promoting their music. Finding the money to pay a studio, recording for the first time, building a website, and simply getting your music out into the world can all be expensive and intimidating endeavors, and Clock Hand Records wants to address that. “We want to help artists at any point in the stage of recording and promoting their music. If they need help with cover art, we have graphic designers on our team that will take care of that. If they need help shooting a music video, we work with GUTV to get that done,” says Frazee. Clock Hand Records also sets up photo shoots, and is looking to putting together websites for all artists currently under their label when their music is released. “We have around 9 artists of all genres: bands, rappers, solo artists, and we are currently in the recording stage for all of them,” Frazee shares. “It’s so cool to work with all these bands and help them record music; there are so many talented musicians at Georgetown, they just need the resources to be able to do more with their music, and that’s what Clock Hands Records is here for.” The record label does not require artists to sign any contracts, and the artists have complete creative control.
Frazee states, “My long term goal for Clock Hand Records is for it to become an important part of Georgetown’s identity. I want Clock Hand Records to be an incentive for people to come to Georgetown.” The record label is entirely student run, and even though it is still in its early stages, things have been coming together nicely. It has not only opened a door for musical artists, but has also drawn in people from various disciplines, such as graphic design, marketing, and web design to name a few. The only worry right now is who will record once Frazee, a senior, graduates, but the label has been trying to get people trained.
Clock Hand Records plans to host a backyard concert on April Fools’ Day featuring many of their artists, and will be releasing more information soon. They are also looking forward to releasing a compilation album at the end of the semester featuring one or two songs from each artist under the label. Some of their current artists are solo artist Iman Hariri-Kia, and bands Armchair and Terakkhan. To become an artist under the label, all a band or singer has to do is fill out a simple application that is meant to check whether the artists is at the recording stage with their music. “We can’t do much with the artist if they don’t have their music written for the most part, since we come in at the recording stage,” Frazee shares. Once a musician has their music ready for the studio they are signed to the label.
Clock Hand Records represents a new and refreshing approach to the music culture on campus. “I'm so excited for Clock Hand Records to take off, I'm only sad that I'm a senior and will be graduating just as it’s doing so” says Frazee, with a proud, already nostalgic smile. With a strong network, dedicated staff, and the resources they will soon acquire from becoming an official club, the label can only improve and become more important to Georgetown’s musicians and music lovers. Clock Hand Records has a vision and goals for themselves as a label, and it is one helping artists do as much as possible with their music, and Georgetown as a whole will benefit from a having such a passionate club grow with time.
PC: Melissa Frazee