Brand New Bag

A recent label signing makes life much easier for Brand New Sin

It hasn’t been easy for local hard rockers Brand New Sin. But when has rock’n’roll been easy?

On May 11, Goomba Music, LLC, issued a press release announcing their latest addition to the label: Syracuse’s own Brand New Sin. The four-piece signed a worldwide marketing and distribution deal, different than label agreements they’ve had in the past.

With Goomba, the band—Kris Wiechmann on vocals and guitar, Chuck Kahl on bass, Kevin Dean on drums and guitarist Tommy Matkowski—will maintain both their copyright and publishing rights. Goomba’s team will help package, distribute and push their music to radio worldwide.

But the invitation to join Goomba wasn’t met immediately with open arms. When Tim King, bassist for the Chicago band SOiL, texted Dean in February the message, “Hey man, want a record deal? Call me,” Dean was caught off-guard.

“I’m looking at it in disbelief, thinking, ‘Shit, I hate labels,’” Dean remembers. “But I called him right away and {King} said, ‘I just joined Goomba Music and we’re looking for new artists. I pitched you guys, we went through your whole archive and I told them all about you and you’re exactly the type of band they’re looking for.’ Meanwhile, we’ve got a record ready, so it’s perfect timing. I’m like 5 years old again, all excited. Nervous though.”

Brand New Sin met King while their bands toured together in 2007. The relationship paid off as King watched the band’s career for the years in between as, what Dean calls, “an anonymous fan.” As a result, Brand New Sin is currently recording at the new SubCat Studios, 219 S. West St., and anticipates wrapping by mid- to late June, with the CD set to drop later this fall.

For a group that has survived multiple labels and musician lineups, the new partnership approach, coupled with the excitement of the new SubCat digs and the chance to reintroduce Brand New Sin as a band with worldwide appeal, has each member reinvigorated.

“It’s so refreshing that the label is actually into it,” Kahl says. “For the label to seek us out and be excited about it rather than us hounding {them} and getting shelved. . . it’s a mutually positive relationship and we’re really excited about it.”

While other labels had put in the time and money to get Brand New Sin out around the world as far as the United Kingdom, as they toured with popular acts like Saliva, Mushroomhead, Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist) and The Cult, the band fell victim to unrest among members and mismanagement among labels.

When lead singer Joe Altier (now known as Just Joe) left the band in 2008, auditions for a new singer brought Joe Sweet into the fold. Sweet stayed for about seven months until priorities at home prevented him from touring. As the group once again pondered their next move, Kahl and Dean asked Weichmann to step up and sing. As the primary songwriter for several years, Weichmann had been teaching the songs to the previous vocalists anyway, so it made sense for him to embrace the microphone, starting with his singing chores on 2009’s Distilled.

Issues among labels erupted in several fashions. “We were with one label {a division of Sony} for almost a year that didn’t want us to gig: no tours, no shows,” Dean says. “We had to submit demos until they had a hit, like 40 or 50 or 60 demos.”

On a later label, Century Media, Dean recalls being grouped with metal bands that didn’t match their style and being denied opportunities to be seen and heard. “It wasn’t our vibe,” Dean says. “Radio stations would get submissions from Century Media and think, ‘Oh, just throw it in the metal pile,’ without even hearing us. Just figure it’s another crappy, screaming band.”

Furthermore, because Century held Brand New Sin’s copyright and publishing rights, any use of their music had to be approved by the label for use and tours could be denied as well. “Century Media didn’t think it was important that we try and get into the Touch- Tunes digital jukeboxes and ‘recommended’ that we not go on a tour of Europe even though it was offered to us,” Dean says. “So we really got a bad taste in our mouths from record labels. Until this.”

Indeed, by having a team behind them to help with touring, marketing and radio exposure, all while the group maintains their copyright and publishing rights, band mem bers can breathe a sigh of relief. “It’s not a traditional record deal, but maybe that model wasn’t the best in the first place,” Wiechmann says. “This deal is more modern. The label is pioneering a new idea. We’re ready for it.”

It’s been an exhilarating run for Brand New Sin and one littered with challenges. But the musicmakers feel excited and lucky to be where they are today. “In this business there are extreme highs and lows,” Weichmann says. “Sometimes I feel like shit, depressed, but it always feels good to know something’s going to last. I’m happier than hell with these songs. The last album proved to people who had given up on us that we’ll keep going even after being knocked down so hard. We did this ourselves and we’re on our feet again. We can feel good.”

Brand New Sin has an upcoming gig on Saturday, June 18 at Mac’s Bad Art Bar, 1799 Brewerton Rd. For more information, call 455-7223.

Gaga over Goomba: Brand New Sin players (from left, Kevin Dean, Chuck Kahl, Kris Wiechmann and Ron Keck, principal owner of SubCat) are currently laying down tracks at the brand-new SubCat Studio for an upcoming album on the Goomba Music label.