Genre Various Location Seattle, Washington Founder John T. Frazier | Country of origin United States Official website spartanrecords.com Founded 2007 | |
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Albums Sky Beats Gold, Anxiety, Not the Man I Used to Be Profiles | ||
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Spartan Records was founded by John T. Frazier in Seattle, Washington in January 2007. It is currently home to the bands Schematic, Barren Womb, Ourlives, Shy, Low, and several others. Prior to founding Spartan, Frazier was the director of marketing at several preeminent independent record labels including Tooth and Nail Records, Solid State Records, and Drive-Thru Records. The label has been a full-time operation since January 2013.
Contents
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Founding
John T. Frazier has stated that Spartan Records got its inspirations from the mail-order record labels he bought while growing up. He worked in college radio and received an internship at the major record label Geffen Records and worked as part of the street teams for several other labels. He started his career working for a small indie label called crank!. After working with several other labels including Tooth and Nail Records, Solid State Records, and Drive-Thru Records, he founded Spartan Records and eventually left Tooth and Nail Records in December 2012 to work more exclusively with Spartan Records.
Releases
Spartan Records (Discography)
Current Artist Roster
In order of signing:
Active
Disbanded
Destination: Beautiful
The most successful release by Spartan Records has been their pressing of Mae's Destination: Beautiful. Their first pressing in 2012 involved a mix of 500 vinyl LPs including 200 white, 200 navy blue/white swirl, and 100 180 gsm black discs. After completely selling out the first pressing in 2012 they announced another pressing of 500 in 2013 on teal (100), white teal splatter (200) and Teal/white Swirl (200) these also sold out. Due to the popularity of this pressing they released another pressing of 500 copies on glow in the dark vinyl through Hot Topic and that pressing sold out quickly as well. In 2014 a fourth pressing of Destination: Beautiful was released as a part of Record Sale Day 2014 on Transparent Blue and gold vinyl. It was limited to 500 copies and has sold out as well.
As a result of continued popularity of each successive pressing Spartan Records announced mae week. The week of May 19, 2014 spartan records announced that a fifth pressing of 500 vinyl copies would be sold 100 per day on 5 different variants. In addition to the daily release 25 sets of all five variants sold out on the first day. Over the course of the week 100 Gold/White Swirl with Silver Splatter on the first day, 100 gold sold out on the second day, 100 blue white and clear LPs sold out on the third day, 100 copies on Milky Clear with White Splatter sold out on the fourth day and 100 White / Aqua Blue / Double mint Tri-Color discs sold out the fifth day. In total all 500 in the fifth pressing sold out during the course of mae week. In addition re release of a style of mae shirt was sold as an extra to the vinyl.
End of Year Compilation
Currently an unconfirmed tradition by Spartan Records is the release of an end of year multi-artist compilation. In 2013 they released a sampler, and in 2014 they released a second collaboration of several artists as a Christmas-themed album.
Rumored Future Releases
A second Shy, Low release from Spartan records was rumored to be released in 2014 but now may be released in early 2015.
Also rumored are additional pressings of Mae records, and confirmed in a tweet on January 2. It was discussed on a Reddit discussion with Mae that the EPs by Mae and the Everglow were being worked on for records.
Trespassers will be releasing their second EP in early 2015.