Ashtray Monument – A homegrown recording label spins off in New Port Richey

BY BRIAN ROESLER
Guest Writer
What’s What New Port Richey

It is not easy to democratize any medium of art. While it is always invigorating to say how we could have “done it better ourselves”, few ever make the attempt. It seems destined for failure.

For instance, the music industry seems outside the reach of nearly anyone. Owning a music label, one that produces and actually contributes to the growing curation of music that is “good enough” and can find an “audience” must require immense social capital and connections that the average layman just doesn’t possess.

New Port Richey, a town that is not particularly known for its music scene has such a label. What that label foretells for independent art and do-it-yourself pride is inspirational. I had the pleasure of interviewing the label’s owners to try and find out what it’s like to run a modern-day record label in such trying times, and above all what it means for our community. 

The three were childhood friends that from an early onset in life, were fascinated by music. Their roots run deep both in shared interests and in local providence. All are graduates of Gulf High School. This would be a shared unifying experience for them as Mr. Trapani, a graphic design teacher whose brothers owned the local Encore Music Store, helped solidify their interest in both recording and understanding music. 

The trio saw the departure of Drew at age 36 for upstate New York, but that didn’t end their friendship nor their ambitions. The idea always sat, waiting.

It was serendipity when at their 20-year high school reunion the question arose – “How could we help preserve the music we loved in the past? How could we get it on Spotify?”

The rest is history. A detailed one at that. 

The hunt for some of these artists was in some ways fruitful, but there were many others that simply couldn’t be found, or didn’t want to be found. Sometimes the circumstances are far darker, exemplified with the Florida band Moonraker, who tragically lost one of their foundational members.

In so many ways, the era that Ashtray attempts to capture is one that is fleeting as much as it has become important again.

“It was the last era where you had to be there – before digital. We saw that shift.,” Drew said. “And you see the wave of digital on the horizon. And I know the bands that are missing. It’s like looking at an evolutionary chart. I like to know where this band got all these ideas from. And I feel there’s a lot of that still missing from that.”

The process of digitizing music, or pressing physical copies is daunting. One must first acquire the masters of a record and investigate any legal issues that could coincide with it. Bands have to effectively own their own music, with no current prior label ownership. After the masters are acquired, this is where the hidden fourth member of Ashtray, Doug Bartholomew steps in.

“It’s a handshake deal, ideally we build a friendship with an artist,” Drew said in explaining the process. “But aside from getting the masters, any profit we make from a project is going towards the next project.” 

Essentially success fiscally, it’s “barely breaking even.”

For now, Lou puts the fiscal realities into a more positive light, “Well, it gives us a little bit of a natural high. Yeah, it just feels good. Right? That’s our payoff.” 

As Ashtray has grown, so has its mission statement. No longer focused entirely on the past, newer artists are being brought into the Ashtray family.

“We’re tapping into the same creative process that musicians do, we’re staying in the scene still,” Jay said, adding, “Lou does a lot of the scouting.”

Lou laughs, “I try!”

However, there are still plenty of young artists who don’t want any of their output pressed, reproduced, or existing outside of a digital space for a variety of ethical, and sometimes artistic choices.

Jay offered some insight into the phenomenon.

“It’s nothing new,” he said. “There’ve always been bands that back in the day, their art from them was what you were seeing live or what they were creating. It wasn’t meant to be listened to next week, next month, next year.”

Managing a DIY label isn’t easy and each of the partners had something different to say when addressing what’s most difficult.

Lou says, “Size.”

Drew sighs and laughs “Delivering on the promise, being pragmatic and honest, managing expectations.”

Jay chimes in “Being part of the community from a distance. That can be hard.”

It’s also an exercise in raw logistics, interpersonal relations, and tapered ambitions. It’s the definition of incremental progress and with each new release, Ashtray continues to grow.

Even so, this growth is challenging to maintain, between the difficulties of distribution and record release shows being hamstrung by COVID-19. 

While remaining humble, the trio remains excited about the future.

Lou states that “we’ve exceeded what we thought we could ever do” while Drew remains steadfast to the amount of archival-based projects they have coming up.

Jay in a moment of sincerity that the others echo says: “We were just barely getting by, and getting through the hardest parts of it. That’s the most difficult aspect. We moved past it, and it’s a beautiful sentiment.”

Everyone takes a sip of their beer and as Jay muses,” Punk is where we started but not where we stopped. You can use that as the main quote.”

Passion when combined with ambition is a profound thing. When centered around communities and subcultures of artists and musicians alike, there’s unmitigated potential for growth and output.

As New Port Richey continues to grow and its own music scene steadily refines and eventually defines itself, labels like Ashtray Monument will be there, offering perhaps not the glamor of high stakes record production, but instead the camaraderie that can only exist in the shared bonds of artists who want to make a physical product to embody their work.

While the labels could be anywhere, the logistics aren’t as important as understanding that they truly reside here, in New Port Richey. Proof that if you want to do something, there’s nothing holding you back except your perception of success. Be passionate, be obsessive, love and support small art.

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