Requiemme Bags Bug

Former Dragons frontman Mario Escovedo has expanded his Requiemme Management to include a record label of the same name, distributed digitally by music publishing giant Bug Music.

On May 24, the label will release its first album, Artificial Gardens by Maren Parusel.

The deal was struck while Escovedo was in New York last October with the Zeros, one of his clients. “I made an appointment to meet with the vice president [at Bug] and I pitched them my idea of what would basically be a record label distributed by them. He liked it and he talked to the president. I thought it might be six months to a year down the road when they might agree to doing it. Two months later they called and said, ‘We’ll send you a contract, that’s something we’d totally be into.’”

Escovedo feels the distribution deal helps level the playing field in a biz where it’s hard for new artists to get a leg up. “They handle tons of things beyond just getting things up on iTunes or whatever,” he said. “A big thing is placement. They work with 65 digital stores and are also well known for their licensing to movies and television.”

There will also be physical copies available of Requiemme releases. These pressings will be covered by Escovedo. “My idea originally was to supplement these digital releases with a vinyl release as well, but I think at this point not everybody is ready for that, so we need some CDs, too.”

According to Escovedo the label’s next release will be from Gun Runner, due late summer. Requiemme Records hosts a CD-release show for Parusel on June 23 at Bar Pink.