Adam Bartlett has been on a few different sides of the music industry. As the founder, owner and operator of Gilead Media, he's released dozens upon dozens of albums from bands all over the world during the last 12 years. As the founder, owner and operator of Eroding Winds Record Shop, he's sold records to customers in and around Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for the past five years. And before both of those ventures, Bartlett worked for a music distributor, he played in bands, he booked shows, and he worked at another independent record store. Through his extensive and eclectic record-related background, Bartlett has witnessed a great deal of change in the way people listen to and release music through the years, and he's seen the vinyl boom firsthand.
Recently, My First Band host Tyler Maas stopped by Eroding Winds to do some holiday shopping and to talk to Bartlett about all aspects of his diverse musical background. Over the course of the conversation, Bartlett talked about being a regular-turned-employee at The Exclusive Company in downtown Oshkosh in his teens and early 20s, moving to Ohio to work for a music distributor, starting Gilead Media without any expectations and quickly finding unexpected success releasing vinyl in the early 2000s, the start of Eroding Winds, and why he doesn't blame Adele for the pressing delays currently plaguing smaller artists/labels. Along the way, Bartlett talked about his time as a metalcore vocalist and Maas reminisced about his years in Oshkosh.
My First Band is sponsored by Mystery Room Mastering and Lakefront Brewery. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and wherever else you get podcasts. You can also listen to rebroadcasts of previous My First Band episodes on WMSE every Wednesday from noon to 12:30 p.m. CST. Music used in this episode comes courtesy of Devils Teeth ("The Junction Street Eight Tigers").
