One of the fastest rising new recording labels is Artery Recordings, a Sacramento, CA based record label and management company that began in 2010 with band manager Eric Rushing and Scars of Tomorrow vocalist Mike Milford.

The company has launched the careers of high profile acts such as Attila, Chelsea Grin, Capture The Crown, and I Declare War. Much like many independent metal labels launching with its own respective mission, Artery Foundation has slowly built up their bands from the ground up and groomed them into what they are today.

“They’re doing good man. It’s been a good time for sure. We’ve got Attila, Chelsea Grin, and I Declare War. We just signed some new bands. We’ve got some up and comers – Upon This Dawning, Slaves, Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan is so awesome. It reminds me of early Bury Your Dead.”

“It’s cool to hear a new heavy sound come out again. Deathcore was the big thing there for a while. It seemed like every heavy band sounded deathcore. Kublai Khan came back and brought back that Bury Your Dead, mosh n’ roll, early Eulogy/early Victory days. This reminds me of some older stuff but kids are taken to that again,” he said.

Now Milford is based out of Portland, OR, and he is getting an opportunity to explore musical acts in an area where the region has been producing a number of quality acts that are also gaining a lot of attention.

“A lot of the bands are popping up out of that area. There’s a lot of style of bands than what we work with normally. I do a couple different type of bands. We aren’t genre specific. There isn’t anything specific that needs to be on our label,” he said.

“There’s a band out there I like called Standing On Satellites – they’re pretty good. They’re friends of mine. They helped me out this summer with the Artery tent on Warped Tour. They’re out there selling their own CDs on the tour every day. They did a good job.”

“There’s a lot of metalcore, metal or hardcore up there. It’s kind of died out there. There are a couple new Seattle bands that are popping up. I do have one band from up there – I Declare War. Jamie [Hanks, vocals] lives in Portland. The rest of the guys live in Seattle.

He used his experience from his band to mentor his bands, and giving them advice on what is best for them. But he admits there are obstacles towards a band making decisions, and does his best to guiding them in the best way.

“Here’s the thing that sucks about a lot of touring bands,” said Milford, about the dilemmas of being a touring band in modern times. “They got a giant head start and so therefore a lot of them are able to straight into these massive tours and they never had to pay their dues. The one thing I try to teach all of these bands I start off with is to appreciate every level of growing as a band. If the band comes up too fast, they’re gonna go away just as quickly. They’re not going to get the same benefits and experiences out of it.”

For over a decade, Scars of Tomorrow built their name from the ground up from their early moments in Orange County, CA, playing to small crowds and working their way up to playing festivals across Europe in front of 30,000+ people.
Milford tries to install a certain work ethic into each of his bands so they are prepared for the rigors of the road through his past experiences.

“A lot of them look up to what I did in my career. I think that’s really cool. ‘We see what you did. We see what you built from the ground up and you weren’t given anything. You had to work hard for it. I’ve had to instill that into a lot of newer bands. Don’t be ashamed to go play a city that’s six hours away from you coming up when there’s only 30 kids there. Go do it because those 30 kids will tell 30 more. A lot of bands will go ‘fuck that. We don’t wanna play that. There’s not gonna be 500 kids there. We’re not gonna go. Blah blah blah.’ “

“You have to go pay your dues. Bands like Bleeding Through – us and them used to play this place called Koos Café together to 50 to 100 people when the scene here first started. Bands today never had to build a scene. It was already built for them. I think finding a way to have a building point for a band, they have to build it correctly. Don’t expect everything to be handed everything right away. A career doesn’t work out that way.”

Interview By Rei Nishimoto

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