“We used to drive around the states a lot just living out of a van driving around delivering records to stores. Everything we do is hands on, face to face and direct to stores. That’s what we’re most passionate about–no one will be more passionate about what you do than yourself. And I think if we didn’t drive around interacting with customers and stores, I don’t think we’d still be in business. I think we would have gone out of business a long time ago.” – Matt Sullivan (founder, Light In The Attic Records)

When I was a youngster, I wanted to make music.  It wasn’t about being rich and famous – it was about creating songs that would reach down inside the heart and move people.  Yeah, OK, so even at 10 years old I wanted to win a girl’s love with the music I made. “Girls sure are purdy!” said my pre-teen brain. It wasn’t until a few years later that I realized that girls were also behind some of the saddest and angriest songs, too! I did start writing songs in my late teens, spilling over into my early 20s.  Sadly, I wasn’t very good at it…

Anyway, since my teens, I’ve been on an unending search for the lost chord: music that moved me. In the late ’70s, I discovered that it was OK to follow my own path and not let radio or public opinion dictate my musical tastes. My search for great music continues to this day.  Much of what I love is obscure to most casual music fans yet I know that there is so much great music I’ve missed along the way.  This is why I’m grateful for reissue labels such as Light In The Attic. The folks that run the label have the same passion for music that I have yet they’ve managed to dig deeper into the vast musical universe and reissue music that is as majestic as it is odd. If I were to start up a label, it would be awfully similar to LITA.

It’s great to know that I am not alone in my love for this label.  Check out the feature that is running over on Forbes.com and learn how the label came to be. It is great to know that a labor of love can actually make a difference and have some kind of impact. Perhaps one day, my passion will amount to more than just a few hundred mixtapes gathering dust in closets across America!

Peace, Love and LITA!

Stephen SPAZ Schnee

Read the FORBES article HERE