From SGF to the future? Former Fools Face bassist Jim Wirt launches Crushtone Music

There was a time when Jim Wirt was the young musician fighting for recognition, the guy rolling the dice and moving away from Springfield to take a shot at making it in rock ‘n’ roll. That was in the early ’80s, when his band Fools Face was all the rage in SGF and getting signed to a major record label and put on the radio was the big goal. Twenty-five years later all of that has changed; Fools Face split up less than a year after its move to Los Angeles, record labels are on shaky ground and Wirt, together with wife Claire, Tony Barille and Randy Chase, are out to put the power back in bands’ hands with the launch of Crushtone Music.

Crushtone has many facets within the name, operating as a production company, music label, management company and more. Once a band chooses to work with Crushtone and vice versa–a process typically handled by Claire Wirt–Crushtone can produce and record its album and help it get tours booked, either through Crushtone or, more probably, through trusted partners in the field. With any facet, the goal is to keep the band in control of what happens to it, not big business. “These kids will say, ‘ I want a deal.’ I say, ‘Why do you want that? Why do you want to sign your rights away?’” Claire says.

A Place for Jim to Stay

Crushtone’s biggest focus right now is in recording unsigned bands, and according to Claire the approach is straightforward: Make simple records, and make them fast. Most of the albums the label makes are 10-day projects, she says, allowing bands to have finished albums in their hands as soon as possible while retaining all of the rights to it. It’s a whirlwind process and 16-hour days aren’t uncommon for Jim. “The first question I always ask on the phone is, ‘Is there a place where Jim can stay?’” Claire says. From the moment Jim gets into the studio, he says, there is no time for bands to argue with him about details. “You’re in desperation mode the first night,” Jim says. “Then the next night is the same thing.”

For Jim, Crushtone is a breath of fresh air in his career. After producing the likes of Incubus, Fiona Apple, Hoobastank and Jack’s Mannequin, Claire says Jim went two years without getting a producing job from a major label. “I said to Jim, ‘You know, nobody’s gonna work harder for you than you,’ so we cut out the middleman,” Claire says. 

Anafair, one of the artists currently working with Crushtone Music.

Now Jim flies back and forth between Los Angeles, New York and Cleveland (where one of Crushtone’s financial backers, Randy Chase, lives), with additional trips to and from various recording studios to work with bands. Jim says his hope is to pick eight to 10 bands from among those he works with for Crushtone to be more involved in developing and booking. Some of those artists, such as Cleveland’s Anafair and Cincinnati natives The Flight Station, are already in place. To be a Crushtone artist Jim says a band has to put in the work to build and maintain an audience within its own market, since Crushtone’s promotion begins regionally and then works outward. “They need to be able to draw four hundred kids in their own market or it doesn’t work for us,” Jim says. “None of us can afford to do this kind of stuff for nothing. They’ve gotta do it for themselves.”

The Wirts are working in areas where bands have potential to extend their reach regionally, such as Cleveland, Chicago, New Jersey and possibly Detroit in the near future. Jim says you won’t find L.A. on that list anytime soon. He still calls L.A. home (Claire has been spending most of her time in Springfield while their daughter goes to school), and he sees a huge contrast in patience and interest in bands between the Midwest and West Coast. In his opinion, the famous Sunset Strip that launched bands during the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s is dead. “They don’t listen out here,” he says. “Everybody’s here [in L.A.] to be a star. Crustone wouldn’t work in L.A. Bands can’t break in L.A.”

The New Direction?

If the idea of treating the artist as more than a product doesn’t exactly sound like The Revolution it’s probably because the same thing has been done before–ironically, in the days of Jim and Claire Wirt’s youth, when both record labels and radio were run with less corporate approaches. Claire Wirt knows the idea well; her father, Al Wyman, worked for Capitol Records for many years. In her opinion, the music business has lost its integrity, and Crushtone is at the leading edge of entities trying to restore it. “Jim and I don’t make money like we used to, but we feel a lot better,” she says. Have the owners of Crushtone found the record industry’s next direction by bringing it back to its past? It will be years before there is a definitive answer. But getting back their way of making a living while giving young bands their own chance to roll the dice in music is ensuring their own futures, and perhaps those of others.

But there's more! Check out these related posts on TAGsgf.com:

1. TAGsgf.com presents Fools Face at Patton Alley Pub Saturday, August 14

   Fools Face is one of the most recognizable names in music to come from Springfield. In the early 80′s, they were one of the most successful acts around. They achieved...

2. VIDEO: Fools Face performs “American Girl”

   So you missed the epic Fools Face reunion concert last night at The Outland Ballroom, eh? Darn that food coma.While you were napping, or perhaps watching basketball on television, the...

3. More Music on the Southside: Palen Music launches a concert series starting 1/15

   For as much music as there is in Springfield, there is a remarkable lack of blurring lines as far as where it’s found. Record shops rarely host in-store performances by...

4. Assembly Line Gods ink development deal with Dirtbag Music

   Local rockers Assembly Line Gods have just inked a development deal with Dirtbag Clothing's record label, Dirtbag Music. Details of the arrangement are yet to be released but it is...

5. Brother Wiley: Coming full circle

   It’s reasonable to expect to have some kinks to work out in your first concert as a group, but to play a set two-and-a-half times as long as you’re scheduled...