Veritas Records Plans a Debut CD

The entrepreneurial minds behind Harvard’s premier record label, Veritas Records, have been busy preparing their debut—a stylistically diverse compilation album—for a late spring 2004 release.

The CD, aptly titled Veritas Records Compilation Volume 1, features cuts from Harvard favorites like hip-hop group the Justice League, indie rock bands the States and the Half-Nelsons, Kyle E. Nasser ’05 and his jazz ensemble, Veritas President Dan J. Zaccagnino ’05, who plays acoustic rock, and several others.

Submissions for the compilation were narrowed down to seven artists, some of whom will contribute more than one track. Several artists, like Nasser and the Justice League’s Brandon M. Terry ’05, may collaborate, while songwriter James B. Fordyce ’05 plans to contribute an instrumental acoustic track.

While some of the groups already have professionally recorded material available, each song on the compilation will be re-recorded during reading period and intersession at Quad Sound Studios and Zaccagnino’s dorm room recording setup. Some bands, like the States, have elected to record brand new material during the sessions.

“We’re going to re-record all the tracks to make everything consistent,” says Zaccagnino. “The compilation disc as a whole will have an overall sound to it.”

The album will be mixed by Sony/Blue Note engineer Mantis Evar, and 1000 copies will be made by a professional manufacturer. The final product will be indistinguishable from a CD one might buy at a record store, according to Veritas Vice President Matthew L. Siegel ’05, complete with full color artwork, a top spine and shrinkwrap.

Meanwhile, Sales and Marketing Manager Jeffrey N. Surette ’05 has been contacting local retailers—including Newbury Comics, the Coop, Harvard Bookstore and Tower Records—to give the album shelf space. Some retailers may set up displays for the Veritas compilation; Tower is considering putting it in a listening booth. Surette is also in talks with upstart online organizations such as iTunes and Napster 2.0 about getting the music into their catalogs. The individual bands will also sell the album, but the main venue for distribution will be a massive outdoor concert party that will mark the album’s release.

The event, currently being discussed with administrators, might be held in Harvard Yard or the Sever Quad—a sort of “Springfest done right,” according to Siegel. “We want it to be the largest, most fun, most exciting event of its kind at Harvard this year,” he says. “We’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done before.”

Although logistical issues about alcohol, space and crowd control are still in question, Zaccagnino remarked that the response from high up has been favorable.

“So far we’ve had a really good response from the administration,” he says. “[Assistant Dean of Student Activities] Paul J. McLoughlin II, who’s new this year, [has] been more receptive to what students want than the administration ever has. I think this concert would show that the administration is open to stuff that goes on at normal colleges.”

The massive effort Zaccagnino is putting into the concert’s organization reflects his general goal to further integrate music into the Harvard social scene and exposing the student body to undiscovered local talent.

“It’s hard to get Harvard students to just go see a band unless it’s a party, or if it’s going on at something else,” says Zaccagnino. “One thing we’re definitely going to do next year is have a big tailgate party at the Harvard Yale game, where we’re gonna get a big U-Haul and set up speakers in all directions and have bands play on top. We want to just bring more music into things.”

Ambitious plans for a young company, but with Veritas’s new status as an official Harvard group, resources and funding for the upcoming projects look promising. Although they are currently in the process of mining alumni, friends, the Undergraduate Council and potential sponsors for support, the Veritas managerial staff is confident that such an extensive fundraising process will not be necessary for every release.

“All the money we make is just going towards the next project, so it’s really just about keeping things going,” says Zaccagnino. “We’ve already started talking to a couple of groups about doing full EPs or LPs, and I think our general plan is that we’d like to have, every year, a compilation disc of different bands and a big CD release party in the spring.”

Veritas are in it for the long haul and they don’t intend to let the organization disband after their leadership’s impending graduation in 2005.

“It’s only a matter of time before the torch has to be passed on,” Surette said. “Veritas is not something we want to see die in a year and a half when we’re gone. Preparing people to take over for us, and even delegating responsibilities, is something huge in an organization like this.”

The first Veritas staff meeting, held about a month ago, drew a crowd of forty, but attendance at meetings has since decreased because the managers have not been able to fully utilize the staff. Surette promises a change however, saying that “there comes a point when the managers can no longer handle everything, and that point is rapidly approaching.”

“We’re trying to get kids who want an opportunity to learn about and become active in the music business to do it on a smaller scale,” says business manager Zachary K. Goldman ’05, who is also a Crimson executive.

Issues of contracts and legality are being minimized, according to Siegel and Zaccagnino. “Student groups can’t sign any legal contracts,” Siegel explains. “But we’ll be doing copywriting for the bands. Artists are going to retain all the rights to their own music.”

“Originally we wanted everything to be based off agreements, but we decided to drop contracts because we’re trying to do this as professionally as possible,” says Zaccagnino. “It’s a really good experience for us to have to make them, and for the bands to have to go through the process of actually committing their name to something.”

At this point, however, paperwork is no longer a primary concern to the Veritas staff, and their eyes are set on the future.

“Once it gets out there,” promises Surette, “once people hear the quality of the artists that we have, there’s no way that Veritas won’t be a smashing success.”