Vinyl Moon has a pretty unique take on records. For starters, they are a record club. You join, pay a monthly fee, and get a 33 RPM mixtape, on colored vinyl, with an original art sleeve delivered to your home every month. Secondly, they are all about the experience of owning a new album. Each album has 10 songs by bands that are hand-selected by Brandon himself! The albums come with band info, lyrics, and artwork that is only available through Vinyl Moon. The colored vinyl alone is incredible! The extras that come with the album are worth the cost of admission.

What I really found most interesting was the hands on approach that Brandon takes. He is curating music from his listening experiences. He is just as likely to reach out to a band and offer them a slot on an upcoming album as he is to pull a band from an email submission. If you’re adventurous and searching for new music and checking out different genres, this is a great way to go. It would not be uncommon to find three or four different styles of music on one album. Recently, I checked out Volume 14 (from 2016) and heard bands from California to Spain, covering pop, alt-rock, digital dance and even some ambient EDM. That’s covering some ground in ten songs.

Brandon was gracious enough to answer some questions in our not-so-standard interview format!

Thank you, Brandon, for participating in our blog!

You have a pretty successful blog. How did you make the move from blogger to producing records?
I've always loved sharing music I believe in with a broader audience. After doing that for 5+ years via The Burning Ear, I was feeling a bit worn out with the constant churn and short attention span of internet-fueled music discovery. Plus, I wanted to create something physical. All that, combined with my growing passion for vinyl, evolved into the idea for Vinyl Moon. 

May of 2016 was the one year anniversary of your Kickstarter campaign and some time has passed since then. From the outside looking in, it seems like you exceeded expectations. Do you recommend upcoming artists use crowdfunding for their indie music projects? 
That idea of exceeding expectations is a tricky one because, on the one hand, yes, the campaign definitely exceeded the goal. But that goal was set by me at the very bare minimum needed for me to push the project forward. In the world of vinyl production, the money raised barely covered the costs for the very first month's release. So I've learned a lot since then about budgeting, planning, etc. Every month is an adventure! But to answer your question, yes, I absolutely recommend crowdfunding. If it’s done right (which is another story), it is a great way to gauge interest in your band/music/idea and get an honest sense of what direction makes sense to move in. 

In a world of instant music, and most music being mixed and mastered for digital release, do your artists have to prepare their releases any differently to be included on Vinyl Moon record?
Well, yes and no. The songs are completely recorded and finished by the individual bands and already exist. However, in preparing them for Vinyl Moon, we require high-quality files - higher than CD. These files are then used by the mastering engineer Ray Janos at Sterling Sound in NYC to cut the lacquers. He has been cutting vinyl lacquers for years and for so many epic albums, so he  absolutely knows how to make the music sound its best on vinyl. 

Every record Vinyl Moon releases has ten bands, or artists, on it. How are you picking tracks for the next record, and can indie bands submit their work to you?
I spend a lot of time digging for new music, but, of course, things can be submitted to The Burning Ear. The things I like will get written about there. The things I love will get invited to Vinyl Moon.

How involved are you in the artwork on the album covers, or are you as surprised as everyone else when you get to see it? 
Oh, 100% involved. I art direct every record jacket and work very closely with the visual artists to create the jackets, inserts, vinyl color, etc. 

You have been involved in the indie music scene for almost a decade now. What is your outlook on the music industry right now? 
It’s a wild time. Our attention is more fractured than ever. The way we consume music is also fractured (streaming, playlists, vinyl, radio, etc). There are certainly strategies for getting music out there, but I believe that the true strategy is to create great art that you truly believe in. Music from every genre and every artist is available to be studied online. Information on using any software or playing instrument is available online. You can access pretty much any tastemaker or gatekeeper with a google search and an email/tweet/etc. You can share your music with people all across the world! Now more than ever, individual people are empowered to make big waves with their art. That is inspiring.