INTERVIEW: RICKY SPRAGUE OF SECRET SWARM RECORDS
ORIGINS SOAKED IN NOSTALGIA
As a member of the Hickory deathcore/metalcore scene back in the early 2000’s, the experience I and many others had was undeniably unforgettable. The DIY shows, the late nights with your friends, the unexpected venues, the music, MySpace, the community, and the reason for all of this: The bands that had sick songs and albums dropping a seemingly never ending wave of new music. The fact that it was parent-scaring, angry-screaming metal was just the cherry on top. Ricky Sprague was also a member of this music era; fronting a band called The Maybrick Diaries. Deciding that memories alone weren’t enough, he sought to dig up the music and beautifully resurrect it from the dead.
ANIMOSITY - SHUT IT DOWN; Mystery Variant
Secret Swarm Records is a record label founded in late 2020 by Ricky Sprague with the goal to get his hands on some of this music, remaster it, revamp the art, and release it on some of the wildest looking vinyl you’ve ever seen. He was inspired to start collecting vinyl about 15 years ago at a Cloakroom/Whirr show. He’d never owned a vinyl before and wanted to buy something from the bands. He thought it was the perfect style of music to be on a physical record so he got one not even owning a record player yet. Very shortly after he picked up the first shitty little record player he found in order to listen to it.
“After I got my record player, I put it on and I was like ‘…this is so sick..’ and after that it steamrolled man, I just couldn’t get enough of it. Its easy to just click play in Spotify, which is like..I do it, we all do it.. but when you’re at home and you put a record on..having to flip that record makes you appreciate it.You put effort into listening to it in a different way other than just clicking play, ya know?”
Ricky personally inspects every record that gets shipped out for any flaws or defects
“So what made you want to get into having vinyl pressed?”
“Eventually, [after collecting records for a while] I saw this other label kinda doing the same thing I’m doing now but they were making it kind of like a cool kids club. Like only the cool kids could get the good ones. That’s not fair, music is for everybody. I don’t like this style of exclusive limited drops and releases. I’m gonna do it [make a label]. It’s not fair for it to be so exclusive, I can do it better. So sure enough, I ..I don’t know, I never did anything like this before so I said “I’m just gonna do it" and then.. I did it.”
Ricky, a Hickory native, talked me through some of the process it takes to bring these records to life. It’s a cathartic ritual that’s full of love, energized by passion, and brought together by sharp visionary prowess.
A Secret Swarm shirt featuring the first twenty releases
THE MUSIC AND THE MASTER
He first decides what album to resurface and then reaches out to someone from the band to see if it’s something they’re interested in. If they’re up for it, the music is sent to Jamie King (A Grammy-nominated music producer and audio engineer; Basement Studios, Winston-Salem, NC) for remaster. Jamie has been doing this style of music for 30 years and most people in the scene know his name. In some instances, Jamie even still has the original stems of the artist and can actually completely remix the album If necessary.
“Jamie is a lifesaver man, I’d be so lost without him.”
I asked him if he would ever do new original artists:
“I’ll do a new band every now and then. I’ve done six so far just to keep things interesting. There are only so many old bands and eventually you will run out.”
As far as band/album selection goes, Ricky goes for music he already loves and/or totally believes in. One of the newer bands Ricky has done is Squelching; a brutal-death metal band from Oklahoma.
SQUELCHING - HURTING YOU/SQUELCHING
THE ART THAT DOESN’T MISS A BEAT
The music isn’t the only thing that gets remastered, though. Ricky also works with a ton of different artists to recreate the album artwork. He scours the internet trying to find artists that match the style/vibe of the original album. Whether it’s a recreation of the original art or a whole new piece that maintains the spirit, theme, and colors, they all look absolutely brilliant. He says it has become one of his favorite parts of the process.
As you can see below, the artists Ricky finds and the ideas they come up with together work so so well.
NEXT IS GETTING IT PRESSED…
Ricky has worked with a few different pressing plants mentioning Erika Records in California, Burlington Record Pressing in New York (moved from Vermont), Clampdown Records in Canada, Dunk!Records in Belgium and finally settled on Intakt Records out of Germany.
“They’ve [Intakt Records] made my last 12 and I’m at 31 releases right now. Every single time they kill it, every variant looks great, super easy to work with. They’re awesome! Only thing is the time difference so I gotta message them immediately when I wake up in the morning so I can catch them before they leave for the day.”
As far as the vinyl styling is concerned, Ricky says he has a guy that can make and show him mockups of the colors and patterns which Ricky then shows to Intakt to see if they’re possible. Most of the time, they are.
“I came across Gabriel’s page when he was making mocks for fun and asked if he’d be interested in helping create variants for me. Dude is a wizard and the reason these records turn out how they do is because of his crazy ideas”
RIFLES AT RECESS - TO WHISPER IN TONGUES; This variation is called Vortex and it’s one of my personal favorites
So now, we’ve got the band’s approval, the remastered music, the reworked/recreated original artwork and an absolutely killer looking vinyl release
It seems pretty simple on paper but the attention to detail is what matters here. The careful curation of the bands, the time put into remastering/remixing, the scouring of the internet to find the perfect artist for the album art, the constant back and forth with the vinyl press, the individual inspection of Every. Single. Vinyl. This process isn’t possible without 100% dedication and love for the music.
“Let's just put out the best looking thing we can. At the end of the day, I want people to get this and be like "WOW, This is so SICK!’“
"Do You think this music will make a comeback?”
“As a matter of fact :laughs: I’m pumping this stuff out for the old heads of course, but the new generation is eating this up! Now there’s like this revival..a deathcore revival, and all these newer bands are sounding exactly like the older bands.”
We discussed how some even sound like they were recorded in old-school ways. Kitchen recordings on an old computer, grandma’s living room chug-riffs and blast beats.
Ricky believes there is a lot of momentum in the return of this style of music. So much so that he is contemplating a “Secret Swarm Fest” featuring some of the bands he’s worked with that are still playing or thinking about getting back together.
“Just meeting these bands that like..I grew up listening to and idolizing…just last year I flew out to Los Angeles to see Elysia’s reunion show and it was insane. I’ve never been to a show with that much energy before. I mean they haven’t played in 20 years!”
He continues.
“I just miss being young and going to all these DIY concerts and shows and seeing the live music that I love”
The newest release as of this interview is Castle Grayskull - To Live as Brutes
with any project, there are obstacles
I asked him what his biggest challenges starting Secret Swarm were.
“Well, I mean vinyl is expensive!” he said with a laugh.
At first he was putting his own money into it just to get them made, a pure passion project. It took about 3 years before the Secret Swarm started to pay for itself.
“When I started this, I said ‘I don’t care about profits lets just pump out the best looking thing we can.’ At the end of the day, I want people to get this and be like wow this is so sick. Like, the bands are just like—Animosity specifically, when he got his package in, he immediately called me and was like ‘dude..this is the sickest vinyl I’ve ever seen.’ And that like, means more to me than anything”
Of course I was curious about his big sellers anyway, so I asked him which ones did the best.
“Typically big names are gonna do well, obviously. Elysia was the biggest one. About 1,200 units, which for a small label is great! I think I put 300 records available on first drop and it sold out in 1 minute and 37 seconds.”
He squinted trying to remember the exact time it took, but you could tell he was proud of the figure. To keep from being the “exclusive, limited drop” he sought to combat, he immediately contacted his guy for more mockups, then the pressing plant.
“I bumped up production with three other color variants and then had a month long pre-order to make sure everyone that wanted one got one.”
Other challenges include dealing with timing and delays from vinyl presses. Some are booked out for up to a year. Also, of course, a big hurdle is just finding the time to do any of this.
“Its definitely tough working a full-time job and coming home and doing all of this, thank God for Brigitte [Ricky’s fiancée].”
Together they work to package and ship all the orders and keep things organized. Speaking of Brigitte, the name Secret Swarm came from Ricky trying to work her nickname, “Bee”, into the name.
“I really liked Hive Mind records but unfortunately, it was taken, and I got stuck on the bee thing. Plus, ya know Brigitte, like, everybody calls her ‘Bee’ so I was like ‘I wanna do something with bees’ and then, I came up with Secret Swarm.
Ricky and Brigitte preparing orders to be shipped
Ricky’s favorite record stores in the area are Hippo Records (Greensboro), Harvest Records (Asheville), and Lunchbox Records (Charlotte).
Linked below is his website where you can view or purchase his releases. He also has a bandcamp page where you can listen to all the artists he’s done.
