Chill Mega Chill was more of less born out of music blogs. Personally I sort of fell into the blogging community by accident with my site Cactus-Mouth and before I know it was making e-friends left and right. One blogger who I quickly connected with was Tripp Mostertz of Cool Things I Find (RIP). After a few months of geek- out sessions on topics like music and movies (particularly horror) Tripp asked if I’d be interested in starting a cassette tape label with him. Tripp is one of the most organized and energetic people I know and so the question of whether or not to go into business with him was a no-brainer. Yes, 100% yes. Admittedly at the time I was a bit naïve about how to run such things, but the exciting prospect of having my own imprint pushed any shred of apprehension to the very back of my mind. Plus how hard could it be? That was a little over two years ago and it still seems like just yesterday.
Before we even got things off the ground Tripp was eagerly pitching the name: Chill Mega Chill. Mind you this was right around the time that chillwave was letting out a neon-colored death rattle, and so having a label with the word “chill” in it not once but twice, was something that I had to seriously think about. I didn’t want to be mistaken for a chillwave label. I didn’t really even want anything to do with chillwave. But Tripp was enthusiastic about the name and it stuck. The funny thing is that it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I really learned where the name came from. “Chill, chill, chill mega chill…” It’s a bit of an inside joke, very tongue-in-cheek and it fits what we do. We don’t take ourselves seriously, but we’re very serious about what we do.
Our first release was with our good friend Sam Ray AKA Ricky Eat Acid, and we were very intentional about making it a wholly DIY effort. I designed the artwork myself and Tripp dubbed and painted the shells in his backyard (a series of events that would become the routine for future releases). Looking back those early handmade releases were pretty amateur, but I think that there is a lot of charm derived from those personal touches. Since those days of home-dubbing we’ve switched to a professional manufacturer, but we’ve strived hard to maintain the DIY spirit and personal connections with the releases and artists. We’ve had the opportunity to work with some truly great artists and yet it isn’t the music or the physical media that’s been the greatest reward; it’s the friendships we’ve cultivated with our artists.
To this day I’m still surprised by the response to the label. But with increased popularity comes more hard work. Let’s just say that the ladies at the post office and I are on a first name basis at this point. Recently however, Tripp has had to take more of a backseat role due to the grueling schedule of medical school. With a gap in the workforce we decided to scope out a third member to help us carry the Chill Mega Chill banner into 2013. Funny enough our first choice, Tim Thompson of Smoke Don’t Smoke, got back to us with an enthusiastic “yes” and it’s been smooth sailing ever since. Tim fit right in and brought an added level of experience to the table and some pretty sweet connections to boot. We’ve been firing on all cylinders as a trio and have put out 30+ releases with plenty more in various stages of production.
As far as what the rest of 2013 holds for Chill Mega Chill, you can count on plenty more cassette releases (our hearts lie with the sound of tape hiss), tons of flamingo-themed merchandise, and another edition of our Halloween mixtape The Chiller (with accompanying e-zine The HallowZine). We are also working on lining up our first ever vinyl release. The details of that one are still hush, hush so if you want to know more you’ll have to tag along for the ride.
