Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Billups.
Hi Mike, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I am 40 years old. I started playing drums in punk bands when I was 18 and still lived in Hurricane, WV where I grew up and lived until moving to Knoxville at the age of 32.
While attending college at Marshall University in Huntington, WV. I decided to start my own small independent record label to put out music for local up-and-coming punk bands. That record label was called Radio Eat Radio Records. I ran Radio Eat Radio for five years until my touring life became too busy for me to handle both the band and small business.
Radio Eat Radio is most known for being the record label to first release music for the Gold album selling band Hawthorne Heights. Radio Eat Radio put out an album called From Ohio With Love that featured Hawthorne Heights (then known as A Day In The Life) a few months before they signed with Victory Records and went on to become one of the biggest emo bands on the 2000s selling over 1 Million albums to date.
I toured the United States and Canada full time for a career from 2002 – 2011 in various bands. In 2012, my wife and I moved to Knoxville for work. I spent seven years without music in my life until 2018 when a friend and I decided it was time to start playing music again. In early 2018, the band Reckless Threat was formed.
In 2019, I started Coffin Curse Records as a vehicle to release music for Reckless Threat and some other local Knoxville area bands I was excited about at the time. What started out as a hobby has quickly become a side hustle in the short three years Coffin Curse has been in business.
We have 85 releases in our catalog as of October 2021. In 2022, we will hit the 100 release mark and we have no plans of stopping anytime soon. Coffin Curse Records artist roster includes…
As A Friend (Knoxville, TN Post Punk), Boldly Go! (Charleston, WV Star Trek themed Punk), Chupaskabra (Richmond, VA Ska Punk), Clover Creek Bastards (Louisville, KY Folk Punk), Ghost Tamer (Knoxville, TN Hardcore), Gravel & Spiders (Louisville, KY Rock), Low Season (St. Petersburg, FL Punk), Postcard (Knoxville, TN Dark Wave), Reckless Threat (Knoxville, TN Punk), Shurwood (Tampa, FL Post Punk), Small Wars (Knoxville, TN Post Punk), and The Downstrokes (Frostburg, MD Punk).
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Definitely not smooth. I have personally been trying to “make it” in the music business for over 20 years. I did give up the dream for seven years to focus on a career in pharmaceutical distribution but in 2018 I started playing drums again and the spark was reignited.
I am more driven and focused now than I have ever been. Reckless Threat has been touring more than ever recently and Coffin Curse Records is on the upswing with sold-out vinyl pressings of albums by Boldly Go! As A Friend, Postcard, A Gathering Of None, Shurwood and Low Season.
The label was definitely a slow burn at first. The first year in business it was very hard to establish ourselves in the ever-changing music industry. Streaming and downloading are king today so an upstart business focusing on physical media in this climate is a hard nut to crack but we are starting to have growth with sales.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I play drums in the punk band Reckless Threat and I run Coffin Curse Records. At Coffin Curse we create and distribute physical media for up-and-coming punk and punk adjacent bands across the United States. We press vinyl albums, CDs, cassette tapes, and apparel for our bands.
At Coffin Curse we have philanthropic goals as well. Since our opening in 2019, we have raised over $10,000 for charity with benefit compilation albums, benefit concerts, and benefit merchandise sales. We have raised money for many charities including No-Kill Animal Rescues, LGBTQIA+, Toys For Tots, and more.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
I love podcasts. I listen to a lot of wrestling, true crime, and music pods. Here is my favorite: Wrestling: Jim Cornette Experience. True Crume: Crime Junkie. Music: One Life One Chance with Toby Morse.
As for books, I read mostly autobiographies.
Contact Info:
- Email: mike@coffincurserecords.com
- Website: www.coffincurserecords.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coffincurserecords/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coffincurserecords
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/coffincurseknox
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/coffincurserecords
- Other: https://coffincurseknox.bandcamp.com/
