Geoff Rickly, frontman of post-hardcore band Thursday, has confirmed the impending demise of his Brooklyn-based independent record label, Collect Records, after the label severed ties with controversial pharmaceutical investor Martin Shkreli.
As Tone Deaf reported yesterday, bands signed to Collect Records are in uproar after it became known that Shkreli was a major investor in the label, though reports indicate that the internet’s most hated man did not receive any profits from the label.
Shkreli, a 32-year-old former hedge fund manager and founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, made headlines earlier this week for hiking the price of Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug used for treating parasitic infections, from $13.50 to $750 a tablet.
Daraprim is commonly used to treat people with compromised immune systems, such as AIDS and cancer patients. Shkreli’s price gouging has seen him come under fire from social media, the medical community, and even Hilary Clinton.
The revelation that Shkreli is the primary financier behind Collect Records has incensed bands signed to the label, with several issuing statements in which they’ve indicated a desire to leave the label and nullify their contracts.
Now, Rickly has issued a statement via Pitchfork, confirming that Collect Records have severed their business relationship with Shkreli, which Rickly has acknowledged will be the death knell of the label.
“Today, Collect Records — with the support and encouragement of all of our artists — have agreed to fully sever our relationship with Martin Shkreli, effective immediately,” Rickly writes in his statement.
“When I decided to get into business with Martin, we took him on as a patron. He was completely silent and allowed us to do business as we pleased. His only ask was that we sign bands that we believed could make great art given the right environment and not to focus on a profit, no matter how dire the bottom line.”
“If I were a band on the label I would be having a serious crisis of faith right now.”“Never in a million years did any of us expect to wake up to the news of the scandal that he is now involved in,” Rickly continues. “It blindsided and upset us on every level. As such, we know it is impossible for us to continue having any ties with him.”
“For my part, I’ve always strived to make Collect a place that was so liberal, encouraging, and artist-friendly that no one would ever walk away from us willingly, though to do so at any time would be very easy.”
“To that end, I hope that our bands continue to believe in our guidance and passion. Any of them that have had an incurable crisis of confidence will be allowed to leave with nothing but the kind of encouragement that we’ve built our label on.”
According to The New York Times, Shkreli was a minority owner of Collect Records, with a share just under 50 percent. Rickly said Shkreli had supplied the label with “somewhere around a million dollars — $600,000 last time I checked… He always just said take it as an endowment for the arts.”
“At the very worst, if Martin was a bad guy, then you’re taking his terrible money and giving it to artists who never get any. I wanted to make something great out of it — the stupid Robin Hood narrative that everybody knows,” Rickly told the Times.
[include_post id=”459738″]
Meanwhile, Shkreli himself has stated he never profited from Collect Records, saying, “All I did was put money in. I want to be a patron for musicians I really respect and that have a hard time making ends meet.”
As Stereogum note, it’s unclear if Rickly and the other label owners will have to buy Shkreli out as the extent of the latter’s participation in the company and the circumstances of his ownership stake are not known.
However, one thing is sure, Collect Records is done. “This is going to end the career of the record label, no doubt,” said Rickly. “If I were a band on the label I would be having a serious crisis of faith right now. The amount of money I have in the bank doesn’t cover my outstanding invoices. It’s devastating.”
