The name “Grasshopper Juice” may not sound familiar to local music fans right now, but this up-and-coming record label already has a noticeable foothold in the Cincinnati music scene.  The label is the driving force behind Adjust Your Eyes, an annual arts & music festival in its fourth year, and its roster includes CEA nominees Chick Pimp, Coke Dealer at a Bar, Wonky Tonk, and The Harlequins.

Grasshopper Juice Records was founded in 2008 with the goal to help bands that want to keep their artistic integrity but still successfully distribute their music, according to cofounder and CEO Nick Mitchell, also known as the lead singer of Chick Pimp.  The idea to start a record label was conceived after Mitchell encountered frustration with another label.

“I just found that…I had been in a band before that had signed with a label and we ran into all kinds of stressful problems relating to it,” says Mitchell, referring to his previous band, The Terrors. “It ended up putting stress on the band and the band ended up breaking up.”

It was only years later after Chick Pimp, Coke Dealer at a Bar began releasing and distributing their own albums that Mitchell and drummer Cole Brokamp decided to make Grasshopper Juice a reality.

“The two of us did all the recordings ourselves at home at first, and then we realized if we did this, we want to make connections with other studios,” Mitchell explains.  It was then that they contacted Ben Cochran at Soap Floats, a recording studio located on the West Side in a church built in the 1890s.   Cameron Turner later joined the label as its mastering engineer.

Mitchell admits that when the label first reached out to bands in late 2008, it was more of a DIY approach.

“[We would] basically work out a bartering system. That’s how a lot of it started out, having friends who were down with the bartering system, like where we’d help them in certain ways, they’d help us in certain areas. We’d get to bring in a band for a few hours, you know, just like where everyone’s scratching each other’s backs the whole time.”

The label has since developed a business model similar to Marriage Records; the label’s artists and staff are all friends, and even collaborate with each other on a regular basis.

Says Mitchell,  “I think the strength of our label isn’t in the parallel styles…we all work together on each other’s music, even if it’s different styles. It’s more like the unity of the people involved…is kind of our thing.”

However, while the label’s current roster consists mainly of Cincinnati bands, Mitchell insists that they would eventually like to branch out, and have already received submissions from all over the world, including a distribution deal from a label in Russia.

While the label itself is still constantly growing and changing, Mitchell is certain about one thing: he’ll always let the bands have full artistic control.

“I only sign a band that I like, and I trust enough that they’ll make the album that they want, where most labels are gonna have someone there [during the recording process], which from a business point, is understandable.  But if you sign the artist, like, you should trust them enough to  you know, let them get comfortable and do what they want to do.”

For more information on Grasshopper Juice’s artists and events, visit their website.