By Bob Ham

As record labels both big and small are rethinking the model of releasing CDs into an increasingly digital world, the thought of starting a new imprint that aims to put out physical product would seem like a foolhardy venture, especially if you hope to see any money from said venture.

Luckily for Kyle Fields, that was never his intention in starting Rad Records last year.

"I'm not trying to reach a wider audience on purpose,” Fields explains. “If it’s possible, I want Curtis [Knapp, of Rad's partner label, Marriage Records] not to promote it and just have people find it on their own terms."

It may seem like a strange business model, but Fields has never been one to tackle things head on. Through his recordings under the name Little Wings, he has approached songwriting with a childlike whimsy that comes through in the recordings he has put out on Marriage and K Records. Of late, Fields has been making a bigger name for himself in the art world, with gallery shows of his abstract pen and watercolor drawings in the U.S. and Europe.

In fact, the genesis for starting Rad came from a rather unlikely place as well, according to Fields: "I was sitting with two friends and drawing this logo that was some notebook graffiti that I liked when I was in high school — LSD inside of this drip shape."

Fields applied the same technique to the word “rad.” That drawing inspired a friend to create a serious of sew-on patches that then became the logo for this new undertaking. Further inspiration came from the history of other artists and bands that have started record labels of their own.

"I was thinking about the Beach Boys," Fields recalls, "and how in the '70s, Capitol Records gave them their own imprint — Brother Records — and they ended up putting out Dennis Wilson's solo record and other cool stuff."

Fields is already proving his talent for finding cool stuff, releasing the most recent Little Wings record, Soft Pow’r, on Rad, as well as producing a skateboard deck and more patches using his dripping logo.

This month will see the release of a disc by The Beagles, a side project whose sound Fields describes in the third person as “a provincial central coast bar band. It’s a band whose name is a mixture of The Beatles and The Eagles, but they are oblivious to that.” There are also plans to put out a new solo disc by Lee Baggett, a singer/songwriter who has collaborated on past Little Wings records and played in the live versions of that band.

Fields will also be concentrating on an art show coming up this month in Paris as well as starting up Little Wings again with a new band. Beyond that, he freely admits that he’s “not really in a hurry to make, make, make stuff. It’s going to be a slow burn for a while.”

That said, in a town swimming with new music ventures, Portland-based Rad Records is one to watch.

Buy Rad Records releases.