After being dormant since 2019, St. Joe’s record label, 1851 Records, is welcoming new artists from the St. Joe’s community with the goal of publishing an EP by the end of this semester.
1851 Records, an organization run by St. Joe’s students, began in 2008 originally distributing music community members recorded themselves. The organization worked with St. Joe’s artists and released their music through digital and physical mediums.
Since 2019, the group had been more focused on sponsoring events like open mic nights. Then Parker Hayden ’25 heard about 1851 Records from a friend.
“I always loved music, and I have an interest in working in the music industry,” Hayden said. “So, this was a way to bring students into the fold and [is] also a passion project.”
Hayden worked closely with David Allan, Ph.D., professor of marketing and co-director of the music industry minor program, and soon spearheaded the campaign to begin distributing music again.
“The record label, in particular, has ebbed and flowed with the amount of students that wanted to run it,” Allan said. “There was never a lack of artists on campus. It was usually that we needed a champion that was going to run it.”
The new record is going to highlight a few on-campus groups from a variety of genres.
“At the moment, we’re looking for five or six [artists] just to sample out the compilations as they go on,” Hayden said. “We’ll have more artists, but this is more a taste of what we’ll be seeing in the future.”
Hayden said he hopes the new record will feature students, faculty and alum, as this was the original goal of the record label.
While the label’s first new release will be a compilation, Hayden said he plans to eventually release full albums from individual artists. The group is planning to release their records on Spotify with a limited CD release.
Sophia Tatonetti ’25, a photographer for 1851 Records, said the label is an important way for artists to express themselves.
“I feel like our school just needs to have more creative outlets for our students,” Tatonetti said. “We have a lot of focus on our sports and the business majors and food marketing majors, and I feel like we don’t really have any place to let out our creativity with music.”
