Young, Wild & Free: Ottawa’s Newest Record Label

July 20, 2019, marks the opening of a new record label in the city of Ottawa called Young, Wild & Free Records, and it just so happens that it’s my label. I am extremely grateful to Ottawa Life Magazine for allowing me to write one of my articles about my label and it’s launch.

It’s not a secret that I am a huge proponent of records labels. After being on one of the worlds biggest, Island Records, and a great Cincinnati label called EO Music, having people in your corner that believe in you and help get your music out to a broader audience, to me, is a no brainer.

Now that I’ve had the opportunity to run my artist development agency Artist Alliance for the last year in Ottawa, it’s given me the opportunity to see where the industry itself has changed, and how artists are kind of being left to fend for themselves in the development area. I’ve also seen how much amazing talent there is in the city of Ottawa and beyond.

Now, the next step is helping artists beyond the development stage and then to get their music out properly. The internet once made things easier, but now I feel it makes things harder. Over forty thousand songs are added daily to Spotify. An insane number when you think about it.  How do you stand out in that? Far too many artists think that putting their music on these distribution services is all they need to do and voila it is released. However, it’s not even close. The work is just beginning. At this point the business plan and marketing plan need to take over, and it needs to be relentless. Once that part becomes a reality, most artists don’t have a clue where to start.

Young, Wild & Free Records started to manifest itself after I saw the frustration on the faces of multiple artists. They are very good artists who deserve to have their great music put out into the world and to recieve a fighting chance in the pool of artists releasing music everyday. I also wanted to stay true to the name and give artists as much freedom as I could to really be hands on with their careers. My first deal was like that as I had the artistic freedom to write, give my thoughts and ideas on artwork and direction and some control with the overall direction of the project.  They believed in me and wanted to put my music out. I was ecstatic to know after so many years, to know that someone believed in me enough to work for me and want to help get my music to more listeners.  Now, I get to see my artists feeling the same way.

There are no guarantees in the music industry, but the one thing I can guarantee is that talented artists who work harder than everyone else at what they do, will get further ahead.  The more people you can have in your corner to help you navigate, grow, and believe that you can do this, the better. The team for Young, Wild & Free will work hard for the artist by using tried and true old school methods while focusing on staying on top of the ever changing trends of internet marketing. 

Today, the label is proud to announce it’s first two signings. Pop/R&B artist, Elle G, a resident of Ottawa for the last couple years will be the first artist out of the gates to have her music pushed by the new label. Young, Wild & Free Records is currently mapping out her career path and going through an extensive development plan for her label launch.

The first single “Dark Horse” is set for release on August 30, 2019. The single launch party and the label launch festivities will take place on the same evening at the Lonestar Loft in Ottawa. Tickets go on sale July 20^th, directly through Elle G and Eventbrite.

The new song portrays an Elle that shows no sign of backing down from what she believes in. The music showcases a fresh, fiery voice with a beautiful subtleness to melt the hardest of hearts. Her voice transfixes in the emotional verses and soars in the chorus, showing the broad range of a girl who has worked tremendously hard.

The second release is from another Ottawa resident, Rachael Jewell. She is a young, powerhouse, classical vocalist making her Pop/Jazz debut on November 23/2019.  Rachael started her development with the team earlier this year, and is now in planning mode and will be hitting the studio in the next few weeks to record her first single “Runnin”. The plans for her single launch/live debut will be taking place over the next few months leading up to a Rachael’s single launch party/label showcase evening on November 23/2019.

Young, Wild & Free is very excited to bring you these new artists and their fantastic music over the next few months. Please stay tuned to the label/artist websites www.youngwildandfreerecords.ca, www.ellegmusic.com and www.rachaeljewell.com for new updates. Get your tickets ASAP. We don’t want you to miss the debut of these great artists.