From making music to making records for Austin label entrepreneur

Like so many other members of the Austin music community, Jared Canada devotes a lot of time and energy to supporting something he loves. You're not going to find him on stage, though. As the owner of Sundae Records, he's one of a handful of people in town helping local bands share their music with fans.

Canada has been at it for only about a year and a half, but in that time Sundae has released some of Austin's more interesting records, including music from the Dikes of Holland, A Giant Dog, the Zoltars and Followed by Static. It's an impressive feat, considering Canada's only prior experience releasing music came from a CD he put out with an old band.

"It was overwhelming," Canada says. "I bought some books; I really don't know how much I learned. I spent a lot of time on the phone figuring out the process, a lot of emails back and forth."

Canada, 30, was born and raised in Norman, Okla. At 15, he began a love affair with music, but he wasn't particularly into underground/hardcore bands like Black Flag or Minor Threat that owned and operated their own labels. At the University of Oklahoma, he was a film and video studies major, and before finishing in 2001 he moved to Austin to make music videos. He soon gave up on that idea when he realized he was more interested in playing music than making videos.

That's also when he was drawn to the idea of starting his own record label. "Seeing the wealth of different types of music in Austin, and this underground, independent drive that people have rubbed off on me a little bit," he says.

An opportunity came when the band he played guitar in — the Dailys, which also included future Dikes of Holland members J.P. Bohon, Trey Reimer and Chris Stephenson — decided to start a label to release the band's CD (fifth member Scott Twitchell eventually moved back to Norman). The five bandmates took a swing at running the label as a group. As for many other underground bands that have made similar attempts, dividing responsibilities was a challenge.

"Everyone's got other priorities, and is busy, and having five people jointly own a record label, it just didn't work out," Canada says. It didn't cause any hard feelings, though: Canada still lives with all but one of the members of the Dikes of Holland.

Canada's second attempt at a record label came after the Dikes of Holland formed, when the band wanted to record its music but didn't have a way to complete the process. Canada, already in need of a new computer, bought a laptop and offered to let the band use it to mix its recordings.

"They don't have any songs on their MySpace page, and I thought there was an opportunity to help not only as friends but as a music fan," Canada says. "I was like, 'All right, guys, I have a laptop — record on it.' It sort of just snowballed from there."

The first release on Sundae Records was a split 7-inch (a small record that usually contains one or two songs per side) featuring the Dikes of Holland on one side and a Norman band, the Mean Spirits, on the other in early 2010. That was followed later that year by two more Dikes of Holland releases (another 7-inch and a 12-inch, full-length album), as well as records from Austin bands A Giant Dog, Followed by Static and the Zoltars.

Living under the same roof as the members of the Dikes of Holland allows Canada to have an intimate working relationship with Sundae's most popular band. Canada and his housemates hold regular meetings about how to promote the group or deal with any problems with a release. It's a setup that Bohon, who has known Canada since the seventh grade, says the band always has wanted.

"There was always a dream of having a place where we could record and practice, even when Jared was in the (Dailys)," Bohon says. "Jared is under the same roof as four out of five members of the band; he practically is a band member."

Aside from his prior relationship with the Dikes of Holland, Canada doesn't have a set formula for how he goes about choosing bands to sign. (He pays a fee — he declined to say how much — to each band on his label.) He happened upon the Zoltars when he came home from work and Stephenson was recording lead singer/songwriter Jared Leibowich in his living room. For the most part, though, it's all about going to shows.

"I'm single, I don't have kids, I don't have pets, so I felt like I had the means to put out a couple records a year, so whenever I saw someone I thought was good, I let them know."