New record label boasts experience, versatility as keys to success

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When you think of record labels, you might think of suits, hot-shot agents, big cities with tall buildings and enormous offices. You wouldn’t necessarily think of small-town Gonzales. At least not before today.

The trio of Greg Ramirez, John Anthony Vega and Sean Zambrano — with the help of another man named Jose Almaguer — started Red Room Recordz, a record label designed to cater to the artist. And they’re doing it without the suits.

“We’re going to start something from the bottom up, using our knowledge and experience,” Vega said. “We’re going to work from the artist side. Most recording labels work from the business side and they only focus on money. We want to focus more on music and what it takes to actually get it across.”

Red Room Recordz prides itself on being hands on, if the artist(s) so chooses. Between Ramirez, Vega and Zambrano, there is nearly 100 years of experience in the music industry. Whether it’s the art of music making, the technical aspects of the production or making contacts to get the finished product out, Red Room Recordz wants to be everything to musicians who want to thrive in the industry. And with their focus on being totally hands on, they think their combined talents will be enough to put artists over the top.

“We’ve been in it for a long time, we know how demanding those other record labels can be,” Ramirez said. “…we want to make sure we give our clients enough time to do what it takes to record, take our time with them so we can get that quality product out. Not what the recording label or studio wants, but what the client wants. We want to satisfy our clients.”

The label preaches quality over quantity. Just like any business, the group wants to make money. But they want to do it through sustainable products that are of good quality, not just one-hit wonders.

“You see a lot bands that will come across with maybe two or three good songs and you don’t hear anything else, whatsoever,” Vega noted. “What we’re looking for is not just a one-hit wonder, we want to make sure when an artist is presented, they are in it for the long haul.”

“I know artist want money, everybody likes money,” Vega acknowledged.

“And we’re going to work hard to get that for them,” Ramirez added.

“Yes,” Vega continued, “but we want to make sure that everyone understands, including artists, everyone understands we are there 100 percent for them, we’re going to stand behind whatever product they make and we’re going to do our best to make sure we focus on getting it out there.”

That’s where Zambrano comes in, the third man in the group who is the go-to guy for song information as well as distribution.

“Sean is considered an integral part of the team,” Vega said, “you can consider him the ‘glue’ that makes them stick.

“The team wouldn’t be complete without his intellect.”

“Sean has all the contacts we need in order to thrive in this business,” Ramirez pointed out. “He also has all the behind the scenes and the touring. He knows many artists so it helps out on that part.”

Jose Almaguer, the man from Laredo that will also be helping out with the label, is another cog in the Red Room Recordz machine that’ll keep things going.

“[Almaguer is] going to talk to radio stations, push the product,” Vega explained, “he’s also going to talk to vendors about selling the individual items, maybe even mass produce T-shirts or memorabilia.”

Red Room Recordz can be anything and everything to aspiring artists, no matter the genre. Although a musician like Ramirez has had a career in regional Mexicano music, the label will cater to all genres, not just Tejano or Conjunto or Norteño.

“We don’t want to limit ourselves,” Ramirez said.

“We want to be open to all types of genres,” Vega added. “We want to keep it open. We want to focus on that and focus on individual vocalists that want to come in and produce something of their own. There’s all types of directions that we can go into.”

“The 40 years together that we’ve been playing, we’ve gotten many contacts with different artists with different genres of music, so we know a lot of people in those different types of areas,” Ramirez said. “We will steer them the right way.”

“Big brother of sorts,” Vega suggested.

Despite the small operation, Red Room Recordz has big ambitions. The group hopes to sign their first three artists by the end of the year. The label already announced Grupo Creacion as one of their groups signed. Vega, during the interview, mentioned they have a second artist/group ready to sign with a third being focused on.

But as important as it is for the label to be the best they can be, Vega stressed that the artists they sign have to be performers in the studio and out.

“We want to make sure that a vocalist is as true as they come,” he stressed. “We’ve had issues before where we hear something in an album and you get them in the booth and it’s a totally different story.

“We want true artists. We’re not going to ‘cheat.’ We want to make sure that when we put an artist out, they’re really able to do what they want to do.”

You can follow Red Room Recordz on Facebook by typing Red Room Recordz in the search bar or going to facebook.com/RedRoomRecordz.

For more information, contact Greg Ramirez at 830-263-4467.

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