In 1994, after a ten
year period of owning a music store and over three small commercial
recording studios in New Orleans, Buzzy Beano/William Langford decided to work only with
a simple eight track recording studio in his home. As a long time guitarist
/singer for The Topcats, a well
established local cover band and business in New Orleans, it seemed to
Buzzy to be a logical choice as a place to fool around and be creative
without the overhead of rented commercial property, where you find yourself
just trying to pay the bills and never having the time to be creative! So,
with this very limited recording setup, Buzzy and a few friends began
making recordings and demos. Soon they found themselves wondering what they
could or should do with these tapes of their creative ideas. The music they
were making was of rock, folk, alternative, and country origins, which does
not mix well in New Orleans. New Orleans is very fixed in Blues, Jazz,
Rhythm and Blues, N.O. music, and Rap. This made things very difficult for
other types of music to get support or recognition. Buzzy got the idea that
it would be great to start a small independent record label dedicated
almost exclusively to these styles of music and the many talented
songwriters and artists that play them. It was then that the seed for the
label was planted.
Towards the end of 1994, a friend
gave Buzzy a three song demo tape of a singer/songwriter named Francesca
Pedalino and asked him to take a listen. After repeated listening and
convinced that there was "something" in her songs and voice, Buzzy set
out to sign Francesca as the first artist on the Four Cats / Radionic
label. After contract agreements were made, the two began working on more
songs and recruiting musicians for what was to be the record "a year of
mondays". Thus the label was born, and although the recording studio is
still in the house, it has grown to a full analog/digital studio with up
to 72 tracks, computer editing and recording, and much more. The label now
has seventeen releases with more in the works, and has been involved in
recording, producing, and performing on three other releases for other
labels.
The company is looking ahead to
exciting involvement in all kinds of recording, producing, and arranging
projects, and more releases on the Four Cats / Radionic label!