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Brick City Records’ Artists
The close-knit atmosphere of Athens can be enticing for anyone, but the locality and sense of belonging are why some musicians crave to be a part of it.
Every year, Brick City Records, a student-run record label in Athens, chooses a few artists to sign and feature as Brick City artists. These students come from all different backgrounds and musical genres, but their love and passion for the industry bring them together.
Justin Krase, also known as Jay Kuzzo, majored in business marketing and analytics at Ohio University and graduated in December 2021. He started making rap music as a hobby before taking it seriously in college. The record label reached out to Krase before he graduated to sign on, and now he has begun recording songs in their studio.
Krase said his music is positive and uplifting while still maintaining a “gritty sound.” Some other artists he takes inspiration from are rappers Logic and K.A.A.N. because of their lyrical skills. His upcoming musical project titled “Fork in the Road” speaks to Krase’s current point in his life and deciding what career path he wants to follow in the future.
“It’s kind of talking about dictating that path between if you want to go into a full work field,” Krase said. “If you want to go fully into making music or just try to do a balance. So I definitely do pull from real-life terms in that sense.”
While many of the other artists signed with Brick City Records perform under the indie or alternative genre, Krase is the only rap artist that signed with the label this year. Krase said he is happy to be part of a collective that represents so many different times of artists.
Another Brick City Records band named Fullsend also hopes to add a new sound to the label.
Austin Harsh, the band’s vocalist and keyboardist, started the band during his sophomore year at Ohio State University. Throughout the years, there have been changes to the band members, with drummer
Nico Linik and guitarist Adi Mars being the most recent additions to the band. Now, the band is looking to use its new members to reinvent its sound as groove and rhythmically oriented.
Their first single with Brick City Records, “Astroman,” will incorporate a new sound that represents a new direction and will set the band apart from other artists in the area.
“It's very much more rhythmically driven than any of our previous music, and that’s really enjoyable to me,” Bassist Alex Robinson said. “That’s kind of how I tend to play in a lot of live settings… and so I’ve enjoyed kind of shifting in that direction.”
All of the members currently reside in Columbus, so they were surprised when Brick City Records reached out to sign the band in late 2021. However, they wanted to expand their horizons and see what Athens music had to offer.
“The Columbus music scene’s great,” Harsh said. “We’ve made many friends there.. but we saw Brick City as a great opportunity to kind of expand out into other parts of the state, get in front of a new crowd.”
Athens-based band and Brick City Records artist Rent Free has also expressed its gratitude for this unique opportunity.
Twins Paul and Weston Nern started playing music together about four years ago, with Weston playing the drums and Paul singing and playing guitar. When they both came to Ohio U, they decided to start a band with a mutual friend, Michael Wells, as the bass guitarist.
Although the band had only played one show with Wells, it was enough for Brick City to reach out and ask to sign the band to the label late last year. While Wells is used to the studio environment, Paul said he is thankful to learn from this new atmosphere.
“My personal philosophy has just been to make the most of it,” Paul said. “You never know when (these) opportunities are gonna come around, so it’s been cool.”
The band uniquely described their sound as “post glam, heroin core revival,” referring to the age of ’90s grunge music. They draw inspiration from bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but Weston said his time in high school marching band influenced him the most.
“I feel like that kind of helps me as a bass player because a lot of bass is just rhythm,” Weston said. “If you just understand patterns and stuff like that, it gets easier.”
Jay Kuzzo, Fullsend, and Rent Free will all perform at The Union on April 21, along with other Brick City Records artists.
Weston said the best parts of the Athens music
scene are the chance to perform live and how grateful he is to be able to play in person after COVID-19.
“It definitely beats practice or the studio by a mile,” Weston said. “Music’s always fun to play, but seeing music you’re playing get people to actually move and look like they’re enjoying it, that’s pretty rewarding.”
Music from Jay Kuzzo and Fullsend can be found on their YouTube channels, Jay Kuzzo and Fullsend, and all of the artists can be found on major streaming platforms.
