Building A New Musical Landscape for Columbus?

MIGHT AS WELL

By Scott Berson

Columbus has music in its bones. It always has -- from the legendary melodies of Ma Rainey and Blind Tom Wiggins all the way to the rockers and warblers who fill our city stages with music today. Now a group of musicians turned friends turned colleagues are tapping into the musical energy of Columbus, and creating a new venture to build it to even greater heights.

Might As Well, named after the iconic warehouse building on 2nd Avenue in Columbus, is a homegrown record label that recently produced its first full-length album, Indigo from Colin Manskar. It’s a remarkable achievement: a rolling, rich landscape of luscious guitars, swooping melodies and crashing drums. It feels like something new, and it came from home, powered by Might as Well Records.

Album INDIGO

By Colin Manskar

The label is anchored by musicians and collaborators Jesse Shelby, Evan Collins and DB Woolbright. They had been in each other’s orbit, seeing each other here and there in the Columbus music scene, but hadn’t gotten to know each other until they got together at a session to play.

Evan with Bass

Photo by Bennett Counts

“In 2011, I was 19 years old, playing at The Loft occasionally, and I would just show up, play and leave. But Jesse and Evan knew each other, and I got to know Evan more when he came into the Loft and joined up with the Shelby Brothers,” DB said.

Jesse with Guitar

Photo by Bennett Counts

“I had started playing with Jesse, then a mutual friend asked us to play on his album. That was Colin Mansgard, and that record became Indigo, the first full album artist to be released through Might as Well,” Evan recalled. “I felt a musical chemistry and camaraderie in that session. That’s remarkable, and it made me feel comfortable in that space. The minute me and Jesse needed a drummer, we said, ‘How about we get DB in here?’

As they began playing on the album, and started to put it together, they realized they were on to something more.

DB with Drum

Photo by Garrett Lee

“We started to realize, we have a studio band here that can cover a lot of ground, lots of different instruments, recording and engineering, mixing, video production, graph design -- we started to realize we had a lot of this in our group right here,” Jesse said.

That realization, along with a nod to the beloved and bizarre local warehouse with “MIGHT AS WELL” emblazoned on its side, led to the name of the label. “We are already kinda doing this, so we might as well make something out of this. We are already doing this, might as well,” Jesse said.

Evan told a story about a time he was driving Athens-based bassist Neal Fountain to Columbus for a show. Fountain hadn’t been in town much, and the drive was long, but as they drove past the building and approached downtown, Evan remembers Fountain looking up and saying “Might as well,” as they passed. “Only word he said the whole drive,” Evan remembered. “This guy has been all over the world, but this stood out to him. It was the first thing he noticed.”

The group say their purpose with the label is to help elevate the Columbus music scene to a new level by providing a service that may have been lacking until now. It’s also about support -- supporting other musician friends, playing on each others’ records, and promoting each other as part of one musical community.

“Ten years ago, Columbus was described as a cover band town,” Jesse said. “We talk about the dam being blown up and life coming back to the river. Musical creativity rose too. There’s life coming back to the area, and we want to produce and present their work to a wider audience, and help foster that audience. We can produce, record, mix, master, connect people. Do you need a killer horn section? Backup vocalists? We can connect all those dots, and also do video production and other promotion along with it. Indigo is the first example of that.”

(L-R) Hank Shelby, Nick Johnson, DB Woolbright Evan Collins, Jesse Shelby

Photo by Banks Food Hall

It’s also about building a community of musicians that rallies around itself and supports its members.

Might as Well hopes they can start building a culture where people appreciate and show their support for their friends’ creative works.

“We keep saying there’s a community of musicians here in Columbus, and I think our opportunity is to help people figure out and finish their projects, There are so many urns in the fire that could catch flame with some help,” DB said. “We want there to be a movement, not just us making records. We want to throw a stone in a pond and see those ripples. We want to help people meet their goals.”

As for the future, they are taking it as it comes. Most of their current projects are still under wraps, but they are eager to work with any artists who want to move forward on a musical project. They can be reached on Facebook or Instagram at “Might as Well Records” or at mightaswellrecords@gmail.com.