Shane Woods, drummer for Mo Lowda & the Humble and engineer/producer at Headroom Studios has been busy over quarantine working with his close circle of friends and musicians to develop a label that once was completely fake. After brainstorming with Jordan Caiola, Jeff Lucci, and manager Matt Washburn, they decided to curate a label that focused on personal connections and purposeful touring and release schedules. Work Around Records is the product of years of friendship and collaboration combined with the want to do things by themselves, for themselves.

Can you give some background information about yourself, outside of Mo Lowda? I know you work at Headroom… let’s talk about that.

Shane: I’ve been working at the studio for about 6 or 7 years now. I started out as an intern while I was going to Temple and stuck around. I was managing the studio for a little bit, but our hectic tour schedule made that difficult. Engineering, producing, mixing, drumming on sessions, drum teching, and tuning are some of the things I do there, and I love it. Best people, great gear, great clientele.

Can you give some general background about this project? What made you all want to start a label at all?

Shane: Mo Lowda has self-released our past few records. We’d always get ready to start shopping them around at their completion with little to no interest. The interest we got didn’t feel like a good fit, or we weren’t as close to landing something as we thought. So we decided to make the fake label we were putting records out on real. We were already working with Mike Gomez at Monostereo for printing vinyl and he helped us create our own label through his services with a partnership for distro through The Orchard. The name came up after some heavy brainstorming with the guys. I think It comes from “swaggy workaround,” which was a silly name for shooting with your pool cue behind your back which we made up while just being goofs at the bar. It seemed fitting. Like an industry Work Around. Work Around Records. Bypass all the bullshit and do it ourselves.

And this isn’t something you decided to start just because of quarantine, right? It had been in the works for a little while?

Shane: Right! We co-produced our buddies Arson Daily from North Carolina last year, and their record and our latest, Ready Coat, were going to be the first released. But we conceptualized some time last year. We wanted to put out friends and other bands we thought were dopes records, with artist-friendly deals, access to our connections we’ve built over the years, and were going to tour with the bands that were joining the roster. The touring element was going to be a part of the deal, ya know. Package our band with the others, all put out records at similar times, and just hit the road. Our agent/manager Matt Washburn has been with us for years and is a partner in the label with us.

Who do you have on the label so far? Who do you hope to work with in the future?

Shane: These are the releases thus far:

Arson Daily - Late Reflections

Mo Lowda & The Humble - Ready Coat

Caiola - Only Real When Shared

The Dawn Drapes - Various singles

Not totally sure what the future holds, but honestly whatever feels right. We’ve been working with pretty close friends, but we will certainly branch out. A lot has changed with the pandemic so we are still figuring out how things work

Shane Woods & The Dawn Drapes, photo by Bre Cura

What does a typical project look like for you right now? How are you collaborating with bands that you can’t see in person? Are you a hands-on collaborator or do you like to let the band do their thing?

Shane: Every project for me is extremely different. I’m either the producer/engineer or just engineering something that someone else, like Kyle Pulley of Headroom, is producing and mixing. As an engineer, I tend to like having creative input and to be as collaborative with a band as they want or are comfortable with. Certainly, with Jordan and The Drapes, our roles were established early on and we really worked together on creative decisions. The Dawn Drapes had excellent songs and a great band with Keaton Thandi and Noah Skaroff, but when they brought it my way we did a lot of sculpting. What’s the right guitar tone for this? Should we double it with a synth? I know its already a short song but what if we dropped out the heavy part and it ended really sweet and dreamy to showcase the vocal? If I’m just engineering, where there’s always at least a little creative input, It’s about capturing the best version of what the artist is trying to convey. Whether that’s pointing someone in the direction of an awesome guitar amp or pushing them to get the best take of a chorus vocal.

Emily: Jordan said that as well - the two of you working together on solo stuff didn’t feel the same as working on a full-band project but was still the easiest process ever. Knowing and being comfortable with your engineer can make or break a project I think.

Shane: For sure! We’ve been so close for so long we almost have the twin-like telepathy. He’d be like “ Hey I want this type of drum beat” We’d lay it down in two takes, maybe high five ( probably not), and say “Okay, what’s next?” I’ve worked with tons of bands and sometimes you hear about a bad studio experience that they had, and I just never want that to be me. Creating the best environment for everyone to have fun, and feel accomplished.

Emily: You have the right idea working with your circle of close friends and then going from there. You established a good rapport and you grew your reputation so then bands who know those bands want to work with you.

Shane: You know, even though a lot of my productions that are coming to fruition as of late line up with that thought, I’ve been working on maybe hundreds of records over the years, whether it be running the tape machine, just recording guitars, or playing drums on a series of singles. So I definitely approached the latter philosophy just as much as linking up with close friends. Anything I can do to gain experience, and get better.

What long-term goals do you have for the label, if you have any idea of what that will look like yet?

Shane: Jordan, Matt, Jeff, and I haven’t fully discussed the future of the label. The pandemic kinda shook things up, but luckily we had things already in line to come out so we are super stoked to have had as many releases as we have had fully come out despite the times. We are gonna figure out our next moves as a band, start scoping things out and see what other stuff people are making out there! You know usually, we’d scope bands, or acts on tour and on the road. But it’s hard now finding new talent. But it’s out there. Hit us up! We aren’t a bank like many other labels act as. But we do have certain connections and know how to put out records ourselves, so whatever we can help nice and talented people with, we’d like to try!

Are you working from Headroom or your house right now, and would you like to eventually have your own legitimate workspace?

Shane: I’m working out of the Headroom. We’re taking all of the necessary precautions to provide a safe environment. My space at home works well for overdubs and some editing. Maybe a place of my own when I’m 50 and move somewhere with mountains if that part of the country doesn’t burn down. But I love Headroom, and the people that own it and work there. It’s a beautiful space, with great gear, and I’ve been there so long I couldn’t imagine making a record somewhere else for some time.

Do you have any dream projects? Any bands you’d love to record or something we haven’t even talked about that is a longterm personal goal?

Shane: I want it to keep being a blast. I feel like it’s easy to get jaded or old and cranky in the music industry. I work 50% on the artist side with our band and other projects, and the other 50% on the audio side so I think that balance really makes me happy. Kind of a cop-out but if I can keep cracking dumb jokes with silly musicians and making records that all parties are proud of, I’ll be stoked. Also If Neil Young wants to do a record and have me play drums too, that’d be sick! Hit me up, Uncle Neil. We can use the demos for the final version or whatever kinda crazy shit you want.

Shane Woods and Mo Lowda & the Humble Bandmates Bring Work Around Records To Life