It’s shocking that more people don’t know that Waxwork Records was founded in New Orleans. What has become one of the most prolific record labels for horror and genre film, Waxwork Records began humbly and scrappily, through the passion and tenacity of New Orleans natives Kevin Bergeron and Sue Ellen Soto. It’s not as if there was a demand in 2013 for lovingly pressed vinyl records of “Chopping Mall,” “C.H.U.D.,” or “Re-Animator,” but Bergeron and Soto wanted to make it happen, so they found a way. Today, and 200 releases later, Waxwork Records finds itself at a new crossroads of its own manifestation: to sit still or innovate. Unsurprisingly, they have chosen the latter, boldly evolving the industry they helped innovate, searching for that elusive artistic equilibrium found most often in New Orleans, where music and the macabre harmonize as one.
“In the early days, we did flirt with moving to L.A. or Austin when we realized that Waxwork was taking off,” Soto said. “But we like it out here. We have family here; it’s where we grew up. And I’ve noticed that licensors and studios think it’s cool that we’re out here as well.”
“They think it’s fascinating,” Bergeron said. “If we hop on a Zoom call with a producer or filmmaker, when they find out we’re in New Orleans, they want to talk about New Orleans. The company started here, and we’ve set down roots with our pressing plant. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with it being from here, but when we travel it’s clear that this is a different, cooler planet than anywhere else.”
Bergeron and Soto had to get creative when securing the first releases of what would become the independently owned Waxwork Records. Their main form of outreach was simply cold calling and emailing rights holders to secure permissions to print film scores like “Friday the 13th” or “The Haunting of Hill House,” striking up collaborations not only with major film studios but also filmmakers like John Carpenter and Rob Zombie. As they grew, they continued pushing the bounds of what could, or even should, be pressed into the permanence of vinyl; like the Giallo-classic, Goblin scored, “Phenomena,” an album with the entire story and song of Rob Zombie’s “House of 1000 Corpses,” the stop-motion Halloween spook-tacular “Mad Monster Party,” or even a never-released film score for the Lon Chaney Jr. curiosity “Spider Baby.” But their white whale came in the form of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” whose landmark soundscape of horrific shrieks and scrapes had been a treasured benchmark in the history of experimental cinematic scores — a holy grail for cinephiles and audiophiles alike. It was Waxwork, partnering with Wayne Bell, who co-scored the film with director Tobe Hooper, that provided the means, over the course of 10 years, to resurrect the score on a lush vinyl record, allowing it to be treasured by anyone with an ear for something uniquely savage and strange.
“The score was in no shape to be released. It was literally on several tapes that had to be all transferred,” Bergeron said. “Luckily, Wayne Bell still works in Austin, and we were able to give him studio time to edit, mix, and create a cohesive listening experience from those master tapes. Essentially piecing together something he created in his early 20s. It’s crazy how good it sounds for the time, and the condition the tapes were originally found in.”
Waxwork Records has come a long way, but Bergeron and Soto are always keeping their ears to the ground for anything coming down the production pipeline that feels novel or exciting. This instinct is how Waxwork Records snagged the licensing for “Obsession,” long before the film became a phenomenon, based purely on Bergeron vibing off of the initial trailer. Now, with a pair of fully functioning record presses in-house, and as many as two more planned for the near future, Waxwork Records is eager to expand beyond the comfy confines of their horror movie dominion and into the wider realm of music, beginning partnerships with fellow labels to print their records, as well as representing independent artists like Lia Braswell and the Icelandic electro-pop duo Scam.
“Everyone is pressing records now, which wasn’t the case when we started,” Soto said. “I don’t see it slowing down because it goes hand in hand with the film and movie theater industry. I feel like people are going to the movies more. People want experiences. They want to go to movies, they want to listen to records, and it makes me so happy.”
Must-see performances this month
Oct. 3 | Maggie Koerner + Gina Leslie, 9 p.m. at Tipitina’s, tipitinas.com.
Oct. 13 | Modest Mouse, 7 p.m., at The Fillmore New Orleans, thefillmorenola.com.
Oct. 14 | $uicideboy$ with Destroy Lonely, $lim Gucci, Black Kray & More, 6:30 p.m. at the Smoothie King Center, smoothiekingcenter.com.
Oct. 24 | Sorry Ghost, 7 p.m. at Gasa Gasa, gasagasanola.com.
Oct. 25 | Harlan Steed Halloween Tour, 7 p.m. at The Crypt New Orleans, thecryptnola.com.
Oct. 30 | All Hallows Eve Spooktacular! with The Soul Rebels, 9 p.m. at Tipitina’s, tipitinas.com.
