Interview with CandyRat Records founder Rob Poland, Part 1
This past Fall, at the Fingerstyle Collective Guitar Festival in Arkansas, I met up with the founder of CandyRat Records, Mr Rob Poland. I was CandyRat's first signing, after releasing nine CDs on conventional record labels from the late 80s to the early 2000s.In this first of three parts, Rob and I discuss how he decided that it was time to move into a new business, how he and I met, and how we decided to work together on my tenth CD, MUSIC FOR VACUUMING, the first CandyRat release which came out in November 2005.CandyRat Records has been the home of some of the world's most innovative solo guitarists and singer/songwriters since its inception. It has seen the staggering viral success of Andy McKee, and huge contributions from a range of musicians, from Antoine Dufour, Jimmy Wahlsteen, Stefano Barone and Mike Dawes, to name a few. With over a quarter of a billion views on YouTube (and countless more on other platforms) featuring styles of music that would definitely be considered outside the mainstream, CandyRat has been a 21st century success story. Nonetheless, it hasn't been immune to the changing nature of digital music distribution. We touch on many of these points throughout the interview's three episodes.Check out the CandyRat catalogue at www.candyrat.com to find CDs, LPs, T-shirts, music downloads and sheet music by CandyRat artists.