A strutting, triumphant anthem from Daniprobably. A sweet, country-inflected song of hope from Alexandra Burnet and the Stable Six. A rambunctious, sparking collaboration between Mightymoonchew and Dooley‑O. All these New Haven favorites and more appear alongside several other Connecticut bands in a state-spanning, 12-track compilation from Verso Records — a new nonprofit label attached to Westport Library that marketing manager and New Haven music scenester Brendan Toller hopes will become a harbinger for the future.
Verso Studios grew out of Westport Library’s maker space in 2019. Bill Harmer, the library’s director, “was looking to broaden the audience” for it, said Toller, and built out the recording studio and post-production facilities, including a venue space and a broadcast control room. Historically, some libraries have had publishing arms. “So why not a record label then?” Toller said.
By the end of 2019, “construction was done and of course we know what happened from there,” Toller said. Harmer had already enlisted Travis Bell, who previously ran Adorea Recording Studios next to the Space in Hamden, as recording engineer. As it became safe to get band into the studio again, starting as early as January 2021, “it seemed like a natural step to use our recording studios to make great videos, similar to KEXP or Tiny Desk, and also just record great music, and see what happens.”
Toller, who is now marketing manager for Verso Studios, got involved because “I played tambourine on the Zambonis’ ‘Gretsky Twist,’ ” he said, referring to the legendary Connecticut band that began in 1991 when “defenseman/guitarist/singer Dave Schneider ask[ed] brothers Tarquin and Peter Katis if they want[ed] to start a group that played nothing but songs about hockey.” That song now appears on Verso Records: Volume One. When Toller entered the studio in 2021 (captured in the video above), he was taken with it. “What is this place?” he recalled thinking.
Deciding which acts to include on Verso’s first compilation was “decided by committee,” Toller said, among Verso’s staff of himself, Bell, and David Bibbey, Verso’s video studios manager and engineer. Toller pitched several New Haven bands he’d seen live and “pitched to the team, and they gave the green light,” he said.
Toller.
“I’m a part of this music scene. I’m around here and see what’s going on, and it’s just so inspiring. It was obvious for me for this record to have a New Haven connection because there’s powerful stuff coming out of here,” Toller said. “Somebody once called New Haven Connecticut’s sand shaker. It’s where all the creatives and weirdos come who aren’t moving to the huge cities, or want something different.” Toller wanted to capture that.
The acts Toller pitched ranged from Daniprobably to Mightmoonchew and Dooley‑O and The Problem with Kids Today, the latter of which gave a raucous performance at the library that, at the time, made Toller wonder “if I’d have a job on Monday,” he said with a laugh. But the library “ate it up,” he said. “If you are authentic and you go hard in your direction, people support it.”
Toller was also thinking about putting Volume One in the “continuum of the great Connecticut compilations that are out there, like It Happened but Nobody Noticed, Dooley-O’s basement tapes, Towers of New London, Don’t Press Your Luck. I wanted to honor that tradition and have it be a snapshot of the last three or four years,” spanning jazz, hip hop, and rock. He “prodded” Mightymoonchew and Dooley‑O to collaborate to make their cut for the record. It just seemed like a “natural fit” to him, and a great way to celebrate the music scene.
As a nonprofit record company, Verso is releasing the album on vinyl and digitally June 3. Toller has done a full round of publicity on Connecticut media outlets. Then, “like the old bluesmen that came before me,” Toller said, he’ll drive across the state with copies of the record in his trunk, seeing if the state’s record stores are interested in selling it. “We have that miraculous Pitchfork article that I can contextualize it with. It’s not just a homemade mixtape. This is a group effort, from the graphic design to the video to the recording, to all the bands’ contributions. It’s from the heart.”
With Neighborhood Music School’s Equitone Records starting up on Audubon Street at the beginning of May, Connecticut can now boast two institutionally supported nonprofit record labels. For Toller, it’s not entirely surprising. The music industry, he said, “is dystopian.” The nonprofit record label is “like the organic farmer’s market movement, probably.” Verso doesn’t have “multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns,” but it is “using the model of the library to better the creative community.”
Toller noted that the title of the record heavily suggested there will be more compilations from Verso. “I’m excited for Volume 23,” he said. The studio is also recording audiobooks, podcasts, and other voice work. At the moment, Toller said, “we are beyond capacity,” which holds promise for other such spaces to exist. More broadly, he sees the record as something of a proof of concept and a “calling card.”
“We want to see other libraries and organizations do this,” Toller said. He has gotten a call from West Hartford’s public library already. “When they actually see it in progress, they say, ‘this should be commonplace.’ ” Toller added that he has to “acknowledge our privilege” — the Westport Library is “in one of the most affluent cities in Connecticut, and that’s why we have the resources that we do. But that’s also why we’re so adamant about sharing, as best we can.”
Verso Records: Volume One is available through Bandcamp and directly through the record label’s website.
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