Darius Goes to Indiana

Jagjaguwar labelhead Darius Van Arman recently left Charlottesville, Va. for Bloomington, Indiana. . . but not before his longtime co-worker, basketball buddy and erstwhile Grip editor Dan Poarch talked to the one-man-indie label behind such critically-acclaimed Virginia acts as Drunk, South, Curious Digit, Union of a Man & a Woman and Manichevitz before he packed his bags.

Darius Van Arman: How come I ended up with you? Why can’t I get Grip Marquee Correspondent Paul Wilkinson?

Grip: I’m asking the questions here… What’s your mother’s name?

Much of this interview occurred without hitches, excepting moments not unlike this:

Grip: The Jackson Five have a song titled "Going Back to Indiana," did this song have any influence over your decision to move?

Van Arman: (long pause)… No.

Darius came to Charlottesville as most folks have, to go to the BIG school that closely resembles the back of a nickel. After spending many a night munching on some Little John’s sandwiches at 4 a.m., the then night manager, the pizza-slinging Steve Graziano, asked him if he’d be interested in a 3-6 am show on the illustrious WTJU. Sparking a bit of an awakening into the world of music beyond the next Pink Floyd re-issue, Van Arman started hosting bands at parties in the basement of his house, which, hard to believe, was quite the thing to do at the time. Your Technical Jeds, your Hose Got Cables, your Damn Near Reds, and even OUR Curious Digit.

As time went on, Darius eventually became proficient at using a computer, a skill he learned by habitually destroying the facilities at the Consortium of University Publications at UVA. This recently acquired skill-set, along with his Rock Director-ship at WTJU, and a call from Drag City wondering if anyone in the area would like to promote a Smog show, led to his first booking gig at Tokyo Rose. From there he went on to book regularly for Tokyo Rose, though never becoming an employee. From there he started making records with some of these bands and Jagjaguwar was born.

Grip: Your first release was Curious Digit’s CD...

Van Arman: Actually my first release was with my partner Dawson and we had a label named Sentimental. It was a Curious Digit 7". I actually wasn’t sure when I released the Curious Digit full length (Bombay Aloo) if Jagjaguwar was actually going to be label or if it was just an alias for the commitment I had to Sentimental. But once that fizzled, Jagjaguwar became an actual label.

Grip: How did you start to pick up other bands?

Van Arman: Drunk came to me through this convoluted route where some them were in the Seymores and heard the Digit CD through Shannon Worrell’s band, Monsoon, but never linked up with me. But somehow no full-time members of Drunk were actually in the Seymores... I don’t know, it’s kind of a crazy connection.

Grip: (blank expression)

Van Arman: It’s convoluted like I said... (laughing)

Grip: (blank expression)

Van Arman: (turning to defensive anger) Listen! I lived with Paul, that’s it, that’s as far as it went!

Grip: (calmly) Nobody said anything about Paul (the Digit’s keyboard player), Darius...

Van Arman: The guy has a beautiful artistic voice... it falls somewhere between Randy Newman and Burt Bacharach.

Grip: How did you continue to attract artists?

Van Arman: I’ve had great luck with press. A number of bands came through Tokyo Rose and I just continued to listen and talked to people about bands, word of mouth.

Grip: Now, the big hoopla is that you’re moving to Bloomington, Indiana. How is that going to change how you deal with your bands who are mostly Virginia based?

Van Arman: Well... not all the bands are Virginia based, Drunk is from Richmond, Curious Digit from Charlottesville, but Monroe Mustang is from Austin, Sarah White is currently in San Francisco, and we’re considering a band from Western Australia and another from San Francisco. Hopefully with the move the label will become multi-regional as well as national if even international.

Grip: You’re starting a new business in Bloomington?

Van Arman: Chris Swanson, who is a part owner of Secretly Canadian bought 50% of Jagjaguwar. He also owns a house in Bloomington. The house will essentially become the offices of the label so that I can pursue the label on a full-time basis. As well as the label, we’ll be starting a brokership for the manufacture of CD’s.

Grip: Will this be open for other labels to use?

Van Arman: Certainly. Our hope is to create a service that helps not only our productions but by getting other indie labels to work with us we’ll be able to get good deals for all of us so noone’s getting taken to the cleaners by larger firms. Of course, this will also help pay the bills.

Grip: Are you going to miss the region?

Van Arman: YES... I think Charlottesville is the best place to live in the world. I love it here.

Grip: What else is going to be in Indiana for you?

Van Arman: Indiana basketball! I want to meet Bobby Knight, maybe get a little coaching.

Grip: I think he can help you but you gotta’ watch that slashing...

Van Arman: One-on-One? Take backs or straight up? Where’s Don?

Grip: With all these changes for the label, what is your vision for it? What are you in it for?

Van Arman: I like the idea of creating a community of artists. I also enjoy being on the producing side of the culture and not just the consumption side, while contributing positively to mass media. Whatever enables me to do this full-time without compromising any of those values too much is wonderful. It would be great for the label to become self-supporting. As a filter for pop-culture, it’s exciting to create a new mythology.

Grip: What’s your lifetime with the label?

Van Arman: I give it 5 years, then I’ll re-evaluate it. Then maybe go to law school. Be like Matt Damon in The Rain Maker and ride into the sunset with Claire Danes. Well maybe...

Grip: Halle Berry?

Van Arman: She’s too old, maybe the red-head from "That 70’s Show" or something...

As of this writing, Van Arman was already planning a return trip home to coordinate another Jagjagwar Fete at Tokyo Rose. . .