A label of love

To Jason Rozen, who launched the Grinding Tapes Recording Co. four years ago as a way of putting out an LP by North Carolina songwriter Elijah Wyman - and then donated a kidney to him two years later - it was just something friends do for one another.

In fact, Rozen doesn’t even mention the organ transplant when he talks about the gently fretful, haunted mood that typifies Wyman’s music, or his label’s mission of giving a portion of its sales to a charity of the artist’s choosing. When I bring it up, over an afternoon snack at a restaurant with Rozen’s Grinding Tapes cohorts Joanna Heath and Matt Lacorazza, the soft-spoken 26-year-old turns a bit bashful.

“Elijah had some health problems a couple of years back. His kidneys failed, and he only had college-based health insurance,’’ says Rozen, who grew up in Boxford and lives in Andover. “But yes, I did donate a kidney. I feel fine now, but it was a little bit scary at the time.’’

In a separate phone interview from his home in Asheville, N.C., Wyman laughs, having correctly guessed that Rozen - whom he has known since high school - had neglected to volunteer the story of his extraordinary sacrifice. “Yep, that’s Jason,’’ says Wyman, 24, who grew up near Rozen on the North Shore and now records under the new moniker of tiny mtns. “He’s such a great, incredibly giving guy.’’ Wyman reports he’s been doing well since the 2007 transplant and jokes that Rozen’s act of friendship was actually the label’s version of a comprehensive health care plan - an extreme form of dedication to its artists, you might say.

Everything about Grinding Tapes is hands on. All of the CD and vinyl (and, in one case, cassette) releases for the label’s eight artists feature limited-edition, handmade letter-pressed album covers and packaging that have become collector’s items in certain circles. Most of the money made through sales of CDs, LPs, and MP3s is paid directly to the artist through the Grinding Tapes website (www.grindingtapes.org), with a portion of the proceeds also going to charity. Several of the releases have even been sold on a pay-what-you-want sliding scale ranging from $5 to $15.

So far, Grinding Tapes is still a labor, and label, of love more than profit. But that soon may change, as its presence on the music blogosphere appears to be increasing. Wyman says he isn’t surprised. “Jason’s such a geeky fan of music,’’ Wyman says. “And when you’re putting that much energy and care and love into something, it makes sense that it will grow bigger.’’

Rozen named his label Grinding Tapes after his teenage recording experiments. “In high school, I went back to using tapes and messing around with the tape after I recorded on it,’’ he says. “I even went so far as to try to boil my tapes to get an aging effect and get as much of an old ’80s sound as possible. After I destroyed them, they would kind of creak and grind as I tried to play them in my four-track.’’

From there, friends who played and shared bills together coalesced around, and into, a label. “There’s a thriving local scene that just kind of came to us,’’ says Rozen, describing the label’s existence almost as an accident. “But I feel like now there’s a lot more responsibility to keep that momentum going.’’ The latest Grinding Tapes brainstorm, which took effect this month, is a digital subscription service featuring exclusive downloads, live tracks, and demos.

As far as the label’s published website “manifesto’’ promoting “peace, justice, and humanitarian relief through art,’’ Rozen says he modeled its philosophy on that of seminal independent labels such as Washington, D.C.’s Dischord Records and Quebec’s Constellation Records. “After college, we were at loose ends as far as activism goes, so we were trying to figure out how best to continue that.’’ The label manifesto, says Rozen, “was a good way to channel our energy so that we still felt like we were making a difference.’’

“I really enjoy that [the label] creates this community of artists and great people collaborating, and that I get to be a part of it,’’ says Heath, who is Rozen’s girlfriend. She created the label’s spare, effectively eye-catching cassette tape logo and helps assemble the album covers at home. “I was a fan of the bands from the start, so it’s really a great experience now,’’ Heath says. “You want to see them grow and succeed and do well. And it’s also really fun to see an entire house filled with drying, freshly printed CD jackets.’’