Scott: Chimney Rocks Records is named after a series of limestone outcrops on a small ridge overlooking my hometown of Hollidaysburg, PA – known as Chimney Rocks. Legend says that the local indigenous population would use the spires to observe the settlers as they moved into the valley. I still pass it regularly on my Sunday trips to junk hunt at the flea market. In the summers for the past 40+ years, Leighty’s Flea market has been in operation offering spaces for vendors to sell their unwanted items. I’ve been going as long as I can remember being able to drive. The first thing I remember actually buying there was when I was in highschool, an Elvis Costello Greatest Hits CD used for 5 bucks. Basically, I am always looking for music, so I’ll scour any bins I see with tapes, records and CDs.. CDs are the new barely-tapped source for fucked up weird homemade releases and going rate is 50 cents. I’ll also look through piles of ephemera for local history items. I’m prob a borderline hoarder (you won’t see me on TV since I keep it under wraps), so there are a lot of things that grab my interest like old comic books, fantasy related books and toys, and anything made of wrought iron. For the record label I’m always on the lookout for rubber stamps that I can use to enhance the releases. I periodically come across old stock paper products from a long gone paper company from my area…copy paper, construction paper, tissue paper, stuff like that which I like to use for inserts and embellishments with the releases. When the wind was just right you could smell the paper factory, which was not pleasant. Glad it’s gone and its paper survives.
There are many record labels in the dungeon synth (DS) scene. More than I could rattle off by memory. The number of DS labels though which specialize in 7″ lathe cuts and also peddle small batch pepper sauce is something I could rattle off by memory. Chimney Rocks Records (CRR) has used the recent years to fortify a position in the DS community as the place to go if you want a 7″ lathe cut. With a small catalog which ranges from Coniferous Myst, Sombre Arcane, Hedge Wizard, Leaking Crypt, Alkilith, and Colossus, Chimney Rocks, has explored the use of an even more arcane media than the cassette tape. I initially contacted Scott P. about this article but had others still finishing so we were just chatting back and forth about things. I noticed he was selling hot sauce and we started talking about peppers. This is what normal people do. Scott was working with the raw black / DS project Grimdor in producing a batch of jalapeño sauces called “Green Smaug” I thought I stumbled into a world of underground DS pepper nerds. Though this underground maybe only a few people, I would like to join this club with a few of my own recipes.
I have always wanted these articles to highlight artists and labels not just as promotion but as showcases for individuals. After doing a few of these I can say that no label like no artist is the exact same and they all come from chaotically different backgrounds. My interaction with Scott was a casually intense conversation about hobbies and music and music as a hobby which kind of turned out to be more than a hobby. Scott sent me a care package even before the article would be published including lathe vinyl and 5 different bottles of hot sauce which now are on my table I use on most nights. Over the course of our interactions I found was a person who was extremely adept at enjoyment of music at a young age as well as someone who is older than what people would normally consider for a distributor of underground music. I felt kinship in both of these aspects and celebrate the people who have had life experience in running small enterprises as well as ones who have moved onto the quiet hobbies of pepper cultivation.
Chimney Rocks Records was conceived sometime in 2006. I didn’t really have a plan in mind except that I wanted to release songs of music that I liked, regardless of genre. I always loved the 7″ format, inconvenient as it is, and decided to try my hand and getting some pressed up, even though i think vinyl was at its low point at this time. Real music fans still cared, right? I had some friends in a local rockabilly trio, The Marauders, that were making some minor waves at that time. Having caught the ear of Stray Cats frontman Brian Setzer who had penned a song about them on his most recent release, the Marauders did a small tour with the Brian Setzer Orchestra and also recorded their own version of the song Setzer had written for them “We are the Marauders.” At the same time, I was also obsessing over an Omnichord-heavy psych folk version of Roger Miller’s “Old Toy Trains” that had been released as an MP3 the previous holiday by Dean & Britta w/ Sonic Boom (of Galaxie 500, Luna and Spacemen 3 fame). After getting things set up with the musicians and pressing plant, I reached out to my friend Dan who was operating a budding screen-printing business in Pittsburgh, Commonwealth Press, to help with the design and sleeve printing. These 2 records became the first two Chimney Rocks Records releases in 2007. Soon after, I had some big life changes with the birth of my son and my job, and Chimney Rocks got shuffled to the back burner late in 2008. Poof it’s 2018. Ten years later my life is stable again and I blow the dust off and resurrect Chimney Rocks Records to do a Kick Starter fundraiser to raise the $$$ to do a 100 LP pressing of hometown punk favorites Ten Sent Wings’ “Here Lies Nothing” album. The campaign was a success, and the record came out great, and it got my creative drive moving again. I had been aware of the blossoming dungeon synth scene at this time and had begun buying tapes from OoS, Ancient Meadow, DAP, Gondolin, as well as demos and digital files on Bandcamp. I have always been a fan of keyboard and synthesizer-oriented music, especially music on the darker side of the spectrum and also that music which evokes raw emotion, so I quickly fell into DS and related genres. I especially admired the DIY aspect of the DS scene and was inspired by the numerous musicians and artists making shit happen. It felt like the punk scene of my youth. I had been active in some of the DS groups for a couple years and finally decided to reach out to four artists that I particularly enjoyed and that I thought had the potential to make a great 7” single. I reached out to Eldritch Wizardry & Redhorn Gate, Diplodocus and Krampusnacht and all were agreeable to the idea. The musicians submitted phenomenal tracks and the artwork looked spectacular. With Commonwealth Press screen printing the sleeves, everything fell into place, and the records came out really nice. I still look at them and wonder how they came out so nice. I especially liked working with the creative like-minded people that I had met through the social media groups, and I think it was at this point I decided I was going to try and stick with music in the Dungeon Synth realm and see what happens. Coniferous Myst VII, along with Batspike and Mortwight were the first 7” lathe cut records Chimney Rocks released in one batch.
Being in the throes of COVID 19 at the time, people were much more active on Social Media and I think it was all done through Facebook messages. I reached out to Myst myself and was floored when he offered new material for the record – “VII”. Mortwight had asked me about doing a Stygian Steel repress which I was honored to do, especially since it had inspired me so much. I had been chatting regularly on social media with the artist that is Batspike to get him onboard with a lathe and he offered 2 phenomenal old school DS tracks. I don’t think Batspike has done anything since.
With large pressing numbers required, long wait times, and overall prohibitive costs, it soon became clear my idea of releasing traditionally pressed 7” vinyl records was not going to work financially. As soon as I picked up a copy of Mortwight’s self-released 7” lathe Stygian Steel and popped it on my turntable, I realized that lathe cut records were my answer. Whereas traditional vinyl records are stamped from a master disc, lathe cut records are created one at a time, in real time. The music is run through an antique record cutting machine where the audio is sent to diamond needle and the sounds are etched onto a polycarbonate disc. It’s kind of the opposite process of a traditional record player. I’ve been working with Precarian Cuts from Arizona who makes the lathe records. They use old mono machines which I feel translates well with most dungeon synth releases. And even though the discs can be finicky and temperamental at times, the final output is always worth it.I initially wanted to set myself apart a bit by having the cover artwork silk screened on high quality paper rather than the traditional mass printed flimsy cardboard picture sleeves. Due to the limitations of the silk screening process, the artwork had to be relatively simple with few colors, which lended itself well to the overall simple and hand-made aesthetic that I like. For some of the recent lathe releases I moved away from the silk screened covers and began using offset printing on panels of beefy cardstock. For my first dungeon synth release, the Eldritch Wizardry/Redhorn Gate split, I had a concept in mind for the cover and knew I needed a real artist to pull it off. The artwork Daniel Bechthold handed me for that split blew my mind and am so thankful that I saw his online post looking for art commissions and reached out. Commonwealth Press took that B&W art and did a top-tier job with the 3-color layout (on red paper), especially the gold ink highlights and halftones which I thought was magnificent work. I have used artists from Fivver on a couple occasions, but most of the artwork comes from the musicians themselves. Where they source the art from varies, but I always support the musician’s vision of the release. I absolutely love it when the musician has an idea in mind that I can help make happen. For certain releases I’ll ask my wife Monica to paint an abstract watercolor design that I can use for inserts or other little touches. If I can use a rubber stamp on it, you bet I will. There are alot of different hands that have been on each record even before it gets shipped out.
DS 45
The 45 Single or 7′ Single is an outdated format. At one point these small records and their two sides shaped the the history of popular music as they were the central point of how an audience connected with new music. 45s were the central component in jukeboxes and provided the foundation for young people getting together to listen to music. Today they are relics of the past and in many cases of underground music, boutique products for consumers. Scott sent me a few 45s to go along with my hot sauce. The size and compact nature of each one felt like I was holding a relic and when playing each one, there was little reason to walk away from my turntable as the song would be over soon. Playing a 45 was an active communion with the music which forced me to be in the present with music. It is impossible to let it fall to the background since the music would be over soon. I don’t have many 45’s and whatever Scott sent me makes up the majority of my collection. Paying attention to new material on this special format is akin to collecting zines or limited edition tapes. Sure it isn’t necessary but the uniqueness of the format is overwhelming and interesting. Usually with these articles, Ill ask for new material so we can spotlight things coming out in the near future. Kyvon, Lone Sentinel, Osso Cornata, and Forlon were artists I have known about and even done articles about so writing about them was going to be super easy. Chimney Rocks Records, despite seeming like a niche product in a niche subgenre, is located at the heart of a vibrant scene of music.
Two more split 7”s are also in the works from Silencio Permanente & Oublieth and Hermit Knight & Owl Knight. I have at one 7” lathe planned for release at the 2024 Great Lakes Dungeon Siege in October from France’s Dragonkeep. I just heard the tracks today and am 100% stoked for this to happen. Beyond these lathe cut records, I don’t have any long term projects into 2025. I’m about due for another traditionally pressed vinyl record with silk screened sleeve, so maybe I’ll put that on the 2025 goals list.
Ossa Coronata is one of the projects which stems from the world of Attic Shrines. Out of the entire new batch of Chimney Rocks releases, Ossa Coronata is perhaps the most haunted. I met this artist at TXDS which turned into the above article and was pleased when seeing the name in the new group of releases. I was aware of this project in 2017 and was amazed at the world of cobwebs it turned into in 2024. Now I get to hear one of the final works from the project with Call and I Follow. From the tolling of the bells the listener is invited to a 5 minute soliloquy of somber dirges and then promptly asked to leave a mansion with many sublevels you probably never noticed. There are many things unknown about this project and its creator to the point that I am aware this as one of the last releases but I never can be certain for we are not meant to know everything for sure.
Finally, dungeon synth on a Casio DG-1 guitar. For as much as I had jokes about the set up of this record, the sound of Forlorn’s demo makes the most amount of sense. Forlorn is the work of J who is in a number of acts among the GLDS including Colossus and one half of Mors Vitaque. No stranger to experimentation, J channels the old school hymns of dungeon synth in a sound which for the most part sounds like a demo released in 1995 if it was not for the shimmering effect of the synthized guitar. Forlorn is not mimicking dungeon synth on a guitar rather using odd instruments in the quest of something new. It is artists like this which I feel lay at the foundation of the genre and though the sound might be unorthodox, the journey to cast sadness and forlorn atmospheres into an instrument which seems like it is a punchline is remarkable.
Kyvon and Lone Sentinel are both pillars of the GLDS scene and having both of them on a split, which was conceived agreed upon and planned at last NEDS, is remarkable finally seeing released. The 45 as a format makes the most amount of sense for something special, where both sides are featured as guests on the other. Chimney Rocks relationship to the GLDS has resulted in not only this but future splits which showcase different personalities of the scene. The intimate nature of both the format matches the music in exquisite ways be it the mystical nature of Kyvon featuring Lone Sentinel or the tolling resole of Lone Sentinel featuring Kvyon.
Scott’s 4th Grade Playlist
Some of my earliest memories are of me listening to 7” records on my Fisher Price record player. At the time it was book and record sets (loved the Hobbit and also Robin Hood) and also 45s from my mom’s old record box. The first “rock” records I remember getting for myself were “Theme to the Dukes of Hazzard” by Waylon Jennings, “Whip It” by Devo, and “Music Box Dancer” by Frank Mills. In fourth grade you didn’t care about scenes or being cool so you bought what you liked. Later when I was slightly older, I was pretty embarrassed by having that Frank Mills record and used it to DJ scratch on my record player to Run DMC which ruined it and my needle. (Hahaha did you watch that video?) Even after I transitioned to primarily buying cassettes and then CDs, I never lost my love of 45s. I always maintained some sort of working turntable, so would buy 7” records from bands I liked even as the popularity of vinyl dwindled. I really enjoyed the days when I had enough time to just lay out my 7” records and play records for hours. All of this absolutely contributed to the formation of Chimney Rocks Records.
Scott sent me the above picture which was him in fourth grade listing he records he owned. Like any fourth grader, it is completely normal to catalog the collection of 45s you owned on some found ledger paper. I would totally do this if I had a collection 45s as if to start what would be a large library of music. After seeing this list I then made a YouTube Playlist for it for no other reason than because it was funny and to digitize a collection which once only existed on found ledger paper. There are many thoughts I have on this playlist. First and foremost is the level of musical awareness for the age. I am a teacher by trade and though it is not unheard of to be involved with music at the level at this age, it is unique. Second of all some of these songs were completely new to me and some of them even slapped. Scott’s 4th grade playlist seemed to be a blueprint for a lifelong relationship with music despite the genre or perceived coolness of it. Now he is involved in an underground music scene making handmade artifacts for future generations to enjoy, it only seems fitting to showcase where that love came from and it starts with Devo and Kool & the Gang.
What are some of the rarest 45s you have. Any private press material?
That’s difficult to say as my memory is resin-caked and I still have not added any of my 7” records to my Discogs database to help me jog it. I do have a few desirable records, though not sure how rare they actually are. The three favorites that stick out in my mind are: an early Front 242 release on the New Dance label, “U.Men/Ethics”; The blue vinyl version of Galaxie 500’s “Tugboat/King of Spain” on Aurora Records; and Weird Al Yankovic “Another One Rides the Bus” EP on Placebo Records. I have some nice old country and rockabilly records on the Starday label and a handful of classic Sun Records as well. My tastes and collection are all over the board. I’m not 100% sure how to define private press, but I do have many releases that were put out by the artists and small labels. I really enjoy the DIY aesthetics and output of a small New England label Droll Yankee (RIP now a bird feeder company) that focused on nature sounds and spoken word passages. I also like to pick up any local/regional 7” records I come across. Usually the music is terrible (gospel/religious/country/rock) with zero fanbase, but I get satisfaction knowing I may have saved one of the few copies out there from a landfill.I also am collecting any record I can find from the Luray Caverns Stalacpipe Organ. I also have a couple cassettes. A freaking mechanical organ that plays its notes by hitting different sized stalactites in the cavern with pneumatic mallets! It would be my dream as a record label to rent the Stalacpipe Organ room for a weekend and fly in Grimdor and Myst to play/improv on it and record that session. Last time I was there, the kid running the tours didn’t have any answers for me if that was a possibility.
What do you think about DS moving from a online only scene to an eventual live scene?
I think it was inevitable. Order always moves to the chaotic. It seemed just as the new DS scene began to blossom, COVID hit and sent everyone behind their monitors, though ideas and creativity still flourished and thrived. I think in this way the scene was forced into a seemingly online-only format. Some older YouTube videos of Sombre Arcane performing live and the numerous online DS streams that popped up from 2020-2022 gave us a glimpse of what was to come once the world reopened. Total support to all the mofos making it happen live.
Being primarily into 7″ what do you think of other formats like floppy disks, reel to reel, and minidiscs that music is still being utilized by underground scenes. Do you think there is a connection between DIY communities and seemingly outdated media?
In my experience, the DIY community likes working with their hands and sees value in human-made tangible objects and pieces of art. These outdated media formats allow additional outlets for the DIY community to release and express their music and art. I’ve purposely avoided picking up any more antiquated media formats since I already have a graveyard of halfworking VCR, cassette, and record players that I’m not sure what to do with. But I do love all of it and will pick up floppies and micro cassette releases from artists and labels I follow. Although attaching these analog formats with digital files online allows for extremely easy listening, I like the idea that in order to play these formats as intended, you have to do more than open an app and click a button and beam it to your bluetooth speaker. It takes time and effort and will to find a working piece of gear or fix a broken machine. And then to figure out how to finesse the cords, dials and switches to get the sound to come out and sound decent – it’s a satisfying outcome that enhances the listening experience for me. I think some musicians like the idea of people playing their music on tape or record or floppy or whatever…fans making that extra bit of effort to listen to your music and support the scene. Maybe I’ll take it old school and try a release that is physical only with no digital files or bandcamp codes and no way to listen to it unless you buy it and play it. Just like my Devo record. Let me put that on my 2025 goals list too. 🙂
Recipe Split
This whole pepper cult thing started out as a joke and usually with me turned into more than that. I enjoyed putting together this little printable zine for three hot sauces and though it was one of the focuses for this interview, I wouldn’t mind talking to other people who also share the same sort of culinary obsessions. Growing peppers is a hobby I would have laughed at when I was younger but there is some sort of wisdom of picking up quiet hobbies as you grow old. I don’t consider myself an expert in making hot sauce but have used this recipe for awhile so I thought it would be fun to commit it, much like others do on tape or 7″. think of this as a recipe split and an invitation for anyone else to collaborate. I can’t think of many other underground music scenes which also have a food based undertext but we can make our own history super weird if we want to. I want to thank Scott and Grimdor for sharing their recipes and music with me Below is a 8.11 x 11 one sheet zine you can print and fold and tuck into your cookbooks and / or other recipe zines. Perhaps this will lead to some more unique hobbies and you can join the DS Pepper Cult with us.
