Jersey Beat article about the founding of Mint 400 Records http://www.jerseybeat.com/mint400.html
Hi, my name is Neil Sabatino and I started this record label out of my apartment back in 2007. I had been in bands for many years and dealt with all sizes and kinds of record labels. I started the label at first because my own band needed a label to release all of our material under. At the time Fairmont (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_(band)) needed a home for their catalog.
My philosphy on records is that good songwriters make good records and little else matters. I didn’t want to make my label revolve around anything but music and I wanted to provide a way for the artists I signed to record as much as possible and basically say screw all of the other bullshit that has become the music industry. This label is about music. Through keeping overhead costs and recoupable expenses down we are able to make a ton of records with a ton of bands. We pursue radio promotion, digital distribution, sync licensing, light pr and more.
Mint 400 has grown since 2007 from a label that was my band Fairmont and my cousins band Theodore Grimm, to become a label that houses a roster of close to 150 artists and over 600 releases including our instrumental and jazz sub-label Raining Music. With each artist we try to become for them whatever they need us to be. Whether they need a record produced, engineered, mixed and mastered, album artwork, digital distro, light PR, a website, or tour help. We try to do it all. Mint 400 is record label that is built for creative bands concerned with putting out many records for years to come and really honing their craft.
The name Mint 400?
I had started sending my bands material out to various people, like venues whenever we were booking a tour or something and I just came up with a fake label name that I thought sounded somewhat professional and was kind of vague. I got the name from the Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The Mint 400 is a motorcycle race that he is supposed to be covering. At the time I just liked the ring of the name and also had the logo in mind.
