Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
Portland’s growing independent record label Infinite Companion will release new material from the acclaimed indie pop duo Pure Bathing Culture in 2019, details to be announced. The label and band will celebrate the news with a show in Portland on November 2nd at Polaris Hall. Pure Bathing Culture curated and commentated an exclusive playlist for Infinite Companion’s monthly series, Star Songs: An Astrology Mixtape. Listen here.
Partnered with the rapidly growing music licensing agency, Marmoset, Infinite Companion incorporates its adjacent resource to invest in artists in ways both boldly new and acutely pragmatic. The unconventional model provides profitable storytelling opportunities to emerging artists, offering them fit work and reliable funding otherwise hard to find. Infinite Companion’s goal is to reduce the financial risks that music making requires and in turn, enhance creativity and build lasting careers.
Founded by Marmoset’s Ryan Wines and operated by Ben Hubbird and Laura Hardin, Infinite Companion is built by a blend of music-loving hearts and industry-savvy minds. Treating each artist’s career as its own small business, Infinite Companion prioritizes sustainable creativity over trend.
“There’s nothing more evocative than music,” says Hubbird. “Music encapsulates identity, it encapsulates fragments of time, fragments of our universe. Its power in storytelling is immense.” More than a romantic observation, this is Infinite Companion’s fundamental strategy.
Both longtime members of the Portland music scene, Hubbird and Hardin mirror its mindset for collective innovation. Their intent is to restructure a record label’s purpose with a community of similarly motivated experimenters. The value for close collaboration spans the artists they work with, the audiences they engage, the teams they enlist. Infinite Companion’s roster is much less aligned with genre specificity as it is with an expansive vector of human spirit.
“Our partnership with Pure Bathing Culture feels very natural,” says Hardin. “Not only does their music radiate the kind of positivity we cherish, their history demonstrates an intense attention to both the music they’re making and the path they’re designing for it. We’re a long-sighted label, and we share these focuses.”
Pure Bathing Culture have released two studio albums and toured with the likes of The Shins, Death Cab for Cutie, Lucius, Father John Misty and more. Most recently, they recorded a full album cover of The Blue Nile’s Hats, for Turntable Kitchen’s SOUNDS DELICIOUS vinyl subscription series. Sarah Versprille and Daniel Hindman attribute their decision to cover the Scottish synth-pop heroes to the late Richard Swift, who produced their debut EP as a duo. Last month, Pure Bathing Culture performed old, new and Hats material across the West Coast. Long reputed for their spellbinding live shows, the band garnered substantial critical praise.
