A Ripple Conversation with David Lindley of Cimmerian Shade Recordings



One of the things I really enjoy about the metal community is meeting all the great people involved with said community.  I had the pleasure a few years ago to meet David Lindley, who through his record labels has been a huge supporter of my radio show, the NW Metal Zone.  He has made a couple of his bands available for interviews on my show, and now I've finally had the chance to ask him a few questions about running his record label.

What led you to start a label?

I had been out of work for a while due to a mysterious neurological condition that was causing a lot of psychological and physical issues – I could no longer ride a bike, ski, run, difficulty talking. My condition was deteriorating rapidly and no one really had any ideas. Before medication saved the day, my wife, pets, music and Family Guy kept me going. With treatment, I got some of my life back and decided to start a radio show at a local community based radio station. The show was and still is satisfying to a certain extent however I was still unable to work full time or do the activities I used to do because of extreme fatigue and pseudo-seizures, so I was searching for something to fill the rest of my days. This is when I had the good fortune to bump into Gordon of Never To Arise on Myspace. He contacted just as I was setting up a page for my radio show.  When I heard Never To Arise, the Label Bug bit. I thought: “This stuff has to get out there!.” At the time, they were raising money for the release and I thought “What the Hell, I’ll just give it to them.” By the way, the new release is just about ready.


When you started out, the label was known as Bad God Music.  It is now Cimmerian Shade Recordings.  What brought about the name change?

Bad God Music was meant to be tongue-in-cheek like Bad Dog but most people took it seriously and associated the name with only Black Metal. After a while I became annoyed with blogs/webzines turning away my promos stating: “We don’t accept Black Metal bands”.  Also, the name began to annoy me.  It isn’t so much a name change as a new label. My health became worse, as did my financial situation at the beginning of 2013 and I barely got through the releases that Spring. I had one more release as BGM in July and then I said to myself, “I think I’m done” and considered BGM done. I didn’t tell anyone but lay low for a while and skipped my radio show also. Near the end of 2013 I decided to pick up where I left off as I still had some loose ends so I quietly started Cimmerian Shade and the first two releases were in December 2013. I had to take another extended break after Suffer Yourself’s ‘Inner Sanctum’ in March 2014 and Aethyr’s ‘Corpus’ in February 2015 – eleven months between releases. So to summarize: I consider BGM and CSR two completely different entities, although, there will be bands overlapping on both rosters of course

You have a lot of success with bands from outside the US.  To what do you attribute this?  Is this something you purposely set out to do?

Interestingly, one of the bands on the label pointed this out to me the other day. Currently, there are only two US bands on the label, and only one (Never To Arise) is known to the public. For some reason, no US bands approach me. I did approach a US artist I have admired for awhile and was floored when he agreed to release something on my label. I will announce that in a couple of months. Otherwise can’t explain it. Most of my sales are overseas and the bands that do contact me are European.

Have you always been a fan of more extreme music or was there a band that started you down that path?

I have always been a fan of more extreme anything which has lead me down many a more extreme path of everything.

Do you have a favorite metal band?

I have a favorite woman, vodka, dog and bike but other than that it is very difficult for me to come up with favorites, making lists, etc.

You have a release coming out soon on vinyl.  How did you decide that now was a good time to make the leap to a different format?

I like vinyl, tired of seeing only CDs in my shop and I think Nepente’s ‘Suffering Is The Seed’ will sound like a headrush on vinyl. We are planning a couple of cassette only releases also.

What is the best way for metal fans to keep track of what is going on with CSR?

Facebook is updated more regularly and all my website posts go to Facebook and Twitter. Website is good for checking out archives, some sounds and links.
https://www.facebook.com/CimmerianShadeRecordings

Any final thoughts or comments for us?

There are too many bands to thank but when I first lost my job and was sliding down the slippery slope to Hell, music really helped hold me together and prevent me from doing something I may have regretted before the doctors got their act together. Treasure your health, family, friends, music and your life until the end!
Oh yeah and support CSR!

- ODIN

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