WHAT’S IN A LABEL?
In the first of our record label spotlights, BRIAN GREENE chews the fat with LIGHT IN THE ATTIC head honcho Matt Sullivan about the eclectic Seattle trademark
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att Sullivan and his business partner Josh Wright got their start in the music industry during their days as high school students in a
town outside Seattle, when they took a class that had them hosting their own shows on a local radio station. Matt then held several music biz internships through his college years in the early ’90s, hustling for Sub Pop among other labels, both in the US and abroad. Over time he started to become familiar with the idea that there was some head-changing music
that had been made long before the formation of the college radio bands he then liked.
“When I was in college and doing the internships, I really didn’t know much about reissues,” Matt says from his Los Angeles home today. “I was a pretty typical American college radio kid. But then I started hearing things like The Monks and The Stooges and The Small Faces, and that really opened up my world to a whole new idea of music. It blew my mind, and all of that was hugely significant in how Light In The Attic came to be.”
Main photo: Matt Sullivan signs off another consignment of LITA goodies Above, top to bottom: Jim Sullivan, The Monks, The Free Design Opposite: Karen Dalton
After completing his studies Matt got a job in computers, and it was when he got laid off from that gig, that he decided to start his own label. Light In The Attic Records debuted with a reissue by hip-hop pioneers The Last Poets in 2002, then Matt’s old friend Wright joined his quest about a year later. Today LITA has a small staff split between Seattle and LA, and in addition to issuing their own titles they handle distribution for around 10 other labels (eclectic, mostly European outfits).
Over this time they have developed a catalogue of releases that are as revered
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