Farewell, World Around (2006–2016)

To Our Loyal World Around Family,

You might have noticed that things have slowed down here over the last year or so — our last official album release was Waldo from Cincinnati’s Yonder Works (And Then Some) back in September of 2015; things are quiet on Facebook; we haven’t tweeted in almost a year.

For the most part, this is due to bandwidth issues. The administrative side of World Around has always been a two-person operation (three at the absolute zenith), and keeping things running is an insane challenge, especially since we’re all artists too. We all know that balancing everything demanded of us — family, friends, life, art, work, school, etc. — can be challenging enough; the full-time management of a label is really tough to fit into that mix. That said, we did it for as long as we could, out of love — for our music, for each other, and for everyone who listened and supported us along the way.

Justin & Kyle in 2006

On top of that, a lot has changed since we opened our digital doors on MySpace in 2006. There have been career changes, new opportunities; some of us have married, started families. Musically, many World Around artists have gone on to do bigger, better, more beautiful things: after a brief stint with our friends at Potholes Music, Man Mantis linked up with legendary rapper Sole and joined the ranks of Shoeboxx Recordings; Daimyo fell in with the amazing crowd of beatmakers at Cult Classic Records; s.maharba sold through his self-titled cassette through Sassbologna Records, followed by two editions of vinyl at Ocular Science, before settling in with Andrew Reza’s newly-formed BTS Records; Zilla Rocca doubled down with his personal imprint, Three Dollar Pistol Music, for a number of critically acclaimed videos, singles and solo albums. The list of accolades and accomplishments keeps growing, for everybody, and we’re incredibly proud of that — World Around was always envisioned as a platform we could use to support music we believed in, so seeing our friends use that platform to reach new heights is rewarding beyond words.

Michael & Justin in 2012

When the juggling act became untenable for me in 2012, Michael (Louis Mackey) stepped in to hold everything together as the new creative director, and Justin hung around, stalwart as ever, keeping the ship afloat along with him. Now, four years later, with the remaining artists on the roster seeking new ground of their own, we’ve decided it’s time to shut this thing down. We’ve had a solid decade-long run, and we’re leaving behind over forty albums, EPs and compilations, as well as a number of singles and side-projects, many of which are still free to download.

The website will remain up and running as an archive, and you might even hear from us on Twitter once in awhile, celebrating the anniversary of a release or hyping something new from the extended World Around family. Most importantly, we’re all still making music, and while the organization itself may be gone, the community we’ve built, both with each other and with you guys, is made of stronger stuff.

So to all of the artists, fans, friends & listeners who joined us on our ten-year journey, thank you. It’s been an absolute pleasure, and we’re glad we got to share it with you. As one last small token of appreciation, we hope you dig this final installation in our We Are World Around compilation series, featuring a host of new music from new and old favorites alike.

Sincerely,
Kyle / Dr. Quandary
Justin / Thirtyseven
Michael / Louis Mackey