Born and raised in Athens, Alabama, Collins quickly became enamored with music from the likes of New Riders of the Purple Sage, Doobie Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band before beginning his own adventures in sound with projects such as If Now and Or Darkless Order of the Midlife Divine. Collins launched his very own label, Sun Cru in 2021 that has supported artist and musicians such as the poetic wizard Little Wings, Wes Tirey and Dave Heumann. It was a pleasure speaking to Collins about growing up in the south, moving to California, starting a label and all the bright and positive things in the near future!

When and where were you born? What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Do you play any instrument, or participate in any bands yourself? What was it that initially fascinated you about music? Was music relevant around your household growing up?

I grew up in a small town in north Alabama called Athens. It’s home to this very traditional, low-key music and crafts festival called the Fiddlers Convention, which was a big influence on me and my friends in high school. We got to briefly meet Vassar Clements and get our picture taken with him in front of his RV. Things like that, in addition to the music itself, and the smell of funnel cake, and the buck dancing competitions, and the way fiddlers and upright bass players and guitarists and singers would get together and play on the steps of a building or wherever, all of that can fuel a love of music that never goes away. For me there’s this endless source of joy and excitement that’s accessible when I’m working on my own stuff. I’m talking about If Now, for example. Or Darkless Order of the Midlife Divine, which is something I made with my old pal Ryan Tomlin. I know that even if I didn’t have other practical obligations to break up my days I would never tire of working with sound.

Playing patterns on a keyboard, playing percussion parts with whatever’s around, working with field recordings, finding a way to mix everything in a way that’s interesting and has a certain feel. The process never ceases to be a source of joy. Before I got into any of that, though, my parents had a pretty stellar record collection that included lots of “southern”, or country rock. I’m talking about things like Pure Prairie League, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Doobie Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band. It was through that record collection that I also got into Ziggy Stardust, the White Album, Deja Vu, Aqualung. My parents were buying music at a time in the ‘70s and ‘80s when cassettes were really coming into play, so I have lots of feelings and memories from listening to mixtapes my mom made for my dad. Mixes that included maybe three songs from Band on the Run, then the mix would jump to two songs from Ziggy Stardust, then the music would break off in the middle of Southern Cross by Stephen Stills when the side of the tape ended. My mom also had a wonderful 45 collection that I think went back to her childhood.

“Help Me” by The Spellbinders, for example. “All I Know About You” by The Supremes. “Why Me” by Kris Kristofferson. I remember listening to those singles on one of those little 45 players that folded up like a suitcase. I also was lucky to get a job when I was 17 or so as an AM radio DJ at a local station called 1080 WKAC. It was an oldies station, so I got to play all kinds of stuff from the ‘50s through the ‘70s. That job and my job at a now-defunct record store in Tuscaloosa, Alabama — called Vinyl Solution — were no doubt my best jobs ever, in terms of enjoyment. A great guy named George Hadjidakis owned the record store, and it was managed by my friend Chuck Thompson. One day when I was 19, or 20 years old I was in the store as a customer, and Chuck pointed at Viva Last Blues by Palace / Will Oldham and said “that’s a fuckin’ good record, you should buy that record and come back and tell me what you think.” I bought it and loved it thoroughly and went back and told him as much, and he hired me that day. So, in a roundabout way, Will Oldham helped me get the most enjoyable job I ever had, other than running Sun Cru.

What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? When and where did you see your first concert and what kind of impact did that leave on you? Who were some of your earliest influences?

For fun growing up, there was a significant amount of mischief. Stuff like rearranging the letters on church signs, driving to Tennessee to try to buy beer, pulling down road signs on country roads and collecting the signs in our car trunks. The type of stuff teenagers do in small towns. I also went to lots of shows with my friends. Saw Bob Dylan a couple times. Saw quite a lot of bands that did longform jams. I had friends who played in bands also — mostly cover bands, like Allman Brothers songs — and I’d go see those bands play. There was a lot of camping with friends and playing music around the campfire. Lots of “Deep Elem Blues” that we’d take turns singing while my friend Joey Thompson (now of The Archibalds) played guitar. We’d improvise the lyrics to that song, usually to make it as raunchy as possible. Around that same time a number of us saved up as much money as we could to buy tickets to about 13 Phish shows. This was in 1998. Those shows and the experience of the parking lot before and after the shows, and traveling from town to town, were an awesome way for an 18-year-old to experience a very social music scene and at the same time feel free out in the world. I still can’t believe our parents allowed us to do that, but I’m grateful they did. For me that experience opened me up to other types of music scenes that I encountered later.

I was always sort of on the periphery of these “scenes,” but I thoroughly enjoyed the music and meeting new people. In Chicago, for example, where I lived for about six years, I got to see Sunburned Hand of the Man in maybe 2003. Also got to see Robert Lowe several times. I believe he was performing as Lichens. Got to see Jack Rose perform once at a little art gallery. Got to see David Berman, Bill Callahan, and Harmony Korine read from their respective books one time. I remember being knocked out by a Double Leopards performance on Halloween. There was good stuff going on at Empty Bottle and Hungry Brain and The Hideout and Schubas basically any night of the week, and that was super exciting. All of that was very influential for me at the time. I’ve also been very lucky to have my brother Ben recommending pretty far out music my whole life. Back in the day that would have been stuff like Hafler Trio and Nurse with Wound. Olivia Block and Greg Davis and Mike Tamburo come to mind also. Ben has always been into great stuff. These days he makes longform compositions that incorporate field recordings and this huge gong he has at his house. It’s very cool stuff. As for the first concert, that was Pink Floyd at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1994. I was 13, or 14 years old. I went with my dad, my brother, my dad’s brothers, and a couple cousins. Division Bell tour. That was an amazing experience also. For years after that I wore a concert T-shirt I got from a guy who I think made the shirt at home. It did not seem like an official tour shirt at all, and I loved it.

What ultimately led to the decision to launch Sun Cru? When was this exactly and what inspired the name? When first deciding to start the label, what was the overall vision and approach? Did this simply start with supporting and standing behind bands and musicians you loved and admired?

The impetus to start Sun Cru was a culmination of many years of writing practice and making visual art and sound art. My wife Emily and I both work in multiple mediums and have lived together in multiple places — Chicago, the Austin area, Minneapolis. Our moving to California somehow led to a kind of clarity about how I could use various skills I’d developed over time. I remember reading a quote from Tara Jane O'Neil about Los Angeles being a kind of "last city" for a lot of people, and that statement resonated with me. Sun Cru was born out of a newfound health and enjoyment of life. Also out of a kind of awakening to subtle aspects of inner experience that maybe I hadn’t known as well when I was younger. The name came from a desire to be inclusive but also mythic on some level, the sun having maybe the most ancient and powerful mythos, and “cru” implying a group, or roster of artists. Other labels, particularly ones I got into in the early 2000s, were also a big inspiration. For example, Drag City, Touch and Go, Thrill Jockey, K Records, Quarterstick, Estrus, all the Elephant 6 stuff that appeared on different labels. Big influences, all. Since then I’ve also been super inspired by newer labels like Astral Spirits, Moonglyph, Perpetual Doom, Stereoscenic, and others. I officially launched Sun Cru in January 2021, and I love how it affords me a creative freedom that also bolsters the fun and excitement of collaborating with other artists.

You have released some truly wonderful work from artists that I consider my favorites including the incredible Little Wings, as well as Dave Heumann, Wes Tirey and If Now. What have been some of your personal favorites to work on and why? What inspires you most about artists such as these?

Thank you, Dakota. They truly are wonderful artists. I may have told you this before, but I first heard Little Wings while riding in the backseat of a car in Tuscaloosa in maybe 2001? I heard Kyle Field say “order in the court!” and I thought, “What the heck is this?” I was hooked from that moment on, and I think Kyle has just gotten better and better over the years. His music has so many colors and so many feelings, so many textures that he weaves together. To me it’s a painting kind of music. Some of the meanings are pretty straightforward, and others are more subtle and sort of work beneath the surface. His music has always seemed very natural and inviting to me, at times almost like a Wordsworth naturalism that I love. Kyle was also a joy to work with on getting Zephyr pressed to vinyl, and in doing the music videos and promo videos we did. He’s an amazing artist all around, his music and his visual art. He’s a total hero of mine, and a great guy too, as you know. I doubt he would think of it this way, but Kyle is kind of a king maker. I'll forever be grateful for the trust he put in me to release his music. He's done so much for Sun Cru, just being his regular understanding and generous self.

Dave Heumann has the same status for me. A hero I've admired for a long time — and a super awesome dude. Generous doesn't even begin to describe Dave. He’s so responsive and thoughtful, a truly kind and gracious person. I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with him and gotten to know him. The first time I heard Dave’s playing I didn’t know it was him at all, actually. I was listening to an album by The Anomoanon in the early 2000s and saw Dave’s name in the credits, and not long after that I got fully blown away by Arbouretum. One of the joys of my life was discovering that band. There are so many great Arbouretum albums, and Dave’s guitar playing and his lyrics are just phenomenal. He just released a new live instrumental album with Mike Kuhl called Live in Two Rooms that gets into some exquisite far out zones, and if you haven’t checked out his solo record Here in the Deep, I strongly recommend it. Dave’s partner Suzannah also has an album that just came out, called Is There Any Love in Your Heart. Dave plays guitar on it and helped produce. It's totally awesome. A true country album full of sadness and wit and redemption, all the things you want from a country record. Anybody who seeks out great songs should check it out. Suzannah rules. One more thing that I'd like to note about Dave is that he makes making music look so easy, the tightly structured songs and the long jams, as well as the more improvised stuff like on Guitar Tapes Vol 1. Whatever he's doing in any particular piece of music, you just follow where he goes. He’s an amazing and generous collaborator who has worked with so many cool musicians on so many different types of projects. I know he’s done one film score so far. I would love to see him do another one. Dave's repertoire is totally ripe for film scoring.

And Wes Tirey, wow — what a great artist. I was turned on to his music just in the last couple years, though Wes has been laying it down for a long, long time. He has a singular vision that for me has strong literary connections. As soon as I heard his music I was knocked out. His double album Midwest Book of the Dead is amazing, and he just released another album on vinyl called No Winners in the Blues on Andrew Weathers' label, Full Spectrum. To me Wes is similar in some ways to Kyle and Dave in that his music has a timeless quality — his guitar playing and his voice. I really dig what he's been doing on piano too. There is no other sound quite like Wes'. It's transportive yet very evocative of stories. It puts you somewhere distinct every single time. All three of these fellows — Kyle and Dave and Wes — their music is consistently ingenious. I don’t know if they would describe it this way themselves, but these guys are masters of language — word language and music language, and how these things relate. Thinking about it in those terms when you're in the act of writing isn't helpful at all, but that's how I see their work from the outside. They’re just bold and astounding practitioners. I think the same is true of Joey Thompson of The Archibalds. I’ve known Joey since we were 17 years old. We’ve traveled and been to lots of shows together, and we ended up living in the same town in Texas for a while, pretty much by chance. It’s wild to think about that — how we ended up in the same Texas town without planning it. A couple years ago I was honored to release two Archibalds songs on Sun Cru — "Out on the Rolling Sea (Jonah)" and "Sloop John B." Actually, The Archibalds version of "Sloop John B" was previously used in the end credits of my wife Emily's film Blue Balloons. I love working with Joey and it would be awesome to release more of his music.

What have you been up to more recently? What is new in the Sun Cru universe for the Spring and Summer? Is there anything else you would like to further share with readers?

Well, Dave Heumann’s Guitar Tapes Vol 1 comes out on vinyl in April. I love this album and can’t get enough of it. I listen to it all the time. It's been available digitally and on CD for a while now and people are loving it. I’m super psyched to get the vinyl out to folks. I also have some huge news about a new album that's in the works from Wes Tirey. We just secured the licensing to set to music sections of Michael Ondaatje's novel in verse, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. Totally over the moon about this, I can hardly believe it. Mr. Ondaatje has signed off on it, and Wes is set to start recording pretty soon. The title will be something like Wes Tirey Sings Selected Works of Billy the Kid. It'll be a vinyl LP of songs, plus one spoken word piece. There's no way I can describe how excited I am about this project. I know Wes is super stoked too. Keep an eye out for that one. It will probably come out early next year. There’s also some secret behind-the-scenes developments that I probably shouldn’t mention at the moment, but I’ve been lucky to be in touch with some phenomenal artists whose names you’d probably recognize and who I think are down to do a Sun Cru release. Only last thing I can think of right now is an album of my own stuff that I'm working on. Several other folks are playing parts. It's mostly instrumental, but I think there may be some vocals in the mix also. I think it sounds great. I think it'll be a hit.

Sun Cru website: suncrumusic.com

Little Wings / Zephyr on Bandcamp: https://littlewings-zephyr.bandcamp.com/album/zephyr-vinyl-lp

Little Wings videos:

Zephyr: https://youtu.be/hyK1my59NS4

Zephyr promo 1: https://youtu.be/tZuFvj2EA5Q

Zephyr promo 2: https://youtu.be/smbNMY0-wKs

Little Wings Instagram: https://instagram.com/regularlittlewings?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Dave Heumann / GTV1 on Bandcamp: https://daveheumann.bandcamp.com/album/guitar-tapes-vol-1

Dave Heumann videos:

Serpentine Sunlight: https://youtu.be/t7zFJ2yFg_U

Through Ages Before: https://youtu.be/pUolI6bbIwQ

GTV1 promo video: https://youtu.be/ahWrKmu5YSs