The Story Of Three Lobed Recordings W/ Founder Cory Rayborn
Born and raised in Jamestown, NC, Rayborn is a North Carolina legend. Having started TLR almost 25 years ago, Rayborn has made happen some of the greatest album releases this generation has ever had the pleasure of witnessing with works from Steve Gunn, Wooden Wand, Sonic Youth, Bardo Pond, SBHOTM, Hush Arbors, Daniel Bachman and countless others. In this interview we explore Rayborn’s youth growing up, getting into music - seeing Pylon play with R.E.M in ‘89, moving to the Durham/Chapel Hill area before relocating back to Jamestown, starting TLR, what’s on the horizon for the label and its artists and much much more.
Are you originally from Jamestown, NC? What was your childhood like growing up? What would you and your friends do for fun?
Yes, indeed! I was born in a hospital within the same county as Jamestown and I lived there from then until when I went to college. Following nine years in the Durham / Chapel Area during college and law school my wife and I moved to the Jamestown adjacent High Point (NC). In 2010 we moved back to Jamestown and have been there ever since with no further moves anticipated. It was a good childhood on whole. I’m an only child and as a child of the 80s was given a pretty wide berth to play and explore. School, soccer, summer camp, outside stuff – lots of normal stuff. Lots of room to follow my imagination and various trains of thought. My closest friends were generally cut from a similar cloth and we enjoyed a lot of the same activities. Star Wars and, later, weird fiction loomed large (I was born in 1975 after all).
When did you first begin to fall in love with music? What was it that originally fascinated you? Was music relevant around your household growing up?
My father had an interest in music but was not an obsessive. He had a long history of seeing shows (Dylan at Newport multiple times, James Brown in the 60s, etc.) and had various things he was interested in such as Dylan, Cash, Clancy Brothers, Woody Guthrie, etc. That said, it wasn’t a situation where either of my parents played an instrument or music was always on in the house. I had a passing interest in his modest stash of records as I was growing up, but I’m going to say it was around fifth grade when music really started to take a more central point for me. I didn’t have an older sibling to salt things my way, it was more of a situation of figuring out what I liked, paying attention to friends (and their older siblings) and generally having an open mind. Music was always a great place to get lost, a place to constantly discover new elements even in things you felt you already knew well.
Where and when did you see your first concert and what sort of impact did it leave on your? Do you play any instruments, or have you been in bands yourself?
The show was R.E.M. with Pylon on November 10, 1989 at the Greensboro Coliseum. I had been intensely obsessed with R.E.M. for about two years at point in time and being able to see them without even leaving my county and two days before my birthday to boot was a big boon. The show was great – the band had been on a massive yearlong tour in support of “Green” and this was one of the last couple of shows. It was simultaneously well-rehearsed and loose and a few tracks that would later pop up on “Out of Time” even crept in. It only confirmed my priors and thrust me deeper into the world of music. The idea of playing music never crossed my mind as a kid. In college I dabbled with the concept of playing bass and/or drums for a while but it was never anything that got serious. I was more content to continue to be involved with music but to limit my activity to around the edges like booking shows, tinkering with a zine, helping bands with sites during the nascent dates of the web and doing live show recording.
What ultimately led to the decision to launch the mighty Three Lobed Recordings and when was this exactly? What inspired the label’s name?
As mentioned above, after a stretch of years when I had been working around “the scene” I wanted to have my hand directly in the release of a record. In late 1999 I had been given this more thought and was trying to figure out the best way to make this happen. I had been working with my friends in Bardo Pond for a while on their website, knew they had an extensive archive of recordings and felt good about asking them about a whether they would want to work on a release. Surprisingly they said “yes” and the “Slab” 10” EP was the result. It was one of those things where I was kind of operating on the fly, going a bit from a collection of intuition, minimal knowledge and the fact that they had a built-in fandom which gave me a little bit of a cushion. The final parts all came together and I spend the last few days prior to law school orientation getting everything assembled, shipped and out the door. A crazy set of days. I was finally determined this was something I wanted to try in late 1999 and it took until late summer 2000 for all of the parts to come together in a final form. At that point I was trying to make sure that I had a good time with it all as that was going to be the measuring stick of whether, or not I wanted to do it again, or not. A series of years spent reading the strange fiction of H.P. Lovecraft led to the concept for the name. The name is a slight variation on a theme from the end of the story “The Haunter of the Dark.”
When first deciding to start the label, what the overall vision and approach? Did this simply start with supporting and standing behind bands and musicians you loved and admired?
The earliest days were spent with a lot of fumbling and related efforts in determining what exactly I was doing. I wanted to do the best I could to honor the ultimate artistic goals and visions of the artists that I was working with. This involved a lot of learning of processes, vendors and the like. One of my central goals at all times was to have titles and packages that fit the mold of those that I would be excited to pick up if I wasn’t the one releasing them. I didn’t want to take shortcuts or anything that would result in a compromise. That particular focus has never gone away. The look and feel of each title may vary, but that drive to make everything resemble what the artist wants it to look like in their mind while being a title that I would want to buy. That’s the north star.
You have released/reissued some of the most potent and truly unique artists over the years, some being my favorites like Wooden Wand, (recently) Sonic Youth, Bardo Pond, Six Organs of Admittance, Hush Arbors and so many more. What have been some of your personal favorites to work on and why?
I’m so glad that you’ve resonated so deeply with so many of the things across the catalog over time. One of the biggest joys across the label over time has been creating relationships with so many of the artists that goes beyond simply just releasing records. It sounds crazy, but so much of it based on deep friendships and personal investment in each other. Folks like Steve Gunn, Daniel Bachman, Ben Chasny, Matt Valentine, James Toth, John Moloney and Bill Nace are just a sample but represent the sorts of artists that are friends first and a working relationship second. Situations like that make the resulting releases that much more satisfying when they come out. It is hard to pick favorites among all of my “children” so to speak, but as I have said many times before the Gunn-Truscinski Duo’s “Ocean Parkway” holds an immensely special place in my heart. The title track on that one always gives me goosebumps and a mental lift.
What is new in the TLR universe for the Summer and Fall?
This summer has a couple of great albums on deck that I’m quite excited about. First off in mid- June is “Arc of Day” from Danny Paul Grody. I had the pleasure of relasing Danny’s “Between Two Worlds” around ten years ago. It is one of those slightly under radar pleasures, one that deep TLR heads frequently tell me is one of their favorite titles across the full catalog. “Arc of Day” ups the ante from that prior album and delivers a gorgeous and transporting set of meditative instrumentals. I cannot recommend it enough. Late July sees the release of a real stunner from Steve Gunn, John Truscinski and Bill Nace. The album, “Glass Band,” is their trio debut and it takes you in a lot of directions that you would expect from hearing those three names while also packing in a lot of true surprises. Bill and I have been friends for a long-time and it is nice to be able to start to add some more of his work to the greater TLR depths. Being able to do that in the framework of a collaboration with Steve and John is a real pleasure and treat. I can’t wait for folks to fall under the spell of this one. Daniel Bachman has a new album that he is finishing up now which will be out this fall. It builds on the techniques that he has been honing the last couple of years and releases. Beyond these I’m hard at work on a full slate of titles for 2024 (either five, or six titles) and planning for 2025.
