Label of the Month: Headless Owl Records

Each month around the 15th, we’re going to feature an independently-run Canadian music label putting out innovative and fun releases on a budget. This month, we’re featuring Headless Owl Records, based out of Whitehorse!

Label name: Headless Owl Records
Location: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
Staff: Kyle Cashen, Andrew Stratis, Mathias Kom (ed. note: Kom also leads one of our favorite bands, The Burning Hell.)

What do they do?
“We’re a boutique vinyl only record label, based out of Whitehorse, Yukon, that works with artists from across the country,” says Stratis. “I think we’re the only label that operates at such a distance. I initially formed the label with Kyle, and the way I broached it was by casually mentioning that starting a label would be cool. You know when you like someone but you’re not sure they like you back? You’d kind of hint around: ‘Oh man, imagine we dated, that would be crazy.’ And then I waited to gauge Kyle’s response. He was into it, so we starting running with it.”

Above right: Album concept art for By Divine Right – Speak & Spell (US).

 Why are you called Headless Owl?

 “Here’s the story,” says Stratis. “So, I live in the Yukon and my other job is I run a small construction company. I was doing a job that was about a two-hour drive out of town one winter. So, one morning, I’m driving out. It’s super early, around 7am, and it’s blowing snow, low visibility, not great driving conditions. All of a sudden I see this sort of shape on the road. Now, I’ve rolled a vehicle on the highway here before, not something I want to do twice in one life. As I get closer, I see it’s a bird of some kind, but having rolled that one time, I don’t really want to make a crazy swerve to miss it and risk going through that again, but I figure, well, there’s no way it’s not going to move. It did not move. I hit it with the front of my truck, pulled over to the side of the road, and walked over to see what I had hit. It was an owl, and I had basically obliterated the head of this poor thing. And let me tell you, that image haunts you for awhile. Especially since owls are harbingers of various things, death especially. So the wording of Headless Owl haunted me. When I broached the idea of the label to Kyle, I immediately said, ‘I already have a name for it, it’s Headless Owl Records’ and he gave no argument.”

What’s the next release?

Headless Owl is putting out a album that on paper sounds kinda incongruous – By Divine Right paying tribute to Depeche Mode’s Speak & Spell (the U.S. version). (“That’s the one that has “Just Can’t Get Enough” on it.)  Stalwart Toronto-based shaggy indie rockers covering a hallmark synth record from the ’80s? Say wha? But we can attest that the whole album translates beautifully. Bandleader José Contreras says he chose the record because it’s “more primitive and fun” than the rest of Depeche Mode’s catalogue. Judge for yourself and listen to their version of “Just Can’t Get Enough” below.

Pre-orders for By Divine Right – Speak & Spell (US) will begin in early February, with an official release date of March 17.

It will be available digitally and on LP, through all digital retailers and the label’s online store at headlessowl.com.

And go visit Headless Owl’s website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up to date on upcoming releases.