Photo by Daniel Dorsa
Stevie Knipe of Adult Mom
On Saturday, bedroom-pop musician Stevie Knipe, who records and performs as Adult Mom, tweeted about their experiences and frustrations with Tiny Engines, an independent record label based in Charlotte, North Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina, which released Adult Mom's two most recent LPs.
“I promised myself I would be as fair as possible in describing my experiences I’ve had with @tinyengines,” the tweets began.
Knipe says Adult Mom signed a two-LP contract with the label in 2015, after self-releasing an album and four EPs in the first half of the decade. According to the tweets, between 2015 and May 2018, the artist says they received no royalty statements or payments. When a statement was finally sent by the label in May 2018, at "the pressure and request" of Knipe's manager, it showed that Tiny Engines owed Adult Mom almost $8,000 in royalty payments. The payment, Knipe says, was not made until December 2018.
When Knipe asked Tiny Engines owners Chuck Daley and Will Miller for ownership of Adult Mom's master recordings due to breach of contract, Daley allegedly told Knipe that there was “no way that would happen," that the band was "ungrateful," and that losing Adult Mom, one of the largest groups on the label, would lead to consequences in his personal life and negatively affect “smaller bands” on Tiny Engines.
“The business model of tiny engines: Take advantage of the non men on your label and attempt to manipulate them while stealing the money they make to keep your failing business afloat,” Knipe says in their tweet.
At least two other bands subsequently tweeted about similar issues with the label, including the Philadelphia-based punk outfit Mannequin Pussy and the Brooklyn-based band Thelma.
According to the Tiny Engines Facebook page, the label's interests include “Losing money, finding interesting ways to not make money, financial insolvency, wishing wells, operating in the red, pyramid schemes, worthless scene points, socialism, debtors prison.”
Later on Saturday, Knipe tweeted that they were “so fucking lucky to have this community and network around this project.” As of this writing, their initial tweet has received four thousand likes and twelve hundred retweets. Tiny Engines has yet to respond on Twitter.
Knipe went on to say in a tweet that there would be a new record in spring 2020. It is unclear whether or not the album will be self-released.
The INDY has reached out to both Tiny Engines and Adult Mom for comment, and we'll update this post if they reply.
Update: Adult Mom declared a small win on Monday, announcing on Twitter that they're getting the master recordings back for their records Soft Spots and Momentary Lapse of Happily. The label also agreed to disclose the royalties earned from their music.
spequeno@indyweek.com
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