DCist Interview: Andrew Morgan of PPU Records & Tapes
A few weeks back, the Library of Congress selected 25 songs it found significant enough to preserve into perpetuity. You could say Andrew Morgan is doing the same thing -- except he's a lot more genre-specific. Morgan is the force behind Peoples Potential Unlimited Records (PPU), a mail-order business focused on resurrecting and preserving the dance tunes from the early 1980s sometimes known as boogie-funk. If you're having a hard time conceiving this sound, think of Madonna on her first album or even better, D-Train. Now imagine those folks with little money and no major label backing.
You've now entered Andrew's crate-digging world.
What started out as a hobby selling flea market vinyl on eBay for the animator, UNC-Greensboro grad and Northern Virginia native has turned into a boutique label that's allowed him to form bonds with artists who probably thought only their mothers knew they made an album -- and, in some instances, still live with their moms. Based in the District, Morgan has developed a clientèle that includes well-known deejays like DJ Spinna and Dâm-Funk (for whom he's pressed a record), European record snobs and this writer.
Recently, I had the chance to sit down with him at PPU headquarters. We discussed the superior nature of vinyl to digital formats, listened to some wax and talked about his musical labor of love.
So, Andrew Morgan. Who are you exactly?
Actually, I'm an animator. I do claymation classes with little kids. That's how I got here to D.C. I teach in the summer and I had all this free time in during the rest of the year, so I started selling records on eBay. In the late 1990s, there was nobody on eBay selling records. So I was getting records from thrift stores and selling them. At some point, you realize all the records are going to run out, so I went ahead with trying to reissue stuff to see if any of my customers would dig buying them. That's how the label started, trying to get really expensive records out there for like $9.99.
What drew you into the particular genre or sound that PPU has become synonymous with?
I guess it was when I was in college. We had a lot of record stores but the only thing that was really cheaper were the 12-inch disco records. I bought a lot of jazz records with synthesizers. I knew I liked that sound, like Ramsey Lewis' "Sun Goddess", but I really wasn't feeling the jazz element. But finally I discovered that, yes, there are a million dance records from the 1980s that are all synths. It's the best music ever made. People are still buying those dance singles. I've always wanted to do retail, so getting the records online and selling them to people has been fun. I haven't sold any records in Africa yet, but I've been selling to folks in Slovenia. Ninety-percent of what I sell goes to Europe, about 5% goes to U.S. and a trickle into Japan.
Is there any meaning behind the name of the label, Peoples Potential Unlimited?
No. Me and my friend Tom Noble made it up. We made three columns with funky words in each and just drew lines between them. It started sort of as a joke but then people really liked it. PPU sounded cool.
How have you gotten a hold of some of the records you've been selling?
I work with a couple of guys. Drew Snyder in Richmond, Virginia. He gets a lot of stuff for me. Personally, I don't do a lot of record shopping. I get stuff on eBay. I was really into looking at people's record databases and from there buying artists that I hadn't heard of. Because after selling records for 12 years on eBay, you've seen them all. So now we're searching just for the one's that are like, "Who's that artist? What's that label?"
The thing that really impressed me about what you do is the amount of research you do and share on these artists. For instance, the Ballplayers. On the CD compilation you released, you told the story of how these two Major League Baseball players put some money together to record and press a record. How do you get these obscure stories about these obscure artists?
Lenny (Randle of the Ballplayers) was easy to find because he was an actual baseball player. He calls me about three times a week now to talk. He had a single I found on eBay called "American Worker" that I thought was really cool. This was right before the 2008 election and I thought the song could be a hit single. So I presented it to him like that when I found him, and he was like, "yes, I wanted to re-release this." It turned out he had created an LP to raise money for muscular dystrophy. He had copies at his house and he sent them to me. We sold them all on my site for $200, but he only had five copies, so we took the money we earned and pressed a Ballplayers' 45 RPM record.
You find these artists, who pretty much toiled for years without being noticed, and express interest in reissuing their work. What's the initial reaction you get to that proposition?
It depends. The reissues that get made are the people that have the really good reaction. You don't want to work with anyone who has a weird attitude. It's not worth it. Everybody who's on the label is cool as shit. When you tell them [that you want to reissue their music], you hear, "I've been waiting for this call for 25 years," or "you're 25 years too late," or "where were you in the '80s?"
Have any of these folks told you stories of what their expectations were for their music when they originally released it?
Of course. Just like any artist that puts out a record, you expect it to go platinum but most of these guys had these records to sell at their shows for a dollar, or they gave them out for free and they only made 200 or 300 -- 500 copies at the most. And I'm always straight up with them. I tell them, "your record just sold for $500," and they're like, "oh my God! I got two copies left." I say, "OK, you're going to give me one and you keep one and let's put it back out." And they say, "That sounds great."
So not only are you helping put their music back out there but you also make a little money on what they did back in the day.
I'm really fair. It's a fun project. The more you talk to them, the more you get out of them, like photos and music videos. This was all these artists wanted to do. They saved every last drop of what they did and those are the people I work with.Everything is licensed, but I try to make [the business] like it's between friends.
I have to say, my favorite PPU release to date has to be "Danger Zone." How did you find this record and how did you build a rapport with Midnight Express's Robert Muskavalley?
The record was on eBay with a tiny audio clip. There were about 12 hours left to bid and the record was already up to $650. There had been a lot of people who called him about it and, for whatever reason, I was the first person he called back. He was at work but said he had a whole box of the records at home. I told him, "I'll be straight up with you. Your record is selling for $650." Robbie trusted me. There were other people trying to license the song but he'll only work with me for whatever reason. He came here [to my house], we hung out and he sang for me and my wife. He was just crooning for us. He's the sweetest guy. We went to his hotel room and it was decked out with all his memorabilia. It was crazy.
I can imagine he was just happy someone was listening out for his work.
Yeah. I think he'd been waiting for that for a long time. Music is his passion. After we got off the phone the first time, I think he was up all night digging up old photos to send me. He'd been waiting on [the recognition].
How do you get the word out locally about what you're doing?
I've DJed a couple times. I have an artist, George Smallwood. He's a maniac. He's blind. He plays keyboard. But he knows where all the buttons are. You might hear different sounds, like gunshots or birds chirping, as he scrolls through the sounds. You hear someone singing on a soul record, but there's a big difference in being in a room with somebody's who just killing it and making you want to swell up and cry.
What do you see as being the next step for PPU?
I just want to keep putting out records. I want to get this DVD finished. We want to start archiving more of this film footage. Right now, I'm working with Kevin Coombe of DC Soul Recordings. Kevin's unearthed a lot of tapes, so we're going to do some collaborations and put that stuff out. We're not looking to do digital sales. We want to keep putting out records in really small quantities. I want to do more with George Smallwood, because he's a real star who never really had his turn. This is mainly a hobby for me, but it's grown into something really fun and people dig it, so I'm going to keep it going as long as I can.
Peoples Potential Unlimited Records artist George Smallwood will be performing as a part of the Fatback DC's "Very Big Fatback" show at the 9:30 Club on Friday, July 16th.