This month we’re doing something different with Three Stars. While we usually focus our attention on three local bands (which we still did yesterday), in honor of Record Store Day which was on April 17, we also interviewed a handful of locally based record labels. We hope you enjoy the interviews.

About a year ago, a band from New Jersey called Real Estate started to come across the collective consciousness of independent music fans. Their laid back tune “Suburban Beverage,” with its humidity-recalling haze and relaxing melody, provided a perfect summer soundtrack. It also brought the new label that put out that 7”, Underwater Peoples, into the light.

Underwater Peoples is the vinyl-only label which, up until recently, was run completely out of co-founder Ari Stern’s Dupont Circle apartment. Although Real Estate may be the most recognizable name to come out of the project, Underwater Peoples wasted no time in releasing a summer compilation to introduce everyone to its bands. This includes acts like Liam the Younger, who had tracks that veered more toward country, and Frat Dad, whose distorted vocals and dissonant guitars sound far removed from the tunes filling many beer-filled fraternity halls.

We talked to Ari Stern, Sawyer Carter Jacobs, Evan Brody and Mike Mimoun from Underwater Peoples (who also make up the band Family Portrait) about the philosophy and inspiration behind the wax.