Heroic Dose Records on the hunt for new original music in Santa Cruz

(By Wallace Baine, Lookout, 12/28/23)

In the old days, everybody understood what a record label was, as well as its role and purpose. (Siphoning away profits from deserving artists, right?) But these days, the record label is one of those mass-media middlemen that digital culture has pushed to the brink of extinction.

That has not stopped musicians Ryan Masters and Jon Spivak from launching Heroic Dose Records right here in Santa Cruz, which calls itself a “label,” though it has little in common with labels of yore. 

The project started merely as a way for Masters and Spivak to promote their own band, Smoke Chaser. And, sure enough, the label’s first project was Smoke Chaser’s debut album, “Alazapul,” released in August. But the vision has now expanded to other artists, and earlier this month, Heroic Dose released a new single by local singer-songwriter Jim Rosenberg, a moving John Prine-esque tribute to those lost to the streets, titled “Finding Joseph.” The label’s goal is to release new recordings from Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay area artists whom it deems too good to be ignored…