Check Out Anthony LaMarca’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony LaMarca.

Hi Anthony, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Peppermint Productions is a recording studio and record label in Youngstown, OH. It was founded in 1971 by Gary Rhamy, who is still working there, making records to this day. Gary’s history in the area goes back to the mid-60’s when he worked at WAM, the city’s first recording studio, which was started by Del Sinchak.

Gary is best known for his work in polka music. He is one of the most Grammy award recognized engineers in the category.

I had in interest in locally recorded music since high school and began collecting records that were made at Peppermint. When I moved back to the area in 2015 after living in New York, I met Dean Anshutz, a musician and another collector of local music. Together we have partnered with Gary to reissue and archive the music that was made in the Youngstown region; not just polkas, but also pop music too. We are also learning from Gary and bringing new artists to the studio to record.

This May we started a radio show on our local NPR affiliate, WYSU. “Peppermint Presents…Rat Race!” is mostly an interview show, where we share the history of musicians in the region; playing records and also talking to the artists. Our goal is to let others know about the deep history in our city and to inspire people to keep making regional art and music. The internet has robbed us of regionalism in many ways; having a place and its culture be reflective of the people who live there. As a musician my goal is to make music that only I can make, and I think with our studio and label we want to make things that have a sound that could only come from Youngstown and carry with it that history.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Youngstown is not a large or necessary wealthy town. It has been struggling my whole life. I was born after all the steel mills closed, and nothing has ever been able to replace that. There’s a bit of a negative attitude, some negative self-talk. But we want to inspire folks. And there’s a lot of great people doing inspiring stuff in the city.

It’s a struggle to sustain a recording studio in any city these days. Our strength has been to lean into the things that only we can do. We are a historic studio. We mostly use recording technology from the 70’s. That’s not the best for some applications, but we attract the type of people who are looking for that kind of thing. There’s not many recording studio’s in the country that have been open for as long as we have, let alone with the same gear and the same engineer!

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
What sets us apart from others is our story. The fact that we have been in Youngstown for over 50 years. People really love and respect Gary (Peppermint’s founder). And people respect Peppermint. beyond the music that came out of the studio, there was also decades of commercials and radio work. So there’s a deep relationship to the community that not many other recording studios have.

As a record label, we focus primarily on Youngstown music, and especially unreleased stuff. There’s plenty of other reissue labels out there. So we focus on our direct history with these artists that we reissue. Some of these artists made these albums when they were in their teens; and maybe made a few hundred copies of their records. Some of those records now sell online for a lot of money, which doesn’t go back to the artist. So for us it is also about letting these musicians know that their music does resonate with people. That it’s finding a new audience. And also they are making a little bit of money too. You build real relationships with these people and real trust, and its an honor to get to do that with these artists. We’ve learned so much.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I guess luck is always at play in the music business. But more than luck it’s relationships. You have to be good at what you do and you have to work really hard. But you also have to care a lot and be truly passionate and you have to want to work with people and be honest with people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://peppermintrecords.bandcamp.com/
• Instagram: @peppermintproductions
• Other: https://pods.link/RatRace