We were lucky to catch up with Dylan Geurtsen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dylan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

When I decided to release my band, Niner Niner’s first album on vinyl, I needed a name to pose as our “record label” for packaging and distribution. I wanted something that represented our hometown of Bakersfield, CA. There is a river that cuts through town called the Kern River. The Kern River is fed with water runoff from Mount Whitney. It is deceptively fast with powerful undercurrents and has taken many lives over the years. At the mouth of the Kern Canyon there is a sign that has the current number of people that have unfortunately lost their lives as a warning to stay out if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Maybe it’s a prophetic message for the music business: Stay out, stay alive.
Regardless, it is a nice alliteration, is edgy, represents our hometown and our growing roster of “killer” bands.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

It wasn’t until I graduated from high school that I knew i wanted to be involved with music. I became obsessed with the band U2 and gobbled up their musical catalog. At that same time I was swept up in the 90s Grunge movement, taught myself guitar, wrote songs and started playing in bands. I moved to LA and got first hand experience with the collapse of the music industry. Our band signed a developmental deal, went through multiple managers, had talks and showcases with every major record label around. Digital music was taking over, labels were merging and A&R reps were getting canned left and right. Years later, after thoroughly exhausting the normal “get signed and make a million dollars” dream, I moved back home.
I put music on the back burner and started a swimming pool business. The pool business did well and enabled me to self fund music endeavors that I previously thought you needed a big record deal for.
After pressing and releasing an album for my new band, I got the itch and started to help other artists around town and regionally to do the same. It’s been one of the most fun and rewarding things I’ve ever been a part of.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I always say if you do something out of love, passionately and persistently, you will be successful. Maybe it won’t necessarily make you rich but you can look back and be extremely proud of what you did nonetheless. I value helping others and developing relationships over making money. Luckily, I have the luxury of my pool business to afford that mentality. But that same approach was used building my pool business and worked great.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Getting sober 10 years ago where was everything changed for me. I am an extremely hard worker but I always shirked “adult” responsibilities. Suffering a seizure from alcohol abuse really was a moment where i knew i had to get my shit together and thankfully I never looked back. The steadfastness I exercised from staying sober bled into every aspect of my life. I’m fortunate to have support from my wife, friends and family and be on a successful path of recovery; Everything else is doable and rather easy.

Contact Info:

• Website: killerkernrecords.com
• Instagram: @killerkernrecords
• Facebook: facebook.com/killerkernrecords
• Other: killerkern.bandcamp.com