We recently connected with Lucia Smith and have shared our conversation below.
Lucia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
There was a series of events that lead me to realize I need to spend my life doing what I love rather than what I think I need to do to live a happy life. My entire life I wanted to work in the music industry and I always have in one form or another so instead of waiting for opportunities to come to me I decided to create my own opportunities. There are so many communities within underground music but I’ve always struggled to find a place where I felt like I belonged there. I got the idea to create my own space for people like me that felt like they didn’t belong. My love for the Juggalo community has always been prevalent and I used the inspiration from seeing that community go through its hardships and ostracization to create Wicked Dead Records. That is where the prefix “Wicked” comes from. “Dead” because we specialize in the darker spectrum of music in all forms be it instrumentally, lyrically, or both.
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?
So this goes way back to when I was a small child growing up with skateboarders and emcees that my Mom hung around with. It really all started with Wu-Tang Clan and Insane Clown Posse. Once I got into my early teens that was when the leash was off and I was able to build my own world within music. I got my first guitar at age 11 and spent hours in my bedroom trying to play along to my favorite Rage songs and writing my own guitar parts to ICP tracks. I pirated FL Studios 10 Producer Edition in 2011 and started making my own beats. I now have a (legit) license for FL Studios 20 Producer Edition and have formed my own record label since. Wicked Dead Records is Cincinnati’s take on the same story you’ve heart a million times before but this is our turn to tell it from our eyes and give our own misfits a place to thrive and grow artistically. We’re not doing anything that hasn’t been done before but we’re doing it in a way that makes us stand out from the crowd and anyone is welcome to come with us. This is bigger than the midwest. This is national and it will continue to grow. We’ve got a plan.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met Breezy on a chance night over this past winter through a good friend of mine we were all hanging out and having a good night. We traded stories about Price Hill (where we grew up) and I identified within Breezy so much and felt like she was a long-lost homie so it was only natural for me to want to bring her in and teach her everything I knew. I basically handed her the spare key to the label and said “welcome in”. Breezy is the truest they come and I have mad respect for her.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Listening to the people that already support us. We have a small cult following and that’s always how every major movement has started. I take the things my supporters say to me seriously so when they give me advice or suggestions I listen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://discord.gg/Asweasbnxe
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wickeddeadrecords/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wickeddeadrecords
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WickedDeadRec