While most students start stressing about final papers, Quinn Fenlon '10 is getting ready to take the spring semester off. He'll spend the new year writing an album with his rock band, TGL. The group was just signed by Oort, an offshoot record label of Lobster Records based in Santa Barbara, Calif., and will start recording in March.
TGL, which Fenlon said stands for "The Good Life," began in a Greencastle, Ind., high school in 2002. Indiana native Fenlon, who was friends with the band in high school, said he joined just over two years ago.
As the band's lead guitarist, Fenlon says the physical distance between him and the other band members, all of whom attend DePauw University, has hindered their creative process.
"Being so far away we don't get to write together, play together or have any shows," Fenlon said. "When we do get back together over the summer we have to cram in writing, recording - if we're going to do it - and then touring."
But despite the cross-country distance, the band has managed to produce four albums and tours regularly.
Publicity from mtvU, an offshoot of MTV dedicated to music and student life on campuses, has brought TGL a small fan base. The group finished in the top five out of 1,500 entries in mtvU's 2007 Artist of the Year contest, and mtvU still contacts them occasionally.
"They called us up a little while ago to ask if they could use our music in the breaks of their Woodie Awards," Fenlon said.
These days, TGL's decision to sign with Oort is constantly on Fenlon's mind.
"It's definitely affected me quite a bit," he added. "By signing it, I was basically agreeing I had to leave school."
Fenlon and his band spent more than a month deciding whether or not to sign with the label. The contract requires TGL to record its new album before the summer, promising that Oort will help with recording, distributing, promoting and planning a tour. But the creative process, Fenlon said, is still completely up to the band.
"We don't really have to show the label anything until the final tracks are done," he said. "I'm not really nervous working with the label so much because we're not bound to that much, and most of the things coming from it are going to be positive."
TGL isn't in it for the money, Fenlon said. "Nobody really knows us, so they don't have the money to put a lot into us and risk us not going anywhere," he added.
Though TGL broke even on the four records they have already released thanks to tour revenues, they haven't yet made significant profits. But TGL will get all profits from their upcoming tour, Fenlon said. Most of Oort's newly signed bands start with East Coast tours, he added, so Brown students may soon see TGL in Providence.
Though he enjoys touring, Fenlon said he is more excited about having time to work with his band and write an album without being rushed. "Being able to tour with a good album makes the touring aspect that much better," he said.
Fenlon predicts a new sound for the upcoming album, different from the style that has attracted their 7,913 MySpace friends and received attention so far. "The stuff that's online right now for people to listen to was written in probably a tenth of the time we're giving ourselves to write this new album," he said.
"There's a lot of pressure going into something like this," Fenlon said.
All of TGL's members are taking an indefinite amount of time off school. "It depends on how the summer goes with the album and the tour," Fenlon said. Becoming sufficiently famous as to never return, he said, is "always the dream."
