When Yeasayer’s debut album of tongue-wagging tribal psychedelia, “All Hour Cymbals,” hit in 2007, it arrived with a bit of mystery. The cover art featured a bizarre figure resembling a werewolf Bedouin, its face obscured in a dark shroud. Photos of the band were hard to come by (and impossible for months leading up to the release), and the record company on the jacket was unfamiliar to even the most devoted scenegoers: the album came courtesy of We Are Free, as its first full-length release.

All the smoke and mirrors were part of the plan for Jason Foster, the owner of Baltimore-based We Are Free Records and the manager of Yeasayer, one of the hottest new properties in avant-garde rock. Soundboard asked Foster about starting a label in the midst of such dire times for selling records, how an indie label can hang onto its rising stars, and how to get a quartet of hippies wailing about the apocalypse to play on Conan.

You have a long history in independent music as the co-founder of Monitor Records. What was the ambition behind this new label?

I owned Monitor with a partner and it was a lot of fun. But I was getting tired of new music. I was burned out. Then somebody sent me a few of the Yeasayer demos, only three 30-second clips, and I was like “Wow, this is what I was looking for,” and it felt like the right time to start something new where it was my ship and I’m the captain.

When I heard Yeasayer, I knew their album needed to be somewhere where nobody had heard of the label, so people would only pay attention to the music. I didn’t allow pictures of the band to be released for the first four or five months after the single for “2080” was released. When there’s too much information about bands out there, there’s no creativity on your behalf as a label. The first band I loved was Led Zeppelin. I was 13 or 14 and all I had was a dubbed tape, but I was blown away. I didn’t know what they looked like. I just had the music.

Was it difficult to balance that impulse to keep them and We Are Free mysterious while also breaking them into a busy marketplace for new bands?

I don’t like the Dave Matthews Band, but the way they grew was inspiring. There was no hype machine, and that creates a longevity and makes them more important to their fans. For Yeasayer, we never bought an ad and there was no marketing plan. For me, it was an easy choice, because I had no money anyway. From the outset, I looked for help from people who knew they wouldn’t get paid right away, who were interested in repping a cool record. It’s a fine line to tread, though, because I didn’t want to underexpose them either. Yeasayer are nice guys and I wanted people to know they were good dudes.

How difficult was it for a start-up indie label to get necessary things like distribution and the booking contacts to get Yeasayer on Conan?

When my partner and I started Monitor, we had no clue about anything. We had this handbook written by a couple of girls in D.C., but our strategy was to make as many mistakes as quickly as possible. We could have given up so many times, but eventually you make contacts and meet rad people who want to get behind you. It’s really a gathering of friends. But if someone wanted to start a label now, it’s very difficult. I wouldn’t suggest doing it. I already knew the paths and had distribution lined up. There’s a ton of cool young labels coming out, but they can’t just be dedicated to selling records.

It is a difficult time to be getting into the business of selling CDs. How do you plan to grow We Are Free, given the challenges of selling physical copies of music?

I’m trying to diversify. I manage Yeasayer and it’s been working out well because we’re autonomous. We can control the records. They could have signed a three-album deal somewhere, but then they’d be stuck. It’s easier to make decisions like this. Right now, they’re flying over to the U.K. to play Jools Holland’s show, which is their equivalent of “Saturday Night Live,” and then they’re coming back to play the main stage of Lollapalooza.

You’ve been able to capitalize on some great reviews and online word-of-mouth, but how does the disposable mp3 culture particularly help or hurt a new label trying to break bands and keep them popular?

It’s not easy. Stores aren’t taking risks, and lot of people trade and burn. But I don’t mind as much. You could hide yourself and maybe sell 1,000 copies, but if people become fans through trading, they’ll still want to own the album. If you make a good record, there’s nothing that can stop it from being successful. For me, I’m not scared. I know I put out good records, and you can’t put a noose around those things. If it’s good, people will buy it.

Do you feel like you’re in a better position to deal with slipping sales than major labels?

The majors have eaten themselves alive. They don’t put out good music. They don’t nurture their artists. For me, it’s easier to do what I want to do because there’s no huge overheard. Majors are so slow to accept change, and small labels are quick. Domino and Merge still sell a ton of records. Spoon were on a major and got dropped, and they still sell well on Merge. But majors don’t want to deal with these kind of artists. They can only sell a million records and that’s it. Majors are trying to adjust with these 360 deals, but that takes a giant chunk of your merch and touring. For me, the main focus of a band today should be merch, touring and licensing. A lot bands go to majors and sell less than when they were on an indie, and the major spent four times as much promoting them. I don’t know if majors know how to sell anything that isn’t Beyonce. If you sell 200,000 on Domino, those people are much more excited about that than a major.

How do you think this rough climate will affect the music being made, both in the mainstream and underground?

The business is just getting interesting. People are seeking out so much new music. Bands at the edge of adult contemporary like Iron and Wine and Death Cab for Cutie are leading people into things they’ve never heard before. Even at Yeasayer shows, you’ll see people you wouldn’t expect, guys in business suits. Last year was an amazing year for indie artists, and it’s becoming more and more apparent that most bands don’t need major labels. When I started, there was a thick line between major and indie, and I like it better this way. It’s a great time to be in an indie band.

– August Brown

Photo of Jason courtesy Jason Foster/We Are Free