Daily Inspiration: Meet Ben Van Howe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Van Howe.

Hi Ben, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I run the label Cudighi Records here in LA. Here’s some insight behind it.

While teaching English in Japan, a friend passed unexpectedly. This tragedy put things in perspective – I wondered what I’d been avoiding in my life and the passions and projects I’d been putting off. I’d thought about starting a record label for years but figured there was some aspect of it that I was incapable of doing – some credentials or acumen that I lacked. There was also the matter of money. After some research, I realized I didn’t need to take a massive financial risk if I released cassettes.

With the resurgence of cassette culture and supportive platforms like Bandcamp, people were still buying physical media. It felt like a healthy protest against the rise of streaming and a way to support artists that were more experimental or under the radar. It was also affordable compared to CDs and vinyl. If a tape failed to sell well, it wasn’t devastating. As a frugal guy, this was freeing.

I settled on the name Cudighi based on a sausage and sandwich from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where I grew up. There’s no real meaning behind it – the word just struck me as funny.

I figured as long as I had a name and a logo, I was a proper label. So I hit up my friend Pete Hillstrom and he whipped something up:

https://www.petehillstrom.com/

Now I only needed a roster. At first, it was just about releasing friends – if I had a label, maybe it would push them to finish an album. I really just wanted to hear their music. Luckily, it worked – check out the MISIU / Aros E-V split and the Seth Thomas record (besides some friend bangers scattered across our compilations):

https://cudighirecords.bandcamp.com/album/plant
https://seththomas.bandcamp.com/album/the-songs-of-seth-thomas

I was also making connections with artists across Japan. One was ELMA in Tottori-shi where I was teaching – he was a high school history teacher with a double life as a prolific harsh noise artist. We had a business meeting over some omurice – with my friend acting as a translator – and he came back with this terrifying dark ambient album:

https://cudighirecords.bandcamp.com/album/child-in-the-closet

I made other connections across the country, releasing an ambient pop EP with Yuto Ohashi and a psychedelic country dub reissue with Yetii:

https://cudighirecords.bandcamp.com/album/juvenile-insubstantial-re-present
https://cudighirecords.bandcamp.com/album/farmer-gone-to-heaven

It only expanded from there. I had ample free time at work, so I went down the online rabbit hole and perused artists from around the world. I could find the exact sounds that excited me without having to consider the country. I discovered these amazing musicians from Finland, Chile, and France – all with their unique take on psychedelia.

I started emailing artists out of the blue, asking if they’d like to do a release together. I wasn’t established whatsoever – I just hoped they would see I was a genuine fan and would want to work with me. For the most part, it worked.

At the time, I’d planned to travel and teach but ended up returning to the States and settling in LA. Still, I had to scratch the travel itch. Releasing international artists felt like a healthy compromise. It’s traveling without leaving – I’m able to connect with artists around the world and have a window into their culture through their work.

Furthermore, I feel like I’ve become friends with some of the artists I’ve released – while they started as strangers, we’ve built a connection through their art. It’s like having a musical pen pal.

All the while, I was inspired by European labels like Escho and Ultra Eczema:

https://www.escho.net/
http://www.ultraeczema.com/

Both not only ignore genre and release anything from noise to pop, they also move beyond music to release prose and poetry.

I try a similar approach with Cudighi. I don’t like to be restricted by branding and instead release anything that interests me across the spectrum. I’m open to anything that clicks.

Still, there are themes and ideas I’m drawn to – namely, psychedelia. I like anything childlike or exploratory with a heavy emphasis on play. I like treating sound like a sandbox. This is often paired with a focus on nature – I particularly like recreating organic sound through synthetic means. That’s a hoity-toity way of saying I like squelchy synths that sound like frogs.

While the releases are eclectic, I don’t aim to alienate anyone. I want listeners to at least meet us halfway. If they dig noise, maybe they’ll like this synthpop bop or this ambient soundscape – you never know!

I don’t necessarily think curation counts as art, but releasing albums across genres feels a bit like painting an impressionist landscape – a series of abstract “dots” that resemble something tangible once you zoom out. My hope is at some point, I’ll drop the “dot” that ties the entire scene together and makes the whole museum go “whoa”. And that dot is going to be a freak jazz clarinet album.

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?
The road’s been smooth in terms of my continued excitement for the label and the response I’ve gotten. Releasing music is my main source of joy and gives me a sense of purpose. I get to work with these incredible artists and help them reach an appreciative audience – there’s not much better than that. Because a lot of the artists live overseas, I often get overnight email updates and wake up to new tunes or album artwork. It’s the closest thing to Christmas morning.

Still, running an international label can be a challenge because I’m not building buzz within a geographic scene. With promotion, I often start from scratch because I’m trying to establish an entirely new fanbase separate from the scene the artist already exists within. You really have to act as cheerleader and champion what the artist is doing to get anyone’s attention. It can be tough to convince someone to listen if they don’t recognize the artist, let alone the language. Without local fans, there’s no guarantee something will sell, regardless of how excited I am about the project.

While this can be a struggle, it’s still rewarding because I’m tasked with turning someone on to something I love. I’m willing to put up with setbacks because I’m passionate about keeping the label international. If the label’s scope were limited to releases within LA or the States, it would lose some of its luster.

Of course, I still work with some awesome LA-based artists – Paradot, Super Hit, Spookey Ruben, AxOxH, and Central Spark, to name a few. It’s especially rewarding to build an in-person connection, book shows, and see them perform instead of just sticking to email correspondence.

What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
I’d say what sets Cudighi apart is that the label is not based around a particular scene or sound. It’s more about supporting the individual and their authentic approach so they are free to experiment unrestricted, whether that’s with music, visual art, or video. Overall, I like working with artists that don’t quite fit amongst their peers – people whose work is genuinely unusual while still staying warm and welcoming.

As for what I’m most proud of, I’d say the compilations, especially when the artists go all-in on a goofy concept. The most recent one was Water Levels, where each artist invented a fake video game in their head and then composed the music for the “water level” of that game:

https://cudighirecords.bandcamp.com/album/water-levels

Beyond that, we’ve made soundtracks for forest bathing and a celebration of Finland’s influence in Michigan:

https://cudighirecords.bandcamp.com/album/forest-bath
https://cudighirecords.bandcamp.com/album/h-yst

My goal moving forward is to expand beyond cassette – I’m currently working on some vinyl releases and a few zines that I’m stoked to share.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up near the woods in Wisconsin and Michigan – lots of unstructured play and making your own fun. I spent a lot of my time camping, canoeing, and exploring in the forest.

I was fed a balanced musical diet of Beatles, Zappa, and the soundtrack to Cats. Of course, what your parents show you plays a part in your burgeoning taste – The Beatles and Zappa are definitely present in a few Cudighi releases. Once I hit my early teens, I diverged and got more into electronic, indie, and avant-garde. I’ve always been a sucker for melody as well as mood, so I like to strike a balance between earworms and more atmospheric stuff.

I started learning instruments early on with the piano at five years old. By the time I turned ten, I’d moved on to drums, stand-up bass, and guitar. I was gifted a four-track tape recorder as an early teen and recorded mumbled covers of Bob Dylan and Velvet Underground. On the tail end of high school and fully obsessed with Animal Collective, I bought a Roland SP-404 sampler. The sampler felt like a sandbox – suddenly, I could make any sound I wanted. From there, I became more inspired by artists that used the studio as an instrument – such as Swans, Talk Talk, Disco Inferno, Tall Dwarfs, and Elephant Six – and made music somewhere between experimental and pop:

https://cudighirecords.bandcamp.com/album/cudighi

As a kid, I loved Tove Jansson’s Moomins and read all of the books. Looking back, there’s something staunchly individualist and counter-cultural about the characters in Moominvalley. I don’t know if I’m allowed to quote Björk here, but she said it best:

“The worlds created by Tove Jansson…[have a] kind of freedom and rebellion against limitations imposed by society. Each one of the Moomin characters is of equal value, and they are allowed to be as eccentric as they like.”

https://www.bjork.fr/Helsingin-Sanomat

With Cudighi, I’d like to think I’m making my own Moominland and inviting others in to make themselves at home. Here, you’re allowed to be as eccentric as you’d like.

And with that, I hope you have a listen!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cudighirecords.bandcamp.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cudighirecords/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cudighirecords/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cudighirecords
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1qkUENnlMQ5Ol0Bk2DFTLg
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/cudighirecords

Image Credits
BEN PHOTO: Photo by Keegan Burckhard https://www.keeganburckhard.com/ FOREST BATH: Art by Momoe Narazaki momoe-narazaki.com Layout and Album Design by Elaine Ho elaineho.weebly.com MISIU / AROS E-V – PLANT TAPE: Photo by Ezra Ewen https://www.ezraewen.com/ ELENA DAKOTA: Artwork by Elena Nees Design by @billiard_balance https://billiardbalance.xyz/ HÖYSTÖ: Art by Annu Kilpeläinen www.annukil.com Design by Ian Erlich www.ianerlich.com WATER LEVELS: Art by Zad Kokar https://www.instagram.com/zadkokar/ PARADOT – ALBUMEN: Art and Design by Paradot https://parad0t.bandcamp.com/ SAMPLER PLATTER VOL. II: Art and Design by Pete Hillstrom https://www.petehillstrom.com/