Label Feature #16: Sheet Happens Publishing
By Julia Girdharry
In 2010, Luke Hoskin of Protest The Hero founded Sheet Happens Publishing. Working within a tight-knit artist community, the label collaborates with musicians to offer fans a new dimension to the music experience.
Throwing out the old playbook (or in this case, the tab book) that defines what it means to be a label, Sheet Happens Publishing stands as an unconventional enigma in the music industry. Made by musicians for musicians, it supports marginalized bands in specialized genres by offering tab books and vinyl records.
Following the pandemic, many people turned to music and discovered instruments to find joy and creativity. Thanks to the label offering vibrant vinyl records and easy-to-use tab books to prog rock and hardcore enthusiasts, the community of passionate self-taught musicians grew even larger. We chatted with Luke Hoskin to explore how Sheet Happens Publishing, helps bands and fans connect through playing music.
Can you tell us about the origins of Sheet Happens Publishing, how did the label begin?
We started out just making guitar tab books (still do!) When no one would release our tab books (I play in the band Protest The Hero), we decided to start making them on our own. Then, when we’d take them on tour, other bands started to take notice – and so, we started releasing books for those bands. The natural progression of that grew into releasing vinyl records for some of the artists in our tab books catalog.
We don’t really consider ourselves a label though. We can function as a label, yes, but unlike many traditional labels, we refuse to take any rights away from artists with regard to their masters.
They own those – not us!
When no one else would transcribe your music, did you face any challenges of transcribing and publishing on your own?
We started by transcribing our own songs, so the learning curve was relatively easy. We knew our songs and their structures inside and out, so it was just a matter of putting them down on paper. The real challenge was figuring out how to best display those transcriptions. We’re still discovering new ways to enhance the reading and learning experience for our customers, but we’re quite happy with the functionality and aesthetics of our books as they are today.
Some of the first bands we worked with, aside from our own band, included Propagandhi, Darkest Hour, Intervals, and Plini to name a few. We owe a lot of appreciation to those early adopters, without them, I don’t think we’d be talking about Sheet Happens today.
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Is there a wealth of talent available for transcribing music, or was it challenging to find the right people?
It’s definitely challenging to find amazing transcribers. However, I can say without a doubt that the ones we work with are undeniable masters of their craft. Transcribing complicated music requires an exceptional ear, deep musical knowledge, and a high level of precision. Our transcribers possess all these qualities and more – one of those being the ability to collaborate effectively with the artist they are transcribing at the time.
They dedicate countless hours to meticulously capturing every nuance of the music, ensuring that each transcription is as accurate and detailed as possible. This attention to detail allows musicians to fully engage with the material and enhances their learning experience. The expertise and dedication of our transcribers are fundamental to the quality of our books and the satisfaction of our customers. We are incredibly grateful for their invaluable contributions to our work.
Could you provide more insight into the transition from producing tab books to vinyl?
The books are definitely designed for musicians, but we’ve found that many of our artists’ fans are also musicians. Sometimes, vinyl makes a great additional product to an existing book, and sometimes it’s the other way around.
I think the underlying connection between tab books and vinyl is that they are both geared toward collectors. Just as it’s cool to own your favorite music physically, like with vinyl records, it’s equally cool to own a copy of the musical transcriptions. Building a collection of tab books is no different than collecting your favorite literature, at least in my opinion. A collection of either vinyl records or tab books provides a library of information to revisit, regardless of time.
Regardless of the customer’s intention, our products are designed to be the best in the industry!
How important is it for you to create unique color or effect variants for the fans buying your vinyl records?
Creating unique color or effect variants for our vinyl records is very important to us. We like to push the envelope with our layout and design choices. We think it’s cool to have a copy of your favorite LPs that you play regularly, and also a copy of the same record that you can frame on the wall or display in another way. Both should be beautiful to look at, provided they sound good too!
Looking at your catalog of projects pressed with PRP, which three projects do you consider the most notable and why?
Speaking from a purely aesthetic point of view, there are a couple of projects we have done which were completely custom in nature, and took months of planning to get right. I think these are notable because outside of their uniqueness, they were big risks. Custom vinyl collections aren’t inexpensive to create, and running thousands of copies hoping they will sell is always an exercise in forehead sweat. Because of this, these three projects were incredibly satisfying to launch officially:
Pacific Myth (Box Set) – Protest The Hero
What are some of the most rewarding aspects of running Sheet Happens Publishing?
The discovery of new music. As a touring musician, it’s easy to become jaded or unenthused about new music. However, working at SH has rejuvenated my fervor for musical exploration.
Many of the artists we feature are ones I may have never become familiar with if SH didn’t exist. I consider myself incredibly lucky to be surrounded by music at all times, even if I’m not the one playing it.
For more information about the label, please visit sheethappenspublishing.com