Writing a music blog gave him a reason to live. Starting a label is his way of giving back

Ryan B. Clark has been preaching the gospel of Arizona music since 2017 on his blog, Keep the Greasy Side Down.

Now he's taken his passion for the music to another level, launching Hookworm Records as a way to further document the things he loves about his favorite artists while affording them the opportunity to record on his dime in a world-class studio.

The label's first release is "Hookworm One," a limited-edition 12-inch EP with one song apiece from the Woodworks, Paper Foxes, Shovel and the Psychedelephants with Bob Hoag handling the production.

The 'Hookworm One' release show is set for 8 p.m., Friday, at Last Exit Live in Phoenix.

He's already booked time for the acts on "Hookworm Two," with six bands set to work with Hoag in August and September at the Hoag's Mesa studio, Flying Blanket Recording.

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"I see this as a set of records that encapsulates an entire era of Arizona indie music," Clark explains.

"So that way down the line, if there are 10 records, you'll have 60 artists all preserved on vinyl at the absolute top of their production game."

Hookworm fills a need for Phoenix-area musicians

Clark started Hookworm with two musicians, David Rhodes of Big Finish and Kevin Michael Prier of the Real Fakes.

The idea grew out of a conversation Clark and Prier had about how hard it often is for Arizona bands to get the exposure they deserve.

"What if these bands had the ability to showcase their talent closer to the baseline of everybody that's established?" he says. "What if you could put this on the radio and be like, 'Why isn't this all over the radio everywhere?"

Hookworm Records became an LLC in March of 2020.

Four days later, COVID-19 shut down all the Arizona music venues and the studio in which they had been planning to record.

By fall, with nothing but uncertainty on the horizon, Hookworm Records had become a one-man operation and Clark was worried it was all about to fall apart.

But it didn't. 

Running an independent label is just a natural extension of the way Clark, a former teacher, tends to do the things he loves. He's written and published five books in addition to running a blog. 

"I never thought I was gonna be rich or make a ton of money," he says. 

"All my books are passion projects, all self-published. I don't want to try to make something into what other people would think is financially viable."

How Bob Hoag got involved

As luck would have it, Hoag immediately bought into his passion, offering a discount on his normal rate and more importantly, the wherewithal to bring Clark's dream to life.

"Bob fell in love straight off with the idea of giving back to indie music," Clark says.

By the time he started Hookworm, Clark had carved out enough of a presence as a dedicated local music blogger that the artists he wanted to work with were willing to listen.

"But when it came time to do it, I really needed somebody like Bob," Clark says. 

A modest shortlist of the artists Hoag has worked with would include the Format, the Love Me Nots, Dear and the Headlights, Fairy Bones, Banana Gun, the Technicolors, Snake! Snake! Snakes!, Wyves and the Darts. 

Although they're not, technically, partners, Clark says he has no intention of recording future Hookworm records anywhere but Flying Blanket and he's given Hoag the right to veto any artist.

Recording during the pandemic

Recording with Hoag meant adhering to strict pandemic protocols. 

"Bob is obviously very hardline on COVID," Clark says.

"And you've got all sorts of people, especially in Arizona, that don't want to follow COVID rules. So it's like 'Well, then you can't record with us.'"

Clark loves the idea of giving a band like the Woodworks or Shovel the level of "world-class treatment," that their talent and music would demand if life were fair.

"Flying Blanket is not a cheap studio," Clark says. "So to be able to put bands in there that might not have the opportunity to work with Bob and do it for a vinyl exclusive project, I just fell in love with the idea. And so did Bob."

Clark says he's thrilled with how the EP turned out, from the way it sounds to how it looks. It's available in three varieties of vinyl — purple, teal and a purple-teal swirl — with psychedelic album art by Sid Rhea.

It also features liner notes by local music journalists Carly Schorman of YabYum Music & Arts, Mitchell Hillman, Jason Keil and the author of this article.

How tragedy led Clark to focus on music

In many ways, this marks the culmination of a journey that began for Clark in January of 2017 with a horrifying family tragedy, when his brother, Fraser, killed their stepmother in Holbrook, Arizona. 

"When that happened, my younger sister and I had a major crisis," Clark recalls.

And it came on the heels of him losing his teaching job after pleading guilty to a Class 6 felony for domestic violence against a girlfriend's 15-year-old son.

"I basically had a 'get busy dying or get busy living' moment," he says.

"I was like, 'Life sucks. It's so freaking hard. And there's so many negative things that have happened, one after another.' I really wanted to find something I could pour my soul into, that brought me joy. And music has always done that."

The story of Keep the Greasy Side Down

So he started a blog whose name, Keep the Greasy Side Down, was inspired by something his grandfather liked to say. It's a phrase used by truckers and bikers that means, essentially, be safe out there. 

"It started as a way for me to write about the things I love and basically come up with something that was gonna take a bite out of my depression and make me feel like I had something to live for," Clark recalls. 

"It was all about trying to turn the bad things into something good."

It wasn't long before he felt like he'd built credibility and he could do more for the scene that helped him through troubled times and maybe start a business in the process.

"Maybe people would take me seriously because I'd kind of paid my dues and spent some time getting to know the scene," he said. "I know an awful lot about the indie music in this town."

He's also learning more about the indie scene in Tucson, where he was born. 

"We want each of the records to kind of showcase a swath of what Arizona indie music is all about," Clark says. 

"It's a family of Arizona music that's gonna keep growing and growing."

This summer, Tucson's Birds + Arrows, a featured act on "Hookworm Two," are releasing an album called "Electric Bones" on Hookworm. 

"What I'm trying to basically do is one compilation a year," Clark says. "And once those bands have done the compilation, doing production on one of their next albums. The idea is to create a slow build."

Clark didn't start Hookworm to make money

The hope is to at least break even on these early records.

"It's not gonna be a financially viable business for a long time," he says.

"But I'd like to think I've found a way to not lose money and to do something for indie music while bringing a sense of excitement to my life and then figure out a way to work that into something that does bigger and bigger and bigger things."

He's able to do this through a family trust established by his grandfather, who was captain of Fire Station One in Tucson for 20 years. 

"I have my entire family believing in the importance of what we're doing, not the finances of what we're doing," Clark says. 

"It doesn't have to make a profit. It just has to not lose money. And it makes me feel like I'm doing something for my community, something that gives back.

It's definitely not a get-rich-quick scenario, and Clark is fine with that. 

'No one's ever gonna say, 'Oh, man, that Ryan Clark came up with Hookworm Records and now he's a millionaire,'" Clark says. 

"My biggest goal is sometime down the line for people that have that stack of records and to be able to say there's an era of Arizona indie music that I was able to produce at the absolute top quality and put on vinyl forever."

'Hookworm One' release show

When: 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7. 

Where: Last Exit Live, 717 S. Central Ave., Phoenix.

Admission: $12-$15.

Details: 602-271-7000, lastexitlive.com.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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