After discovering 97X as a Miami University student and interning for Barb Abney, Rob Mason channeled his love of music into founding and running a record label. Old Flame Records featured releases from a slew of bands, including Cloud Nothings, Twin Tigers, and Cincinnati artists such as Carriers, Moonbeau, Frontier Folk Nebraska, and Dawg Yawp. And he’s our only guest (so far) to have released music from a group that won a Norwegian Grammy. Rob shares his stories (including babysitting Kings of Leon during their Oxford visit) and talks about how he’s still passionate about helping cool bands get their music heard.

Here’s an excerpt from Rob’s description of Old Flame in Impose Magazine:

From my days as a Music Director at WMSR to being an intern at WOXY, I found my love of discovering and exposing people to new music. Different jobs at labels and record stores and even mortgage lenders helped shape me in terms of learning what I liked, what worked/didn’t work, and what I wanted to do and not do with my time and my life.

Here’s a screen grab of the Old Flame roster on Bandcamp -it’s quite impressive:

You can check out Old Flame playlists on YouTube, Apple Music, and Amazing Radio, among others.

During our interview, Rob mentioned the self-titled debut release from Dawg Yawp, produced by Rob Fetters (Raisins, The Bears, Psychodots).

Here’s Dawg Yawp’s NPR Tiny Desk performance: