Ian Coss' Label Fashion People Records Takes Shape In Amherst

An overactive imagination won't get you far in certain occupations (air traffic controller, say), but it's helpful if you're a musician. Songwriter Ian Coss, 26, lived in East Asia for two years and returned home to Boston full of ideas, which he channeled into two new ventures: "An Act of Imagination," an album of 10 far-reaching songs; and Fashion People Records, a label he started with musicians Alex Chakour (Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley) and Howard Feibusch (one-third of Brooklyn "folktronic" trio Howard).

Fashion People, based out of Chakour's studio in Amherst, Mass., allows the three musicians to record, market and distribute their own music. (The physical products are manufactured elsewhere.) Over time, Coss thinks Fashion People will develop a reputation for quality, like Island Records in the late '60s (or Burger Records now); you may not know a band or artist, but you'll (safely) assume it's good because it's on Fashion People.

"We're committed to music production and promotion," Coss said, "to really building up a catalog of music that you feel strongly about that's not in any particular genre… I do feel there is something tying [Fashion People releases] together, if nothing else that [they] passed through this studio. There's a sonic identity. I want to cultivate that same kind of scene and social circle surrounding the label."

The first three Fashion People releases — Coss's "An Act of Imagination," Howard's "Religion" and the self-titled debut by Western Mass. band Temporary Friends — are just now available on vinyl, cassette and CD at fashionpeoplerecords.com. You can also visit the merch table at the Fashion People Records release party, which takes place at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton on Dec. 12. All three acts will perform.

Coss's album, meanwhile, features Chakour on bass, Middletown-based drummer Bill Carbone (Max Creek, the Z3) and string arrangements by Michael Vitale. Verses and choruses fall together in mosaics of odd phrase-lengths and chord progressions, while Coss's interest in the connective tissue of songs — the intros, the different ways to approach a chorus, the extended bridges and codas — gives songs a unique, highly personal sheen: he's hell-bent on exploding the middle sections, raising their profiles, championing their roles. "One Night" begins with Nick Drake-style fingerpicking and strings, morphs into early '80s Lionel Richie dance-pop, and returns home. Yakety-sax horns and Chakour's melodic bass anchor the two-step stomp of "I'll Be Home"; you half-expect — and would welcome — a Sha Na Na cameo.

Elsewhere, jazzy violin breaks, sometimes harmonized, pop up unexpectedly. "Nothing to See" mixes an Africanized groove and Zappa-esque odd meters. Harry Nilsson's meta-musical spirit is very much part of the fabric; "In Tokyo they shine their shoes," a chorus of female singers sing at the beginning of "All Eyes," over oom-pah bass, "In America, they do that too." That part returns at the end, a framing device that re-contextualizes everything that happens in between: a patchwork of melodies, shifting grooves and voices. On the title track, Coss sings: "I can't hear my guitar over the rain / thunder's clapping but I think I know which cards to play / I keep my fingers moving anyway / and that's when listening starts becoming an act of imagination."

With Fashion People releasing "An Act of Imagination," Coss doesn't have to waste time looking for distribution. "We realised there was a lot of music around this one studio and that none of the artists are signed," Coss said. "We figured, at this point, we could all pool our resources and energies and do it as a unit… That's the idea of the label: everyone making the business decisions are also the artists."

And although they aren't actively recruiting, Coss said Fashion People will eventually bring other artists into the fold.

"We're just getting things off the ground," Coss said, "releasing three records in two months, launching the website, just getting the music we've done out there. In the next six months to a year: that will be the time for A&R… The label is founded on these friendships and I'm excited to extend that to other people."

FASHION PEOPLE RECORDS RELEASE PARTY with Howard, Ian Coss and Temporary Friends takes place on Friday, Dec. 12 at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton. Showtime is 10 p.m. Tickets are $8-$10. Information: iheg.