Crown Of Thorns
Actor and guitarist “Little” Steven Van Zandt’s rock ‘n’ roll empire is expanding yet again with a new record label, Lost Cathedral. The first project from the imprint, which will focus on hard rock, is Crown of Thorns’ “Faith,” due June 9. Lost Cathedral joins Van Zandt’s garage rock label, Wicked Cool, under the banner of parent company Renegade Nation. “We basically decided to keep Wicked Cool identifiable as a garage rock label, at least for now,” said Van Zandt, a founding member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. “In the last couple of years, we’ve gotten a lot of hard rock things submitted to us. A lot of it is quite good — a little bit punkier or harder rock than we do with Wicked Cool.” Starting with Crown of Thorns made sense too, because the band’s frontman, Jean Beauvoir, is also the CEO of Renegade Nation. “He does what he does every couple of years,” Van Zandt said. “I said, ‘You know what? It’s silly not to put it out.’” As with Wicked Cool, Lost Cathedral will focus on artist development, which Van Zandt feels is a lost art in the modern music business. “Once upon a time there was a great, collaborative effort involved in making careers,” he said. “Things have gone so far toward do-it-yourself — which frankly doesn’t work — it’s hard to be capable at all of those jobs, let alone good at them.”
