It’s a small label,” says Katherine Schell, the winner of VH1’s 2005 Best Adult Contemporary Song of the Year award, of her record label, Recessive Gene Records. “But they’re behaving like a major (label).”

When Schell won the award for her song “Rest Assured” through VH1’s Save the Music, her brother Jeff Schell, McCormick ’04, developed a plan for her future musical career. He knew that if his sister signed with a big record label, she could possibly get lost in the chaos of the industry and not get the attention she needed as an artist. So he did what any brother would do: He started Recessive Gene Records and signed his sister as its premier performer. Now with a predominately NU staff, the label is investing all it can to make sure Katherine is a success.

“Every record label is out there to make money,” says Jeff, the CEO in charge of business operations and production. “The (major record labels) don’t support their artists. They move on to the next project before making sure the current one is a success. But we are using all of our resources for Katie.”

Jeff began the label in October 2004; it was incorporated in February 2005. According to him, it has gained many industry contacts and resources since then, including Public Relations Specialist Lizzie Grubman, whose firm represents M.A.C. Cosmetics, America Online, Jay-Z and Britney Spears. Jeff says that Grubman will be working to promote the 2006 national release of Katherine’s record, Emptier Streets. The album was recorded at Chicago Recording Company, a studio that’s not unfamiliar with stars.

“When I was there, Billy Corgan was right above me,” Katherine says. “R. Kelly was there once, too.”

Though Recessive Gene is still very much a family-oriented company, it takes its work very seriously.

“This is a label with real people making real business deals,” says McCormick junior Nick Rovelli, an intern at Recessive Gene.

Last Wednesday kicked off a several weeks-long in-house gig for Katherine Schell and her band the Emergency at Fundajo Grill, 3140 N. Lincoln Ave., a few minutes from the Belmont El stop.

The venue’s lights are dim and artwork of various shades hangs from the walls. The mood is intimate and provides the perfect atmosphere for the band’s chamber rock to move and soothe the small audience.

“This is a practice performance,” says Weinberg senior Ethan Lipkind, the band’s director of bookings and promotions.

When some people think of practice space for a band, they envision a junky garage or family basement, but those venues would not fit the major label mentality that prevails at Recessive Gene Records.

“I wanted it to be a working practice,” Lipkind says. While the Fundajo shows are for practice, they’re also chances to create a college fan base, he says.

Lipkind also has been working on Katherine’s upcoming tour plans. Starting this January, she and the Emergency will do its “Out West Tour,” stopping at Colorado ski resorts. The group will then tour Eastern Europe in the summer of 2006.

But the major event for this year is not too far away. On Sunday, Dec. 11, Katherine Schell and the Emergency will perform at Michigan Theater at University of Michigan to benefit the Special Days Camps charity. The program provides services for kids with leukemia or cancer and their families. Katherine says the organization is very dear to her because of her younger brother’s bout with leukemia.

Still, with all of her burgeoning success, Katherine remains humble and focused. When she is off stage, Schell seems like any other junior music major at Loyola University. She appears quiet and relaxed, sometimes pausing during sentences to chase the words that are escaping her. But when she takes the stage she doesn’t just sing – she flows.

She performed the National Anthem in front of a NBC television audience and a crowd of thousands at a NASCAR race in October. But Katherine isn’t concerned with fame.

“It’s about the music,” she says. “I’d rather be recording than trying to sell records.”

The chemistry between Katherine and her band is apparent in the music and when the band is on stage. They compliment each other and intensify the emotions of her songs.

But while most of the band members are Loyola music majors, a lot of the people involved in the label say they never thought that they would be in the music industry.

“Usually you just see yourself working for GM (General Motors),” says Rovelli, who is an industrial engineering major. “But it was such a unique opportunity I had to take it. This internship has opened doors.”

These opportunities are what lured many of Recessive Gene’s employees and interns, even to the point of quitting their day jobs.

“I was working at a lucrative investment firm, but (Jeff Schell) kept bugging me to come on,” Lipkind says. “So I threw out a number I didn’t think he could match and he said, ‘Done.’ I quit my job the very next day.”

No matter how they ended up working with the label, there is one common goal.

“We want to produce a successful artist,” Rovelli says. “And we are going to take it one band at a time.”4

Medill sophomore Niema Jordan is a PLAY writer. She can be reached at [email protected].