Downtown Raleigh’s music scene will add a new member this month by way of Sorry State Records. The up-and-coming punk label plans to open a record store and move its headquarters from Carrboro to Raleigh by the end of October.
Daniel Lupton, owner of Sorry State Records and a lecturer in English at UNC-Chapel Hill, is no stranger to the music business.
“I started the label in, I believe 2004, so it’s been almost 10 years and we have been distributing records and stuff all over the world,” Lupton said.
Originally, Lupton was able to go into the record business because of the help of leftover grant money he was given for grad school.
“I’ve always been a big music fan and it’s always been in the back of my mind,” Lupton said. “When I started grad school there was one semester where they gave me like more grant money then I actually needed so I just stuck it in the bank with the idea that I would put out a record sometime.”
Instead of using it for his own record, Lupton used his money to put out his friends’ band’s record.
“A couple of my friends had a really good band that I liked called Direct Control and they had like five left over spots from when they recorded their EP so I was like ‘why don’t you let me do it?’” Lupton said. “That was the first release, and then I put out some more records and it just kind of snowballed from there.”
Although Lupton calls Carrboro home, his fascination for Raleigh has been ongoing.
“Raleigh has always kind of been my spiritual home, even though I live in Carrboro,” Lupton said. “I just have always felt more of a connection with Raleigh’s music scene, I’ve lived in Chapel Hill and Carrboro the whole time I lived in the triangle, but whenever I go see bands I’m always driving to Raleigh so it just feels more logical I guess.”
Lupton said the music in Chapel Hill’s corner of the Triangle simply doesn’t fit Sorry State as well.
“The music scene in Chapel Hill is maybe a bit more cerebral and a little more intellectual and I like things that are sort of more like raw bands,” Lupton said. “I think the kind of thing that I want to do will go over better in Raleigh and downtown Raleigh is just awesome.”
Lupton said he wants the record store to become a community where people gather and talk music rather than just buy records.
“I think it is more of a vibe thing, I’m sure people do hang out in other record stores but I don’t know if there are places to sit,” Lupton said. “I don’t know, it feels more like than just a store that you buy records in.”
Though the record label’s headquarters are moving to the new store at 317 W. Morgan St. in downtown, a recording studio will not be present because of potential sound violations.
“The place is pretty small and it’s in a residential building so we can’t have any kind of amplified music,” Lupton said. “There probably won’t be shows there but there are other places that it can happen.”
But Lupton said he can record wherever he wants—city ordinance permitting.
“I have a mobile recording studio that I use to record some bands and usually I just do that whenever we can,” Lupton said.
As for Hillsborough’s record staple, Schoolkids, Lupton said he isn’t interested in a competition.
“I’m not really interested in fighting Schoolkids to see who can sell more records,” Lupton said. “We have things that you don’t really see in the other stores like a lot of collectable albums that you won’t see at other stores and have more underground punk and metal music.”
Lupton said he feels he is bringing something different to Raleigh.
“I would like to think that I’m filling a niche that needs to be filled,” Lupton said.
Construction begins on Sorry State's record store on 317-105 W. Morgan St. in downtown Raleigh.
