Victoria. Nanaimo. Vancouver. Three cities that, while not distant geographically, often feel isolated from one another musically. Formed in June 2020, Cypress Kit is a cassette-focused record label with a goal to bridge that city-to-city musical gap. We want to do that through split single releases, multi-band mixtapes, and cassette runs from bands up and down the island and the lower mainland. 

 

      Ariel (one half of Cypress Kit) brings a scenic design and production background, while Rob (the other half of Cypress Kit) brings his musician’s background: a decade and a half of constant album releases and frequent tours of Western Canada. Complementary skill sets, but both holding the belief that even if live music is on hold, people still need music in their lives and bands want to bring it to them. 

 

     From crafting a weird stack of plastic for your band to sell on their merch table and online store to reissuing older PNW favourites that have fallen out of print, creation, curation, and cultivation are the name of the game. Like the archetypal ferryman and gardener of yore, Cypress Kit wants to help your band hone their sound and find its audience through the magic of tapes.