Editor's note: This story is featured in OU Daily's Best of Oklahoma guide, which is available around campus in March-April. Check out other featured stories at the bottom of this article.
Editor's note: This article was updated 1:34 p.m. on March 12 to correct the name of Catapult Recordings.
Oklahoma City-based record label Catapult Recordings celebrated five years of business this February.
Catapult Recordings began in February 2019 when 14-year-old Cooper Anderson started helping his friends upload their music to streaming services.
“I was around a bunch of people who were making really cool music,” Anderson said. “I decided at that point, ‘Well, why don’t we just put that stuff out?’”
Anderson is a commercial music business freshman at the University of Central Oklahoma. Having started the label at a young age, Anderson said that he knows how to market to a younger generation.
“I think having the first four years that I was in high school where I had — especially during the pandemic — so much free time really gave us a leg up on kind of jumpstarting the whole project,” Anderson said.
Catapult Recordings is a DIY music label located in Oklahoma City.
While starting the label, Anderson said he received guidance from Scott Booker, manager of triple Grammy Award-winning band The Flaming Lips and CEO of UCO’s Academy of Contemporary Music.
“He was a very helpful individual in getting us cemented in the local scene and just there as a guide for pointers,” Anderson said.
Since its inception, Catapult Recordings has signed 12 artists and bands, eight of which are based in Oklahoma. Anderson said the label doesn’t seek out a specific genre and its artists come from a variety of music styles, including jazz, punk and traditional folk.
“The music that I sign just comes across my desk,” Anderson said. “It’s just up to chance of what I find first.”
Oklahoma-based indie punk band Bee and the Hive signed with Catapult Recordings in October 2022. OU biomedical engineering senior Noah Roberts, the band’s guitarist, said that signing with the label helped establish the band professionally.
“It became a little bit more real,” Roberts said. “Before Cooper came along, we hadn’t really released any music or anything like that.”
Catapult Recordings values authenticity and transparency, which Anderson said involves upfront communication about royalties and providing artists with short, easy-to-understand contracts.
“He was very upfront,” Roberts said. “We still have complete creative control, then Cooper handles all the behind-the-scenes releases on streaming services, physical releases and stuff like that.”
Since signing with Catapult Recordings, Bee and the Hive has released its debut EP, “Flamingo Dancing,” as well as two singles.
While the label does not exclusively sign Oklahoma artists, Catapult Recordings aims to connect to its local community through meet-and-greets and charity events.
In 2023, Catapult Recordings partnered with nonprofit RestoreOKC to hold the “Help Oklahoma Teachers” concert, a benefit event raising funds for Restore Schools. The concert featured 19 Oklahoma bands, and all proceeds went directly to the charity.
Songs performed at the show were unreleased. Now, the only way to listen to them is on CDs, cassettes and by streaming a collaborative album made for the event.
Catapult Recordings hosts “Help Oklahoma Teachers” fundraising event. Johnny Manchild and The Poor Bastards headlined the event at Beer City Music Hall.
Catapult Recordings uses in-house CD and cassette pressing equipment, so the label has complete control over the creation process of albums.
“We can really control literally everything about how the album is made and distributed and put out,” Anderson said.
Physical copies of music released by Catapult Recordings can be found at the Norman and Oklahoma City-based record store Guestroom Records, and releases can be purchased on Catapult Recording’s website.
This story was edited by Emma Blakley. Gracie Benge, Grace Rhodes and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
