Almost 10 years ago, Warren Parker figured out how to make a cool hobby a whole lot cooler.
The local music industry lifer and collector got into vinyl around the time the format had a resurgence in 2010. He was drawn to rare record pressings and small runs. So what better way to get his hands on the rarest and smallest runs than to issue them himself?
Parker established WarHen Records with partner Mike Hennigar in 2012, with the goal of promoting local and regional music through his favorite format. He’d find bands he liked, genre be damned, and produce records in limited batches, strictly on vinyl.
Parker didn’t set out to make a pile of money or quit his day job—he was a production manager at The Jefferson Theater at the time—and he didn’t expect to be running his boutique label almost a decade later.
“It’s been a labor of love—something I would now consider a part of my identity,” Parker says. “I never really thought it would go for this long or become as popular or well known as it is.”
He admits his reach isn’t in the hundreds of thousands, but he’s proud of his standing in the music community. Over the years, he’s published work by a who’s who of central Virginia acts—Borrowed Beams of Light, Wrinkle Neck Mules, Sarah White, Sons of Bill, and more. And he says you’d be hard-pressed to find a Virginia band not aware of WarHen Records.
WarHen has also reached beyond Virginia on occasion. The label released Teenage Hallelujah by Alabama-based The Dexateens in 2016, and a version of Polygondwanaland, a 10-song LP for which Australia’s King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard made the master tapes publicly available, in 2018.
“Music has always been a constant for me,” Parker says. “The label has grown organically. It’s been a slow burn.”
Just how slow? Parker admits last year was the first time since he established WarHen that it turned a small profit. Breaking even has always been a win, and he says he’s had to put his own money into the hobby more than once.
The label faced some early setbacks: Hennigar left not long after WarHen launched, several bands on the young roster broke up, and Parker put things on hold for all of 2014. He rallied back in 2015, but COVID nearly stopped the turntable again. While many musicians found the pandemic a productive time, WarHen was beset by supply chain issues. Parker relies on third parties to press all his record runs, and COVID disrupted his materials flow and presented short-staffed warehouses. “It’s been an adjustment,” he says.
Parker’s own career as a musician didn’t last beyond college, but his love for sound and physical records has persisted. His philosophy for selecting albums to produce has also remained unchanged over the years.
“I celebrate a very diverse collection, and I take a lot of pride in it…I find joy in so many types of music,” he says. “I think ultimately, that’s the unofficial ethos of WarHen Records. So many labels adhere to a certain vibe, and their content is all similar to a degree. I love that WarHen over the years has turned into a weird cornucopia of all different types of music.”
If there’s a through-line in WarHen’s stable, it’s likely owed to its Charlottesville home. A good deal of the current pressings lean Americana, specifically alt country and folk. Dogwood Tales from Harrisonburg fits the bill, as does Mink’s Miracle Medicine, composed of Melissa Wright and Daniel Zezeski. “Melissa, their frontwoman, just has an unbelievable voice, and it floors me every time I hear it,” Parker says.
For the weird cornucopia part of WarHen’s roster, he points to bands like Opin, Virginia’s answer to The xx.
“They have a sound that is unlike anything I have done before,” Parker says. “I listened to their record, and it didn’t fall into any kind of subset I had heard. I wanted to do it because it was different.”
Bands come and go, but Parker says he hasn’t changed his approach since he started WarHen. He doesn’t insert himself in the music like major labels. He just wants to give bands he digs a platform. He has begun producing records himself, though, and he’ll offer his opinion on sound when asked. He works with two engineers, Rob Dobson and BJ Pendleton, “to clean things up” before transferring some digital recordings to vinyl, and Parker provides design work on albums.
In 2015, Borrowed Beams of Light frontman Adam Brock told C-VILLE, “We need WarHen…to grow and show off a town whose acts are making some great music.” WarHen released Borrowed Beams’ Do It Again last April.
By most measures, it seems Parker’s fulfilled the need Brock pointed out. Next year, the label will commemorate its 10 years in business with releases throughout the year—both from flagship artists and new acts—and unique live events.
“I’m definitely still moving forward,” Parker says. “This year by design is going to be a little slower than usual only because next year I’m planning on celebrating all year long.”
