Beloved Just Wants You To Enjoy The Music
Photography by Julien Carr
Niche vinyls, artist-curated mixes, handsome merch, and a DJ residency at Cafe Mustache make up the backbone of Chicago-based project Beloved. A passion project at its core, founders Zoë Miller, Cameron Chapleau, and Matthew Chapleau are the faces behind this multipronged feat; they could really care less if you know that though.
For Beloved, uplifting music and artists are the focal point of this operation. As a micro-label, Beloved presses records they feel didn’t get their flowers the first time around. In the collection are a reissuing of Easter’s 2011 Demonstration as well as the soon-to-be released collection of The Cosmopolitan’s 1979-1980 sessions titled Party Boy. Following an “if you know, you know” ethos, what both of these records lack in mainstream name recognition is made up for in subsects of devoted fans. A zine accompanies each record, providing further insight as to what these bands were like in their prime. On top of the handpicked reissues, curated mixes are dropped weekly showcasing the tastes of both local and national talent.
In a digitized world of data mining and recommendation algorithms, Beloved is the neighborhood project making music discovery organic again. Every Friday, an hour-long mix curated by a same-day reveal guest is uploaded to their page. From established record labels to 12-year old punk-prodigies, choosing the curator of a Beloved mix is pretty carte blanche. Priority is given to those who are putting something intentional into the world, whether that be through their art or their overall mission. Through Beloved, curators are given a platform to take over the aux and show people what music has been playing through their headphones. Listeners can press play and discover hits, comforted by the knowledge that these were selected by a real person–not a code.
See Beloved spin at Cafe Mustache every third Friday and be sure to purchase tickets to their April 13th show with Devin Shaffer and Claude at the Empty Bottle here.
Are you guys from Chicago?
Cameron: Yeah, so Matthew and I are brothers. We grew up in Chicago Heights, which are the south suburbs.
Zoë: I’m suburbs too but in the northern direction. We’re all in the surrounding areas.
Matthew: Chicago-ish.
Zoë: Chicago-ish, but I think we’ve all been trying to be in Chicago since we were young.
How’d you guys meet?
All: Thalia Hall.
Cameron: [Zoë ] was working in the venue proper and [Matt and I] worked in the restaurant downstairs.
Matthew: We all knew each other for a long time and then we all worked a wedding together. That’s when we really started talking.
Zoë: The first time we ever actually spoke, we were like, “Oh… this is cool.” I think we were all just bored.
Matthew: Yeah, usually work nights would be busy so we’d see each other in passing because there’s a ton of people working in [Thalia Hall]. It was that thing where you know a person and they know you but you’re all just co-workers in this large building. There’s usually not a lot of downtime to talk, but that particular event was all downtime so you have to talk to your co-workers otherwise it’s weird. We all kind of knew we would get along; You can kind of just tell sometimes.
What’s the origin story behind Beloved?
Cameron: It seems like lifes’ long in the making. We were all always super interested in music and always wanted to do something with it.
Zoë: I think it was Cameron’s brain baby. After we all met, it was like, “Oh, we could all do this.”
Cameron: It essentially came from the first record we put out, Easter’s Demonstration. That was a project we all loved and we didn’t think anyone else would put it out.
Matthew: It was also going to be the 10-year anniversary of the record so there was a timeline where if we were going to do it, we had to do it now.
Zoë: Yeah. Sometimes when you like something, you want it physically. Like, “I want this record, but it doesn’t exist. We can do something about this.”
Matthew: We wanted to put out that record in particular, and it started a platform for us to continue releasing music and do zines. We like the aspect of having zines included with records and having those companion pieces. I also think it came from failed projects in the past as well.
Cameron: Lots of failed projects.
Matthew: Cameron and I previously had a clothing brand that…
Cameron: Was not good.
Matthew: Yeah, not good. That was not successful. But, it gave us some of the pieces to know what to do and what not to do.
Cameron: I was doing radio stuff as well. I had a YouTube Live Stream radio thing I was doing and I DJ’d for some other stations. I think we just had an ‘aha’ moment where we were like, “What if we just combine everything we like to do into one thing?”
Zoë: I think something that was big for us too was committing to consistency with this. We had to hold ourselves accountable. I think this has allowed us to gain a reliable fanbase because we’re doing it every week and not missing a beat.
Matthew: The mixes allow for continued content that is still meaningful and curated. We’ve run Instagram pages or projects in the past where it’s like, “We need to post something but we don’t have anything new so let’s just post this t-shirt for the 20th time.” Now, we only want to put out new content. With the record pressing being such a problem right now, the mixes allow us to keep [our content] both consistent and new while we wait for records to be pressed.
So as a micro label, you guys have two records that are out or soon to be out – Easter’s Demonstration, which first came out in 2011, and then the 1980 sessions from The Cosmopolitans. What about the history of these two records made you want to re-release them?
Cameron: So, the Easter one particularly was hugely influential and inspiring for Matthew and I. Easter was a project from Champaign, IL. Growing up, we were into the suburban DIY scene and this band, Easter, would play at all these shows and everyone was obsessed with them. It was during this weird era where streaming wasn't quite there yet, cassettes weren’t really a thing, and vinyl hadn’t resurged so he would just be giving his music out on CDs for free at shows. We felt that it didn’t take off as far as it could’ve. Giving people that opportunity to relisten to his project and bring it back into the spotlight was really important to us because we were obsessed.
Matthew: 10 years later, we were all still listening to the record. We knew that other people didn’t feel that way because it was niche and wasn’t being talked about at a large scale. We had a relationship with Kyle, who was Easter. After the record came out, he started having health problems so he never really went to tour or dive into the project. We wanted to revisit it and give it a new life.
Zoë: With The Cosmopolitans, we learned how much we like collaborating with specific artists. When we originally reached out to the main member and founder, Jamie Sims, the amount of information that she kept and held close to her heart about his band reminded us of how people felt about Easter. It was this huge thing for her and the people in the community in New York at the time. It made sense for us to follow in that direction. [Jamie] saved every single newspaper clipping that even mentioned The Cosmopolitans. She sent handwritten letters to us. She was just as excited about it as we were. We’ve been lucky enough to find people that are super willing to dive in as deep as we are.
You guys recently presented a 10-year anniversary show for the Easter record at the Empty Bottle. How did that go?
Cameron: It was the best time of my life.
Zoë: There’s a picture of Cameron from one of the original Easter shows where he’s crowd surfing, so I solo threw him up to crowdsurf at the Empty Bottle. I work there so my coworkers, whose job it is to stop pits and stuff, were like, “What are you doing?” I was like, “He needs this.”
Cameron: Yeah, it was really inspiring. Kyle from Easter was blown away by the turnout. This was a project that he hadn’t touched in 10 years. He had put an end to Easter once he started having health problems. Overall, he was pretty blown away. It was really cool to see everyone we knew from back in the day still screaming every single lyric to the songs. It was magic.
Zoë: So special.
Matthew: It went really well; it was a good turnout. Yeah, everyone there knew the words to the songs, so for someone who wasn’t as familiar, it must have been pretty weird seeing these 200 people know this really niche thing. [Easter’s fans] are such a pocket, and that’s what influenced us to do the show. We knew there were people that felt the same way about the project as we did.
Cameron: People were driving in from out of state to see the show and see [Kyle] play in real-time.
Zoë: We’re so lucky that our first show ended up being Easter; it was kismet that he was down to do it. We want to make sure all the stuff we do is intentional. We don’t want to put on shows just to put on shows. We want to make sure everything has a bigger purpose.
This project is a very large collaborative effort. There’s collaboration between the three of you, as well as venues, the designers for your merch, and the artists you reach out to for the mixes. What do you think has made you all successful in managing these different aspects?
Matthew: Google Drive.
Zoë: Adobe Photoshop.
Matthew: I think it helps that we all spend a lot of time together so the communication is always very clear and efficient. There’s not really a need for texts or emails when we can communicate directly with each other. It makes it easier to keep all of our ducks in a row. It also makes it easier to divvy up the work properly. Some of us do have our defined things but there’s mostly a nice break-up of work to where none of us feel overwhelmed. It flows pretty naturally at this point.
Cameron: It helps that we really want to do it. It makes it easier that we’re always talking about it.
Zoë: We've never had a beer and not spoken in depth about Beloved. The further we go with it, the more we settle into what our specific interests are. Matthew is the most insane at having his finger on the pulse and knowing which artists are coming up – he’s an outreach master. Cameron comes through with all the mixes and putting tracks together for everyone. I focus mostly on the artwork. We’ve all kind of found our niche things that we wanted to bring to the table initially and it’s all working out super well the way that we work together.
Matthew: It’s the perfect amount of people to be involved in the project. One less would be too much work for all of us; One more would be not enough.
What are you looking for in a record when you decide to reissue it?
Matthew: It starts with if we like the music a lot and if it means something to us. Right now, we’re going for an archival aspect – old things that we can either reissue or press for the first time. That’s the route we’re starting with.
Cameron: We think a cool aspect of Beloved is having the mixes be current artists or people that we like, showing what type of music they’re listening to, and marrying that with our archival record releases. The duality of the old and the new I think is really important to us. Constantly trying to show people music. We’re not musicians but we dig through archives to try to find some cool stuff that’s been put out – that’s our offering to you.
Matthew: We use different avenues to try to find people, to find contexts.
Cameron: Like messaging people on Facebook being like, “I know you don’t know me but I really like your band.”
Zoë: Or friends of their friends. We track people down. I think one of the first things Jamie from The Cosmopolitans said to us was, “How did you find me?”
Cameron: Lots of PI work. So yeah, It starts with finding releases that we personally like to listen to that we feel would work as a release as well as a zine, because the zine is a big part of it. Like, does this record and band have a story to tell?
Can you tell me about the artist-curated mixes?
Cameron: With the mix curation, it was kind of a joke at the beginning that we didn’t want DJs to do mixes for us. When we think about cool music that we find, it tends to be from our friends or a cool musician sharing a song on their Instagram story. We wanted to get people that just show us the songs they listen to as opposed to a really amazing DJ who can hit blends perfectly. We wanted to explore a different side of it that’s more honest.
Matthew: People are usually really receptive and down to do it. It’s usually pretty easy to work with artists. As we get further and further along, it becomes easier because they’re able to see what we’ve done and who we’ve worked with –which makes them feel more comfortable.
Zoë: Everyone wants to have aux. Everyone wants to be the one that’s playing the music and for people to respond like, “What the hell is this, it’s awesome!” It’s an easy grab.
Matthew: That’s kind of what it’s about. Giving artists a platform to show what they like to listen to. It tends to be mostly musicians. We do get graphic designers or visual artists or architects, but either way, it’s people who make their own work. This is a way for them to put out some content and engage with their fans and followers in a way that is as simple as showing them what they like to listen to. It’s not asking for too much work for them but it’s still fun for them to share. We try to provide a platform for these artists that we like.
How did the Urban Football League fit into the scheme of artists?
Zoë: They reached out to us.
Matthew: With Urban Football League, the idea behind the mixes from the start was that we wanted to get musicians and painters and local businesses that we liked. Early on, we had Black Rabbit Flower Shop in Pilsen do a mix. Musicians just tend to be the most receptive. When the Urban Football League reached out to us, it was exactly what we wanted our variety to include. The idea behind it is, you don’t necessarily need to be a musician to get a Beloved mix.
Zoë: I’d like a chef to do one.
With a residency at Cafe Mustache as well as sets at Punch House, you guys have spent a lot of time in front of crowds. What do you like about DJing for a live audience?
Cameron: We just like hanging out and playing music that we like. DJing in front of people is sometimes not very fun. Especially when people try to show you songs to play on their phones.
Zoë: People will come up and ask if we can play something and it’s like… look, we are playing vinyl. I do feel like we purposely, unpurposely have this air of anonymity surrounding us because we don’t necessarily want to be super in front of crowds. That’s not really in any of our drives to want to do that.
Matthew: At Cafe Mustache, it’s fun now that we’ve been doing it for so long. We like the staff, we like the people that come and care about the music.
Cameron: That one is cool because the crowd knows what type of music we’re going to play.
Zoë: I also like when people come up to the booth and ask about what’s playing. That feels awesome.
Cameron: The track ID request feels so good.
Matthew: I think we also like being able to connect with different venues and businesses. Like Cafe Mustache, Punch House, Sleeping Village. We like being able to work in any capacity with these places that we frequent and enjoy playing.
Can you recommend some songs?
Zoë: “Peaches” by The Districts. “Lose My Mind” by The Spits. “Life Park” by UV Race. “Imbalance (Rehearsal Version)” by Subway Sect.
Matthew: “All I Ever Wanted” by New Riders of The Purple Sage. “That’s How (It’s Gonna Stay)” by The Mockingbirds.
Cameron: “How I Lost My Virginity” by Spunky Onions. “Why?” by The Seize. “The World Ain’t Round, It’s Square” by The Savages.
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