A record label, audio service provider, multi-publisher and brand to pursue ideas or experimental ventures.
Howdy, the text you see above is for the page preview function of the website. More to the point, 12MX Media is the evolving enterprise and freeform business pursuit of Jeff Lawhead in Sevier County, TN. It’s the very professional albeit pretentious way for me to say 12MX Media is my umbrella brand for me to try my hand at a variety of things that could lead to potential profit and business opportunities.

Having resigned my job at a hiking store at age 19 in 2003, I soon joined a marketing firm in Sevier County that operated on a very customized philosophy and employment structure that was, and continues to be, unique and very friendly in the way in which working structures are relaxed and self-enterprise is encouraged while still maintaining a solid structure of business and framework for discipline. I am not a marketer by nature, the powers that be decided to make me out of an artist’s template and in my 20s I began the groundwork for making myself to be a published musician and author. These goals were met after much, much, much work and frustration, and I learned the hard way just what being an artist and author on the indie circuit meant as for my responsibilities. While I did find label people and book publisher people who had been supportive of me and my work (and continue to be with my current book publisher), the majority of my work in trying to talk with people, submit items to be included on the A&R, wait weeks for them to write back and find nothing doing for no reason did little but give me the experience I need to eventually try my hand in it myself.

After 15 years experience in marketing for the above firm (and continuing, I wouldn’t quit that job if you put a gun to my head) and 10 years doing what basically amounts to almost all the marketing and promotion for my projects and products, running alongside modern technology and tools available to the people for media promotion, I said to myself, “Well, by now I’ve practically done everything you need to do in this kind of work, I might as well just make my own label/brand.” And that’s what 12MX Media is. It’s my “official” and professional framework that will allow me to try to find entrepreneurial success the way I want to do it. Pejorative terms like “vanity label” or “glorified self-publishing” often exist in the collective mindset for what this is, but isn’t that what all business pursuits start as? These are terms I apply with pride for 12MX Media; a little stigma like that in exchange for much more freedom of creativity, goals, process and followthrough is but a small price to pay.

WHAT WE DO

“We” seems like an odd pronoun to start using after I’ve already declared how much of the operation is one Jeff Lawhead, but “we” still applies here because as the spirit of the media brand emphasizes flexibility and I cannot do everything myself. “We” accounts for everyone who has had any help in bringing 12MX Media to fruition, including my wife who is my silent partner in this venture, the marketing firm that graciously allows me some resources and their server for which to operate this website, my SFCaliber partner John Easter and those who contribute to SFCaliber, and anyone in the immediate, near or distant future I may have collaborate, employ or partner up with for the express intent of furthering 12MX Media‘s business and success.

As of May 2020, 12MX Media intends and has intent to produce music albums for a variety of genres including:

• Ambient Electronica.
• Industrial Synth.
• EDM.
• IDM.
• World Fusion (world music with electronic/ambient/rock or other genres mixed in.)
• Melodic Solo Instrument (piano pieces, classical guitar, etc.)
• Atmospheric Trip-hop (like Silent Hill or Samurai Champloo music.)
• Orchestral and Orchestral Fusion.
• Synthwave/Dreamwave/Vaporwave garbage.
• Free fan works for video game music (as in no money exchange whatsoever to honor copyrights by the original video game rights owners.)
• Niche interests like music generated on a Roland Sound Canvas or generated by 24 hard drives in unison or something weird like that.
• ???

Apart from the genres intended for (but may not necessarily appear on) the record label portion of the brand, additional services intended to be offered at this time include:

• Music composition commissions.
• Audio mixing services (no mastering).
• Sound libraries for VST plugins like Omnisphere, Kontakt, Zebra 2 or others.
• Music licensing of existing 12MX Media tracks.
• Blog writing services.
• Press release writing services.
• Manuscript editing services.
• Some consultation for artists in music or writers (in the form of brainstorming, advice, helping putting A in touch with B, perhaps other services along those lines, depending on the request).

Further things considered may include website development, indie game publishing, royalty free stock photos, video services, social media marketing and so on. If 12MX Media has the availability to produce it and do it well, it will be considered for a service. Creativity, resourcefulness, an open-minded and some cautious optimism are the foundations of our brand!

WHERE DOES THE NAME COME FROM?

12MX is short for 12 Followers/Meteo Xavier, which is the artist name I’ve been using for over a decade. It’s kind of a weird name all spelled out, it was two separate artist names I was considering using, then one day I had the grand idea of putting them together and I liked it, so it stuck as that.

12MX also works well as a title in short, so I use that as the name of the media brand here while also making it recognizably connected to my work as 12 Followers/Meteo Xavier for a variety of purposes, including accounting. See tax declaration.

 

WHAT IS SFCALIBER?

SFCaliber is a Super Nintendo/Super Famicom group that was collaborated between me and John Easter. I began the group while John does most of the actual management. It’s beginnings came from a drama-filled, complicated beginning which doesn’t need to be expanded here, but essentially it was sort of “split off” from SNESology after it had undergone two changes in management and fell into disuse. SFCaliber was created in its absence but doesn’t operate quite the same way as SNESology did.

For intents and purposes here, SFCaliber intends to release free project albums and singles (if any are submitted) that either rearrange music from the Super NES or Super Famicom, or take existing music from other games or places and rearranges them with Super NES instrument samples (further limitations like 8-channels only could be included but are not necessary). There is no money exchange whatsoever for these projects and the way only 12MX Media gets any business benefit is any potential advertising it does for the brand. Otherwise, SFCaliber is purely a fan project done for fun and art and no copyright infringement will be intended (or tolerated).

Contact Us

If you would like to get in touch with us about anything discussed on this page or in its relevant orbit, visit our contact page and fill out the form. Thank you!