HomeSkillet Records is a grassroots record label with a focus on digital distribution. We have an eclectic group of artists under the label and we do whatever we can to help them achieve their goals. Our initial motto was, “Steal Our Music,” as we gave it all away for free. Then a lightbulb went off that we need to make a little bit of money to provide any kind of service at all to our musicians. Now our motto is probably something more like, “Help Feed Nova.”

HomeSkillet Records was founded in 2004 by Nicholas Galanin and George Huff. Both were going to school and living abroad when they began discussing the idea of taking what they had been experiencing in the Summers in Sitka, Alaska, and turning it into something more organized, a record label.

It was never intended to be a record label in a traditional sense, as both Nicholas and George were digitally saavy and the vision was more in line with distributing over internet than printing out CDs and touring.

In the first year Nicholas and George spent a lot of time talking about what they would like to do. Many conversations happened late at night over IM from England to New Zealand. Both having the same fondness for the community which raised them, it was only natural for the label’s home to reside in Sitka. Because of the plans to distribute over the web - the isolation from being in Sitka was looked at as incubation, and a chance for them to hone their skills with fellow HomeSkillet Records artists.

After the first Summer HSR officially had a couple of condenser microphones, a website, and a total of four artists living under the label. Silver Jackson recorded, “Meet You At 8″ for the first time in George’s parents basement and then it was put immediately on the web. We had one million downloads in the first 72 hours. And then we retired to a beach somewhere with blazing hot sun and free drinks. After waking up we found ourselves in the dead of Winter with little to no traction for the label.

HSR has always described itself as a Summertime label - due only to the fact both Nicholas and George, as well as the rest of the HSR crew were always in Sitka in the Summer, and that’s when the most momentum was captured. After the second Summer HSR added three more bluesman to the roster, all while putting out two albums Silver Jacksons “Fools and Thieves,” and “Seal it in a Box,” a compilation of the first four HSR artists.