Cassettes have become sort of a novelty in the music world. Who has cassette players nowadays?

“Some people think of them like the little plastic toys you get at McDonalds,” said Jon Samuels, co-founder of– of all things– a tape label in Ithaca, NY.

Samuels, a native of Natick, Mass., and his friend, Andrew Hunter, have been releasing tapes since March under the moniker Sweet Baby God Records up in Ithaca, NY.

The impetus for cassette tapes came after a journey to SXSW 2014. The trip started out as purely for fun, but Samuels discovered a lot more along the way.

“There were bands around South By that were selling cassettes. We talked to guys at Bufu and Burger Records and were looking up where to buy cassettes before we got back home,” said Samuels.

So when they got home, they ordered 100 cassettes for like $20, happened upon a 4-track Tascam tape recorder on Ebay, and set to work.

Their first recording was an exploration of the self.

“We asked a friend of ours to improv a sermon about Sweet Baby God. It turned into an all-night affair with improvised songs and chanting,” said Hunter.

So what is the Sweet Baby God? And what does it have to do with their logo, a crudely drawn ouroboros?

They’re glad you asked.

“The name was inspired by this artist I saw while studying abroad called Almighty God. His work was very graphic and schizophrenic–because he was,” said Samuels.

They wanted a name that had religious elements, but not seriously religious at all. That’s where the logo came in. Samuels was interested in sacred imagery at the time, so they started doodling and came up with this rough interpretation of the ouroboros: the symbol of something constantly re-creating itself.

In that sense, they don’t feel tied down to any one scene or genre. In fact, they don’t just stick to music at their label.

“There’s this magician who stands on the corner downtown all day, like seven days a week. We recorded his set to tape. It doesn’t make much sense why we made an audio recording of his performance, but we did and people seemed to like it,” said Hunter.

They’re more about the community. They said they want to provide a creative outlet for their community–wherever that community might be. For the time being, it’s in Ithaca, and their current project is a release by the punk band Lust for Cassette Store Day.

Yeah, Cassette Store Day. There’s more of these cassette-crazed people out there. This is only the second annual Cassette Store Day, but it’s a sign that there’s a burgeoning and dedicated audience for these lo-fi recordings (I guess that includes us since we released our last localz only mixtape on cassette…)

Although they’re still in the honeymoon phase of their endeavors, they offer this advice: “As for starting a new label, our advice would be that there are so many other people doing great things, it makes sense to only get involved with something you truly love spending time doing! If it’s disingenuous, people can tell and you’ll get burned.”

“Also, you’ll probably be losing money for a while (maybe indefinitely) so believe in what you do.”

You can find Lust 3 by Lust in the Burger Records store in CA for Cassette Store Day today. Here’s a taste: