By Zoe Walsh
“Nothing’s going to happen in a vacuum. Nobody’s going to do it for you. So just do it, right?”
So says Andy Skinner, who works alongside his wife Annie in the entertainment and entertainment marketing industry here in Indianapolis. From booking bands to selling vinyl records, the Skinners have dabbled in just about every industry possible.
It all started in the early 2000s, when Annie moved from Salt Lake City, Utah to Indianapolis, Indiana. The pair immediately bonded over their shared interests, despite coming from completely different sociocultural backgrounds.
“So immediately we bonded over having similar experiences, similar drive, similar interests and mutual hate,” jokes Andy.
It also helped that their jobs worked very well together– Andy was a concert promoter, and Annie was doing grassroots marketing for Sony Music while also working at a mom and pop records store. Andy would often book the bands, while Annie helped to promote them through listening parties, social events and more.
In 2005, the couple broke off to make their company, called A-Squared Industries. As an independently owned company, they are concert bookers, promoters, designers for outside consultants, professional DJs, a record label, and radio show hosts. Not only that, but they own Indy CD & Vinyl, the largest independent record store here in Indianapolis.
Their knowledge came with a lot of trials and tribulations. Many times, the Skinners would come up with designs and ideas for big clients, only to be not credited later. (Sometimes, not even paid!)
“But we learned from that,” says Andy. “Protecting yourself as artists and as creative minds, and how you can make that change. I mean, that’s a really important conversation, how to set boundaries and be honest with yourself and not get yourself overworked and then have somebody take the credit.”
Now, the two of them are sure to get everything in writing. Their experience, however, led them to gain knowledge. With that knowledge, the two of them realized that they wanted certain events to happen–and nobody would make that happen unless it was themselves.
Their goal was to make a fun dance party that shifted from genre to genre, letting anybody with a love for music be able to dance at these parties. Before 2010, however, that was hard-pressed to find.
“If you were a DJ, no matter what city in the US you lived in, you stayed in your lane. You were a hip hop DJ, you were an EDM DJ, you were a dubstep DJ, you were, you know, a Northern Soul DJ, and you picked your lane, and you stayed in it, you did those parties, and you played certain clubs, and those certain clubs only played a certain type of music,” Andy explains.
The Skinners wanted to change that.
“We played all types of music, as long as it was good and met the vibe. And we didn’t do it at clubs,” says Annie.
And so they did. They hosted their first dance party at a closed sandwich shop on a Tuesday night. Instantly, it was a hit. People packed into the shop, dancing on tabletops and more.
“Later, it got voted Best Dance Club for the year, which it was. It had no other events. So that’s why it was making people mad, because it was just non-traditional,” explains Annie.
Now, Andy and Annie host regular dance nights where they DJ. Spellbound is their “darkwave DJ night” hosted on the last Saturday of every month. It is open-format, so all dark-oriented sounds and songs are welcome there. It has proven to be popular, too: the dance floor is packed body to body usually.
The Skinners also occasionally host afterparties for concerts that they book bands for. Andy booked a band called The Duke Spirit in Indianapolis, and not only did the band have a great turnout for their show, but the afterparty at the Lockerbie Pub was even bigger afterwards.
“It wasn’t a dance club that you go to that it’s the same thing every week. It was something different and exciting. And the thing about that party is it brought every genre,” Annie says.
Both Andy and Annie recognize the need for unique events within Indianapolis. As a midwestern city close to Chicago, Indianapolis is usually passed over when it comes to bigger artists, bands and productions. To them, it is essential for anyone to make their own events and concerts.
“When you all decide to do that important thing, it is no less meaningful than the important thing that we did in 2007 or the important thing that we did in 2018 or the Saturdays that we make people leave their realities and come to Spellbound and forget about the world outside. You all will have those important things, because the things that are important to you are happening right now, and you might not be happy with your status quo. And that is how this all happened,” says Andy.
For all the creatives out there, make your art. Book a concert. Put on a dance party with friends. You never know how it might change your own life and settings around you.
Editor’s Note: Because Annie and Andy Skinner had so much wisdom to share during their April visit to Indiana University Indianapolis, the following is a second article on the pair from fellow “Rhythm and Revolution – Music and Social Change” scholar Lexi Spurgin:
Andy and Annie Skinner
By Lexi Spurgin
In Rhythm and Revolution, we were graced with the presence of the duo of Andy and Annie Skinner, the proud owners of Indy CD and Vinyl. The two have an extensive career in the Indianapolis music scene. Annie, a graduate of IUI’s Herron Art School, has had a career in Grass Roots music marketing with Sony, while Andy has been a prevalent music promoter in the scene for almost 20 years. The two, happily married, have a shared love for music and the way it connects people to their community, themselves, and the world around them.
The two, as of now are putting their love of music into two passions, their Broad Ripple record store, Indy CD and Vinyl, and their new dark wave dance night event, “Spellbound,” hosted monthly at White Rabbet Cabaret. Their record store, a hub for the music scene, has had artists like Mumford and Sons and Death Cab for Cutie perform in the home base of Broadripple, Indiana. Their store has made a name for itself as the largest collection of vinyl in Central Indiana, housing every genre you can imagine, even spoken word and movie soundtracks. As a part of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores, they have built themselves and their store on a foundation of community and on a passion for mutually uplifting one another in the music scene. This basis of community has been a pillar in their careers, which has spanned for decades.
Aside from their successful vinyl shop, they are also the creators of Spellbound Indy, an open-format DJ dance night in Indy. The show, which has become a platform for many diverse types of music to shine, takes place on the last Saturday of every month at the White Rabbit Cabaret in Fountain Square. Andy and Annie spoke on the early roots of the event, where Annie reminisced about how it took place in a sandwich shop, and was an odd but welcoming space for lovers of all kinds of music. Their coining of the term all wave, refers to the way they believe music is important to everyone even in the smallest interactions. Andy mused about how even a show with only ten people in the audience can bring joy and inspiration, just the same way a stadium show can. He told of the importance of how getting to minds and hearts through music is just as important no matter how popular you are as an artist. “When you all decide to do that important thing [that you are passionate about], it is no less meaningful than the important thing we did in 2000 … or that important thing that we did in 2018,” Andy says about the nature of music being transformative in an age where anyone can do it.
Andy and Annie also spoke of their self-created A-Squared Industries, an independent company aiming to promote and shine light on young actors in their genesis. And young not meaning by age — young meaning starting anew. The Skinners have had their fair share of challenges in the industry, and their company is the brainchild of their tireless efforts to uplift and promote the underdogs. With their history in music, they were tasked to reinvent the Snake Pit of the Indy 500 into what it is now, an all-about bash that has never been the same since they got their hands dirty creating the event you see today. They also, however, have seen the side of the industry that scoops up talented people like them and reaps from their hard work, awarding no benefit to the creators. This setback only provided the Skinners with a new outlook in life that made their talents and skills all the more valuable to themselves and their community.
Annie and Andy Skinner are a beacon to music lovers and music creators alike. Their unabashed look at the industry and its pitfalls has created a fresh and new type of community to bloom from their presence in the industry. They have taken their challenges and brought forth a magic in the music scene. It was an immensely huge honor to have heard from such real and unabashed people about what it takes to create change through music. The most important thing one can learn from them is that music is always alive, no matter who is listening, and it has the potential to make others come alive too.