Chad Calek has been busy since his days as a student at Iowa State ended in 1998. His old band 35″ Mudder came within a stone’s throw of signing a major label record deal. He moved to Los Angles, where he started his own entertainment company, along with partner Justin Holstein, and now he can add a record label to his list of accomplishments.

Calek’s company, True Player Entertainment, has been busy from the start. The company has made two films and has done some work in music videos. Calek also manages up-and-coming bands. Recently, the company launched its own record label.

True Player Records may be the newest addition to the world of independent record labels, but it is an idea that Calek had been kicking around in his head for some time.

“35” Mudder was actually the thing that really got me into it,” Calek says. “For all intents and purposes, 35″ Mudder’s records were an indie label. We marketed ourselves to the radio and did all the promotion and distribution. I always wanted to take on a national level and one of the things I needed was some real financing behind it.”

So after finding a partner who was willing to help Calek and landing an agreement with The Syndicate, a radio promotions company in New Jersey, to be the exclusive promoter for the company, True Player Records was born. According to the 26-year-old Calek, the decision of who the first band Calek and his partners would work with wasn’t a hard one – Iowa’s own Index Case.

“They are the hardest working band that I have ever been around. I’m the band’s manager as well, and I believe in them enough that I have dedicated so much of my life for the last two years to see them succeed,” Calek says. “Personally I think that their music . as far as alternative metal, if that’s what you want to call it, is about as inventive and cutting-edge as it gets.”

This is just one of many recent developments for Index Case, as the band has been making a name for itself recently with the help of Calek and True Player Entertainment.

They had a main stage spot on this summer’s Lazerfest in Des Moines and a review of its self-produced album “Glass” in CMJ magazine. On Wednesday, Index Case will play the Roxy Theatre, a historic rock hotbed in Hollywood.

These successes should aid in True Player Record’s efforts with Index Case, but Calek isn’t stopping there. He is in serious talks with a second band and says the label will also have room for another band in early 2003.

Calek’s main goal with the label is for the company to serve as a legitimate artist development channel with major record labels. Bands out there who may believe indie labels rarely offer any advantages and that signing with a major label is their only shot at fame may be surprised with True Player Records. Calek says he and his partners will offer bands the opportunity to sell some records and maybe even make some decent money while still completely controlling their own artistic direction.

True Player will be able to distribute to most of the biggest markets in the United States, and since nearly half of the distribution will be on consignment, bands will be able to bring home more profit.

“I’m not interested in changing bands. We have A&R (artist and repertoire agents) to look at bands but we definitely will not have A&R in the studio,” Calek says. “We are totally here to support the bands and get them to that next level.”

“It’s set up where everybody wins – the label wins, the band wins. They aren’t tied down and they have financial support. It’s the way it should be,” Calek says. “The one thing I have learned from being in the business out here is that the artist truly is screwed and they should not have to be. There is no reason to try and pound and bleed every last cent out of them.”