In the heart of Champaign-Urbana, a new record label is redefining what it means to support local music. Pretzle Records, founded less than a year ago, is less about profit and more about passion — a DIY effort embedded in C-U’s dynamic and ever-evolving music scene.
The label was co-founded by musicians and bandmates Juli Sherry and Doug Hodge, who initially met when they started their band, Snack’d Out, in August 2021. After years of being in different bands, the pair felt it was time to give back to the music community and maybe even improve it.
The duo’s mission is deeply rooted in empathy. Having experience with touring, writing and producing their music, they understand just how much work goes into building a music career.
“We know how hard it is to do all of the stuff you need to do outside of writing music,” Sherry said. “That’s just one small part of it, and playing shows. There’s so much you can do that either people don’t have the capacity to do or don’t know how to start doing. So we tried to kind of build a label around helping with those extra things, like promotion and understanding how streaming works.”
Outside of the label, Sherry works remotely as the director of design operations at Worldview Studio in California. Hodge co-owns The Space, a restaurant and live-music venue in downtown Champaign. To say they stay busy would be an understatement.
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At Pretzle Records, Sherry handles most of the artist communication, promotion and organizational logistics. Hodge takes on the backend — shipping out music releases, screen-printing merch and reaching out to record stores. He believes the label was built to give artists freedom, not restriction.
“We’re not trying to control every aspect of what they’re doing,” Hodge said. “We’re letting the bands do their thing. We’re just trying to give them a platform to be able to hopefully reach more people, but also not have to worry about a lot of the logistic side.”
This approach is a response to a previous, more hidden model of the music industry — one that Hodge experienced firsthand while tour managing for bands earlier in his career. In the past, artists would sign long-winded contracts with labels that promised support but often ended in financial debt and little to no profit.
Now, he and Sherry are seeking to rewrite that script.
“So the way we model it is, we put money behind physical releases and we work it to where we just recoup our money and then the band makes the rest,” Hodge said. “We’re not trying to make money doing this, we’re just trying to really focus on helping the bands out.”
Looking ahead, Sherry envisions a future where Pretzle Records puts Central Illinois on the map.
“I want to build a catalog of artists and music so that people outside of Champaign can see and hear all of the different stuff that’s coming out of this area,” Sherry said. “So trying to bring together all of these Central Illinois places into a region, and then having people outside of the region look at us and be like, ‘Oh wow, there’s cool stuff happening here. I should be paying attention.’”
That community-inspired vision led Pretzle Records to sign 22-year-old Lys Allen, a singer-songwriter from Champaign. Allen started her songwriting journey in 2021. Her songs emit a deep sense of atmosphere and vulnerability via her textured production style.
Allen initially performed with her band under the name Taurus Hate Club, which released its debut EP in 2023 titled “Sharks in the Swimming Pool.” She now returns with new music, but using only her name.
Allen’s new single, “Angel,” dropped on April 30. It’s her and her band’s first single from her upcoming album, “Boyish,” which is set to release in August.
“We wanted it to be dreamy, experimenting with different sounds, whether that’s with synth or with different guitars,” Allen said. “We just wanted it to be super big and super powerful, but also kind of intimate.”
For Allen, making music is about freedom. Not just in her writing, but in who she is as a musician and collaborator. She hopes to write freely and unconstrained, without considering others’ opinions. Her songwriting encapsulates expression and connection, not perfection.
“I used to care a lot about whether people would like it, but I kinda want to put it out there and whoever resonates with it, that’s fine,” Allen said. “I want to make music for whoever wants it or needs it.”
