When Matt Eskey founded the company just over four years ago, he knew the music business was traditionally an easy place to lose money, dignity, and faith in humanity. But with just a few credit cards and a vow to sign only bands he genuinely liked, Eskey decided to try attacking the complicated indie record market with a relatively simple game plan.

"Whatever success I've had has come down to three things: low overhead, smart spending, and honesty," asserts Eskey. "If you can be the guy that people trust to do the things they say they're going to do, then you've filled in one of the recurring voids in the music industry."

And just how much do local musicians trust Eskey? So much that he's managed to build one of the hippest and most credible wholly independent labels in Texas almost solely on handshake deals. Already, folks like the Derailers, Asylum Street Spankers, Evan Johns, Libbi Bosworth, the Loose Diamonds, Rick Broussard, and the Hollisters have pressed flesh with Eskey, and it's little surprise that a pair of artists with a history of sketchy record deals - Beaver Nelson and Prescott Curlywolf - have recently chosen Freedom for their rebound.

Eskey's philosophy is simple, "I don't want to become the 'sleazy record guy.' I just want to keep putting out records I love and make this work as a business. That's the challenge." (some material from Andy Langer, The Austin Chronicle)