Former Guns N' Roses Manager Launches Arizona Record Label

By Lauren Wise Mon., Mar. 18 2013 at 4:00 AM

Categories: Metal Mondays, Metal!

Tru-B-Dor Records recording artists Storm of Perception performing at Joe's Grotto.

Usually, people move from places like the middle of nowhere to big industry cities like New York and Los Angeles to find musical success, and stay there. Not the other way around.

But for former Guns N' Roses manager Alan Niven and his wife Heather Vincent-Niven, finding solace in Arizona's godforsaken desert -- away from the music industry -- allowed them to discover the unique talent that this state has to offer, and establish a new label, Tru-B-Dor Records, to get the music in the ears of listeners all over the world.

Then again, being based in a town like Prescott, Arizona, isn't really an issue when you once helped bands like Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, and Great White rise to fame, or when Slash personally thanks you in his 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech.

Niven just knows where to find the good metal, and with Tru-B-Dor, he and Vincent-Niven are hellbent on succeeding and staying in Prescott. The town gave them their first two signings: Heavy metal act Storm of Perception, which just released Into The Sun, and bluesy rockers Chris Buck and The Big Horns, who just released Postcards From Capricorn. Both albums are already being distributed worldwide by Universal.

"The label is talent-driven, as opposed to being genre-specific," Vincent-Niven says. "We have found that there is world-class talent here, locally. Chris Buck is from Wales, but his recording band included Sedona resident Jimmy Mack, who has played with Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, and Richie Havens. Michael Thompson, the band's drummer, is also a Prescott local. Storm of Perception are all local boys, and everything was recorded at Heavenly Studios here in town."

Niven and Vincent-Niven reached out to me, to invite me to watch Storm of Perception at Club Red in Tempe.