| Shrapnel Records | |
| Parent: | Sony Music Entertainment |
| Founder: | Mike Varney |
| Distributor: | The Orchard |
| Country: | United States |
| Location: | Novato, California |
Shrapnel Records is an American record label group founded by record producer Mike Varney. The group principally uses the Shrapnel Records record label, a guitar-oriented label which features shred guitar, hard rock, metal and progressive metal. In the 1990s, he also started the Tone Center Records and Blues Bureau International sublabels to promote fusion and blues.
Blues Bureau artists include Rick Derringer, Eric Gales, Marc Ford, Chris Duarte, Leslie West and Pat Travers.
Tone Center Records grew out of Varney's admiration for the jazz fusion of the 1970s and groups such as The Tony Williams Lifetime, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, and Soft Machine. Tone Center's early releases included drummer Steve Smith and guitarists Larry Coryell, Frank Gambale, and Scott Henderson.[1]
Guitarist Marty Friedman (formerly of Megadeth and Cacophony), one of the label's most successful artists, first appeared on the album Unsung Guitar Heroes II in 1980 with the band Vixen. Vixen would later change their name to Hawaii and release the album One Nation Underground for Shrapnel. In 1981, a friend gave Mike Varney a tape featuring a 17-year-old Swedish guitarist named Yngwie Malmsteen. A year later, Malmsteen wrote to the label stating that he wanted to export his music to America. Varney, who started writing a column called "Spotlight" for Guitar Player magazine in 1982, featured Malmsteen in his February 1983 column. The record executive flew Yngwie to California and set him up with vocalist Ron Keel's new band called Steeler. Steeler's self-titled album became a best selling release for Shrapnel Records.
Blues Bureau was created as a subsidiary in 1992,[2] as an American guitar oriented, blues, and blues rock independent record label.
The label was acquired by The Orchard, subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment, in November 2015.[3]
In 1989, Mike Varney co-founded progressive rock/metal label Magna Carta Records.
Tone Center Records a jazz oriented label featuring fusion guitar as well as a number of jazz tributes.