Omaha singer-songwriter Kyle Harvey launched his own short-run record label two weeks ago with the release of his second album, “Truth Is the Color of Teeth.” Harvey will release the second Slo-Fi Records CD, the self-titled debut from Underwater Dream Machine, this Friday at the Barley Street Tavern. That show will also feature It’s True, Lisa and Bess, and the debut of a new project featuring Ben Sieff and Cass Brostad named Raven Carousel. Harvey is looking to release albums monthly from local artists that he respects and whose music “should be heard.” His third release will be songwriter Adam Hawkins project, It’s True. Harvey stated that his label’s goal is “to have each album start out with a short run, handmade music and handmade packaging. I want to get music into peoples hands. People like Brett and Adam need to have their albums put out. I want people to acknowledge Slo-Fi by thinking that we put out good music. By doing short runs it’s easy to put the money from one into the next project“.

Underwater Dream Machine at this time is singer-songwriter Brett Vovk, formerly of Lincoln rock band Good With Guns. The album is a collection of home recordings, but with enough production that one would not know it minus the purposely left-in odd stops, starts, track spacing and studio talk. It is reminiscent of some of Paul Westerberg’s later recordings where he left his studio recordings raw. Westerberg’s recordings sometimes left the listener feeling cheated or wanting more, Underwater Dream Machine eventually delivers every time. These are well-written, acoustic – sometimes experimental – and ethereal pop songs that for a relatively unknown commodity here in Omaha hold up with many of the singer-songwriters out touring the circuits. Locally I would love to see him on a bill with Landon Hedges and Jake Bellows, and as he establishes himself I could see him eventually on that level.

I dropped in at an empty Barley Street Tavern this past week as the bar was just opening the doors and I had a chat with Vovk and Harvey. The pair were on opposite sides of the bar with Harvey pouring and Vovk indulging. I asked Vovk when he started this project and why he is releasing these recordings at this time. “I never intended to release it,” he said. “I recorded this album and just gave it to some friends. People seemed to like it and it went from there. It was Kyle’s idea to put it out. He was talking about his label Slo-Fi, and even before that he had talked about it. He asked me and I was like, sure.” Harvey added: “I said it was more special than that.” Harvey was also the catalyst for Vovk starting to play out solo as well. “Kyle asked me to play one night and I just went home and threw some stuff together. It went OK and I have played the open mic (at the Barley Street Tavern) every Monday, but I have only played a couple of shows as a band.” Vovk will be playing with a band of special guests at his CD release party and then is looking to focus on forming a permanent ensemble.

I asked Vovk how it felt to go from a professional studio such as ARC where Good With Guns had just recorded to doing home recording and which was the better experience for him. “I am kind of a perfectionist,” he said. “I have my own ideas and like to be in control of things. The engineering at that studio was great, but I liked doing my own thing. I think my exact idea musically came out the best doing it myself.” Vovk claims his early-teen influences were derived mostly from hip-hop and he is probably the first artist to drop Kris Kross’s “Totally Krossed Out” album in an interview as an influence. Later he found “radio bands” such as Weezer and the Get Up Kids, and eventually artists such as Nick Drake for inspiration. I asked him which songs on his album were special to him and he answered, “The last track on the album, the music describes a dream I had. That is how I got the name, I won’t even describe it because it is weird.

“For six months I tried to figure out the song in my head to that dream.” He added, “The opening lyrics to the album ‘I wish I knew what I was doing / I wish I knew you really cared / I wish I could still feel the magic in the air.’ that sums up the theme of the album for me.”