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I've been a punk rock fan for most of my life. Bands like Strung Out, AFI, MxPx, 7 Seconds and too many more to list have been part of the soundtrack of my life. And if you know me well, there's nearly always music on at my house.
I recently came across the book Sellout by Dan Ozzi. Absolutely phenomenal book if you're interested in the punk / emo / hardcore scene of that time and perhaps even if you're not. Everyone's path to success (or not) was different and fascinating to relive. I loved hearing the first-person accounts and references at times to shows I had attended.
Fat Wreck Chords was a major driving force in that time and although not the focus of the book there are repeated references to how its founder, Mike Burkett more commonly known as Fat Mike, approached his relationship with bands. The scene was blowing up, and he could have "sold out", but he took a different approach built on trust and providing the best possible outcomes for his bands. Something I very much admire and strive to achieve with Elevate.
What Fat Mike built and why it lasted
Fat Wreck Chords has been operating for 35 years. In an industry built to chew through artists and labels alike, that's remarkable. The bands that signed in the early 90s (Propagandhi, Lagwagon, Strung Out, and others) are still there. Not because they have to be, but because they want to be.
The reason is simple: Fat Mike structured the label so that artists don't get screwed.
Bands keep their masters. Royalty splits are transparent and genuinely fair. The contracts aren't designed to extract maximum near term value from the artists. The relationship is built to last, not to lock anyone in. If a handshake can't suffice, Fat Mike didn't want to be involved.
Fat Mike built this from inside the scene. He was in a band (NOFX). He knew exactly what artists feared from labels because he'd feared the same things. So when he built Fat Wreck, he built the label he would have wanted to sign with.
The parallel to Elevate
When I think about how Elevate approaches clients, I keep coming back to this model.
In technology services, contracts tend to be written defensively. The goal is usually to limit liability, define scope tightly enough to bill for overages, and protect the company if the relationship goes sideways. That's understandable, but it communicates something to the client before any work is done.
It says: we're prepared for this to go wrong with an undertone of we don't trust you.
Contrast that with a contract written to be genuinely fair. Clear on both sides, transparent about pricing and process, designed so the client fully owns what gets built. That contract says something different.
It says: we're here to build something together and we trust you in this journey.
The document sets the tone. And clients feel the difference immediately. We can't fully remove contracts, but if we can't shake hands and get down to business, what are we even doing here?
Three principles from the Fat Wreck model
Transparency over fine print. Fat Mike has always been open about how the economics of the label work. For Elevate, that means clear pricing, honest scoping, and no gotchas buried in the terms. Clients who understand the deal are better partners than clients who feel like they need a lawyer to decode every clause.
Ownership belongs to the client. Fat Wreck doesn't claim ownership of the music. We don't build things clients can't understand, maintain, or take elsewhere if they need to. A system that requires our permanent involvement isn't a product… it's a dependency. Real value means the client ends up stronger, not more reliant on us.
Long relationships over locked-in ones. The best engagements we've had haven't come from clients who are contractually obligated to stay. They've come from clients who got real outcomes and continue coming back. The contract should make it easy to do good work together… not hard to leave.
Why this matters more right now
In a market flooded with AI and cloud vendors making big promises, the contract is often the first honest signal a client gets about how a vendor actually operates.
If it's 40 pages of liability caps and IP grabs, that tells you something. If it's clear, fair, and actually readable, that tells you something too.
Fat Mike didn't build Fat Wreck by being the most aggressive label in the room. He built it by being the one artists could trust. The bands that signed with him in 1993 are still on the label because the relationship was worth continuing and not because they were locked in.
That's the kind of company we're building at Elevate.
Kevin Schreck is co-founder of Elevate — delivering AI, DevSecOps, and cloud solutions for federal agencies and private sector companies. Reach him at kevin@elvt.io.