About Have A Sandwich Productions




The earliest titles recorded under the Have a Sandwich Label date back to East Lansing, MI. 1985. During the formative years, from 1985 to 1991, most of the recordings were done either on a boombox or a 4-track. Many of the recordings from this era will eventually be available on this site. The name 'Have a Sandwich' was not chosen until 1991 when the studio re-located to Chicago, and the days were spent making sandwiches at Deli 38 and the nights were spent making music. It was also right around this time that two notable events took place: The studio upgraded to reel-to-reel and Peter Michael Downes and Jeff Szeremet were reunited for the first time since their days with the band Mebal Chimney back in their hometown of East Lansing in 1985 and 1986. The two worked furiously from 1991 all the way until Jeff's passing at the end of 1999; producing hundreds of songs as well as the 15-song opus The Niely Boys.

Another notable release from this era would be Food Chain's "Danke Schon Don Quixote" which went out on the Chicago compilation CD Wrong Side of the Tracks. In 1993, Have a Sandwich re-located to a 6000 sq. ft. loft space on the Chicago River in the legendary "Spice Factory" on Chicago's near south side. In 1994 the studio upgraded again and entered the digital era. The reduced cost of recording digitally allowed production to boom and soon Food Chain's Live at the Loft was coming off of the presses.

In 1995, Have a Sandwich appeared at Chicago's Independent Label Fest and networking at this event led to one of Have a Sandwich's artists, Freebus, being included in the full-length movie Vivid with his song "Movin". Beginning in October of 1996, Have a Sandwich went full-time producing music. The ability to create music round the clock allowed for a wide range of experimentation, with the material created during some of these sessions becoming the conceptual backbone for many of the label's most notable future projects; one prime example being the Mega Esophagus project which would ultimately culminate in the many successes of Kentucky Jelly several years later. Another Have a Sandwich success story would have to include God Wafer, whose run from 2002 to 2007 saw countless performances throughout the Midwest, the release of two highly acclaimed records (The Host with the Most and Music for Heathens), a glowing review from Mike O'Cull of the Illinois Entertainer, and the licensing of 3 songs from The Host with the Most by the Discovery Channel for their series Urban Explorers.

Have a Sandwich artists have also been regularly included with Richard Milne's Holiday Spectacular on WXRT which runs during the holiday season each year. Recent years have seen an expanded emphasis on experimentation with live improv, video production, and organizing the music catalog. The library now lists over 1500 titles and is growing daily. With new releases planned for 2020, and more music and videos ear-marked for posting to the site, you'll definitely want to bookmark this page and check back in with us again soon!