Bonded by their shared love of music, three heartfelt party fanatics grew closer through their student-collaborated record label, Bad Apple Records.
Bad Apple Records is a student-collaborated record label that was formed and founded by two San José State alumni and one student, Victor Lopez, Ethan Sandoval and Rylan Ladion, in September 2021.
The record label was brought to life when its founders wanted to throw their own show at the arcade bar called LvL Uproar in San José, according to the LvL Uproar website.
Lopez said the idea of Bad Apple Records started off as being a cool party where they could throw a show and have their friends come, but it evolved into more.
He said he acknowledged music made him feel whole. However, he said his world was always narrow and small until an idea changed his life — Bad Apple Records.
“(Before Bad Apple Records) I was not happy with how small my world felt,” Lopez said.
Lopez said he is a transfer student from Mission College, but he was born and raised in San José.
Lopez said he felt that he was, “‘always late to everything”’ in terms of following social trends.
“I wasn’t a person that was involved with people at all,” Lopez said. “It felt like it was really lonely.”
He said he was introduced to music at a young age, but his passion grew from his teenage days in Mexico.
Lopez said in order to pass time he would turn to music to fill a void in social settings.
“I would occasionally listen to this album by Skrillex called ‘Jack Ü’ and that album really shaped the way I view the world right now,” Lopez said. “It’s very much a positive album and it’s a beautiful idiom and a collage of different genres. I attribute a lot to that album. It helped me get more in touch with music.”
Lopez said he wanted to be a better friend to people around him and positively influence everyone. He said he loved music because it made him feel better about himself.
Lopez said his ambition with music is what led him to connect with Ladion and Sandoval.
Lopez said the trio went from being a local band, to throwing parties at local venues, to entertaining audiences at venues in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
“I got to meet so many new people,” Lopez said. “My world got really big, and I got more and more into the idea of becoming more of a leader.
Before Bad Apple Records, Lopez said he never saw himself as a leader, but that changed after the label’s launch.
Ladion said that his team at Bad Apple Records instantly bonded over their shared love for music.
“I think we all just live and breathe music,” Ladion said. “I think Bad Apple was born just by me putting it together with the best people I know.”
Ladion drew his finesse with music from his time spent with SJSU’s Up & Up Festival.
Up & Up is a similar company to Bad Apple Records, except for the fact that it is a totally-student run organization. Up & Up helped Bad Apple Records shape what they wanted to do, according to the Up & Up Festival website.
Ladion said being a part of SJSU’s Up & Up was probably his first step into contributing to big events when the club was founded in 2017.
“That taught me literally everything — about promotion and about curating a festival,” Ladion said.
Ladion said Up & Up had a huge impact on the creation of Bad Apple Records.
He said the group took into account what they learned from Up & Up when they created the record company.
“We’re basically doing the same thing (as SJSU’s Up & Up SJSU), but with our own twist on it,” Ladion said.
Sandoval said his obsession with music made him unique, but it also drew him closer to Landoin and Lopez.
“(A career in music) is probably one of the coolest ideas I’ve ever heard,” Sandoval said. “It’s literally something you just dream about or don’t take seriously because it seems so far-fetched and out there.”
Sandoval said that since high school, he always had the dream of pursuing a career in music or music management, or to dive into the business-side of music.
He said when the opportunity came to help Lopez and Ladion, Sandoval jumped into it immediately.
Sandoval said when it came to building the dream from the ground up, the story of Bad Apple Records’ birth couldn’t have a more sentimental beginning.
He said their company had grown from an outlet of expression into a tool of connecting music to its audience.
Sandoval said at the same time, the company has been able to be a part of creating lasting memories for everyone around them.
“The long-term goal for Bad Apple Records is to be one of the best labels out there that everybody would love to release on,” Sandoval said. “Just to have that prestige, but also that we want to buy our own club and become a nightlife group.”
Bad Apple Records helped several collaboration partners become headliners for shows, including the Los Angeles-based electronic dance music producer CHYL, said Lopez.
ALLEYCVT, a rising electronic music producer and DJ, also collaborated with Bad Apple Records in the spring of 2023, according to the StageHoppers website and the Bad Apple Records’ Instagram.
Lopez said some of these collaborations were made before Bad Apple Records blew up on TikTok. He said ALLEYCVT and rommii have grown into having their own tours and CHYL “went into the stratosphere.”
Bad Apple Records is also affiliated with Rommii, a Mexican-American DJ, producer and artist from San Diego, according to the Insomniac website.
The record company has also worked with Josh Pan, an unorthodox creative strategist with a diverse background in marketing, music production, songwriting, composition, philosophy and visual art, according to his bio on his Still Dedicated website.
Lopez said balancing his life as a San José citizen and music-lover is difficult but rewarding. He said the members of Bad Apple Records are working 9-to-5 jobs while chasing their dreams.
“Every show I just tell the boys I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished and what we set out to do and we’re still doing it and we’re still growing,” Ladion said. “Everybody has grown so much and it’s crazy because of where we started. We put in a lot of hard work to be where we’re at right now.”
