The Strange Story of Spaghetti Records
A recording project, music archive, and fake label built around real songs, too many band names, and a small orbit of collaborators.
What It Is Now
Spaghetti Records is a Detroit-area recording universe led by songwriter, musician, and producer Ben Collins-Hamel.
It began as a fake record label created by friends—a way to give different recording projects their own identities and help listeners move from one band to the next. Over time, those projects became an archive of indie rock, singer-songwriter music, surf rock, funk, experiments, demos, and ideas that did not quite fit anywhere else.
These days, Spaghetti Records is less of a traditional label and more of a creative home base. Ben writes, records, performs, and produces most of the music, sometimes working with longtime collaborators and new musicians depending on what a song needs.
Some Spaghetti bands are active. Some are resting. Some exist mainly as recordings. All of them belong to the same strange musical family tree.
How It Started
Spaghetti Records started as an inside joke that became increasingly elaborate.
The idea was simple: instead of releasing every song under one name, different sounds could become different bands. Each project could have its own personality, visual identity, history, and corner of the website. The “label” gave those projects a way to cross-pollinate and made a scattered collection of recordings feel like one connected world.
Friends contributed performances, ideas, production, artwork, and personality along the way. As life changed, some collaborators moved on and some projects became part of the archive. The label kept evolving.
Today, Spaghetti Records is being rebuilt around the part that was always at its center: making songs, following strange ideas, and recording them with real instruments and real people.
ben collins-hamel
founder · songwriter · producer · multi-instrumentalist
Ben is the founder and primary creative engine behind Spaghetti Records. He writes, records, arranges, and produces music across many of its projects, often playing guitar, bass, keyboards, saxophone, percussion, and whatever else is within reach.
His work moves between atmospheric indie rock, groove-driven band music, singer-songwriter material, surf rock, and recordings that are harder to classify. Across the different project names, the connecting thread is a love of melody, texture, rhythm, unusual production choices, and songs that still feel human around the edges.
Ben currently fronts The Moment, the main active band within the Spaghetti Records universe, while continuing to develop older projects, new collaborations, and music under other names.
the current orbit
Spaghetti Records is a one-person creative engine with a rotating cast of trusted collaborators.
Jeff
drums · Technical Wizard · collaborator
Jeff is a drummer and recording collaborator whose musical background stretches from jazz and funk to hardcore and modern rock. He has contributed performance and technical experience to Spaghetti projects and remains part of the extended creative orbit when schedules and songs align.
Dave Bartkowiak Jr.
Bass · Songwriter · Recording Collaborator
Dave is one of Spaghetti Records’ longest-running collaborators and one of Ben’s most trusted musical partners. His bass playing brings groove, feel, and a natural sense of movement to the recordings, shaped by years of playing and writing together.
He is also an excellent songwriter, especially in the worlds of indie rock and groove lounge — the kind of music that feels relaxed on the surface but has real musical depth underneath. Dave remains part of the active recording orbit whenever a song needs low end, melodic instinct, or considerably more bass face.