Our Story

AU79 Records began the way most things worth keeping begin — small, personal, and without a business plan.

Isaiah Steinfeld started the label as a way to release music that connects back to his early years playing in hardcore and punk bands in Florida — the early-2000s scene around places like DIY Records in Orlando, where shows happened because someone decided they had to happen. Songs recorded fast in rooms that weren't really studios, with people who showed up because they cared about the work.

The name comes from gold's atomic number — 79 — a quiet reference to something formed under pressure and meant to last. It's also a nod to Neue Alchemy, the studio Steinfeld founded, where the same instincts run through everything: make something real, make it hold up, and don't wait for permission.

The label came online in September 2025. In less than a day the pieces were in place — distribution, site, artwork, and the first release. Vanta Noir's Through the Static arrived during a sprint between the Fast Company Innovation Festival and Riot Fest.

That speed wasn't the story. The idea was simply to remove every excuse around the work and let the music exist.

The model comes from the scene itself. People like Mike Park showed that a label could stay small, honest, and community-driven for decades. Sign bands you believe in. Help them make their records. If they outgrow the label, let them go and mean it.

That ethos runs through AU79.

Build it small. Keep it honest. Make room for other people's work.

The catalog moves between darkwave, post-punk, hardcore, and adjacent sounds. Vanta Noir opens the archive with cinematic synth-pop wrapped in punk DNA. Lyon Drive reconnects Steinfeld with Daniel Valery — a musical conversation twenty years in the making.

Some releases are collaborations. Some reconnect creative threads that stretch back decades. Others are simply songs that insisted on being finished. And some are new voices who deserved to be heard.

AU79 operates slowly and deliberately. Each release becomes part of the archive.