About Undertow

The Undertow Music Collective began in 1996 as a group of friends sharing ideas and resources. We work closely with artists we love, respect, and call our friends. Our goal is to create a friendly and productive environment for these artists to make music while keeping their integrity and artistic vision intact.

We opened our online merch store in 1998 to help our bands sell their music and shirts direct to fans. We've been able to expand our store by offering great music and exclusive merchandise at the lowest possible prices with world-class customer service. We've shipped tens of thousands of orders to people all over the world for nearly 25 years!

We started Undertow Shows in 2008 when David Bazan embarked on his first living room tour. We've since expanded our shows to include some of our favorite artists and have coordinated thousands of successful shows.

We are an independent, woman owned small business with no outside investors or corporate overlords. We are based in Champaign IL, the greatest city in the world!

Bob Andrews (he/him)
Bob grew up in Nashville and got his start in the music business in 1991 working at the historic Hewgley’s Music Shop. In 1993, he stumbled into a job as tour manager for Uncle Tupelo through a friend’s recommendation and worked with the band until their final show in 1994. Bob continued as tour manager for Wilco during the recording and touring of their debut album in 1995. In 1996, he co-founded Undertow with a few friends to create a DIY record label and artist management collective where he's been helping moderately successful artists ever since.

Jayne Ballantyne (she/her)
Jayne is a native of southern Illinois where she was involved in a number of musical and theatrical productions. She eventually moved to central Illinois to finalize her college career at Millikin University and emerged with a bachelor’s in Music Business. Starting as an Undertow intern in 2014, she has assisted on a number of projects before taking over the day-to-day management of our Living Room Show operations. In her spare time Jayne enjoys cooking, cat photos, and smashing the patriarchy.