Ian Wheeler grew up in North Carolina and attended the College of Charleston in sunny South Carolina. Down south, he wrote about music for various publications (Charleston City Paper, The Flagpole in Athens, GA) and studied jazz and blues origin theories. He also started managing bands in Charleston and Athens, GA when he was 20. Around 2008, Ian met Tim Putnam-- singer and principal songwriter of one of his favorite bands, The Standard, who's label had folded just as the band had finished their fifth studio LP. After much discussion of Tim's ordeal over the years, Tim and Ian made the decision to start a label-- an artist-run label. They named the label Partisan Records and in September 2008 released its first two albums— The Standard’s “Swimmer” and Holy Sons’ “Decline of the West”. At the same time, Tim had been serving as Marketing Director for The Knitting Factory. The company wanted to rebrand itself as it moved out of its Tribeca home and into Brooklyn. The Knitting Factory also had a 20 year history of putting out records by Moby, Jeff Buckley, and others. They wanted to relaunch their label division and tapped Ian and Tim as the new Co-Presidents. Tim and Ian relaunched Knitting Factory Records by reissuing the entire Fela Kuti catalogue. Today, Ian still serves as Co-President of The Knitting Factory Label Group, Owner of indie outlaw, and Co-Owner of Partisan Records. In January 2012, Ian announced Figure Eight Media, Figure Eight Publicity, and Figure Eight Management-- all of which he serves as the President of. He currently manages Deer Tick, Wye Oak, Middle Brother, Diamond Rugs, and Hundred Visions.