Trimming The Shield Records was started in 2002 by the members of 33 Slade. They had just made their first album, The Way to Win: A True Story, and decided to put it out themselves. After that first release, Buick Audra took over and has been putting out music by projects she has a vested interest in ever since. 

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The story of our name comes from a childhood tale. There once was a pair of siblings, a ten-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy. He was given a school assignment to make a family crest that included the family's surname, photos, etc. At that age we're talking about some poster board, glue stick and glitter action. But still, school projects can be daunting, especially if you're doing them at the very last minute, which was just such the case. This young boy waited until the night before the project was due to tell his family about it. Off they all ran to the CVS to stock up on the aforementioned supplies so that he could set up shop for the night.  When they returned home, he went to work.

Two hours later, after no word from the Shield Shop, the family went in to check on the busy worker, who was fast asleep. The poster board that had started out at about eighteen by twenty-four inches had been laboriously whittled down to something closer to the size of a greeting card. It seemed that symmetry had been eluding the younger brother all night, and in an effort to harness it, he had trimmed that little shield down to nothing. The older sister then did what she had to, to protect her brother from the wrath of his second grade teacher, and made the shield. It looked as much like a seven year old had made it as she could stand for it to (she has issues with perfectionism, you see). Crisis averted. They were never found out. From that day forward, acts of procrastination would be referred to as, "trimming the shield."  

And here we are: home to a whole crew of procrastinators. Since 2002.