Jonathan Cohen from Reuters/Billboard is reporting:

Actor and guitarist "LITTLE" STEVEN VAN ZANDT's rock 'n' roll empire is expanding yet again with a new record label, Lost Cathedral. The first project from the imprint, which will focus on hard rock, is CROWN OF THORNS' Faith, due May 14.

Lost Cathedral joins Van Zandt's garage rock label, Wicked Cool, under the banner of parent company Renegade Nation.

"We basically decided to keep Wicked Cool identifiable as a garage rock label, at least for now," said Van Zandt, a founding member of BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN'S E STREET BAND. "In the last couple of years, we've gotten a lot of hard rock things submitted to us. A lot of it is quite good -- a little bit punkier or harder rock than we do with Wicked Cool."

Starting with Crown of Thorns made sense too, because the band's frontman, Jean Beauvoir, is also the CEO of Renegade Nation.

"He does what he does every couple of years," Van Zandt said. "I said, 'You know what? It's silly not to put it out.'"

As with Wicked Cool, Lost Cathedral will focus on artist development, which Van Zandt feels is a lost art in the modern music business. "Once upon a time there was a great, collaborative effort involved in making careers," he said. "Things have gone so far toward do-it-yourself -- which frankly doesn't work -- it's hard to be capable at all of those jobs, let alone good at them."

One of the labels may prove a logical place to reissue Van Zandt's back catalog, which includes several successful solo albums from the '80s. "We're in possession of all of those," said Van Zandt, who now owns the masters. "I just haven't had time to focus on it. We actually should, because my stuff is really not very available. Maybe we'll stick it into one big boxed set."

Other Renegade Nation initiatives in the works include a TV show based on Van Zandt's popular satellite radio show Underground Garage and the rock-focused Web site Fuzztopia, which Van Zandt promises will provide "everything from how to get guitar strings at 2 a.m. in Cleveland to the hippest promoter in Oslo."