Can you give us a bit of information on your background and on how you
ended up in the music business?
I have a Bachelor of Music in
Trumpet Performance from the University of Southern
California and a Master of Music in Orchestral
Conducting from Arizona State University - the basic pre
requisites for managing heavy metal and hip hop artists
(lol).
Before
I started my management agency, I was working as a symphony conductor -
but not enough, so I had to find a way to supplement my income. My
agency, Stellar Artist Management, was initially a personal management
for classical musicians, but I realized very quickly that I could never
compete with agencies that had been tied into the Swedish government for
decades, and at the same time I stumbled upon some incredibly talented
artists in the pop/rock/hip hop genres.
So, the
million dollar question, what are the key things a demo
has to have in order to catch your attention?
Instead of
beating that dead horse, I'd like to say that the
"demo", a CD recording sent to managers, labels, agents,
etc., is pretty much a dead medium. It's a lot more
interesting for my colleagues and me to check out an
artist on iTunes or MyMusic or
any number of great musician sites.
But I think
what you are probably asking is what catches my attention in a song that
I hear for the first time. It's very simple and there are two parts:
1)
the technical. The artist/s have to be able to actually play and/or
sing. My background as a trained musician helps me separate the ones who
know how to play and the ones that are faking it quite easily; and
2)
the real. I say the real because it's about getting real with yourself
and with your music. Is your ear to the ground? Do you reflect what is
going on in the world of music today or are you sitting in a vacuum
expecting people to bridge to your music without helping them connect.
Is your music original? A record company is probably not looking for a
Christina Aguilera or a Jay-Z copy. Does the music fit you? Admittedly
this is a very subjective and metaphysical question, but it's probably
the most important for me. If I look at my artist Cee-Rock "The Fury",
for example, I think "Could this guy possibly do anything else than
stand on a stage and perform hip hop? And the answer is NO. It's not
that he doesn't have the brains and talent to do other things,
it's just that he embodies what he does. And I can tell you that I had
that same feeling the first time I heard one of his tracks.
An artist
who knows him or herself is able to communicate that - I don't care what
genre they perform in. One big tip-off that they don't know themselves
is when they put all kinds of genres on their demos or sites. It's
impossible to find out who they truly are, in terms of their own
desires, if they cloud the message. It's about focusing on what makes
you tick.
So when an artist catches your attention, what happens next? What
is the process?I Usually don't sign an artist until I have
worked with them for some time. This is both good for me and the artist
because I don't want our relationship to be about what is in a contract.
I want it to be about respect. Since I am embarking on a personal
relationship, I don't want to get married until I know that we fit to
some degree. Then we get busy. It's extremely different from artist to
artist depending on where they are in their career.
Where do you normally find out about new talent?
They contact me. I don't, on principle,
contact talent because I don't want to set up a situation where their
expectation is that I have to come up with all the answers since I
contacted them. I don't have all the answers. I'm always looking for
partnerships, not artists or bands to tell what to do.
We are often told that artists are required to
have a relatively big local following and independent sales before a
label will take interest in them. Is this true?
I think that a label that doesn't follow that
advice is basically taking too great a risk. The music business,
contrary to popular opinion - by many naïve indie labels themselves - is
still a business. I realize that my view is quite unromantic, but let's
face it, if a band hasn't kicked butt and found a fan base, then why
should I or a record company? I'll make the wheel spin faster, but you
have to get it going.
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