MH - 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.

LCP - So, the million dollar question, what are the key things a demo has to have in order to catch your attention?

MH - 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 to check out an artist. 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 (after all this is a guy who is correcting my spelling in e-mails all the time), 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.

LCP - So when an artist catches your attention, what happens next? What is the process?

MH - 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.

LCP - Where do you normally find out about new talent?

MH - 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.

LCP - 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?

MH - 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.

LCP - !Handzup! and Turmic are indie record labels. What does a small label bring to the game that major labels can't?

MH - Flexibility is probably the most important thing. When you are 2 or 3 people at a label, then there isn't a lot of red tape involved. You are also used to dealing with fewer resources, so you are careful with your spending and each person is in some way personally involved with the artists.

MH - I have consumed many hours with this question. The simple answer is that people will not own music in the future. Everything will be streamed like having a radio with 13175118283 channels. And several of these channels will be your own - complete with DJ's and your own news broadcasts.

LCP - Lets talk about hip hop. Creative sampling has always been at the core of hip hop music, but how do you feel about the current trend of sampling old hits to easily achieve top ten positions? (I'm thinking of the Kanye West's and Black Eyed Peas of this world) Surely we should innovate, not recycle. Would you have one of your artists use this "technique" ?

MH - I heard Kanye last night at the Roskilde Festival and he opened up with "Diamonds are Forever". The audience loved it, so why would I dis that? What's wrong with doing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to achieve a top 10 hit? If one starts talking about morality in music, then we have lost the whole concept of what music is about. Music begins with silence and ends with silence. Everything in the middle is fair game. There is nothing new to sampling old hits. One of the biggest rip-off artists in music history was Rossini - and he died 138 years ago. He stole all kinds of shit from other composers of his day (and often from himself), and guess what? Who got remembered? So, let's drop all this talk about what's fair or cool or not cool and concentrate on what feels and sounds good in between the moments of silence. There are innovators and and recyclers. A visionary knows when to do what.

LCP - What are the current trends in urban signings? A new wave of rnb sensations has hit us with the likes of Mario Winans and Ne-Yo, do you therefore feel there is still space for underground hip hop?

MH - There is always space for underground hip hop as long as there are hip hop artists who are willing to reach into themselves to find out who they are and share THAT with the world rather than looking for the pot of gold.

LCP - And one last question. If you had to give one piece of advice to an emerging hip hop artist, what would it be?