Speaker 1: Welcome to Behind the Influence, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and TDC Media. It's funny because at the time
Speaker 1: I was so sad about it, but it ended up
Speaker 1: being one of the biggest blessings of my career. So
Speaker 1: it's like, to give somebody the wrong advice or give
Speaker 1: them false hope is actually the meanest thing I could
Speaker 1: do for them. Having a great song is so important.
Speaker 1: There's so many sides of music. There's publishing and songwriting,
Speaker 1: and then there's like the live touring side and the
Speaker 1: agents and management, so many sides to music. I'm so
Speaker 1: excited we have Aton ben Herren in the house. You
Speaker 1: are the global VP of warners Ay and our group. Hey,
Speaker 1: that's a big deal. I'm so excited to have you
Speaker 1: here today. The entire premise of the show is interviewing
Speaker 1: people who are behind the influence and are of influence.
Speaker 1: You play a huge role in the behind the scenes
Speaker 1: of the influence and actually discovering people, which is a
Speaker 1: big deal, and discovering not to anyone, but people in
Speaker 1: the music industry, which is, in my opinion, the hardest
Speaker 1: industry to break through. How do you do it all?
Speaker 1: And what do you do? And we need to get
Speaker 1: to the nitty gritty here because I've always been so
Speaker 1: confused about how the music industry works. How does one
Speaker 1: get to that position? So there's not one way of
Speaker 1: becoming an A and R. We're working at a record company.
Speaker 1: Everybody has a different journey, you know. It really was
Speaker 1: a long journey. I've made all my money off of
Speaker 1: music related stuff since I was fifteen. I've had no
Speaker 1: other job. I did a lot of different things in
Speaker 1: music to get to this place. And the interesting thing
Speaker 1: is that I didn't really plan. I just kind of
Speaker 1: followed my heart every step of the way, and it
Speaker 1: kind of like led me to this part. I think
Speaker 1: I was like ten years old. I was in the
Speaker 1: school choir, so like I got a headstart on like
Speaker 1: hearing harmonies, which actually helps you have a good voice.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's background background. Okay, okay, it's better than me.
Speaker 1: It's I'm just good for the shower. It sounds great
Speaker 1: in the shower. Shower was a good place you have
Speaker 1: good acoustics. And and then I took two as a piano,
Speaker 1: but I still wasn't obsessed with music. I was actually
Speaker 1: my life was actually ice hockey. I was obsessed with
Speaker 1: ice hockey. I was living in Miami. I remember I
Speaker 1: was at hockey camp and I left practice one day
Speaker 1: and this is like and there was I heard like
Speaker 1: Green Day basket Case playing out of like someone's convertible,
Speaker 1: and I was like, and there was not. There was
Speaker 1: nothing that sounded like that at the time, and I
Speaker 1: was like, what is this. I've never heard of this.
Speaker 1: I was obsessed with this is insane. I have to
Speaker 1: learn more about like I wanted to hear all those songs.
Speaker 1: So I bought the Dukie album. Yes, I could listen
Speaker 1: to it right now, Yeah, so good, and yeah we
Speaker 1: should play it. And my father had a like an
Speaker 1: acoustic like nylon string guitar that was just kind of
Speaker 1: collecting dust at the house. And I learned how to
Speaker 1: play every song on that album. And my fingers were
Speaker 1: almost bleeding. I remember, like it was nuts. When you
Speaker 1: first started playing guitar, it's like an awkward feeling and
Speaker 1: it hurts your fingers, so it's like they get past
Speaker 1: that like first threshold. But I remember my fingers were
Speaker 1: practically bleeding, and I learned every song on the album.
Speaker 1: I was like, obsessed, How did you learn that? Where
Speaker 1: you did someone give you. There's definitely these like tablisher
Speaker 1: things which are very easy. So it's not like reading
Speaker 1: like regular notes. It's like anybody could read it. It It
Speaker 1: kind of almost like it's looking at like a picture
Speaker 1: of like the strings and like, so it's pretty easy.
Speaker 1: And I took two only took like two months of lessons,
Speaker 1: but then learned that kind of taught myself the rest.
Speaker 1: Once I learned how to read that, I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I could just keep doing this and figure it out.
Speaker 1: But but the rest of the guys in my hockey team,
Speaker 1: we were all neighbors. They all picked up an instrument
Speaker 1: that we started a band. What so you basically like
Speaker 1: poached the entire ice hockey team to come and join
Speaker 1: your band. We were like best friends, so we kind
Speaker 1: of really all like that got exposed to it at
Speaker 1: the same time, and then started a rock band. And
Speaker 1: that turned out to be like a crazy long journey
Speaker 1: which I could write. I don't know how long this
Speaker 1: interview is, but to literally spend I could write a
Speaker 1: book about every part of my journey, but just the
Speaker 1: band stories like insane. About two years in I had
Speaker 1: to lift for college, took a break from the band,
Speaker 1: and ended up producing. Well, I got exposed to dance music,
Speaker 1: so I became like obsessed with dance music, bought a
Speaker 1: drum machine, brought turntable, started producing, and uh, I was
Speaker 1: djaying locally at a bunch of places. Where were you
Speaker 1: at the time. I moved to Orlando for college, so
Speaker 1: it was in Orlando. So did you make your way
Speaker 1: to Miami where a lot of the electronic music was Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually I played Ultra Music festival like three or
Speaker 1: four years in a row. I was a DJ, and
Speaker 1: I had developed a following in that scene at the time,
Speaker 1: and uh, and I was also getting learning how to
Speaker 1: produce and DJ and all that I was. I d
Speaker 1: on air two at the at the local station and
Speaker 1: a couple of venues. And what I started doing also
Speaker 1: for extra money. I started throwing events downtown, so I
Speaker 1: would book local talent and like DJs and like collect
Speaker 1: the door money. So I was doing like everything, and
Speaker 1: then the band gets back together. So at one point
Speaker 1: I was djaying, I was in the band, and I
Speaker 1: was throwing events downtown. I remember we'd be on tour
Speaker 1: and I would call I would make calls back home
Speaker 1: and there was somebody collecting door money for me and
Speaker 1: like flying the DJs in between like shows. I would
Speaker 1: like in between cities, I would make calls. That is
Speaker 1: the definition of a hustler people. And you're in Miami,
Speaker 1: so it just makes it even better. I went to
Speaker 1: college in Miami, so I'm just like picturing you a
Speaker 1: mentor like bead that happened and we were play We
Speaker 1: did like warp tours, simple plan tours. The whole thing.
Speaker 1: I was writing songs that didn't always fit the band,
Speaker 1: so I I it was like pop pop songs. I
Speaker 1: started producing for other artists and ironically, I so I
Speaker 1: sold my first song as a producer to Mike Karen
Speaker 1: at Atlantic Records. At the time, that's who ended up
Speaker 1: like years later, I would end up hiring me to
Speaker 1: do a hard so I told him he was at
Speaker 1: the time, he was the vice president of an art
Speaker 1: Atlantic Records. I started this production team called the Agency,
Speaker 1: and that was like our first The first thing that
Speaker 1: we sold was like it is like two thousand six
Speaker 1: and then I had money saved up and I was
Speaker 1: doing a bunch of songwriting for local people and Mudy
Speaker 1: saved up Max all my credit cards. Took a big risk.
Speaker 1: What became like the most popular studio in that region,
Speaker 1: which is called Plush. It's called Plush Recording Studios. That's
Speaker 1: kind of that's when things started picking up. Whenever the
Speaker 1: studio wasn't booked, I would either be writing or I
Speaker 1: started signing local producers and writers to management, letting them
Speaker 1: use the rooms when it wasn't active. But but in
Speaker 1: the studio, and we had all types of anybody that
Speaker 1: would come through Orlando, Chris Brown and Flow Rider and
Speaker 1: DJ Khalid and like like all it was like a
Speaker 1: constant flow of people. I was making great contact. I
Speaker 1: was I was leveraging the studio locally for different things.
Speaker 1: How the stars aligned there is insane to me. And
Speaker 1: you still have all these other things still going on.
Speaker 1: You still have your band, I'm assuming you still have
Speaker 1: your music that you're creating. You're still booking clubs and
Speaker 1: shows and all these things. But it's just one of you.
Speaker 1: How did one sleep or eat during all this time?
Speaker 1: Did you not? It was kissed, but it was definitely chaos.
Speaker 1: But when you do what you love, it's like fun
Speaker 1: and it doesn't feel like work. You know. The other
Speaker 1: thing that a lot of people say in your position,
Speaker 1: who have been very successful. Ultimately, they literally dumped out
Speaker 1: every penny from their bank account or max out their
Speaker 1: cards to make it. Like we were talking to the
Speaker 1: under of Patreon, Jack Conti, and he was saying he
Speaker 1: literally max out his credit cards, like didn't have rent
Speaker 1: money and just went for it. I feel like that's
Speaker 1: when you know it's in your heart and you really
Speaker 1: want to do it. Because if it's a if it's
Speaker 1: a maybe I don't know, should I, you don't do it.
Speaker 1: If it's a full body yes, I have to do this,
Speaker 1: you have to do it. Yes. But to add to that,
Speaker 1: I always say, you have to be realistic, right like
Speaker 1: if I had just done my band, I would fell
Speaker 1: on my face if I had just done DJA, if
Speaker 1: I had just you know, done it. So it was
Speaker 1: because I did everything, like I had a side hustle.
Speaker 1: Basically I advised everyone, whether it's music, side hustle or not,
Speaker 1: to get some kind of side hustle because then you
Speaker 1: have a timeline like if I don't make it by
Speaker 1: this amount of time, I still have this, then I'm yeah.
Speaker 1: Or if you have a sidehusse, so you don't have
Speaker 1: the timeline right exactly, because you don't care. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: not like, oh my god, I'm gonna, you know, be
Speaker 1: out on the street like I have, I have something
Speaker 1: I can continue because you don't know when things are
Speaker 1: gonna connect, you know, so at least it gives you,
Speaker 1: like the longevity. I believe that you always have to
Speaker 1: have a side hustle, Like I would never just do
Speaker 1: one thing. I don't do just one thing, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, because you never know, and you don't
Speaker 1: want to just be fall in your face like you
Speaker 1: said exactly. So that's kind of what what what I
Speaker 1: guess it was for me. It was like I was
Speaker 1: doing things I loved, but I definitely had to do
Speaker 1: Like I mean, even the throwing the events downtown, Like
Speaker 1: you fly in the big Act. You spend all this
Speaker 1: money and then it rains and nobody wants to go
Speaker 1: to and nobody wants to go out. It's like torrential
Speaker 1: downpours and you lose money. And I was like, man,
Speaker 1: it's so it's like there it was a lot of
Speaker 1: ups and downs. It was. It was definitely stressful and
Speaker 1: but fun at the same time. And then there was
Speaker 1: this one artist I found and developed and signed to
Speaker 1: a management deal and put out this song that I
Speaker 1: wrote and produced as well, so and the whole thing
Speaker 1: went viral. Who was the artist? It was just it
Speaker 1: was a YouTube thing grow Avery at the time, kind
Speaker 1: of like a young like Avril type, and she went viral.
Speaker 1: It went viral. There was a big beating war. Everybody
Speaker 1: was like trying to sign her. Um we did, ah
Speaker 1: if we did a deal with a Universal Motown at
Speaker 1: the time, Sylvia Rowning and Chris and day Um at
Speaker 1: Universal Motown and uh, shout out to them. They gave
Speaker 1: me a shot as a young manager. Shout out to
Speaker 1: people who give others a chance. Really for real, is
Speaker 1: that's what it's all about. Yeah, I got a check,
Speaker 1: moved to l A, hired someone to run my studio
Speaker 1: in Florida, which I still have to this day. Insane
Speaker 1: um But but that's what got me to l A.
Speaker 1: We were working on that album for about eight months
Speaker 1: and I was writing with all like a lot of
Speaker 1: local writers and producers. It's funny, a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't realize, you know. Now they look at me, you know,
Speaker 1: they they say, oh, that's a that's the A R guy.
Speaker 1: But at the time I made a lot of the
Speaker 1: writers and producers as a co writer or co producer
Speaker 1: with them in the room. So it was a really
Speaker 1: cool way to meet a lot of the writing community
Speaker 1: at the time. What ended up happened eight months later Motown,
Speaker 1: before we were about to go to Radio Universal, had
Speaker 1: this whole restructuring, so a bunch of artists got dropped
Speaker 1: and everything kind of shifted with that, and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: what do I do now. I spent two and a
Speaker 1: half years on this project. I'm in l A. And
Speaker 1: right around that time, Mike Karen, who bought the first
Speaker 1: beat from me, became global president of an R for
Speaker 1: War and Music Group, so and he he's like, do
Speaker 1: you want to try an R And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's let's do like like a trial thing. And thank god,
Speaker 1: it was like the dots connected. My first hit was
Speaker 1: talk Dirty or Jason, I mean, come on your whole
Speaker 1: journey just sounds like the stars were aligning the entire time,
Speaker 1: and the universe was like, Okay, Tom, this is what
Speaker 1: you're gonna do. But first you're gonna do this band,
Speaker 1: Then you guys are gonna take a break, then you're
Speaker 1: gonna do this. Then there's gonna be a trench led
Speaker 1: downpour at your thing. You're gonna lose a hundred K.
Speaker 1: But it's okay because in the end everything worked out.
Speaker 1: I mean I think that you know, you know what
Speaker 1: it is. It's it's uh. I'm actually I learned so
Speaker 1: much from from the journey. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 1: I always say, if I didn't do this part, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't know this. If I didn't if I if I
Speaker 1: didn't like have this issue with a tour guy, you know,
Speaker 1: at this venue, I wouldn't know how to give my
Speaker 1: artist this kind of advice and and everything because kind
Speaker 1: of you connect the dots and it makes me, you know,
Speaker 1: the best I could be at this job now, which
Speaker 1: is exciting. But I also learned that, like you know,
Speaker 1: I used to get bent out of shape, you know
Speaker 1: about over stuff when like I mean, I I skipped
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. But like I actually got kicked
Speaker 1: out of my band when I was you know, I
Speaker 1: think it was I think it was eighteen. I was
Speaker 1: seventeen or eighteen at the time, and for me, that
Speaker 1: was my life at the time. And I was, so,
Speaker 1: why did they kick you out because you weren't giving
Speaker 1: it enough attention? That's a whole other story. But we
Speaker 1: don't get into I mean we we we added a
Speaker 1: new band member, I had to leave town at the
Speaker 1: same time, and then like when I came back, they
Speaker 1: had been practicing. It was a whole long story. But
Speaker 1: but but but I love them and I forget. Did
Speaker 1: you feel replaced? I felt, yeah, I felt really hurt.
Speaker 1: I was really saying. I knew that we were adding
Speaker 1: a bandman, but I didn't new that I was being replaced.
Speaker 1: And I don't think that was the plan. But when
Speaker 1: I left town for two weeks, my family happened in
Speaker 1: a book, a vacation strategically like right at the same time.
Speaker 1: You know, it was okay, But I think that's a
Speaker 1: part of the stars aligning. Yeah, honestly, it's funny because
Speaker 1: at the time I was so sad about it, but
Speaker 1: it ended up being one of the biggest blessings of
Speaker 1: my career. That's how I wouldn't have known that, because
Speaker 1: if I didn't, that didn't happen. I wouldn't have gone
Speaker 1: on to learn how to produce and buy a drum
Speaker 1: machine and get exposed to dance music and get exposed
Speaker 1: to the other side. I was. I was my world
Speaker 1: was that band that was everything. So it really but
Speaker 1: but but that's just one story. But I have a
Speaker 1: ton of stories like that where like I thought something was,
Speaker 1: you know, bad, and it turned out to be good.
Speaker 1: Or it's just like I just learned to trust God
Speaker 1: and trust that process. I was just about to get
Speaker 1: a little God on you, but you said God, So
Speaker 1: I'm want to say God. I have this picture. It's
Speaker 1: my favorite in the world. Every time I lose something
Speaker 1: that I wanted, like whether it was an opportunity or whatever,
Speaker 1: there's this image of this little girl like reaching out
Speaker 1: to God being like, but God, I wanted, and he's
Speaker 1: holding a really tiny teddy bear and he's taking it
Speaker 1: away from her, but behind his back is a huge
Speaker 1: teddy bear. So it's basically saying like she's really wanting
Speaker 1: that little tiny teddy bear, but the big one behind
Speaker 1: the back is like just wait, it's coming. And it's
Speaker 1: like this image I always look at when something goes wrong,
Speaker 1: or if I think something's supposed to be one way
Speaker 1: but then it turns out the other. I just trust
Speaker 1: God and I'm like, you know what, I'm leaving it
Speaker 1: up to you. I know You've got big things plan
Speaker 1: I'll just sit back and just let let things happen.
Speaker 1: You are now and so many like even me listening
Speaker 1: to your story. The A and Our person you met
Speaker 1: before when you're in Florida, and then and then the
Speaker 1: global in our president is now somebody you know and
Speaker 1: he's giving you a chance. It's like so many amazing
Speaker 1: opportunities for you that I don't want to say fell
Speaker 1: into your lap because you worked hard for those. I mean,
Speaker 1: every relationship you made along the way. The hustle, those
Speaker 1: connections are why you are where you are, And I
Speaker 1: think people forget you can't just be talented and be like, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm good at this job, like you have to. You
Speaker 1: have to hustle and prove it. So for people who
Speaker 1: aren't familiar about how A and Our works back in
Speaker 1: the day, probably just sending in a cassette of your
Speaker 1: favorite song or whatever. How is it today with digital
Speaker 1: and social media and I mean you can literally go
Speaker 1: on SoundCloud or Spotify probably find the next big thing.
Speaker 1: Are people actually submitting things still or how does that work?
Speaker 1: So I get about a hundred songs a day to
Speaker 1: my email from all over the world from managers, producers, writers, artists, publishers, attorneys, agents.
Speaker 1: It's like hundred songs a day and about four to
Speaker 1: emails a day. How many do you listen to? Listen to?
Speaker 1: As many as I can? Do you have someone else
Speaker 1: help you? Like, yes, I have to have a team
Speaker 1: of six under me and amazing team shout out to them.
Speaker 1: But but but I listened to as much as I
Speaker 1: can by myself. And whatever. Like a lot of the
Speaker 1: unsolicited stuff, I'll send it to one of my trusted
Speaker 1: years and if they love it, they'll send it back
Speaker 1: to me. And but everything gets listened to, And I
Speaker 1: mean there's a whole I can tell you a lot
Speaker 1: about how I listen to the stuff, but I'll say
Speaker 1: quickly that they're probably the most important. Well, the course
Speaker 1: is the most important part of the song. So if
Speaker 1: it's a song I skipped to the if it's just
Speaker 1: gonna ask, do you listen to the first like ten
Speaker 1: seconds or do you kind of up there out the
Speaker 1: song is structured the right way, The course should come
Speaker 1: in no later than forty five seconds. Think past that
Speaker 1: is too long of a wait, So I try to
Speaker 1: find the chorus. Pro tip guys, if you are going
Speaker 1: to submit a song, to aton make it hot before seconds,
Speaker 1: or he's not listening, so I'll try to skip to
Speaker 1: the chorus. I'll find that I hear the course. If
Speaker 1: the course is great, then I go back and hear
Speaker 1: the whole song. But I also get a lot of instrumentals,
Speaker 1: so like because a lot of the stuff we also
Speaker 1: put songs together. I can't always count on somebody sending
Speaker 1: me a hit song, so we're pretty proactive. A lot
Speaker 1: of us, most of us come from musical background, and
Speaker 1: on my floor, I have studios and we have constant
Speaker 1: writing sessions, and uh, it's a lot of it is
Speaker 1: putting the right people in the room. But so I mean,
Speaker 1: we we sign, so obviously we look for new people
Speaker 1: to sign, but we only signed a certain amount of
Speaker 1: things per year. But most of my time is actually
Speaker 1: spent either putting songs together from my current artists or
Speaker 1: in the studio with them, guiding them into the recording process,
Speaker 1: or basically, like I mean, there's there's just like the
Speaker 1: two sides of any arts. There's a discovery side where
Speaker 1: you're kind of scouting news new talent, and then there's
Speaker 1: the record making side. So so you have to actually
Speaker 1: follow up and develop that. Yes, I mean the most
Speaker 1: important thing is hits, you know, and every and every
Speaker 1: artist has a different has different needs for that. Some
Speaker 1: of them are better songwriters than others, just totally different
Speaker 1: talent to writing a hit song and being an artist.
Speaker 1: And uh oh that's a that's a good one liner. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's so true though, So explain that a little further
Speaker 1: for us. The only specific people that could be artists
Speaker 1: they have the voice that that unique and specials and
Speaker 1: that they have the drive and because I mean, it's
Speaker 1: seven thing being arts, especially if you succeed, it's literally
Speaker 1: like you have no life. It's like so much work,
Speaker 1: so many things. You have to love it and be
Speaker 1: able to deliver on all that stuff. And songwriting is
Speaker 1: a whole other thing. There's there's artists that are superstars,
Speaker 1: but they can't write a hit song on their own,
Speaker 1: you know they need is it because they expect others
Speaker 1: to do it for them or they just don't know?
Speaker 1: I mean, they all of them, you know, they love music,
Speaker 1: All these the ones I work with, most of them
Speaker 1: try their best, and some of them do write hits.
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of them write write their own hits.
Speaker 1: And but but but but the smart ones also know
Speaker 1: that even if you write your own hits, Like let's
Speaker 1: say you have a hit song, it's exploding the first
Speaker 1: thing you do, you're going out to promote it, you're touring,
Speaker 1: you need to follow up, so you you can't even
Speaker 1: physically be you know, sometimes it takes, like, you know,
Speaker 1: even the best writers in the world, like ninety percent
Speaker 1: of the time they go into studio, they're not writing
Speaker 1: a hit. It's like it's like if it was so easy,
Speaker 1: then everybody would just have like, you know, not stuff
Speaker 1: if you're constant. So so sometimes it takes a couple
Speaker 1: of months in the studio to find the one record,
Speaker 1: you know. So the artists sometimes, if I mean so
Speaker 1: it's different each time. It's not like a set amount
Speaker 1: of time, but you can't know when it's going to come.
Speaker 1: So so if they're promoting a song or on tour
Speaker 1: and they don't have as much time to spend, so
Speaker 1: sometimes they need more support, even though they're amazing writers
Speaker 1: or producers. So so it just kind of like every
Speaker 1: every project has different needs. So I just kind of
Speaker 1: try to care to each artists and what they need
Speaker 1: and always respect also what they're passionate about and try
Speaker 1: to support their visions as best I can. And you
Speaker 1: know it's it's mainly also about that too. You have
Speaker 1: to kind of find a happy medium between finding a
Speaker 1: great song and also supporting the artist vision and their passion. Okay,
Speaker 1: so talk me through this. I submit my song to you.
Speaker 1: It goes to your email just so people know how
Speaker 1: it works, and maybe maybe one day they'll reach out
Speaker 1: to you because we are wanting to inspire, right, It's
Speaker 1: all about that. Sending you an email with the song,
Speaker 1: make sure the song is popping before forty five seconds.
Speaker 1: And then you find something you like. After you find
Speaker 1: something you like, what do you do with it? Do
Speaker 1: you reach out, your team reaches out for a meeting?
Speaker 1: How does that work? Well, Before we even get to that,
Speaker 1: I'll say one thing I'll say is a lot of artists.
Speaker 1: There's so many people with good voices. If it's an
Speaker 1: on the if it's a new artist, so many people
Speaker 1: as good voices, so many talented people. But I think
Speaker 1: the one thing that really will get like someone's like
Speaker 1: my attention, at least on the A and R side,
Speaker 1: is like also having a great song with that, because
Speaker 1: that's actually what separates you from like another artist is
Speaker 1: just doing a bunch of covers, a YouTube things. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of those types of artists. A lot of
Speaker 1: the signings are based also around having a because the
Speaker 1: song also kind of also sets the direction for the project,
Speaker 1: and you could spend like I could sign an artist
Speaker 1: that doesn't have that song, and that could find them
Speaker 1: a song and they're not they don't love the song,
Speaker 1: or they're not they're the eye to eye, or they
Speaker 1: could spend two years in the studio trying to get
Speaker 1: the song, they don't get the song, or they get
Speaker 1: the song and they have to start from scratch because
Speaker 1: the direction is totally different. So having a great song
Speaker 1: is so important, So that that's definitely one tip I'll
Speaker 1: say too, like that's a really big part of the
Speaker 1: process because there are like a lot of I didn't
Speaker 1: realize until the day and are really how much talent
Speaker 1: there is. I mean, there's so much, especially here. I
Speaker 1: mean I go to a hotel cafe and I'm like, what,
Speaker 1: why is this person not famous? And I've interviewed so
Speaker 1: many artists in l A. When I'm back in the day,
Speaker 1: I would only do music for a different platform, and
Speaker 1: I would interview these people and we'd go to their
Speaker 1: music video shoots and they were here from London, in
Speaker 1: or wherever, and then I wouldn't hear from them ever again,
Speaker 1: Like they would be gone because the label. I don't
Speaker 1: know what happened, But I want to get into that
Speaker 1: with you actually, about how that works with labels and
Speaker 1: signing people who think they're all of a sudden gonna
Speaker 1: blow up and then they don't, and then they go home.
Speaker 1: I do want to talk about that. But to close
Speaker 1: this conversation off about the n R. You find the
Speaker 1: person you like, you reach out Obviously, I'm sure you
Speaker 1: do your diligence and research or Instagram and do all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff before you set up the meeting.
Speaker 1: Is that a part of it? Definitely check out as
Speaker 1: much as I can before, not just to save my
Speaker 1: time or to save their time. Yeah, is social media
Speaker 1: important to you? I mean, if you found someone with
Speaker 1: two followers versus five million, are you going to go
Speaker 1: to the five million or the two that's a better artists? Well?
Speaker 1: Before that, I'm like, who has the better music? Right?
Speaker 1: I would rather sign someone has the better music without
Speaker 1: any followers and sign someone has a bunch of followers,
Speaker 1: but no music unless I could there's a song that
Speaker 1: there's that that we find that I have to happen
Speaker 1: to have that could work for them or on file
Speaker 1: or But but I really think the music always leads
Speaker 1: the conversation. That's refreshing to hear because I think in
Speaker 1: a lot of industries that's not the case. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: And when you do find the person you're convinced that
Speaker 1: that is some of that you want on the label,
Speaker 1: do you then pass them over or you're developing them?
Speaker 1: But then what happens to the artists they go through
Speaker 1: all their deal stuff? Yeah, I mean, I mean I
Speaker 1: like to just get to work first and like like
Speaker 1: are they your artists at that point? Um, it's sometimes yes.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I just like to also get some vibe with
Speaker 1: them in the studio and see if we have a
Speaker 1: good like mystery and stuff, because it's not about like
Speaker 1: signing a quick deal. It's about like building something and
Speaker 1: like you know, do you guys work together, do you
Speaker 1: mesh together? Do your visions align? Like? So I like
Speaker 1: to kind of then get to know them, do some
Speaker 1: time in the studio and see what what how they work,
Speaker 1: how their workflow is and how the processes and but
Speaker 1: but yeah, if we feel everything, if we love it,
Speaker 1: then yeah, I mean I have also a cool position
Speaker 1: because I'm Warner Music Group is actually the parent company too,
Speaker 1: So so, uh, we have Atlantic Records, we have Warner Records,
Speaker 1: we have Parlophone, Electra, Big Beat, APG, we have a
Speaker 1: bunch of companies. So cool thing about my job is,
Speaker 1: you know, my team kind of sitsum in the middle,
Speaker 1: so we're able to sign stuff to any of the companies.
Speaker 1: Oh that's nice, it's very amazing. So you can actually
Speaker 1: say this will probably make most sense over here, exactly,
Speaker 1: that's great, exactly. Or I can send it to a
Speaker 1: couple of the companies and see who's who sees the
Speaker 1: same vision and and so some of the stuff I
Speaker 1: I signed directly to Atlantic, some of the stuff I
Speaker 1: signed with the APG with my parents company. It's different
Speaker 1: every time, which is awesome. So that's part of what
Speaker 1: I love is that we have a lot of options.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, so so that that's kind of
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Is there a certain artists that you're super
Speaker 1: excited about right now up and coming that you're working with.
Speaker 1: I would love to hear. You don't feel like I'm cool.
Speaker 1: You're not allowed to say, you know, I'm sure I'm
Speaker 1: allowed to say. I mean, I'm just I'm in my head, like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, they're all your children. I'm so excited that,
Speaker 1: like I don't know who to talk about first. I
Speaker 1: mean the newest signing for me. That that that that
Speaker 1: is just like, actually, I'm not I don't even think
Speaker 1: it's a public signing, so I can't even it's not
Speaker 1: even publicly announced. But there's someone I'm very excited about.
Speaker 1: That man in you'll tell me after the show, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you, and then I'll just like edit it in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I just actually came from having breakfast with Fosia.
Speaker 1: It's spelled f A o U c i A. She
Speaker 1: is a maniac, like in a good sign Her voice, Yeah,
Speaker 1: her voice is publicly her project. Her voice is insane.
Speaker 1: It's uh, I don't even know how to describe it.
Speaker 1: It's probably one of the best voices I've ever heard. Well,
Speaker 1: how about this. Right after you say it's one of
Speaker 1: the best voices I've ever heard, I'm going to cut
Speaker 1: in a little bit of her song. Does that sound good? Okay?
Speaker 1: It's gonna roll right now. Um angel so mean. I'd
Speaker 1: take it all and I will never give it. I
Speaker 1: don't feel sorry if it's almost see you gros every
Speaker 1: sun start, I'm waiting for yours used to dry. I
Speaker 1: don't really care and done ever will That's the way.
Speaker 1: I am such a fear pill. I don't really care
Speaker 1: how my silence skills that schoolway I am. No. I
Speaker 1: was in going out, I was I was like this, No,
Speaker 1: why do you break me? No, now I blame I
Speaker 1: wasn't with all these and many like, can't blame. I'm
Speaker 1: the nightmare. I know what you mean by that was amazing.
Speaker 1: She's actually really super sweet and humble and loves to
Speaker 1: uh and she's a fantastic songwriter. She's I think, wow,
Speaker 1: they're all so young now, all the like up and
Speaker 1: coming hot artists are so young. Should people throw in
Speaker 1: the towel if they're like thirty and really want to
Speaker 1: do do the thing? I think it depends on on
Speaker 1: the obviously that it is an advantage to having younger
Speaker 1: But but but but I mean, there's there's no like
Speaker 1: right or wrong, and every project is totally different. If
Speaker 1: you're doing like not now that there's like but if
Speaker 1: you're doing like straight pop, I think being thirty years
Speaker 1: old is a lot differently. But I get what you're saying,
Speaker 1: because you're not gonna want. Pop has a look, it
Speaker 1: has a vibe you're not gonna want And it's not agism.
Speaker 1: It's just the reality of it. And I also assume
Speaker 1: some of it has to do if you want the
Speaker 1: artists to be around for a while and not just
Speaker 1: be like, I give up, I want to have kids
Speaker 1: now I'm over it, right, any other artists you want
Speaker 1: to plug, Um, I'm here for you. Well, I'm just
Speaker 1: excited about this this Gatlantis faith song we just put
Speaker 1: out with Dolly Pardon. Did you see that? We actually
Speaker 1: we got this guy speaking of somebody who shout out
Speaker 1: to Saints. On my Team is an incredible in our
Speaker 1: on my on my team. He put together this this
Speaker 1: faith record for Dolly Parton. Um and well, Galantis is
Speaker 1: the act about one of our artists. He actually managed
Speaker 1: to get Dolly Parton on the song. They're they're actually
Speaker 1: doing a whole story about it. But but, but the
Speaker 1: songs are doing incredible. Let's tell a little bit that
Speaker 1: song magic, what awesome I gotta get one more. Shout
Speaker 1: get one more shout out in Alec Benjamin, Alec Benjamin
Speaker 1: his guy. Yes, I love Alex So alex is when
Speaker 1: you know, this is why it's hard. I have like
Speaker 1: I know it's hard. You could do this for twenty minutes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Alec Benjamin has another artist I signed that I
Speaker 1: love and uh mi guy my dear friend of my
Speaker 1: Miles Beard. Also he's you know APG, but we work
Speaker 1: on it together. But he's he's Alec is incredible. He
Speaker 1: had to let me Down Slowly song. I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: heard it. Yeah, yeah, he's he's on fire. So shout
Speaker 1: out Alec and he's playing to cella. Oh yes, he's
Speaker 1: about to put on a new album and yeah he's
Speaker 1: a new tour announcement. It's it's exciting. And if you
Speaker 1: guys haven't heard from him, here's a quick little clip
Speaker 1: of Alec your boy a little symphasio. You can show
Speaker 1: me if you want to go, then if you leave baby,
Speaker 1: let me down slowly, let me, don't don't let me,
Speaker 1: don't don't let me, don't don't let me, don't let
Speaker 1: me do if you want to go, then if you
Speaker 1: leave them let me done slowly. Oh, I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about international music. This is a selfish question.
Speaker 1: I have a cousin who has an incredible voice. We're
Speaker 1: Armenian and so he sings at all the you know,
Speaker 1: big Armenian events. He's a great voice, he's a great
Speaker 1: edgy look. And I know a lot of people in
Speaker 1: the music industry and I'm trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to help navigate where he should go and what he
Speaker 1: should do. It is the move to put a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff on Spotify. Is the move to I don't
Speaker 1: know what to say. If you send me the records,
Speaker 1: I could tell you what the move is. Oh, do
Speaker 1: you see what happens when you know aton you get
Speaker 1: to directly. I'm not even gonna send it to you.
Speaker 1: I'm physically gonna, like do old school c D. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna burn it on the CD and I would be like,
Speaker 1: this is my cousin, Chris, that's what we're gonna meet,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna listen to that on a discmand just
Speaker 1: so it can be really official, you know what I
Speaker 1: think about all the time, like back then and at
Speaker 1: that era, CDs and cassettes and all that, like I
Speaker 1: mean A and R back then was so different because
Speaker 1: now I sit by a computer and I can hear
Speaker 1: thirty songs in like twenty minutes because click Back then,
Speaker 1: I mean I would have to go out every night
Speaker 1: of the week to hear to hear bands and and
Speaker 1: do you still do that though, just to be like
Speaker 1: a little I do for obviously I go out to
Speaker 1: stuff for fun. But but if it's for like to
Speaker 1: find something, you're not out there searching. I mean, you
Speaker 1: don't have to search. Well, well, the thing is like
Speaker 1: I could sit there for three hours and hear three
Speaker 1: acts and not even hear what the record of music
Speaker 1: sounds like, because probably the most important thing, at least
Speaker 1: in the beginning. But but but I actually if I
Speaker 1: like something that I that I get that gets sent
Speaker 1: to me, then I go here alive or then I'll
Speaker 1: go see like that. It's kind of works backwards. But
Speaker 1: I just can't imagine doing a R back then would
Speaker 1: have been a totally different Yeah, there's a there's literally
Speaker 1: a male person walking by with a cart with like
Speaker 1: CDs and just I can I believe none of those
Speaker 1: wire listened to, Like there's no way. I don't know
Speaker 1: who had the time, or they had a bunch of
Speaker 1: interns doing it, and then some really great stars did
Speaker 1: not become stars. But it literally you have kind of
Speaker 1: like I would have no would you have no life
Speaker 1: every night? I had every night doing so, So I
Speaker 1: don't know if I would enjoyed it, but but I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I would still enjoy it. But but it's
Speaker 1: a totally different job. So you're a person in power, obviously,
Speaker 1: do you find yourself in position sometimes where you feel like,
Speaker 1: obviously this industry can be shady. Is it hard to
Speaker 1: kind of distinguish who friends are the real homies versus
Speaker 1: like I'm trying to climb up the louder and and
Speaker 1: have him help me in some way and that's the
Speaker 1: only intention, or with women even I'll be honest, I
Speaker 1: mean I never like, I just don't think about that stuff.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why I'm I'm a real music guy.
Speaker 1: I will never make a decision based off of this
Speaker 1: is somebody I like, he's a friend of mine, let
Speaker 1: me help or let me or this is something, because
Speaker 1: then everybody loses, you know, so I would, but that's
Speaker 1: got to be so awkward if you have a friend
Speaker 1: who's like you love your friend, right, and and they've
Speaker 1: been working on this band for years and years and
Speaker 1: years or whatever, and they're like, Aton, can you can
Speaker 1: you hook it up? And how do you say? I think,
Speaker 1: first of all, giving an honest opinion is always, I
Speaker 1: mean that that is the best thing I could do
Speaker 1: as a friend, because absolutely, because I'll tell you some
Speaker 1: For some people, you know, let's talk about the flip side.
Speaker 1: You say, you know, follow your dreams. Follow your dreams.
Speaker 1: For some people that that don't have the talent or
Speaker 1: the skill set means a lot of parts of music.
Speaker 1: Maybe they belong on a different part of the music industry.
Speaker 1: But I think for someone's not good enough, you know,
Speaker 1: I have to tell them. I feel like if if
Speaker 1: I don't, because people's like livelihood, it's their life. They
Speaker 1: put in sacrifice and like they they give up so
Speaker 1: much of their life, whether it's time or family or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. You know this personally because you were
Speaker 1: in a band, Yeah, I mean, I mean you give
Speaker 1: up your life for this. So it's like to give
Speaker 1: somebody the wrong advice or give them false hope is
Speaker 1: actually the meanest thing I could do for them. Um.
Speaker 1: But but but then at the same time, there's a
Speaker 1: there's an art I'm very direct and straightforward, but there's
Speaker 1: always there's also a way of doing it where you're
Speaker 1: not offending somebody, you know, I think and and especially
Speaker 1: with like like even even great songwriters, like I said,
Speaker 1: most of the time, they're not sending me hits. It's
Speaker 1: like it's like it's so you have to kind of
Speaker 1: find the right record from each person or whether it's
Speaker 1: a producer or writer, and I want them to keep
Speaker 1: sending me more music. I don't want them to get discouraged,
Speaker 1: you know. So so there's a way to Okay, so
Speaker 1: it's constructive. It's not like you stuck, go do something else,
Speaker 1: but you're like, hey, send me more music when you can. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's definitely constructive. And and uh, always encourage everyone that
Speaker 1: you know keeps sending and don't don't get you know,
Speaker 1: because everyone as nice as you in the industry, because
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: One of the things I always talked about with artists
Speaker 1: because I've had many independent artists on my show as
Speaker 1: well as people who are signed to a label. Obviously
Speaker 1: there are benefits to being with the label. All you
Speaker 1: get the money, you get the team, You've got the aton, right,
Speaker 1: But indie artists feel like they some have sworn that
Speaker 1: they would never sign to label because of all the
Speaker 1: quote shady things that happened at a label. What do
Speaker 1: you have to say to that? Um, Well, what I
Speaker 1: have to say is that like the moment you are,
Speaker 1: you know, you partner up with anybody, whether it's a
Speaker 1: record label or a manager or at least it's there's
Speaker 1: not like a thing where like you're not paying them
Speaker 1: a monthly fee to like, you know, work for you.
Speaker 1: And like, like what I'm saying is I hear, I
Speaker 1: hear what? You don't make money unless you make money,
Speaker 1: don't succeed unless you succeed, right, You're not paying a
Speaker 1: publicist to make you feel like, why on earth would
Speaker 1: we be a part of a partner up with anybody?
Speaker 1: If we if we don't plan on having success? So
Speaker 1: then why how comes so many smaller artists come to
Speaker 1: labels and then they kind of get or I've not
Speaker 1: experienced it personally, but they say they get put on
Speaker 1: the back burner in a sense, and then the bigger
Speaker 1: artists get all the money while the smaller artists are
Speaker 1: kind of just forgotten about. I mean, that's that's not
Speaker 1: that's definitely like a scorn lover would say it, right,
Speaker 1: it's just like there, it's it's I will say, nothing
Speaker 1: to do with like a bigger or smaller artists or
Speaker 1: just more more like it's a more strategic thing. Like
Speaker 1: if you if you burn through all of your budget
Speaker 1: when you don't have the right song, then your your
Speaker 1: longevity is going to be very short. You know that
Speaker 1: makes sense better to every every time you you release
Speaker 1: a song, And I look at it like this, like
Speaker 1: every time you release a song, you're pulling a favor,
Speaker 1: whether it's from a playlist or to add your song
Speaker 1: from a podcast, to feature your song, from your fans,
Speaker 1: to to to go support and listen to the music.
Speaker 1: And if the song isn't great, the next time, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be harder to do that. And then the next time,
Speaker 1: I actually it's gonna be even harder. It's a lots, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like and everyone actually yeah, and and not
Speaker 1: every song has to be I mean you could you
Speaker 1: could release some stuff just for you know, viral, you know,
Speaker 1: from fans and stuff to keep everybody, like, you know,
Speaker 1: entertained and to make sure that people have new content.
Speaker 1: But I think there's also an art and a strategy
Speaker 1: to pushing the button when you have the right thing
Speaker 1: and you see that there's And the crazy thing is
Speaker 1: we we live in a time where the moment something
Speaker 1: comes out, you're able to see real stats. How many
Speaker 1: people on you know, whether it's new Music Friday, whatever
Speaker 1: the playlist is, how many people are adding this song
Speaker 1: to the playlist when they hear it, how many people
Speaker 1: are skipping it, how long are they listening to you?
Speaker 1: You can see all this stuff right now. All the
Speaker 1: data is available, so you were able to tell like
Speaker 1: it's almost like a case study before you even which
Speaker 1: is so helpful. It's amazing. Yes, you're able to see
Speaker 1: like right away, like even if it's a smaller case study,
Speaker 1: like even if it's with a thousand people that came
Speaker 1: across the song, how many people added to their personal playlists,
Speaker 1: how many people are replaying and how many people it's
Speaker 1: there's so many things that you can data. We have
Speaker 1: so many tools now that didn't expect ten years ago
Speaker 1: from I do think that there's something to having a
Speaker 1: following on social media is obviously you get a bigger reach.
Speaker 1: So there's that, there's the stats you just talked about.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's the community you can find, the
Speaker 1: community that the artist vibes with. So I feel like
Speaker 1: there's a lot of advantages and makes your job much easier.
Speaker 1: And patients is key. Yeah, it's so key to just
Speaker 1: have patience for any artists out there that is assigned
Speaker 1: to a company. I think, I mean well, and and
Speaker 1: and by the way, I mean there are I'm sure
Speaker 1: there are, like, like, I know how how my team works,
Speaker 1: you know how I don't know how you know, I
Speaker 1: mean every team works differently, So I'm sure there are
Speaker 1: nightmares stories as well. So so you sound like you
Speaker 1: kind of get in there with them and really support
Speaker 1: them like a family member. I mean, honestly, I do
Speaker 1: it from the heart. Of course. I can tell. I'm
Speaker 1: a real music fan, obsessed with music. Yeah, I love hits,
Speaker 1: I love pop of all is your favorite artists right
Speaker 1: now that you're not representing a song guy, Okay, So
Speaker 1: I like songs and every genre well, I mean I
Speaker 1: go through every every week. It's funny because there's about
Speaker 1: I think I don't know what. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I've counted, but it's about a hundred songs on New
Speaker 1: Music Friday. I think I guess like each week to
Speaker 1: come out and every Friday like recycles, so like all week,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get through the whole playlist to hear everything.
Speaker 1: And I have my own personal playlists for every genre.
Speaker 1: So I make like a personal playlist for the genre,
Speaker 1: and I'll add to my personal for listening pleasure, and
Speaker 1: then I listened to them. I get excited because there's
Speaker 1: all this new stuff that some of it I know,
Speaker 1: some of it I I've heard once from and I've
Speaker 1: added to my so it's exciting to listen. I actually
Speaker 1: listened as a fan too, and I get excited when
Speaker 1: I go to the playlist. I have a like a
Speaker 1: chill R and B playlist. Tell me what's on your
Speaker 1: chill R and B. That's like my favorite genre? Really?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, one toll for days. Well there's the old
Speaker 1: school I like old school R and B. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is what I have, an old school R
Speaker 1: and B play but the chill R and B is
Speaker 1: more newer stuff. It was actually inspired by I heard this,
Speaker 1: uh Sabrina Clardie who was signed to it to APG.
Speaker 1: She had I Belonged to You song that I was like,
Speaker 1: she's amazing. She's amazing, so that that song inspired me
Speaker 1: to do like. I think one of my friends works
Speaker 1: with her. I'm pretty sure. Does she have long, round,
Speaker 1: curly hair and she's beautiful. Okay, my friend Dina, I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure works with her. She works with French Montana.
Speaker 1: Her sister works with The Weekend. I'm pretty sure you
Speaker 1: know them. It's in your email. But yeah, tell me
Speaker 1: what's on here? I mean, I have oh my god,
Speaker 1: We'll have Anne Marie and there's Funny's two een movies.
Speaker 1: We have an Anne Marie that's like a pop ars
Speaker 1: and it's spelled like. One of them has a space,
Speaker 1: one has no space. There's an R and B one
Speaker 1: that's awesome. She's not signed to our company, but he's awesome.
Speaker 1: I don't know. A bunch of stuff in here. Just
Speaker 1: tell me, Like I mean, I have a lot of
Speaker 1: tell me one more. I want to get weird tonight
Speaker 1: with my husband. Give me one more golden song. And
Speaker 1: here's a bunch of different things. What's the best one
Speaker 1: to like get? You know, a girl's over the music
Speaker 1: is going. I think I think Anne Marie Is that
Speaker 1: popping for you? It's just popping for all of us?
Speaker 1: Is it is a vibe? All right? Well, I'm glad
Speaker 1: we got to go through your some of your list
Speaker 1: because you're like the music king. So what advice I
Speaker 1: want to just wrap this up with, what advice you
Speaker 1: would give somebody who wants to make it in this industry.
Speaker 1: It's a very, very tough industry to get into. Obviously,
Speaker 1: not everyone is as hands on compassionate as you helpful.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can a million adjectives to describe you,
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure our listeners get your vibe by now.
Speaker 1: You are clearly very influential in the in the space
Speaker 1: of music. That's why you're here. You literally pick people
Speaker 1: out of hundreds of songs that you're getting a day,
Speaker 1: and you're making stars out of them. What advice would
Speaker 1: you give somebody who's listening to this podcast right now,
Speaker 1: who lives, breathes, dreams music like you, and they want
Speaker 1: to make it, or at least they want to do
Speaker 1: something in music that they don't have to be like
Speaker 1: the next Rihanna, but they want to be in the industry.
Speaker 1: What advice do you have to give to them? Well,
Speaker 1: my advice is I mean a couple of things. One,
Speaker 1: if if you are an artist and you're you're set
Speaker 1: on that, I think you have to know the importance
Speaker 1: of having a great song origin because that will change everything.
Speaker 1: You know, we live in a time when stuff goes viral,
Speaker 1: and and you can't force people to make something go viral.
Speaker 1: They have to like it, to replay it or to
Speaker 1: reposted or whether it's a well. I mean, there's two
Speaker 1: sides of something going viral. One is the actual content
Speaker 1: and the others they actually liked the record if so,
Speaker 1: it's two ways something go viral, and songs go viral
Speaker 1: just because people like the song that I've seen Obviously,
Speaker 1: like there's memes and stuff that's different. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: like a song that actually gets replayed and stuff. So
Speaker 1: but I think finding the right song is so important
Speaker 1: because it also will establish the direction for your project.
Speaker 1: But I think outside of that, like as a general advice,
Speaker 1: I think you kind of have to find your lane
Speaker 1: and be realistic. There's so many sides of music. There's
Speaker 1: publishing and songwriting, and then there's like you know, the
Speaker 1: the live touring side, and the agents and and and management,
Speaker 1: and I mean there's so many sides to music. You
Speaker 1: want to kind of be realistic and see where do
Speaker 1: I fit in the best and where what I perform
Speaker 1: the best. You know, some people are incredible at at
Speaker 1: a marketing and creative thinking, and there's so many departments
Speaker 1: at a record label too, so it's like there's some
Speaker 1: people that are amazing from marketing department, not necessarily in
Speaker 1: are some people that are better at an are It's like,
Speaker 1: but I think you kind of got to find out
Speaker 1: where you fit like the best, and where you can
Speaker 1: be one of the best. Like what can you be
Speaker 1: one of the best in the world at, Not like,
Speaker 1: oh I'm good at this, Like what can you be
Speaker 1: like incredible at and find your lane there and have
Speaker 1: some kind of I think side hustle in the meantime
Speaker 1: to hold you over so you don't have a timeline
Speaker 1: like it's okay if it takes you, uh, five years,
Speaker 1: it's okay if it takes you six months. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you don't really know how long it's going
Speaker 1: to take. So if you have something else that actually
Speaker 1: generates income in the meantime so that you don't have
Speaker 1: to like kind of you know, fall on on on
Speaker 1: your face like so early, right, because that's when people quit. Yes,
Speaker 1: and you didn't quit, and you just kept your hustles
Speaker 1: going and you didn't just have a side hustle. By
Speaker 1: the way, it wasn't singular you. You didn't sleep, but
Speaker 1: you loved it, so it was okay. I get that.
Speaker 1: It was so nice having you here today. I just
Speaker 1: to prove the point. Last time I saw him, he
Speaker 1: was bringing one of his artists, and and now I'm
Speaker 1: You're on the other side of the table. So I'm
Speaker 1: really glad we got to get to know each other
Speaker 1: a little more. Um, I want all of your artists
Speaker 1: to come into our show, will play their music. I
Speaker 1: would love that. And you have one last chance to
Speaker 1: give a shout out to one more artist and we'll
Speaker 1: end on them. Oh and that's and that's a big
Speaker 1: pressure because we're ending on it. But this doesn't mean
Speaker 1: this is your favorite one. It just means it's another
Speaker 1: one you want people to check out. Well, yeah, so
Speaker 1: there's this, this, there's artists I just signed kill Boy.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. What makes it so different is that she
Speaker 1: actually produces her own stuff. And she's not only an
Speaker 1: amazing artist, she's also an amazing writer and producer. She
Speaker 1: produces better than half the people that I get stuff from,
Speaker 1: and she's like, you just sign her, Yeah, and she's
Speaker 1: actually making her own hits, Like I mean, it's are
Speaker 1: you super excited about her? And she's smart, She's also open,
Speaker 1: she loves collaborating. She's just really really awesome, great energy
Speaker 1: and just all around she She already has two songs
Speaker 1: on Spotify. I'm gonna have to check that out, and
Speaker 1: you guys have to check it out. But guess what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do, you guys, solid I'm gonna end this
Speaker 1: show with a little kill boy baby way the fun, fun,
Speaker 1: fun fun, everybody's give way the fucking biscos on phone
Speaker 1: and kin the fact, don't leave us on a love
Speaker 1: like a thing for crooking on even want the cut
Speaker 1: in back. There's somebody fucker spending punching over petty percents
Speaker 1: and now I want to just pay my bread. Don't
Speaker 1: wn a couple of Lincoln and Pink with the purple
Speaker 1: on the mesode this time he's gonna have to spend
Speaker 1: I know nothing day once I have a point, but
Speaker 1: I so pay me. And there's got a way, the way,
Speaker 1: the way, the fun, the sugars, the baby's maid. Now
Speaker 1: it's a little fish, no fading like some crazy health
Speaker 1: not tho he was saying, I'm at the studio. I
Speaker 1: was looking for me like white a water wait a
Speaker 1: wait a water ready fu wa. I'm come turning on
Speaker 1: the down thing, picking my assess, and don't never ze
Speaker 1: me for ship, because not to stay while I still
Speaker 1: get my house and ducking brides. A bridge is still
Speaker 1: as an unline bases. And now we're taking down to
Speaker 1: if I was god to step it down in the
Speaker 1: bridges down to its last, they're just not the only
Speaker 1: thing you know to do a range kish and fishing,
Speaker 1: but hill because he always misses high. I really would
Speaker 1: have never been so down there if it wasn't for
Speaker 1: the wooded ship. But I never say thank you. Just
Speaker 1: shut my dick, Can my skate up the shot kick
Speaker 1: and leave a little ship? Don't read the fun? Got
Speaker 1: fucking little little little? Why don't fun? Behind the influence
Speaker 1: of the production of I Heart Radio and t DC
Speaker 1: Media