1
00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:12,200
Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.

2
00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:20,480
Speaker 1: My guest today is the Chain Smokers manager Adam Out Adam, Hi, Okay,

3
00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:23,239
Speaker 1: you're in l A. Chain Smokers are playing the Forum.

4
00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:25,279
Speaker 1: Are you just how often would you go to a

5
00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:29,040
Speaker 1: gig by your act an arena gig? Yeah, any gig

6
00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:32,920
Speaker 1: I go to about probably probably this tour, probably a

7
00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:35,239
Speaker 1: quarter of the shows. And why do you decide to

8
00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:37,160
Speaker 1: go or not go? The first few of the last

9
00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:40,160
Speaker 1: few New York, l A and Seattle because that's where

10
00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:43,559
Speaker 1: my in laws are from. So the in laws and

11
00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:46,479
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving on this particular trip. Yeah, we're doing Thanksgiving in

12
00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:49,279
Speaker 1: Seattle and then the guys show up. They're like four

13
00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:52,120
Speaker 1: days later. So I'm staying for the whole thing. So

14
00:00:52,159 --> 00:00:55,520
Speaker 1: how did you meet your wife? She's from Seattle. She

15
00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:58,960
Speaker 1: lived in New York, but just through a friend. Okay,

16
00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:02,920
Speaker 1: So did you become the manager of the Chain Smokers? Well,

17
00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,039
Speaker 1: that's a loaded question. Um well I actually introduced them

18
00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:08,200
Speaker 1: to each other right now. We were talking about this

19
00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:10,880
Speaker 1: a few months ago, So let's talk about how you

20
00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:16,000
Speaker 1: did that kind of slowly. Sure, so out of college, Um,

21
00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,360
Speaker 1: I ended up working in a nightclub, hospitality business. I

22
00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,400
Speaker 1: was running nightclub. You went to pen but what did

23
00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,600
Speaker 1: you what did you major in pen? Premat pretty bad? Okay,

24
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,560
Speaker 1: so at what point did you say, I'm not gonna

25
00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:32,559
Speaker 1: go on that track. What happened was I was promoting parties,

26
00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:34,720
Speaker 1: you know, when I was in college, and you know,

27
00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:39,360
Speaker 1: it's fun and you make money, and um, while I

28
00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:42,119
Speaker 1: was studying for pre met, I was just like studying

29
00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:43,680
Speaker 1: for the MCATs, and I was just like, this is

30
00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:46,600
Speaker 1: really what I want to do for the next god

31
00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:50,040
Speaker 1: knows however many years and I just said, you know what,

32
00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:52,320
Speaker 1: this isn't This isn't what I love it, but it's

33
00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:53,480
Speaker 1: not what I want to do with the rest of

34
00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:56,520
Speaker 1: my life. And I became more and more enamored with

35
00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:02,040
Speaker 1: the hospitality business and boutique hotels and exclusive restaurants, and

36
00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:04,880
Speaker 1: I ended up where a lot of people in the

37
00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:08,480
Speaker 1: music industry today started as a nightclub promoter. Okay, let's

38
00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:11,359
Speaker 1: go back. Did you take the m cats? Never took him?

39
00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:13,600
Speaker 1: Never took him. I remember when I was in college,

40
00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:16,240
Speaker 1: I signed up for the l S a T. My

41
00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:18,840
Speaker 1: friends knocked on my door and they said, you're not

42
00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:21,600
Speaker 1: taking that. Let's go to Montreal. And we did. That's

43
00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:24,440
Speaker 1: what they called it Montreal, although I ended up taking

44
00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:27,600
Speaker 1: after it broke my leg a year later. But uh well,

45
00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:31,000
Speaker 1: I brought my m CAT book to the bar. Really yeah,

46
00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:32,880
Speaker 1: And then my friends were like, what are you doing?

47
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:35,640
Speaker 1: And what did your parents say when you weren't going

48
00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:38,480
Speaker 1: to take the m CAT Honestly, like, they didn't put

49
00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:40,440
Speaker 1: any pressure on me to be a doctor in the

50
00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:43,320
Speaker 1: first place, so they really just were like, you know,

51
00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:46,120
Speaker 1: whatever you want to do. Um. I think there were

52
00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:49,919
Speaker 1: a few years after I was a nightclub promoter that

53
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:51,960
Speaker 1: they were hoping I had taken them cats so I

54
00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:55,600
Speaker 1: could revisit it. But because I didn't, I couldn't. Okay,

55
00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:58,880
Speaker 1: when I went to college before you, the big you

56
00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:02,280
Speaker 1: know what separated the real candidates from the failures was

57
00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:06,880
Speaker 1: organic KEM. Okay, so if you took organic chem and

58
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,240
Speaker 1: but what did you do well in all those classes?

59
00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:13,520
Speaker 1: I did really really well in the bio classes. Organic

60
00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:16,240
Speaker 1: chem is hard for everyone. I think I did like

61
00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:19,400
Speaker 1: decent in the first level, and then as the levels

62
00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:22,200
Speaker 1: of organic KEM got harder and harder, I did worse

63
00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:25,280
Speaker 1: and worse. But theoretically, if you've got a reasonable score

64
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:28,960
Speaker 1: on the M guide. Were they good enough to get in? Yeah? Okay, okay,

65
00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:32,519
Speaker 1: So what was the first party you promoted? The first

66
00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:35,760
Speaker 1: party I promoted was with two of my high school buddies.

67
00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:39,800
Speaker 1: We went to a bar one night and the because

68
00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:43,760
Speaker 1: you're growing up in Manhattan, yes, born and raised in Manhattan, okay,

69
00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:45,680
Speaker 1: and where do you go to school in Manhattan? To

70
00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:49,840
Speaker 1: high school? To harst Man and um, we went to

71
00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:52,960
Speaker 1: this bar. I'm gonna speed through this because there's so

72
00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:55,800
Speaker 1: much better stuff later in my life. But we went

73
00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:57,720
Speaker 1: to this bar on the Upper West Side and they

74
00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:00,800
Speaker 1: had beds and I and I was like, this is

75
00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:03,040
Speaker 1: so cool. They have beds in this bar. We gotta

76
00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:05,520
Speaker 1: throw a party here. But what were the beds for?

77
00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:08,120
Speaker 1: It was just like instead of tables with couches, they

78
00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:12,240
Speaker 1: had beds that you could lie on. And I found

79
00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:14,320
Speaker 1: the owner and I said, my buddy and I want

80
00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:16,960
Speaker 1: to throw um a party here. We'll bring the people,

81
00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:21,919
Speaker 1: and he said, okay, you will keep whatever the you

82
00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:23,840
Speaker 1: make at the door, and I'll keep whatever I make

83
00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:26,560
Speaker 1: at the bar. Okay. So you're in high school, your

84
00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:31,640
Speaker 1: how old? Okay? What inspired you to even do this?

85
00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,440
Speaker 1: I just thought the place. I thought the place was cool.

86
00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:42,360
Speaker 1: I was really into just like restaurants and bars and hotels.

87
00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:45,719
Speaker 1: I just found that stuff really cool. And I knew

88
00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:47,320
Speaker 1: that we could do it because we were going out

89
00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:50,680
Speaker 1: on the weekends two bars, you know, on the Upper

90
00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:52,839
Speaker 1: east Side and Upper west Side all the time. Anyway,

91
00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:54,839
Speaker 1: even though you weren't old enough to drink, you have

92
00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:57,440
Speaker 1: a faked yes. And there was a lot of bars,

93
00:04:57,600 --> 00:04:59,800
Speaker 1: especially on the Upper east Side on Second Avenue, a

94
00:04:59,839 --> 00:05:02,720
Speaker 1: third Avenue that let under age people drink. I don't

95
00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:09,280
Speaker 1: know how it is now, but this was probably what year. Yeah, um,

96
00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:13,120
Speaker 1: And so we did it the first night and they

97
00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,039
Speaker 1: didn't ask really guarantee, just whatever you're getting there, and

98
00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:21,560
Speaker 1: your pitch for people to go was too How did

99
00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:24,360
Speaker 1: you get the people there? I mean, when you're in

100
00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:26,279
Speaker 1: high school, it's if you build it, they will come,

101
00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:28,040
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? You know, maybe I went

102
00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:30,200
Speaker 1: to it, went to a public high school. But how

103
00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:33,880
Speaker 1: much did you charge? Oh my goodness, I don't remember

104
00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:38,920
Speaker 1: what we started charging. But what happened was that night,

105
00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:41,640
Speaker 1: as soon as it started, there was a line down

106
00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:47,800
Speaker 1: the block of underage kids. And the owner freaked out

107
00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,200
Speaker 1: because everybody was under age for act and he let

108
00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:55,440
Speaker 1: it happen, and we just started charging more, as like

109
00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:58,239
Speaker 1: every hour the door charge would get higher and higher

110
00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:00,359
Speaker 1: and higher. And at the end of the night, my

111
00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:04,920
Speaker 1: two buddies and I had this um like little cash

112
00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,479
Speaker 1: box just full of cash and and it was like

113
00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:11,960
Speaker 1: from that moment, I was like, there's like a business here. Okay.

114
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,560
Speaker 1: But generally speaking, were you the entrepreneurial sword who was

115
00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,200
Speaker 1: always making money as a little kid, or was this

116
00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:21,760
Speaker 1: your first vengee? No? I was pretty entrepreneurial always um

117
00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:25,400
Speaker 1: And so somehow we got away with that night happening,

118
00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:29,200
Speaker 1: and the owner moved the party to a bigger venue

119
00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:32,480
Speaker 1: in a more remote location so that we wouldn't get

120
00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:34,680
Speaker 1: in trouble for future parties. And we ended up doing

121
00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:37,480
Speaker 1: it weekly for a really long time. And you know,

122
00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:42,039
Speaker 1: everybody was underage and drinking, correct, Okay. And then you

123
00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:44,880
Speaker 1: go to school at pen Why do you go to

124
00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:51,960
Speaker 1: pen Um? Well, my dad went there. It was close

125
00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:55,080
Speaker 1: to the city but not the city. Um, I had

126
00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:57,000
Speaker 1: a lot of friends that went there, and it was

127
00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:00,400
Speaker 1: just my high school. A lot of it's from my

128
00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:03,080
Speaker 1: high school went to Penn and so it just kind

129
00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:05,159
Speaker 1: of became like sort of tradition, and I went there,

130
00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:08,039
Speaker 1: I fell in love with it, um, and I went.

131
00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:10,600
Speaker 1: While I was there, I really fell in love with Philadelphia.

132
00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:14,280
Speaker 1: I really love that city, and it is the city

133
00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:17,920
Speaker 1: of brotherly love. But I just think it's quaint and

134
00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:19,840
Speaker 1: the people are so much nicer than they are in

135
00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:23,400
Speaker 1: New York. I mean, it's definitely dirty, but it's in

136
00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:28,120
Speaker 1: certain parts. But um, it's just much more relaxed and

137
00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:31,000
Speaker 1: the people are much nicer. Okay. And when you were there,

138
00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,040
Speaker 1: would you go back to New York regularly or just

139
00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:36,600
Speaker 1: like I did, go back regularly. Okay, So how did

140
00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:41,640
Speaker 1: you start promoting parties in college? Um? Well, I had

141
00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:43,880
Speaker 1: already done it, you know, so it was very simple.

142
00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:45,920
Speaker 1: I did it. If I didn't do it that much

143
00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:48,600
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. I did it a few times in Philadelphia.

144
00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:54,320
Speaker 1: Mostly my thing was when we went home for the holidays. Um.

145
00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:56,200
Speaker 1: I would do those for all the kids that were

146
00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:58,880
Speaker 1: coming back from college for the holidays. So what my

147
00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:01,400
Speaker 1: big thing was thank is Giving Eve, which is actually

148
00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:03,920
Speaker 1: two days and right that was always when people come

149
00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:05,520
Speaker 1: back and they go to the body after they've gone

150
00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:07,920
Speaker 1: away from college. My my, my, my bread and butter

151
00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,200
Speaker 1: was Thanksgiving Eve and New Years and New Year's I

152
00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:13,800
Speaker 1: we used to do in Miami. We would take a hotel.

153
00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:18,560
Speaker 1: I did eleven years New Year's Eves in Miami. So

154
00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:20,880
Speaker 1: let's just when you ended up doing once, you know,

155
00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:22,840
Speaker 1: like you're the fourth or fifth year doing it alone,

156
00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:25,880
Speaker 1: or you're doing it with a partner. Um, I had

157
00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:28,200
Speaker 1: partners at that time. How much could you take away

158
00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:32,440
Speaker 1: personally from doing it New Year's Eve? What did I

159
00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,240
Speaker 1: make on New Year's New Year's Probably to my for myself,

160
00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:38,960
Speaker 1: probably like grand Okay, so who was paying for college?

161
00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:41,319
Speaker 1: Your father? Were you paying? Since you we're making this money?

162
00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:44,599
Speaker 1: Oh no, I wasn't making that money until after college. Okay.

163
00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:48,480
Speaker 1: So in annie event, you graduate, graduate from college and

164
00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:50,920
Speaker 1: you decide you want to be in the hospitality business,

165
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:53,559
Speaker 1: you go to New York and we and you do what.

166
00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:57,640
Speaker 1: I got a job with a restaurant tour named Jonathan Moore,

167
00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:01,400
Speaker 1: who was not like the top top guy in New

168
00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:03,720
Speaker 1: York City, but he was like top four and he

169
00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:06,480
Speaker 1: was a guy I really admired. And everyone says, if

170
00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:09,840
Speaker 1: you want to make it into music in the restaurant business,

171
00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:13,400
Speaker 1: you have to start from the bottom up. And so

172
00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:16,280
Speaker 1: I wasn't a bus boy, but I was a host

173
00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:20,920
Speaker 1: um six days, six nights a week from four pm,

174
00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:23,600
Speaker 1: and I didn't get home till four am, six nights

175
00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:26,840
Speaker 1: a week. And because I didn't get home till four am,

176
00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:30,280
Speaker 1: I always slept late. So I would like, literally, wake up,

177
00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:34,160
Speaker 1: go to the restaurant, worked twelve hours, go home, go

178
00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:37,160
Speaker 1: to sleep. I had no life. I didn't see anyone.

179
00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:40,280
Speaker 1: I didn't talk to anyone. It was horrible. What was

180
00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:42,400
Speaker 1: the name of the restaurant. It was called The Out

181
00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:44,920
Speaker 1: It's no longer okay, So how long did that go on?

182
00:09:45,679 --> 00:09:48,599
Speaker 1: Three months? Three months? And I was so, let's go

183
00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:50,320
Speaker 1: back a little bit. You're talking about this guy. How

184
00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:56,199
Speaker 1: did you hook up with him? Um? I just I

185
00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:59,400
Speaker 1: think I applied. I applied, so there was like an

186
00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:01,319
Speaker 1: open again you got the gig? So that goes. No,

187
00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:04,520
Speaker 1: I don't think there was an opening. I sought them out.

188
00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,360
Speaker 1: I knew who he was, and I tried to get

189
00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:11,280
Speaker 1: a job there. And how did you close him? Um?

190
00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:15,400
Speaker 1: In the room? Yeah? Yeah, I closed him in the room. Well,

191
00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:18,640
Speaker 1: experience that just a little bit. I went in, I

192
00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:21,360
Speaker 1: told him I went to Penn. I was passionate about

193
00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:25,920
Speaker 1: hospitality and I would do whatever it took. Okay, So

194
00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:28,480
Speaker 1: you do that for three months, four to four and

195
00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:32,480
Speaker 1: then what happens? Then? I was like, uh, you know,

196
00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:35,400
Speaker 1: I think I could do more than just what I'm doing,

197
00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:38,280
Speaker 1: Like I'm all four starting from the bottom up, but hey,

198
00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:40,200
Speaker 1: I want to make more money and be I don't

199
00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:42,080
Speaker 1: feel like I'm doing as much as I can be

200
00:10:42,360 --> 00:10:48,600
Speaker 1: and I literally have zero life, um. And so I

201
00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:53,400
Speaker 1: went back to just promoting parties. Oh so you actually left.

202
00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:55,720
Speaker 1: There was very little that I could do because I

203
00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:59,000
Speaker 1: was incapacitated. Right, So I'm trying to say, but you

204
00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,199
Speaker 1: actually quit that gig after three months? Yes, quit okay?

205
00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:08,280
Speaker 1: And what did you say when you quit? Okay, good luck?

206
00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:10,360
Speaker 1: Was to say your whip okay. So then you say,

207
00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:15,079
Speaker 1: I'm gonna promote part So I went back to promoting parties, um.

208
00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:22,360
Speaker 1: And what happened was because very few people, um, that

209
00:11:22,440 --> 00:11:26,360
Speaker 1: were actually born and raised in Manhattan still remain in Manhattan.

210
00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:30,760
Speaker 1: And so I was one of the guys that all

211
00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:33,240
Speaker 1: these kids coming back from North that we're moving to

212
00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:37,120
Speaker 1: New York after graduation from Northeast schools that weren't from

213
00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:39,720
Speaker 1: New York. They had no idea where to go or

214
00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:42,920
Speaker 1: what to do. So I ended up becoming that guy

215
00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:46,400
Speaker 1: where so if you went to like any school basically

216
00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:49,240
Speaker 1: in the Northeast, like you called me and I told

217
00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:51,079
Speaker 1: you where to go. So I had we we had

218
00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:55,280
Speaker 1: parties lined up every single night basically maybe five Okay,

219
00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:58,280
Speaker 1: when a little bit slower you quit the gig. How

220
00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:02,880
Speaker 1: do you become the man I already was. I was

221
00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:06,120
Speaker 1: already doing it in the on the holidays during college,

222
00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:10,440
Speaker 1: like people knew you know, and I had I knew

223
00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:13,000
Speaker 1: every other promoter in New York, and you just kind

224
00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,200
Speaker 1: of link up with different people. You'll say, you know,

225
00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:18,520
Speaker 1: you'll say to one promoter friend, let's do Thursdays at

226
00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:20,720
Speaker 1: this place. And you'll say to another promoter friend, let's

227
00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:23,320
Speaker 1: do Fridays together and we'll go find a club. You know,

228
00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:26,959
Speaker 1: things like that, And what is the draw? You mean?

229
00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:30,600
Speaker 1: What gets them there? You develop a reputation for throwing

230
00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:33,800
Speaker 1: good parties and you know, taking care of people and

231
00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:37,080
Speaker 1: entertaining people. You know, if I went, I paid my money,

232
00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:38,840
Speaker 1: I get in, what would what would I be the

233
00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:43,360
Speaker 1: experience I had at that moment, dancing in a nightclub

234
00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:47,600
Speaker 1: and you know, potentially buying a table with bottles on

235
00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:52,760
Speaker 1: it for wildly over price amounts and there were people

236
00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:55,840
Speaker 1: just graduated from college. You can afford them, yes, with

237
00:12:55,880 --> 00:13:00,440
Speaker 1: their parents allowance. How much money to get in it

238
00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:03,600
Speaker 1: was either free or it was like twenty and how

239
00:13:03,679 --> 00:13:06,360
Speaker 1: much for the bottle bottle service At that time they

240
00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:12,040
Speaker 1: were like three. Now they're like six eight thousand. Okay.

241
00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:14,640
Speaker 1: So you're promoting these parties and word gets out if

242
00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:17,280
Speaker 1: you want to know what's going on? Are they literally

243
00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:23,640
Speaker 1: emailing you, texting you whatever? There was no text back then. Um,

244
00:13:23,679 --> 00:13:26,640
Speaker 1: there was email, but it was very difficult. Maybe there

245
00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:30,080
Speaker 1: was text, but it was very difficult to mass text,

246
00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:33,280
Speaker 1: like you could text ten people at a time because

247
00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:35,880
Speaker 1: you know, it's hard to sit there and text thousand

248
00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:39,160
Speaker 1: people individually. And same thing with email. There were like

249
00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:42,360
Speaker 1: limits to how many emails you could send. UM. So

250
00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:45,200
Speaker 1: you know, we we tried to fix find every trick

251
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:48,360
Speaker 1: in the book to do that. Okay. The key, the

252
00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:52,400
Speaker 1: key thing to UM that I should say about these

253
00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:56,760
Speaker 1: parties is that at that time the DJ was in

254
00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:01,040
Speaker 1: the corner and nobody cared who it was or or

255
00:14:01,559 --> 00:14:06,320
Speaker 1: could even see them. Really you know, um in that

256
00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:10,080
Speaker 1: kind of led me to where you know, was led

257
00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:14,439
Speaker 1: me to my next step. Okay, So UM. So after

258
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:16,480
Speaker 1: I made a name for myself as a nightclub promoter

259
00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:18,960
Speaker 1: in New York, I got hired by these two guys

260
00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:23,600
Speaker 1: that UM were known to be like pretty much the

261
00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:29,280
Speaker 1: best promoters and UM restaurant owners in New York. UM.

262
00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:32,960
Speaker 1: These guys, Scott and Ritchie UM and at the time

263
00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:36,080
Speaker 1: they owned a restaurant, Cold Butter, and they promoted other nightclubs.

264
00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:41,120
Speaker 1: And I got hired by them too, kind of be

265
00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:44,000
Speaker 1: the director of promotions, which means like manage all the

266
00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:46,560
Speaker 1: nights and hire all the DJs, and hire all the

267
00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:50,920
Speaker 1: other promoters and just make sure everything's going as it

268
00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:54,320
Speaker 1: should on the marketing and promotion side. UM. And I

269
00:14:54,400 --> 00:14:56,840
Speaker 1: ended up working for them for eight years. Okay, how

270
00:14:56,880 --> 00:14:58,960
Speaker 1: many years out of college did you get that gig?

271
00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:04,880
Speaker 1: Probably two or three. And you would make more money

272
00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:11,400
Speaker 1: working for them than doing it yourself, UM, probably because

273
00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:15,240
Speaker 1: I was getting a decent salary and health insurance, and

274
00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:18,320
Speaker 1: it was more for stability and like for growing my

275
00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:21,320
Speaker 1: career rather than just like, Okay, so you're in the

276
00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:25,040
Speaker 1: nightclub business. People your age are very aggressive in their

277
00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:27,480
Speaker 1: careers and you see people moving up with their careers.

278
00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:29,920
Speaker 1: Did you feel like, well, maybe I didn't play this

279
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:32,720
Speaker 1: game right or you say, what not at first, but

280
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:36,360
Speaker 1: after eight years, I you know, started to for sure.

281
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:41,920
Speaker 1: It's also very very tiring. Um, it loses all its luster,

282
00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:45,360
Speaker 1: you know, being in nightclubs, you know, six nights a week,

283
00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:49,760
Speaker 1: every night, you know, and seeing people that's saying people

284
00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:53,960
Speaker 1: over and over and over and um, you know, definitely

285
00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:56,000
Speaker 1: there was a lot of that and I really didn't

286
00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:57,920
Speaker 1: know what my next step was going to be. But

287
00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:02,479
Speaker 1: I didn't know that it was going to present its health. Um.

288
00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:06,560
Speaker 1: And so we built a nightclub called One Oak um

289
00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:10,080
Speaker 1: in New York City, which still exists today. And um,

290
00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:12,720
Speaker 1: they've expanded and they have a bunch of One Oaks

291
00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:17,240
Speaker 1: and other clubs. It's a pretty big company now. Um.

292
00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:20,480
Speaker 1: But what happened was about three three years into it,

293
00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:24,520
Speaker 1: I noticed a few things all at the same time.

294
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:30,280
Speaker 1: The first thing I noticed was that people we're starting

295
00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:34,760
Speaker 1: to ask all the time who's dejaying, and that wasn't

296
00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:38,040
Speaker 1: really a thing before. And the other thing that was

297
00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:40,680
Speaker 1: happening with social media was starting to get more prevalent,

298
00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:44,640
Speaker 1: and these local New York City DJs, we're starting to

299
00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:48,240
Speaker 1: get their own followings where people would care who that

300
00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:50,560
Speaker 1: like they would say, Oh, is this guy djaying tonight?

301
00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:52,680
Speaker 1: Is this guy djank tomorrow night? I want I want

302
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:55,280
Speaker 1: that guy to you know, And I was like, that's

303
00:16:55,280 --> 00:16:57,560
Speaker 1: so weird, Like people didn't used to do that before.

304
00:16:57,640 --> 00:16:59,880
Speaker 1: It was like they would come to a nightclub be

305
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,360
Speaker 1: because it was the newest or that's where the celebrities

306
00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:08,280
Speaker 1: hung out or whatever it was. The Other thing that

307
00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:12,840
Speaker 1: started happening was dance music started spilling over from Europe.

308
00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:15,560
Speaker 1: You know, guys like David Ghetta. So, what year are

309
00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:25,280
Speaker 1: we in? We're in two thousand and two and um.

310
00:17:25,359 --> 00:17:29,639
Speaker 1: The last thing was um dj AM Do you know

311
00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:33,240
Speaker 1: who that was? D J A m Yeah, So d

312
00:17:33,359 --> 00:17:36,840
Speaker 1: J A m Um was dating Nicole Ritchie and they

313
00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:39,040
Speaker 1: were on the cover of US Weekly and I saw

314
00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:41,680
Speaker 1: the magazine and I was just like, what is going

315
00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:45,600
Speaker 1: on here? Like DJs are like celebrities now, like they're

316
00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:49,920
Speaker 1: like so it's all those things could combine, just like,

317
00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:52,600
Speaker 1: you know, I have all the best DJs in New

318
00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:57,359
Speaker 1: York City DJing at my club, and they really don't

319
00:17:57,359 --> 00:18:00,240
Speaker 1: know what they're doing as far as furthering their career here.

320
00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:03,560
Speaker 1: They can barely send an invoice, you know, they could

321
00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:07,000
Speaker 1: barely show up on time. And since I had worked

322
00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:09,720
Speaker 1: at pretty much the best club in the country for

323
00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:14,840
Speaker 1: eight years, I knew everyone in the nightclub business. And

324
00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:17,800
Speaker 1: so I decided to start a DJ management company. And

325
00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:21,399
Speaker 1: I went and signed the ten DJs that worked at

326
00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:23,720
Speaker 1: our club, who were the best DJs in New York

327
00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:27,960
Speaker 1: City UM to management and really it was it was

328
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:34,360
Speaker 1: sort of like a booking agency to UM. And that

329
00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:39,840
Speaker 1: company was called four AM, and I, you know, basically

330
00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:42,360
Speaker 1: told them, I'll help you on your social media, I'll

331
00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:45,119
Speaker 1: do all your office work, I'll you know, get you

332
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:50,199
Speaker 1: working in other places around the country. And within three

333
00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:54,560
Speaker 1: months it exploded, Okay, are you still having your day

334
00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:58,760
Speaker 1: job while you're doing this? Okay, theoretically an agent somebody

335
00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:01,080
Speaker 1: getting work should be like, since you get it, you

336
00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:04,240
Speaker 1: don't get a license, right, of course? Not. Do you

337
00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:08,240
Speaker 1: have anybody working for you at the time? Not? Not

338
00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:10,040
Speaker 1: at first. At first I was doing it all myself.

339
00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:15,400
Speaker 1: What was your take? What was your percentage? So when

340
00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:17,879
Speaker 1: they were playing, before you have this epiphany, what was

341
00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:22,439
Speaker 1: a DJ making in your club? Uh? It could be

342
00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:26,840
Speaker 1: anywhere from three okay, And these guys did not make music.

343
00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,280
Speaker 1: They were you know, they were spinning spinning records. Okay,

344
00:19:31,560 --> 00:19:36,119
Speaker 1: you get involved. What does the price turn into. It

345
00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:38,480
Speaker 1: got a little bit higher, But it wasn't just about

346
00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:41,520
Speaker 1: raising their rates. It was about getting them playing more

347
00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:46,040
Speaker 1: nights a week in more cities, um, and helping their

348
00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:48,520
Speaker 1: fan bases grow. Okay, so how far would you go

349
00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:52,399
Speaker 1: from New York? Oh? I mean it was a pretty

350
00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:55,320
Speaker 1: high end, so it was international. But we really Yeah,

351
00:19:55,359 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 1: so we were doing things like you know, can Film Festival. Okay,

352
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:03,159
Speaker 1: you're working at a club. How did you have those relationships?

353
00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:06,800
Speaker 1: The nightclub business, everyone knows each other. We would do

354
00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:10,200
Speaker 1: like pop ups like you know, Sundance Film Festival, Art

355
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:14,960
Speaker 1: boss Al Toronto Film Festival, like you know. Nightclub owners

356
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:20,800
Speaker 1: all intermingle at those types of things. Um, and I

357
00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:23,320
Speaker 1: had a little bit of exposure to the music business

358
00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:26,520
Speaker 1: because we'd have lots of artists come to our venues

359
00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:30,480
Speaker 1: and perform, and a lot of the DJs because the

360
00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:34,320
Speaker 1: artists wanted them to spend their records, had relationships, you know,

361
00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:37,520
Speaker 1: I was exposed to guys like Giddy and Jay z

362
00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:45,240
Speaker 1: Um all the time, and um, a little monopoly started

363
00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:50,040
Speaker 1: whereby Oh so after three months it exploded and I

364
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:55,119
Speaker 1: quit the job working for the hospitality company and um

365
00:20:55,160 --> 00:21:00,680
Speaker 1: a buddy of mine, Rich kleiman Um, who managers Kevin

366
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:06,919
Speaker 1: Durant now was running rock Nation, and he was I

367
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:08,879
Speaker 1: told him about that I had left, and then I

368
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:10,960
Speaker 1: started this DJ company and he gave me a desk

369
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:15,280
Speaker 1: at rock Nation to run my company. No like, no

370
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:18,480
Speaker 1: official ties, just here's a desk. Let's see what you

371
00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:21,640
Speaker 1: can do. And so I started working there and eventually

372
00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:23,280
Speaker 1: I was like, Rich, I need to hire somebody, like,

373
00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:25,560
Speaker 1: can I have another desk? And he was like nope.

374
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:29,920
Speaker 1: And so I started running it out of my apartment

375
00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:33,560
Speaker 1: and then I started hiring people and I turned this.

376
00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:36,520
Speaker 1: I kicked out my roommate and I turned his bedroom

377
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:39,560
Speaker 1: into like the office, and I had four guys working

378
00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:44,560
Speaker 1: there with me, and the company was just screaming. And

379
00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:48,720
Speaker 1: so we're what we're like two thousan Yes, exactly. Okay,

380
00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:51,800
Speaker 1: let's stop for a second here. At this point, Scooter

381
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:55,959
Speaker 1: is making some noise, Scooter braun and whatever. Did you

382
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,240
Speaker 1: see that as something separate or did you say I'm

383
00:21:58,240 --> 00:21:59,960
Speaker 1: competing with him or those are the steps I want

384
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 1: to go in. I wasn't even really looking at that.

385
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 1: There were other guys trying to do what I was doing,

386
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:07,719
Speaker 1: and those were the guys I was competing. Okay, so

387
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:09,720
Speaker 1: you say monopoly, they were trying to do it, But

388
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,320
Speaker 1: you own the market. I own New York City and

389
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:19,639
Speaker 1: the Tri State area and pretty much Miami. Okay. And

390
00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:23,160
Speaker 1: as a result of having this success, I would assume

391
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:27,040
Speaker 1: that you're now throwing you're now selling DJs to hire

392
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,000
Speaker 1: and higher levels of people. Yes, so that it was.

393
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:33,800
Speaker 1: It was that my company because my club was a

394
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 1: high end club. My DJs were DJs that dj high

395
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:41,280
Speaker 1: end clubs and private events like we would do Jay

396
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:44,560
Speaker 1: Z's birthday party and the Louis Vutan fashion show, and

397
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:47,720
Speaker 1: you know, so that's just the type of guys that

398
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:51,400
Speaker 1: So did those relationships help you as you shifted? Gave

399
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:54,600
Speaker 1: every relationship I've made I made over the eight years

400
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:59,240
Speaker 1: in the nightclub business and the four years managing UM DJs,

401
00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:02,679
Speaker 1: that's been record. It's I still have and work with

402
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:06,359
Speaker 1: those people today. It's amazing. That's like the best part

403
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:09,160
Speaker 1: of it. That's the great thing about the nightclub business

404
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:12,359
Speaker 1: is like as as much as I hated it, towards

405
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 1: the end, like I met so many people that I

406
00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:21,560
Speaker 1: have lifelong relationships within every business like finance, film, you, art,

407
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:23,760
Speaker 1: you name it, and and these are people I still

408
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,840
Speaker 1: do things with today now just so we know. Uh,

409
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:30,040
Speaker 1: in the nightclub business is that type of thing where

410
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 1: people come and go or certain people are lifers. There

411
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:36,879
Speaker 1: are certain people that are lifers and they're either really

412
00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 1: really successful or just have done the same thing forever. Okay,

413
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,399
Speaker 1: so you have the four years of managing DJs? What

414
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:50,159
Speaker 1: does that look like after the four years? So what

415
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:55,119
Speaker 1: happened was you basically couldn't DJ at any place good

416
00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 1: in New York unless I was managing you. And um

417
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:04,479
Speaker 1: Al Paul from the Chain Smokers was djaying in New

418
00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:06,879
Speaker 1: York City or was trying really trying to be a

419
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 1: DJ in New York City. Um and he was djaying

420
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,200
Speaker 1: with another guy. And I kind of heard about them

421
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,720
Speaker 1: a little bit because they were, um, you know, doing

422
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:20,240
Speaker 1: some things here and there. And eventually and I would

423
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:21,800
Speaker 1: see them around and I would say, you know, if

424
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:24,399
Speaker 1: you really want to make it big, you need you

425
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:26,800
Speaker 1: need me, and they would be like, yeah, sure, whatever,

426
00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:30,359
Speaker 1: you know, lo and behold. They called me eventually and

427
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 1: said can you manage us? And I said sure? And

428
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:40,000
Speaker 1: I started telling everybody in in the hospitality industry that

429
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:43,960
Speaker 1: these guys were my new guys, and um, I booked

430
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,440
Speaker 1: them a gig at a nightclub called Wall in Miami

431
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:50,080
Speaker 1: where they called the Chain Smokers. They would call the

432
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:54,160
Speaker 1: Chain Cocks, and um it was well was a respectable club,

433
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:56,920
Speaker 1: also still open today at the W Hotel in Miami.

434
00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 1: And they went down there and I out of and

435
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:03,680
Speaker 1: my phone rang at five o'clock in the morning. And

436
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:05,280
Speaker 1: what do you do when you're a manager and your

437
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:07,040
Speaker 1: phone rings at five o'clock and pick it and you

438
00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:10,400
Speaker 1: pick it up? And it was the other guy and

439
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:13,680
Speaker 1: he said, I just got into a fight with Alex

440
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 1: and he's such an asshole. Am I allowed to curss

441
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:22,000
Speaker 1: on this? Okay? He's such an asshole? And I'm like,

442
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,280
Speaker 1: don't worry about it, just come home tomorrow we'll kiss

443
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 1: a makeup and uh. The next day we planned to

444
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:34,679
Speaker 1: meet and um, Alex was the first one to arrive

445
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:39,359
Speaker 1: and the other kid came in and said, fuck you,

446
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:45,199
Speaker 1: I'm out quit the group. And where's he today? I

447
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:48,920
Speaker 1: don't want to say he is he working in the

448
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:53,360
Speaker 1: music business. I think he's still DJs around the city.

449
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:56,119
Speaker 1: And when did he ever sue? Because he felt that

450
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 1: he got sucked over. No, so when he quit Alex

451
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:02,480
Speaker 1: essentially right then and there, turned to me and said,

452
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:06,320
Speaker 1: I believe in this. I want to find the new guy.

453
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:11,760
Speaker 1: I want to produce dance music. Help me. And so

454
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:15,640
Speaker 1: I said okay. And so he approached the original guy

455
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: and he bought the name chain Smokers for I think

456
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars. So you did you actually get a

457
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 1: lawyer involved in again? That was smart? Yes. Um? You

458
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,440
Speaker 1: didn't have any paper with these acts, did you? Yes,

459
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:30,959
Speaker 1: we had written contracts. Oh really with all your details?

460
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:36,440
Speaker 1: Who wrote the contracts? Um? Yeah, we had a lawyer.

461
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 1: I had a lawyer. Okay, So this was not actually

462
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,200
Speaker 1: like I may have like used the template at first,

463
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:47,040
Speaker 1: I don't remember. Eventually we had a lawyer, but I

464
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 1: don't remember exactly. Okay. So when you wait time you

465
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:51,639
Speaker 1: hit four years, how many people are working for you?

466
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:57,560
Speaker 1: Probably four full time? And are they still working out

467
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:03,200
Speaker 1: of your apartment? Yes? Okay low over yes, um, and

468
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 1: so it's like, okay, the hunt is on to find

469
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 1: a new part. You were big on the Chain Smokers,

470
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,720
Speaker 1: these other DJs. How many were you? Ultimately you doing it?

471
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:19,600
Speaker 1: One time? We had like probably at that point twelve

472
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:23,160
Speaker 1: that were assigned to us. But in addition to those twelve,

473
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:27,679
Speaker 1: we were getting work like freelance work for probably an

474
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:31,159
Speaker 1: additional ten or twenty. Okay, but if someone needed a

475
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:34,200
Speaker 1: DJ and none of ours were available, we we made

476
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 1: it happen. Right. So, but the ten or twelve you have,

477
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:39,640
Speaker 1: were you just booking them or giving them career directions

478
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:45,920
Speaker 1: career We're doing everything for their careers, social media, marketing, routing, travel,

479
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,439
Speaker 1: invoicing everything. And what was the most important thing in

480
00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:52,119
Speaker 1: breaking one of those acts? Getting to work more and

481
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 1: how their price go up? Well, what I learned is

482
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 1: that there is no breaking that kind of that kind

483
00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 1: of DJ. The DJs that don't make their own music,

484
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: eventually they hit a ceiling, you know, where it's the

485
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 1: max that you can make for being that type of artist.

486
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:13,199
Speaker 1: Um So, everybody was working all the time for the

487
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: most that they were worth, you know, and so the

488
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,400
Speaker 1: company for what was arranged at that point, I mean

489
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 1: it was still it could be three hundred, but you know,

490
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 1: I think as much as grand maybe um uh, you know,

491
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 1: we were doing things like um Roman Abramovich's St. Bart's

492
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:36,880
Speaker 1: New Year's Party, you know, like it was so many

493
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 1: different types of things. Um, and so the hunt to

494
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:46,280
Speaker 1: find Alex a partner is on. And uh, well we

495
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: also had interns, and so I'm talking to the guys

496
00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:53,160
Speaker 1: and this is interns before you paid interns. Do they

497
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:59,680
Speaker 1: pay interns? I'm kidding, um, And so um my intern said,

498
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: you know, I have this friend who know who has

499
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 1: another friend who I think like I heard like makes

500
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:14,200
Speaker 1: e d M on his computer and he just graduated

501
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 1: from Syracuse. And I'm like, give me his number, and

502
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:21,600
Speaker 1: I called and it was Drew and I cold call

503
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:26,280
Speaker 1: him and he turns out he had just graduated from

504
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 1: the band deer program at Syracuse. He was from Freeport, Maine. UM,

505
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:38,360
Speaker 1: and he was basically in his parents house with no job, um,

506
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 1: playing on his computer, and I said, send me some stuff.

507
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:44,720
Speaker 1: I said, I might have an opportunity for you to

508
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 1: come to New York and be in a DJ group,

509
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,479
Speaker 1: would be djaying every night, you'd be making, you know,

510
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 1: to start probably somewhere like five dollars at night. And

511
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:58,160
Speaker 1: to two year old Inport Maine, that was like the

512
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:01,880
Speaker 1: most incredible thing. And he said, I'll be on the

513
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:05,480
Speaker 1: next bus and he took the eighteen or what is

514
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:10,640
Speaker 1: it eight hour bus eighteen No, it's from he went

515
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,440
Speaker 1: to Boston. Mom drove into Boston and then he took

516
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 1: the bus from Boston. It was eight hours against he

517
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 1: eighteen dollar bus. And I came to my apartment and

518
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:24,600
Speaker 1: we sat and we met and he played me some

519
00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 1: of his beats and I was like, Okay, this is

520
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:30,360
Speaker 1: like real deal, like this is something here. And I said,

521
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 1: I wanted to go for dinner with Alex tonight. And

522
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 1: they went for dinner. At the time, Alex is how

523
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 1: old at the time, he must be twenty six? Yeah,

524
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 1: and um, so they go to dinner and I call

525
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:49,880
Speaker 1: Alex the next day and I was like, how dinner go?

526
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 1: And he was like it went amazing. I love this kid.

527
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 1: We're doing it. He's in and uh. Drew moved to

528
00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:01,840
Speaker 1: New York. I think like maybe three weeks later, and um,

529
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 1: he moved into an apartment that was about the size

530
00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 1: of the stable um with two other guys. Alex and

531
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 1: him locked themselves in a room and worked on music

532
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 1: for twenty four hours a day, every single day. And

533
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:28,200
Speaker 1: they sent me and they weren't making songs because they

534
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: weren't songwriters yet. And Alex really wasn't that good of

535
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:37,080
Speaker 1: a producer, And Drew really wasn't that good of a DJ.

536
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 1: You know, he had like dj some frat parties. So

537
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: they were like teaching the other how to do the

538
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 1: other thing. Um. And so they the only thing that

539
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 1: they could do was either just make instrumental beats or

540
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 1: remix other tracks. And so how are they working as

541
00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:00,600
Speaker 1: DJs while they're doing this every night? Have them working

542
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:07,080
Speaker 1: every single night? Um? And they have this idea that

543
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:10,320
Speaker 1: they were very into their very into all kinds of music,

544
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 1: but they were very into indie music. And so they

545
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 1: had this idea to remix indie bands. And at the

546
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 1: time that wasn't really a thing. It was like you

547
00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:25,200
Speaker 1: were either remixing pop songs or you were remixing E

548
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:32,080
Speaker 1: d M songs. And so they would message indie bands

549
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: that they were fans of on SoundCloud and ask them

550
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 1: for stems. And if you're you know, an indie band

551
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:40,880
Speaker 1: and someone wants to remix your song, you're thinking, hey,

552
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 1: free promotion, you know, like sure, So they would send

553
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 1: the stems and then they would do this remix. And

554
00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:53,040
Speaker 1: they sent me the first remix. We're in twelve. They

555
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 1: sent me the first remix and it was UM of

556
00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 1: a song by Yonce from Cigarass and I was like,

557
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:06,239
Speaker 1: holy shit, like this is a this is real, Like

558
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:09,719
Speaker 1: this is incredible and this is how long after you

559
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:17,720
Speaker 1: introduced them to each other very soon like weeks and UM,

560
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:22,200
Speaker 1: so I was like completely infatuated with it. Was the

561
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 1: first time I had a piece of music. You know,

562
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 1: I had never nothing I was working on. Was there ever,

563
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:33,000
Speaker 1: like an actual tangible thing. So I was completely completely

564
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:38,080
Speaker 1: infatuated by it. And you know they were they were

565
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:40,959
Speaker 1: making a name for themselves as live DJs in New

566
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,360
Speaker 1: York City. Like kids wanted to go to their shows.

567
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:46,600
Speaker 1: They were fun, they were like party guys, and uh,

568
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:49,560
Speaker 1: their social media really showed their personalities and they were

569
00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:54,640
Speaker 1: like super funny and witty, UM and so like I

570
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:56,320
Speaker 1: could kind of so that. So then we put out

571
00:33:56,360 --> 00:34:04,400
Speaker 1: this remix and Alex decides to personally email hundred blogs,

572
00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 1: each each letter unique, and the song came out on

573
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:13,280
Speaker 1: SoundCloud and it went to number one on hype Machine.

574
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:15,799
Speaker 1: Hype Machine was, for those of you who don't know

575
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,920
Speaker 1: it was a lot was a blog aggregator that would

576
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 1: UM take the number of UM blogs that you were

577
00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:25,239
Speaker 1: on and that would and make a chart out of it.

578
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: And so this went to number one on on Hype Machine.

579
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,239
Speaker 1: And I think the reason why it resonated with the

580
00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:36,040
Speaker 1: blogs was a because Alex wrote these amazing, hilarious personalized emails,

581
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 1: but also because people were just not remixing indie bands,

582
00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:43,240
Speaker 1: and also the remixes happened to be fire as they say,

583
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 1: and UM, so all this so I was like completely infatuated.

584
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:52,120
Speaker 1: And so then it was like me Alex Andrew sitting

585
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,200
Speaker 1: in my bed like just thinking about how to break

586
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,360
Speaker 1: chain smokers twenty four hours a day. And so we

587
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:02,399
Speaker 1: would do indie band remix after indie band remix after

588
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:07,440
Speaker 1: indie band remix, UM, and we're those successful. Every single

589
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 1: one went to number one on high Machine. I think

590
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:11,320
Speaker 1: at the end of the day we had like thirty

591
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 1: three number ones in a row on high Machine. UM.

592
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: The only other guy that was that had something like

593
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:22,280
Speaker 1: that was R. A. C. Have you ever heard of him?

594
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:26,320
Speaker 1: It was like a famous remixer back then. And UM

595
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:30,120
Speaker 1: and their social media started to really get good. But

596
00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:32,840
Speaker 1: every day it was all we could think about was

597
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:34,680
Speaker 1: how do we get likes on Facebook? How do we

598
00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:37,440
Speaker 1: get likes on Facebook? Instagram, wasn't even really big at

599
00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:39,680
Speaker 1: that point yet, so it's like, how do we get

600
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 1: legs on Facebook? And so they didn't have an agent,

601
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 1: they didn't have anything. So I got them a gig

602
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:50,160
Speaker 1: at Live in Miami, which it's kind of like a

603
00:35:50,239 --> 00:35:52,880
Speaker 1: rite of passage. It's like, you know, the best club

604
00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:57,440
Speaker 1: in Miami, All the big DJ's play there, and if

605
00:35:57,440 --> 00:35:59,800
Speaker 1: you're not a top DJ to get a shot, there's

606
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 1: like a big deal. And the only reason I was

607
00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:04,360
Speaker 1: able to get them that was based on my relationships

608
00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,320
Speaker 1: with from when I was promoting nightclubs with the owner

609
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:10,120
Speaker 1: there UM, who were still really close with today, Dave

610
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 1: Groutman UM. So they were like, Okay, this is a

611
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:20,280
Speaker 1: big deal. We need to find something, find a special

612
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:23,279
Speaker 1: way to promote this party so that it's successful and

613
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:25,360
Speaker 1: a lot of people show up and they're really happy

614
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 1: with us. So we get invited back. And so that

615
00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 1: was our task. And the next day I get an

616
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:38,880
Speaker 1: email from the guys with a song called Selfie and

617
00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:44,279
Speaker 1: it was a parody song about girl a girl at

618
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:51,279
Speaker 1: a nightclub, UM strictly made for promoting the show at Live,

619
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,560
Speaker 1: and in the song it says living with my bitches

620
00:36:54,600 --> 00:37:00,040
Speaker 1: hashtag Live. That's about UM Live nightclub. And I was like,

621
00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:02,759
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is hilarious this oh and they

622
00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:05,520
Speaker 1: wrote to me, we think this will perform well on

623
00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:10,560
Speaker 1: Facebook and I was like, definitely, And so we put

624
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:15,319
Speaker 1: it out on Facebook and it started to It went

625
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:17,759
Speaker 1: number one on High Machine, but that was normal for us,

626
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:22,120
Speaker 1: and it started to do well on SoundCloud and I

627
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:26,680
Speaker 1: I said, why don't we message out two on all

628
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:30,319
Speaker 1: our social media platforms. Send us your selfies and you'll

629
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:33,719
Speaker 1: be in a music video. And so we received like

630
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:36,919
Speaker 1: a thousand or two, I don't know how many. It's

631
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:41,840
Speaker 1: just selfie images of our fans. And we put together

632
00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:44,040
Speaker 1: a video with some girls kind of lip singing the

633
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:47,680
Speaker 1: words and and uh collage of all these selfies and

634
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:55,840
Speaker 1: we put it out spent how much oh nothing, UM,

635
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:59,799
Speaker 1: and it went viral not only because the song was

636
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 1: by but people were sharing it because it was like, look,

637
00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:05,239
Speaker 1: I'm in this video, so they would send it to

638
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:07,640
Speaker 1: their friends and they would post to anticipate that. Yeah,

639
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:10,840
Speaker 1: that was why. That was where the idea came from.

640
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:16,920
Speaker 1: And UM. So then we were like, ship, this is

641
00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:24,800
Speaker 1: like turning into something we didn't expect. And at the time, UM,

642
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 1: Steve ioki Um was one of the biggest DJs and

643
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:32,880
Speaker 1: he was an expert at social media. His Instagram was popping.

644
00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:35,760
Speaker 1: He was doing all kinds of funny things like throwing

645
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,920
Speaker 1: cakes off the stage into people's faces and riding on

646
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:43,080
Speaker 1: inflatable rafts over the crowd. And I just knew that

647
00:38:43,160 --> 00:38:46,800
Speaker 1: this was kind of like up his alley. And so

648
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:50,719
Speaker 1: I had heard about this guy who was helping him

649
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:52,440
Speaker 1: with his social media, and so I reached out to

650
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:55,280
Speaker 1: this guy and I was like, I've got this song.

651
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:58,560
Speaker 1: I think it's going viral. Can you help me um

652
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:02,480
Speaker 1: figure this out? UM? And he said, let me send

653
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: it to Steve, and he sent it to Steve and

654
00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:07,760
Speaker 1: Steve said, let me sign this to my indie label,

655
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:13,280
Speaker 1: dim Mac Records and release it commercially. And we were like, okay, cool.

656
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:17,440
Speaker 1: So we did a deal for three singles. UM. We

657
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:22,360
Speaker 1: took it down and we released it commercially. And that

658
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:26,560
Speaker 1: day I got a call on my phone from a

659
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,520
Speaker 1: guy named Monty Lippman and he said, how does it

660
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:32,359
Speaker 1: feel to have the biggest record on the planet? And

661
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:35,319
Speaker 1: I was like, feels pretty good. Meanwhile, I had no

662
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:37,480
Speaker 1: idea what he was talking about. Did you know who

663
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:42,560
Speaker 1: Monty Lippman was, and UM, he said, we'd like to

664
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:46,200
Speaker 1: sign you. We know you're signed to DIMAC Records, but

665
00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:48,799
Speaker 1: well you know, we'll we'll buy you out of that deal.

666
00:39:49,560 --> 00:39:51,520
Speaker 1: And by the time I got off the phone with him,

667
00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:57,319
Speaker 1: there was an offer in my email. UM. Then a

668
00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 1: bidding war ensued, UM, and we ended up signing to

669
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:07,560
Speaker 1: Republic Records. Okay, Manti's Republic really the hottest executive in

670
00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 1: the business still and he certainly breaks records. I'm talking

671
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,319
Speaker 1: about somebody. Well, we'll get into what I think it's well,

672
00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:16,319
Speaker 1: we'll get I met in church with labels, but I

673
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:20,000
Speaker 1: don't want to dig a hole here. Secondly, uh okay,

674
00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 1: So who else is interested? Oh? Literally everybody. I spoke

675
00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:28,880
Speaker 1: to every major label head UM in the UK and

676
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 1: the US. And do you ever think you're over your

677
00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: over you know your limits? Do you think that maybe

678
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 1: you're not sophisticated enough to do this? Not at all?

679
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:45,840
Speaker 1: But UM. Drew had gone to college with UM a

680
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 1: guy named Harry Roberts. And Harry's father is Jamie Roberts,

681
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:55,279
Speaker 1: and Jamie Roberts is a really incredible entertainment lawyer, and

682
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:57,600
Speaker 1: Harry is now an entertainment lawyer who works with him,

683
00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:00,600
Speaker 1: And so Jamie has been the chains More Chris lawyer

684
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:05,080
Speaker 1: since day one, and Jamie has been one of you know,

685
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:08,520
Speaker 1: countless mentors that I've had. So he was kind of

686
00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:13,200
Speaker 1: coaching me. So you bring him in during this bit. Absolutely, absolutely,

687
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 1: so he's coaching me. But I'm uh, I'm the one

688
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:24,800
Speaker 1: who's kind of uh the communicator with a couple of questions,

689
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,240
Speaker 1: do you think these other companies are calling you because

690
00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:31,160
Speaker 1: they heard the record or they heard Monty was into it? No,

691
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:35,520
Speaker 1: what had What I found out had happened was John

692
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:41,520
Speaker 1: Ivy from kiss Um heard the record and put it

693
00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:48,040
Speaker 1: on every station. And that's not something that really ever happens.

694
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:50,560
Speaker 1: Usually a record has worked, even if it's a smash,

695
00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:53,879
Speaker 1: it's worked. It's not like somebody hears a record and says,

696
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:56,560
Speaker 1: everyone play this. You know, he knew it was a

697
00:41:56,640 --> 00:42:02,000
Speaker 1: viral hit UM and so everyone knew that obviously, and

698
00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:04,920
Speaker 1: so every and everybody was reading the data. So everybody

699
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,759
Speaker 1: called UM and we took the meetings. And I think

700
00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:11,560
Speaker 1: one of the key things UM at that time was

701
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 1: because it was my first UM time dealing with that,

702
00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:21,440
Speaker 1: I was blatantly honest with every label. You know, I

703
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:24,400
Speaker 1: had no problem because I knew I had what they wanted,

704
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:26,440
Speaker 1: you know, I knew I had the record. So I

705
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:32,000
Speaker 1: I was like, um, this is what we like about you.

706
00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:34,160
Speaker 1: This is what we like about this label. This is

707
00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:35,960
Speaker 1: what we don't like about that label. This is what

708
00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:38,279
Speaker 1: we don't like about you. This is what we want,

709
00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:40,759
Speaker 1: this is what we don't want. And I think that

710
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:45,080
Speaker 1: people really respected the fact that I wasn't playing games,

711
00:42:45,120 --> 00:42:48,799
Speaker 1: and I wasn't lying about amounts, and I wasn't you know,

712
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:51,680
Speaker 1: playing them against each other. I was just straight up

713
00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:54,120
Speaker 1: because I had I had no reason to lie, you know.

714
00:42:54,880 --> 00:43:00,360
Speaker 1: And UM, I think that resonated with a lot of people,

715
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:05,479
Speaker 1: and a lot of my friendships with label heads uh

716
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 1: that I have today is from started at that moment.

717
00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:12,560
Speaker 1: You know. Um, I met a lot of guys that

718
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:15,000
Speaker 1: I that I love and I'm super friendly with still

719
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:21,680
Speaker 1: today during that process, um, And what I ended up

720
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:26,000
Speaker 1: doing was getting the deals to be matched across the

721
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:29,200
Speaker 1: board so that Alex Andrew could pick the label that

722
00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:31,280
Speaker 1: they wanted to be at, not based on the deal,

723
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:33,839
Speaker 1: and I let them make the decision at the end

724
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:38,759
Speaker 1: of the day. Um. And so we sold. We signed. Um. Well,

725
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:42,560
Speaker 1: you're missing a chapter though about your conversation with Doug Morris. Well,

726
00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:45,399
Speaker 1: I haven't gotten to that yet, okay, Um, I thought

727
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:51,239
Speaker 1: that happened so so so Doug Um. Doug was at

728
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:54,759
Speaker 1: Sony and and for whatever reason, he got involved in

729
00:43:54,800 --> 00:44:00,840
Speaker 1: the negotiation. UM, and we had met with him several times.

730
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:03,840
Speaker 1: I had met with him several times. I met with

731
00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:07,759
Speaker 1: all these guys, with Alex and Drew, but with with

732
00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:10,040
Speaker 1: them alone too, because you know, during a biding war,

733
00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:12,960
Speaker 1: they're always they always want more meetings, more meetings, more

734
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:17,640
Speaker 1: meetings that they want to sign you. UM and UM

735
00:44:17,680 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 1: I met and we we met with Doug and UM

736
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:27,080
Speaker 1: and we ended up not signing with Doug. We ended

737
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:30,440
Speaker 1: up signing with Monty. And it was definitely a scary

738
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:32,840
Speaker 1: phone call for me to have to call Doug Morris

739
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:35,760
Speaker 1: UM and tell him that we weren't signing with him.

740
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:41,960
Speaker 1: Um and uh selfie came No. I thought that that

741
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 1: was when he took a shigne to you before the

742
00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:48,880
Speaker 1: record was actually blown up on republic. Yeah, but what

743
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:52,759
Speaker 1: did he say to you? He said, he said that

744
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 1: he wanted to work with me either way, whether he

745
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:57,640
Speaker 1: got the record or not. And I At the time,

746
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:01,600
Speaker 1: I didn't let that affect my decision or anything that

747
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:05,120
Speaker 1: I was doing with this record or with this band,

748
00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:08,040
Speaker 1: because I didn't know whether I could believe him or not.

749
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:11,799
Speaker 1: And when he when you called him to say he

750
00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:15,080
Speaker 1: wasn't going to get it, what did he say at

751
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: that point? He just said okay, and we signed a

752
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:26,400
Speaker 1: album deal with the Republic, and um, Selfie came and went, okay,

753
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:30,799
Speaker 1: just so I know. The guarantee is what your business? No? No, no,

754
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:34,560
Speaker 1: I thought about money product. Oh it was at first

755
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:36,359
Speaker 1: it was an album and they had I think three

756
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:40,320
Speaker 1: album options. It was only a guarantee for one album. Yes,

757
00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:45,040
Speaker 1: and uh, but Selfie was a huge success. I mean

758
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:48,239
Speaker 1: not to me now, but at the time it was um.

759
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:53,319
Speaker 1: But it was a novelty record and I didn't even know.

760
00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:55,839
Speaker 1: You know, I always say this sentence. I always think

761
00:45:55,840 --> 00:45:57,200
Speaker 1: it's funny, but at the time, I didn't even know

762
00:45:57,239 --> 00:46:02,759
Speaker 1: what a novelty record was, you know. Um, And how

763
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:05,919
Speaker 1: long for the time that Monty gets ahold of you,

764
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:09,399
Speaker 1: do you does it take to sign with Monty? Oh?

765
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:13,839
Speaker 1: It was a two week process. Yeah, so so so

766
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:17,160
Speaker 1: Selfie came and went, and then a few weeks a

767
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:19,320
Speaker 1: few weeks after that, I got a call from Doug

768
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:21,319
Speaker 1: and he said, will you come in? And I thought

769
00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:24,560
Speaker 1: it was super weird, and he offered me a joint venture.

770
00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:28,080
Speaker 1: And he said, you know, remember when I told you

771
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:29,680
Speaker 1: I wanted to work with you, Well I meant it,

772
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:33,520
Speaker 1: and so he offered me a joint venture. UM, and

773
00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:37,480
Speaker 1: I told him that, UM, I would love you know,

774
00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:39,840
Speaker 1: how could I say no to having my own label

775
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:43,440
Speaker 1: out of Major UM, even though I had never done

776
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:48,800
Speaker 1: it before? And I, UM, I told him. If I

777
00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:51,000
Speaker 1: could do that, I still need to be a manager

778
00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:52,800
Speaker 1: and I need to be able to manage artists. And

779
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:55,880
Speaker 1: I'm gonna run my label like a manager. UM. And

780
00:46:55,960 --> 00:46:57,359
Speaker 1: what I meant by that is that I was going

781
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:00,200
Speaker 1: to help the managers of the artist signed to my

782
00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:06,880
Speaker 1: label with every aspect of their artist career, touring, merch sponsorship, strategy,

783
00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:11,160
Speaker 1: social media, press, whatever it is. I wanted to act

784
00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:13,399
Speaker 1: like a co manager to those artists. And that's how

785
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:15,600
Speaker 1: I do it. That's how I feel now. You know,

786
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:19,440
Speaker 1: there's nothing that I'm not involved in and that my

787
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:22,520
Speaker 1: artists feel like they can't come to me forward because

788
00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:29,440
Speaker 1: I'm the label. UM. Trying to think so the chain Smokers,

789
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:32,319
Speaker 1: the track comes and goes, let's play it out their

790
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:36,759
Speaker 1: Universal Republic. Um. It came, and it came and went.

791
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:43,400
Speaker 1: And you know, I started signing artists at my joint venture, Disruptor.

792
00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:49,600
Speaker 1: And how did you find those acts? Um? A variety

793
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:51,879
Speaker 1: of ways. Some of them kind of found me through

794
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:57,320
Speaker 1: managing the Chain Smokers, Some was just scouring the internet. Um.

795
00:47:57,400 --> 00:48:02,439
Speaker 1: Some was word of mouth, various various ways. And you're

796
00:48:02,440 --> 00:48:06,600
Speaker 1: still managing and booking your traditional DJs. Oh no, no, no,

797
00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 1: no no. I wasn't booking anything by that point. I

798
00:48:09,680 --> 00:48:15,160
Speaker 1: was oh so so around this time when I got

799
00:48:15,160 --> 00:48:18,480
Speaker 1: offered the joint venture, I had to sell my piece

800
00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:23,200
Speaker 1: of my my DJ management company, which I did, and

801
00:48:23,239 --> 00:48:25,720
Speaker 1: then I started this new Okay, but if you started

802
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:27,799
Speaker 1: who's who? Just who's you had a part I had

803
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:30,680
Speaker 1: partners at the time, Okay, but you didn't start with partners.

804
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:34,480
Speaker 1: I started with partners, and so you sold it was

805
00:48:34,680 --> 00:48:38,440
Speaker 1: lucrative or was just something I was getting a great

806
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:42,359
Speaker 1: new offer, and and the Chain Smokers came with me.

807
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:46,719
Speaker 1: So so only the Chain Smokers only. Okay, so you

808
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,640
Speaker 1: start the label. How long after you signed with Universal

809
00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:54,279
Speaker 1: with the Chain Smokers, do you start disruptor not long.

810
00:48:54,360 --> 00:48:57,840
Speaker 1: It's months a few and you start and you sign

811
00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:04,880
Speaker 1: how many acts? Uh? Um I signed? It wasn't a

812
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:07,560
Speaker 1: lot I was signed. I signed like two, you know.

813
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:11,960
Speaker 1: And um, you know there was a little bit of

814
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:15,759
Speaker 1: a disconnect because I was signing acts at Sony, but

815
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:20,240
Speaker 1: I managed an act that was at Universal. Um. And

816
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:24,560
Speaker 1: you know, the thing about Selfie is it was never

817
00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:30,080
Speaker 1: the you know, the path selected by chain smokers. You know,

818
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:36,759
Speaker 1: they were making very cool, uh progressive house remixes of

819
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:40,920
Speaker 1: indie bands, and they thought that they weren't even ready

820
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:43,200
Speaker 1: to make their own songs, you know. And all of

821
00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:45,680
Speaker 1: a sudden, this novelty record happened, which was meant to

822
00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:49,000
Speaker 1: be a Facebook joke, and you know, a lot of

823
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:51,279
Speaker 1: people thought this is the type of music that they

824
00:49:51,280 --> 00:49:54,279
Speaker 1: wanted to make, but it never was. You know, they

825
00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:57,440
Speaker 1: hadn't even gotten to the point where they were ready

826
00:49:57,440 --> 00:50:01,879
Speaker 1: to decide what what and when they thought that they

827
00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:04,160
Speaker 1: had to earn the right to make original music, and

828
00:50:04,200 --> 00:50:06,720
Speaker 1: they didn't. They weren't even thinking about that at this point,

829
00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:11,720
Speaker 1: and then they were thrust into this situation. Um. But

830
00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:16,600
Speaker 1: you know, Selfie did make them globally famous, and we

831
00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:24,480
Speaker 1: had built a kind of small, very small cult following

832
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:28,400
Speaker 1: just from the remixes and from them deejaying, But now

833
00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:32,720
Speaker 1: their fan base was a million times as big, and

834
00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:37,560
Speaker 1: of those fans were selfie fans, not chain smokers fans.

835
00:50:38,239 --> 00:50:42,160
Speaker 1: And so what I was testing, what we three of

836
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:43,920
Speaker 1: us kind of were tesked with for the for the

837
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:47,239
Speaker 1: few years after that, was converting selfie fans into chain

838
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:55,400
Speaker 1: smokers fans. Um. But eventually what happened was, Um, Republic

839
00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:59,080
Speaker 1: let them go, and I brought them over and signed

840
00:50:59,080 --> 00:51:02,359
Speaker 1: them to my late Okay, a little bit slower. Did

841
00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:11,520
Speaker 1: you negotiate them away or did they let them go? Um,

842
00:51:12,440 --> 00:51:15,759
Speaker 1: we had a conversation, had a conversation, but based on

843
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:19,360
Speaker 1: prior conversation, you were not thrilled with the job Republic

844
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:25,200
Speaker 1: was doing with your act. I will talk, okay. Is

845
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:28,760
Speaker 1: that Monty is specializes in this and picking up records,

846
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:31,799
Speaker 1: which he actually learned from Doug, and that was successful.

847
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:34,440
Speaker 1: But you did not have another successful track at Universal.

848
00:51:34,640 --> 00:51:36,719
Speaker 1: I don't want to go there. I don't think we

849
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:38,920
Speaker 1: got to that point. I just you know, they signed

850
00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:42,360
Speaker 1: a novelty record, and they got a novelty record. Um,

851
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:45,840
Speaker 1: that's not what that band was meant to do or

852
00:51:45,920 --> 00:51:50,200
Speaker 1: wanted to do. Okay, did they ever put out an album? Now? Okay,

853
00:51:50,239 --> 00:51:52,520
Speaker 1: they just put out how many tracks? We put out?

854
00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:58,040
Speaker 1: Three songs? Okay. And it was amicable with Republicans. Okay,

855
00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:02,560
Speaker 1: so you're bringing him over to the Disruptor, yes, um, yes,

856
00:52:02,719 --> 00:52:05,319
Speaker 1: so it was definitely amicable. And Monty is still a

857
00:52:05,320 --> 00:52:10,360
Speaker 1: good friend and mentor to me to this day. Um. So,

858
00:52:10,680 --> 00:52:13,880
Speaker 1: you know, they really didn't have any choices because they

859
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:17,360
Speaker 1: were the guys that had a novelty record, so you know,

860
00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:21,440
Speaker 1: they uh, you know, luckily I had this labeled to

861
00:52:21,640 --> 00:52:25,080
Speaker 1: give them a um an outlet to put out music.

862
00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:27,680
Speaker 1: And so we brought them over to my label and

863
00:52:28,120 --> 00:52:33,920
Speaker 1: they had made all this music. Um um. They had

864
00:52:33,960 --> 00:52:37,120
Speaker 1: made about ten songs over this period that they hadn't

865
00:52:37,160 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: been able to release. And so I said to them,

866
00:52:39,040 --> 00:52:44,680
Speaker 1: you know, let's just release a song every month and

867
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:47,880
Speaker 1: we will feed our core fans that really care about

868
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:51,000
Speaker 1: us and will continue to tour, and we'll just build

869
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:55,080
Speaker 1: it organically, and our fans will love us because they

870
00:52:55,120 --> 00:52:57,560
Speaker 1: love chain smokers and if we deliver them a chain

871
00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:02,680
Speaker 1: Smoker song every month, it's better than that. And hopefully

872
00:53:02,760 --> 00:53:05,319
Speaker 1: every time we released one of those songs will make

873
00:53:05,360 --> 00:53:10,239
Speaker 1: a few new fans. And so UM none of the

874
00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:14,759
Speaker 1: other labels at Sony UM, because my joint venture, I

875
00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:17,439
Speaker 1: can go through any of the labels at Sony. None

876
00:53:17,440 --> 00:53:20,680
Speaker 1: of them wanted to work with the Chain Smokers because

877
00:53:20,680 --> 00:53:25,440
Speaker 1: they were the guys who and chose and who chose Universal,

878
00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:30,680
Speaker 1: And so I was on my own. And so we

879
00:53:30,719 --> 00:53:36,600
Speaker 1: started putting out UM a song a month, and you know,

880
00:53:36,719 --> 00:53:38,960
Speaker 1: three or four months go by, three or four songs

881
00:53:39,000 --> 00:53:42,160
Speaker 1: come out, and I'm looking at the data and you know,

882
00:53:42,200 --> 00:53:45,600
Speaker 1: one of the amazing things about Doug Um is that,

883
00:53:45,920 --> 00:53:48,799
Speaker 1: you know, he really mentored me and like taught me

884
00:53:49,120 --> 00:53:53,920
Speaker 1: how to read records, UM the way we don't, a

885
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:57,440
Speaker 1: different way than we read records today. UM. But I

886
00:53:57,440 --> 00:54:02,560
Speaker 1: would look at UM, you know, numbers by city, downloads

887
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:08,640
Speaker 1: by city, UM, and I noticed that this one song,

888
00:54:08,719 --> 00:54:12,000
Speaker 1: which was the second song we put out, was selling

889
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:16,279
Speaker 1: and streaming double what the other songs were doing. And

890
00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:18,880
Speaker 1: then I was like, something's going on here this record.

891
00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:24,479
Speaker 1: Why is this record doing more than our normal and UM,

892
00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:29,240
Speaker 1: I H I started looking at Shazam and I found

893
00:54:29,239 --> 00:54:32,120
Speaker 1: that it was Shazam ing in UM Houston and San

894
00:54:32,160 --> 00:54:38,239
Speaker 1: Francisco and I brought it to Doug and UM. When

895
00:54:38,239 --> 00:54:40,480
Speaker 1: I walked into his office, Rob Stringer was in his

896
00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:44,920
Speaker 1: office and I said, Doug, Doug, this record jasaming in

897
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:47,480
Speaker 1: Houston and San Francisco, like, I think I got something here,

898
00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:51,839
Speaker 1: and Rob was like, what, Yeah, you should probably show

899
00:54:51,880 --> 00:54:54,359
Speaker 1: this at some of the team at Columbia. And so

900
00:54:54,520 --> 00:54:58,880
Speaker 1: I showed it to the guys at Columbia and actually

901
00:54:58,920 --> 00:55:01,920
Speaker 1: that's not true. I called UM in A and R

902
00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:06,279
Speaker 1: Columbia and got his message that he was on his honeymoon.

903
00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:09,160
Speaker 1: And I left him a message, figuring I'll never hear

904
00:55:09,239 --> 00:55:13,440
Speaker 1: back from them. And UM. About three days later, I

905
00:55:13,440 --> 00:55:17,000
Speaker 1: got a call from a different guy saying, hey, so

906
00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:19,200
Speaker 1: and so told me to check his voicemail and I

907
00:55:19,200 --> 00:55:21,160
Speaker 1: got your message and I just looked at this record

908
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:25,600
Speaker 1: and I think you got something here. And UM. By

909
00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:28,520
Speaker 1: that time I had already started going to radio myself.

910
00:55:29,440 --> 00:55:35,040
Speaker 1: UM and Columbia came in and up streamed it, and

911
00:55:36,440 --> 00:55:39,400
Speaker 1: we continue to put out a song every month. They

912
00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:43,799
Speaker 1: let me keep doing what I was doing. UM, but

913
00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:47,080
Speaker 1: it was really unheard of at the time to put

914
00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:50,719
Speaker 1: out records when you're working a record at radio. But

915
00:55:50,840 --> 00:55:54,919
Speaker 1: my attitude was I'm delivering to the fan. The fan

916
00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:58,279
Speaker 1: has been listening to this record already for a really

917
00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:01,040
Speaker 1: long time. You go play it for the masters on

918
00:56:01,040 --> 00:56:03,360
Speaker 1: the radio, and I'm going to keep delivering to my

919
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:05,759
Speaker 1: fan because I want my artists to keep being able

920
00:56:05,800 --> 00:56:08,600
Speaker 1: to tour. And they just let me do it. And

921
00:56:08,640 --> 00:56:12,319
Speaker 1: it worked. But everyone people didn't understand it. Radio didn't

922
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:17,279
Speaker 1: understand it. Even streaming services didn't really understand why I

923
00:56:17,320 --> 00:56:22,520
Speaker 1: was doing it. Um, And you know what ended up

924
00:56:22,560 --> 00:56:24,799
Speaker 1: happening is we just started having hit after hit after

925
00:56:24,880 --> 00:56:28,719
Speaker 1: hit after hit, and because there were different singers on

926
00:56:28,719 --> 00:56:31,719
Speaker 1: the songs, we got to a point where we could

927
00:56:31,760 --> 00:56:34,400
Speaker 1: have multiple songs on the radio at the same time.

928
00:56:35,760 --> 00:56:39,640
Speaker 1: And you know, and then we just went on a

929
00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:46,840
Speaker 1: on a crazy run. Um. And you know now they've

930
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:51,000
Speaker 1: and and you know since then, um, you know, Drew

931
00:56:51,080 --> 00:56:54,239
Speaker 1: became a singer, Alex became a piano player, and they

932
00:56:54,239 --> 00:56:59,520
Speaker 1: really evolved and now this DJ act is a full band. Okay,

933
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:02,359
Speaker 1: just stopping there for a second. How many acts are

934
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:06,000
Speaker 1: signed to Disruptor right now? Eight eight on the label

935
00:57:06,239 --> 00:57:11,120
Speaker 1: five that we manage? Okay, so how's the if you

936
00:57:11,239 --> 00:57:13,600
Speaker 1: have a management deal? That's all about the money. But

937
00:57:13,640 --> 00:57:17,280
Speaker 1: how's the money split up? Um, if you're both signed

938
00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:21,200
Speaker 1: to label and manage from me. UM. So if you're

939
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:25,240
Speaker 1: signed to label and managed by me, UM, the label

940
00:57:25,320 --> 00:57:29,320
Speaker 1: does not take UM three sixty rights because you're already

941
00:57:29,320 --> 00:57:32,959
Speaker 1: paying commission and we don't commission your record royalties because

942
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:35,600
Speaker 1: you're signed to our label. So it's actually from a

943
00:57:35,640 --> 00:57:40,200
Speaker 1: financial level, really really beneficial, UM, because we don't double

944
00:57:40,240 --> 00:57:44,760
Speaker 1: dip obviously. And who other than the Chain Smokers has

945
00:57:44,800 --> 00:57:48,480
Speaker 1: been successful on your label? UM? Well them the most

946
00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:53,120
Speaker 1: by far. UM. The next biggest artist I would say,

947
00:57:53,320 --> 00:57:57,520
Speaker 1: UM that that we've had for a while is lost Kings. UM.

948
00:57:57,560 --> 00:58:00,320
Speaker 1: But I just recently signed signed this dis these star

949
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:04,720
Speaker 1: named Dove Cameron, who I'm super excited about. Okay. So

950
00:58:04,960 --> 00:58:07,680
Speaker 1: of the acts that are signed, how many your electronic

951
00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:11,720
Speaker 1: music acts? Three? Okay? So it is all types of

952
00:58:12,040 --> 00:58:14,880
Speaker 1: all types. I sign what I like. That's it. Okay,

953
00:58:15,200 --> 00:58:19,000
Speaker 1: So the Chain Smokers, let's play that out. So where

954
00:58:19,160 --> 00:58:24,360
Speaker 1: where the Chain Smokers at today? Um? They are full bands.

955
00:58:24,800 --> 00:58:27,800
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, UM, they write and sing all the

956
00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:30,680
Speaker 1: and play the instruments on all their own songs. I mean,

957
00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:33,040
Speaker 1: you know, they write with other people, but you know

958
00:58:33,120 --> 00:58:37,680
Speaker 1: they're the main songwriter, UM for the most part. And

959
00:58:38,200 --> 00:58:41,800
Speaker 1: you know they do arenas. UM. They have a residency

960
00:58:41,840 --> 00:58:45,720
Speaker 1: in Vegas which is still djaying. UM. They have a

961
00:58:45,800 --> 00:58:50,120
Speaker 1: lot of other businesses that are involved that they're involved in. Um.

962
00:58:50,280 --> 00:58:54,120
Speaker 1: We have a film and television production company. We have

963
00:58:54,680 --> 00:59:01,600
Speaker 1: a tequila we have a ticketing company that we found it. UM.

964
00:59:01,680 --> 00:59:04,200
Speaker 1: We do a lot of different things, and of those

965
00:59:04,240 --> 00:59:12,320
Speaker 1: other things profitable. Uh answer okay, And the acts where

966
00:59:12,320 --> 00:59:16,920
Speaker 1: you're not the manager, those are three sixty deals. Uh, yes,

967
00:59:16,960 --> 00:59:21,160
Speaker 1: they are so. Like I said, we're the type of

968
00:59:21,280 --> 00:59:24,240
Speaker 1: label that actually helps in the areas where we take

969
00:59:24,240 --> 00:59:26,960
Speaker 1: three sixty. We don't just take three sixty and not

970
00:59:27,040 --> 00:59:31,040
Speaker 1: do the work. How many people work for Disruptor right now? Um?

971
00:59:31,080 --> 00:59:35,000
Speaker 1: Full time seven Um. But the great thing about the

972
00:59:35,080 --> 00:59:37,400
Speaker 1: joint venture setup is that you get to use all

973
00:59:37,440 --> 00:59:40,680
Speaker 1: the departments at Sony. How do you motivate them to

974
00:59:40,720 --> 00:59:45,640
Speaker 1: work for you? I don't think I need to. I

975
00:59:45,680 --> 00:59:49,080
Speaker 1: think everyone's super motivated and wants to work. But they

976
00:59:49,120 --> 00:59:55,320
Speaker 1: only work if the record is upstreamed. No. UM, you

977
00:59:55,360 --> 00:59:59,040
Speaker 1: mean the individual labels, Yes they do, but we you know,

978
00:59:59,120 --> 01:00:04,240
Speaker 1: we use other Sony resources like legal and graphic design, okay,

979
01:00:04,280 --> 01:00:08,280
Speaker 1: and you're not charged back for that stuff. Okay, But

980
01:00:08,360 --> 01:00:13,439
Speaker 1: Doug ultimately leaves. How does that? Where does that leave you? Um? Well,

981
01:00:13,560 --> 01:00:18,360
Speaker 1: by that time, you know, we were doing great and UM,

982
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:24,080
Speaker 1: I got super lucky because the best next person for

983
01:00:24,120 --> 01:00:26,560
Speaker 1: me to get the job was Rob and Rob and

984
01:00:26,600 --> 01:00:30,680
Speaker 1: I had just gone on this historic run at Columbia

985
01:00:30,760 --> 01:00:36,200
Speaker 1: with the chain smokers, um, and he was far and away.

986
01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:38,400
Speaker 1: There was no other choice for that job. He was

987
01:00:38,440 --> 01:00:41,000
Speaker 1: the best for it, and I couldn't have asked. Okay,

988
01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:44,760
Speaker 1: so who your mentors today? Oh goodness, it's a long list.

989
01:00:45,280 --> 01:00:56,440
Speaker 1: I mean Rob number one, Doug Um, there's so many Um,

990
01:00:56,640 --> 01:01:04,840
Speaker 1: Rob Light, Um, Marty bandar Um. You know, I've been

991
01:01:04,920 --> 01:01:06,760
Speaker 1: lucky to work with a lot of great Okay, So

992
01:01:06,920 --> 01:01:09,840
Speaker 1: what is your style? You're the guy who actually jumps

993
01:01:09,880 --> 01:01:11,920
Speaker 1: on the phone or do an email guy? What kind

994
01:01:11,920 --> 01:01:14,600
Speaker 1: of how do you operate? Um? I do everything I work.

995
01:01:17,280 --> 01:01:20,280
Speaker 1: I do a lot of email, but I I don't

996
01:01:20,320 --> 01:01:22,960
Speaker 1: email a second time. If if I don't get the

997
01:01:23,040 --> 01:01:25,400
Speaker 1: email back, I don't get the email response I want,

998
01:01:25,440 --> 01:01:28,960
Speaker 1: then I'm on the phone right away. I hate when

999
01:01:29,040 --> 01:01:31,680
Speaker 1: somebody who works for me says, oh so I haven't

1000
01:01:31,720 --> 01:01:36,000
Speaker 1: heard from so and some call. Um. You know that

1001
01:01:36,360 --> 01:01:38,240
Speaker 1: things always get worked out if you pick up the phone.

1002
01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:40,280
Speaker 1: And about how many phone calls do you make a day?

1003
01:01:41,480 --> 01:01:45,600
Speaker 1: I never counted. I think I get I think I get, um,

1004
01:01:45,640 --> 01:01:48,960
Speaker 1: six thousand emails a day. But how do you decide

1005
01:01:49,000 --> 01:01:52,720
Speaker 1: what to read? I read every single email, six thousand emails.

1006
01:01:52,760 --> 01:01:54,600
Speaker 1: I get a lot of email. That's you know, your

1007
01:01:54,640 --> 01:01:57,320
Speaker 1: your brain goes into a fog after a certain number.

1008
01:01:58,680 --> 01:02:02,920
Speaker 1: I'm a different generation. I'm not sure that's true. Okay, boom,

1009
01:02:03,040 --> 01:02:06,120
Speaker 1: But so I asked my wife. Okay, we're looking at

1010
01:02:06,160 --> 01:02:09,000
Speaker 1: the business. We're along this uh and in this timeline,

1011
01:02:09,000 --> 01:02:12,360
Speaker 1: do you meet your wife? My wife three years ago?

1012
01:02:13,200 --> 01:02:17,760
Speaker 1: She was in the studio when they were recording Paris. Okay,

1013
01:02:17,960 --> 01:02:22,600
Speaker 1: she was there? Why? Uh? Because the studio was around

1014
01:02:22,640 --> 01:02:26,320
Speaker 1: the corner from our from our apartment at the time. No,

1015
01:02:26,440 --> 01:02:29,640
Speaker 1: I mean, why was how you met her there? No? No,

1016
01:02:29,720 --> 01:02:31,960
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that's that's the point in my career

1017
01:02:31,960 --> 01:02:37,080
Speaker 1: where the Chain Smokers that that she we met. Okay, Well,

1018
01:02:37,240 --> 01:02:40,520
Speaker 1: was that really the time you met? Yeah? Like I mean,

1019
01:02:40,920 --> 01:02:43,000
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about just in a lifespan of the

1020
01:02:43,080 --> 01:02:47,680
Speaker 1: Chain Smokers. Okay, So just how did you literally meet

1021
01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:52,560
Speaker 1: A friend introduced us. A friend told me about her

1022
01:02:53,120 --> 01:02:55,080
Speaker 1: and that he wanted to set me up with her,

1023
01:02:55,840 --> 01:02:59,800
Speaker 1: and I wanted to get set up with her. And

1024
01:03:01,120 --> 01:03:05,480
Speaker 1: he had tried to get her to come out to

1025
01:03:05,560 --> 01:03:09,080
Speaker 1: a social gathering, out one night to a bar restaurant,

1026
01:03:09,200 --> 01:03:12,400
Speaker 1: and she always said no. Um. I think she had

1027
01:03:12,400 --> 01:03:15,360
Speaker 1: a fear of dating anyone in the music business. I

1028
01:03:15,400 --> 01:03:20,520
Speaker 1: don't really know why. Um. So strategically, what I did

1029
01:03:21,080 --> 01:03:26,040
Speaker 1: was on my friend's birthday, I got him four tickets

1030
01:03:26,160 --> 01:03:30,560
Speaker 1: to Kanye West at Madison Square Garden. Um. This was

1031
01:03:30,600 --> 01:03:34,320
Speaker 1: the tour three years ago when he was on the stage. Yeah,

1032
01:03:34,440 --> 01:03:37,920
Speaker 1: And so I said, here's four tickets to Kanye, bring

1033
01:03:37,960 --> 01:03:43,080
Speaker 1: your girlfriend me and asked Ashley if she wants to go.

1034
01:03:43,320 --> 01:03:46,360
Speaker 1: So I kind of set up a double date um

1035
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:50,040
Speaker 1: on purpose, using my friend, and he did and she came.

1036
01:03:50,360 --> 01:03:52,760
Speaker 1: And so that was kind of like the first night

1037
01:03:52,800 --> 01:03:54,840
Speaker 1: we met. Was that cokay, and you were since you'd

1038
01:03:54,880 --> 01:03:57,200
Speaker 1: never met her, she was so appealing to you because

1039
01:03:57,960 --> 01:04:01,040
Speaker 1: I thought she was cute, okay, and how long you're

1040
01:04:01,080 --> 01:04:04,600
Speaker 1: instant you go to Kanye you're smitten? Is she smitten?

1041
01:04:05,680 --> 01:04:08,520
Speaker 1: I was? She definitely was not smitten at that. So

1042
01:04:08,560 --> 01:04:13,720
Speaker 1: how did your closer, um convinced her to come out

1043
01:04:13,760 --> 01:04:17,080
Speaker 1: with me another night? And and then I closed there? Okay?

1044
01:04:17,120 --> 01:04:19,800
Speaker 1: And what was she doing for work at the time? Um?

1045
01:04:20,040 --> 01:04:23,080
Speaker 1: She was a model? She is a model. So she

1046
01:04:23,120 --> 01:04:26,160
Speaker 1: continues to work as a model. Yes, Well, they say

1047
01:04:26,200 --> 01:04:29,800
Speaker 1: that rock stars and models work because they understand the

1048
01:04:29,800 --> 01:04:32,480
Speaker 1: same schedule and that you know you wake up late,

1049
01:04:32,480 --> 01:04:34,720
Speaker 1: you work night, you know you work heavily certain days.

1050
01:04:35,120 --> 01:04:40,000
Speaker 1: Does she understand your schedule? Absolutely? And she's fine with

1051
01:04:40,040 --> 01:04:46,800
Speaker 1: you working seven? That's debatable. And you have how many kids?

1052
01:04:47,360 --> 01:04:49,600
Speaker 1: One on the way, one on the way. Okay, so

1053
01:04:49,640 --> 01:04:54,720
Speaker 1: you haven't hit that threshold? No, when is that coming February? Okay?

1054
01:04:54,560 --> 01:04:58,120
Speaker 1: So is that something you wanted to do at this point? Okay?

1055
01:04:58,480 --> 01:05:02,800
Speaker 1: So how many kids do you want? Well? I think

1056
01:05:03,000 --> 01:05:06,080
Speaker 1: probably three, but my attitude is let's start with one

1057
01:05:06,080 --> 01:05:10,320
Speaker 1: and see how that goes. Yeah, okay, so you're doing

1058
01:05:10,360 --> 01:05:16,280
Speaker 1: this now? So how much are you traveling now? Um?

1059
01:05:16,320 --> 01:05:18,880
Speaker 1: A lot? I travel a lot. I mean I'm definitely

1060
01:05:18,960 --> 01:05:21,880
Speaker 1: I'm in l a four or five days a week.

1061
01:05:22,400 --> 01:05:26,120
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, four or five days a month. Um, And

1062
01:05:26,160 --> 01:05:29,720
Speaker 1: I go to shows and festivals and meetings when when

1063
01:05:29,760 --> 01:05:32,760
Speaker 1: I have to be there. Okay, so what's the dream?

1064
01:05:32,760 --> 01:05:38,480
Speaker 1: Not if you're not living great now? Um, there's nothing

1065
01:05:38,520 --> 01:05:42,080
Speaker 1: more satisfying to me than breaking artists, you know. So

1066
01:05:42,200 --> 01:05:45,560
Speaker 1: for me, first and foremost, it's about breaking as many

1067
01:05:45,640 --> 01:05:49,240
Speaker 1: artists as I can and building disruptor the label, UM

1068
01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:51,720
Speaker 1: to be the biggest it can be. Um. You know,

1069
01:05:51,800 --> 01:05:59,320
Speaker 1: obviously I'm entrepreneurial, and I'm really interested in tech and

1070
01:05:59,360 --> 01:06:02,200
Speaker 1: how it can help music business and you know, film

1071
01:06:02,200 --> 01:06:06,480
Speaker 1: and television and other aspects of the entertainment industry. Um.

1072
01:06:06,520 --> 01:06:11,960
Speaker 1: Like I said, we have the film and television production company. UM.

1073
01:06:12,000 --> 01:06:14,840
Speaker 1: But yeah, building a label breaking artists number one. Does

1074
01:06:14,880 --> 01:06:17,720
Speaker 1: anyone try to poach you do a different job as

1075
01:06:17,720 --> 01:06:21,200
Speaker 1: opposed to working your joint venture? Absolutely? And what your

1076
01:06:21,360 --> 01:06:25,120
Speaker 1: what do you tell them now? I'm good, no matter

1077
01:06:25,160 --> 01:06:28,680
Speaker 1: how much do they throw on the table. Uh. It

1078
01:06:28,720 --> 01:06:37,120
Speaker 1: never gets to that point. So one thing we were

1079
01:06:37,160 --> 01:06:39,040
Speaker 1: talking about the last time, we were talking about the

1080
01:06:39,080 --> 01:06:42,400
Speaker 1: way you constructed album on Spotify. Oh yes, so can

1081
01:06:42,440 --> 01:06:45,120
Speaker 1: you tell my audience about that? Yeah? So you know

1082
01:06:45,280 --> 01:06:47,480
Speaker 1: in those days when the Chain Smokers and I were

1083
01:06:47,480 --> 01:06:50,040
Speaker 1: putting out a song a month, nobody was doing that

1084
01:06:50,120 --> 01:06:51,919
Speaker 1: like that. That was tell us what you were doing.

1085
01:06:52,680 --> 01:06:54,560
Speaker 1: At that time, we were just putting out a single

1086
01:06:54,600 --> 01:06:58,360
Speaker 1: every four weeks on the dot and UM, nobody was

1087
01:06:58,440 --> 01:07:03,600
Speaker 1: doing that and UM. So so we just kept on

1088
01:07:03,680 --> 01:07:06,840
Speaker 1: doing that. And each year what we would do is

1089
01:07:06,960 --> 01:07:09,720
Speaker 1: we would just at the end, we were just wrap

1090
01:07:09,760 --> 01:07:14,400
Speaker 1: it into an EP. UM. And so we had two

1091
01:07:14,680 --> 01:07:19,480
Speaker 1: you know, eventually we had two EPs. And by that

1092
01:07:19,560 --> 01:07:24,880
Speaker 1: point we had had like four or five global hits. UM.

1093
01:07:24,920 --> 01:07:27,960
Speaker 1: You know, Closer, which was one of the biggest songs

1094
01:07:27,960 --> 01:07:32,000
Speaker 1: of the decade. UM. And so they said, you know,

1095
01:07:32,360 --> 01:07:36,320
Speaker 1: we really want to do an album because we've never

1096
01:07:36,360 --> 01:07:38,520
Speaker 1: done it before, and we want to make a body

1097
01:07:38,520 --> 01:07:40,240
Speaker 1: of work and we want to see what that's like

1098
01:07:40,360 --> 01:07:42,920
Speaker 1: and we want to experience that and and and at

1099
01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:47,040
Speaker 1: that time, you know, we had all felt like we deserved,

1100
01:07:47,040 --> 01:07:50,920
Speaker 1: we had earned the right to put out an album. UM.

1101
01:07:50,960 --> 01:07:55,920
Speaker 1: You know, we had we had UM. I think by

1102
01:07:55,920 --> 01:07:58,080
Speaker 1: that time we were there was a there was a

1103
01:07:58,120 --> 01:08:01,280
Speaker 1: time where we had we were in uh the billboard

1104
01:08:01,640 --> 01:08:04,000
Speaker 1: top ten for sixty one weeks in a row or

1105
01:08:04,040 --> 01:08:08,720
Speaker 1: something like that. UM, and we had just had three

1106
01:08:08,760 --> 01:08:11,040
Speaker 1: songs in the top ten on billboards. Like we really

1107
01:08:11,080 --> 01:08:14,280
Speaker 1: felt like we had earned the right to put out

1108
01:08:14,280 --> 01:08:16,439
Speaker 1: an album, and so they did it. They made an

1109
01:08:16,479 --> 01:08:19,600
Speaker 1: album and and and making that album was one of

1110
01:08:19,640 --> 01:08:22,960
Speaker 1: the hardest That first album, UM, Memories Do Not Open

1111
01:08:23,120 --> 01:08:25,160
Speaker 1: was probably one of the hardest things that I was

1112
01:08:25,200 --> 01:08:28,759
Speaker 1: ever involved in. It was just so much work and

1113
01:08:28,960 --> 01:08:34,400
Speaker 1: we did uh the traditional single single album rollout, and

1114
01:08:34,439 --> 01:08:38,800
Speaker 1: the album came out UM. I want to say in

1115
01:08:38,880 --> 01:08:42,559
Speaker 1: like March or April, I don't remember exactly, but what

1116
01:08:42,600 --> 01:08:46,280
Speaker 1: happened was, even though we had two big hits and

1117
01:08:46,320 --> 01:08:49,240
Speaker 1: they were all over the radio, after they put the

1118
01:08:49,280 --> 01:08:52,960
Speaker 1: album out, they couldn't put music out for six or

1119
01:08:53,000 --> 01:08:56,519
Speaker 1: eight months, and it destroyed them. They didn't know that

1120
01:08:56,680 --> 01:08:59,559
Speaker 1: they had never experienced what it felt like to not

1121
01:08:59,680 --> 01:09:02,679
Speaker 1: put music all the time. Even though they were super

1122
01:09:02,680 --> 01:09:04,560
Speaker 1: proud of this album, they were like, when can we

1123
01:09:04,600 --> 01:09:06,639
Speaker 1: put out another song? When can we put another another song?

1124
01:09:06,760 --> 01:09:10,400
Speaker 1: So they got super frustrated. UM. And the way we

1125
01:09:10,479 --> 01:09:15,360
Speaker 1: defined success of that album was based on the consumption

1126
01:09:15,640 --> 01:09:20,200
Speaker 1: of the songs that weren't singles. And you know, it

1127
01:09:20,280 --> 01:09:22,640
Speaker 1: was the number one album and it went platinum. But

1128
01:09:22,720 --> 01:09:24,479
Speaker 1: the thing I think for us that was the most

1129
01:09:24,479 --> 01:09:27,920
Speaker 1: satisfying is that the non singles were all consumed in

1130
01:09:28,120 --> 01:09:32,519
Speaker 1: equal amount, which meant people were actually consuming this album.

1131
01:09:32,560 --> 01:09:36,400
Speaker 1: So we had kind of checked that box and UM

1132
01:09:36,439 --> 01:09:40,519
Speaker 1: after that, they were like, no, we can't do like this,

1133
01:09:40,640 --> 01:09:45,280
Speaker 1: this doesn't work for us. So so we came up

1134
01:09:45,320 --> 01:09:48,080
Speaker 1: this way to kind of marry the two strategies where

1135
01:09:48,080 --> 01:09:51,720
Speaker 1: we can make a body of work, put out an

1136
01:09:51,720 --> 01:09:56,760
Speaker 1: album but also released music regularly. UM and so we

1137
01:09:56,800 --> 01:10:00,160
Speaker 1: came up with this strategy called the building album, whereby

1138
01:10:00,280 --> 01:10:05,920
Speaker 1: essentially we release a song every month or two, and

1139
01:10:06,320 --> 01:10:10,639
Speaker 1: instead of making it a single on streaming platforms, we

1140
01:10:11,000 --> 01:10:13,920
Speaker 1: add it to the records that have come out before it.

1141
01:10:14,120 --> 01:10:17,280
Speaker 1: So the first song comes out, and the second song

1142
01:10:17,360 --> 01:10:19,639
Speaker 1: comes out and it's a two song album. Then when

1143
01:10:19,680 --> 01:10:22,720
Speaker 1: the third song comes out, it's a three song album.

1144
01:10:22,800 --> 01:10:25,920
Speaker 1: And what we would do is deliver these products and

1145
01:10:25,960 --> 01:10:30,320
Speaker 1: revoke the product before it. UM. People who work at

1146
01:10:30,360 --> 01:10:33,160
Speaker 1: labels know what I mean when I'm saying that, But basically,

1147
01:10:33,160 --> 01:10:35,559
Speaker 1: you deliver a four song album and the three song

1148
01:10:35,600 --> 01:10:38,280
Speaker 1: album that was there before you take down. But you

1149
01:10:38,320 --> 01:10:41,360
Speaker 1: can still stream it. It's just not an album. It's

1150
01:10:41,439 --> 01:10:45,519
Speaker 1: a four song album. But okay, what would you saw

1151
01:10:45,560 --> 01:10:48,120
Speaker 1: on the fourth on the fourth month when the fourth

1152
01:10:48,160 --> 01:10:50,920
Speaker 1: song comes out? We put out a four song album

1153
01:10:50,960 --> 01:10:53,960
Speaker 1: which has one new song and the three songs that

1154
01:10:54,000 --> 01:10:56,880
Speaker 1: have come out prior. But the month before we had

1155
01:10:56,920 --> 01:11:00,759
Speaker 1: put out a three song album. So when the fourth

1156
01:11:00,760 --> 01:11:04,439
Speaker 1: song album comes out, we take down the product that

1157
01:11:04,560 --> 01:11:06,640
Speaker 1: was the three song album that we had released a

1158
01:11:06,680 --> 01:11:10,800
Speaker 1: month prior. And so it's an album that increases by

1159
01:11:10,840 --> 01:11:14,760
Speaker 1: one song every time we release a song. And what

1160
01:11:14,840 --> 01:11:17,559
Speaker 1: that does is it keeps our album as the most

1161
01:11:17,880 --> 01:11:24,000
Speaker 1: real as the um most recent release. Let's go slowly

1162
01:11:24,000 --> 01:11:26,040
Speaker 1: because the audience may not be able to visualize. It

1163
01:11:26,320 --> 01:11:29,240
Speaker 1: may not be able to visualize at this point in time. Yes,

1164
01:11:29,600 --> 01:11:34,320
Speaker 1: there's one ever evolving Jamee Smoker's album. Yes, and how

1165
01:11:34,360 --> 01:11:40,960
Speaker 1: many songs in maximum ten? I mean twelve months? It

1166
01:11:41,000 --> 01:11:43,559
Speaker 1: should be twelve songs, but life it's not perfect, so

1167
01:11:43,560 --> 01:11:46,599
Speaker 1: it's about tens. Okay, So if there are twelve songs

1168
01:11:46,600 --> 01:11:49,640
Speaker 1: in the album, every month a song is added and

1169
01:11:49,720 --> 01:11:54,320
Speaker 1: a song is dropped. No, every month a song is added,

1170
01:11:56,120 --> 01:12:00,559
Speaker 1: but um, the album that was put out the before

1171
01:12:01,439 --> 01:12:04,840
Speaker 1: is short a song. It's a different product every time

1172
01:12:04,880 --> 01:12:08,600
Speaker 1: you deliver the album. It's a different product on streaming services,

1173
01:12:08,640 --> 01:12:11,280
Speaker 1: so you would see, let's say we're in month four.

1174
01:12:11,600 --> 01:12:14,760
Speaker 1: When we deliver, you see a four song album, but

1175
01:12:14,840 --> 01:12:17,479
Speaker 1: there's also on their page the three song album that

1176
01:12:17,600 --> 01:12:20,439
Speaker 1: was released the month before. So we take down the

1177
01:12:20,479 --> 01:12:23,840
Speaker 1: three song album, which those three songs are still on

1178
01:12:23,920 --> 01:12:26,640
Speaker 1: the four song album, but the four song album is

1179
01:12:26,680 --> 01:12:29,719
Speaker 1: the current form because it has the one new song. Okay,

1180
01:12:29,840 --> 01:12:32,200
Speaker 1: let's go to the month after that, a five song

1181
01:12:32,280 --> 01:12:35,280
Speaker 1: album gets released with one new song and the four

1182
01:12:35,320 --> 01:12:39,640
Speaker 1: prior songs, and that four song album gets taken down. Okay,

1183
01:12:39,800 --> 01:12:45,080
Speaker 1: once you hit twelve songs, then you just keep it

1184
01:12:45,120 --> 01:12:49,400
Speaker 1: as twelve. Correct, So every month you add a track

1185
01:12:50,360 --> 01:12:53,400
Speaker 1: to the previous existing and you drop a track and

1186
01:12:53,600 --> 01:12:57,880
Speaker 1: delete that. You know, that album title. So if I

1187
01:12:57,920 --> 01:13:01,120
Speaker 1: went on streaming, if I want to Spotify, now, how

1188
01:13:01,160 --> 01:13:05,880
Speaker 1: many Chain Smoker's albums would I see? So there's two

1189
01:13:05,920 --> 01:13:11,560
Speaker 1: full albums and one album that's being built right now. Okay.

1190
01:13:11,600 --> 01:13:13,720
Speaker 1: One of those two one was obviously the album you

1191
01:13:13,760 --> 01:13:16,719
Speaker 1: were talking about the first The first one was Memories

1192
01:13:16,760 --> 01:13:19,960
Speaker 1: Doing It Open, and the second one was Sick Boy,

1193
01:13:20,040 --> 01:13:22,479
Speaker 1: which was last year, which was also done as a

1194
01:13:22,520 --> 01:13:26,240
Speaker 1: building album. Okay, so after twelve months you start a

1195
01:13:26,240 --> 01:13:29,559
Speaker 1: new album. Yeah, they make each year as a chapter.

1196
01:13:29,760 --> 01:13:32,040
Speaker 1: Each year is an okay, so tell us what the

1197
01:13:32,080 --> 01:13:35,639
Speaker 1: advantages of doing it this way are. So obviously there

1198
01:13:35,680 --> 01:13:41,440
Speaker 1: are um business advantages, but there are also artistic advantage.

1199
01:13:41,520 --> 01:13:47,559
Speaker 1: Start with, the business advantages are that every song gets

1200
01:13:47,600 --> 01:13:51,720
Speaker 1: its own campaign, Every song gets its own life, its

1201
01:13:51,720 --> 01:13:56,240
Speaker 1: own chance to be something, and the fans get the

1202
01:13:56,280 --> 01:14:00,120
Speaker 1: opportunity to decide if a song is if they love

1203
01:14:00,240 --> 01:14:03,080
Speaker 1: something so much that it should be a single. Um.

1204
01:14:03,280 --> 01:14:07,559
Speaker 1: So you know, every song gets playlisted and saved and

1205
01:14:07,640 --> 01:14:12,840
Speaker 1: shared and a music video and thus there you know,

1206
01:14:12,920 --> 01:14:15,120
Speaker 1: blood sweat and tears that they put into each song

1207
01:14:15,960 --> 01:14:21,200
Speaker 1: is validated because each gets a shot. Where you know, nowadays,

1208
01:14:21,640 --> 01:14:23,680
Speaker 1: when you put out an album, the singles get all

1209
01:14:23,680 --> 01:14:26,679
Speaker 1: the shine and the album cuts only the hardcore fans

1210
01:14:26,720 --> 01:14:31,000
Speaker 1: listen to. And they but that artist spent months and

1211
01:14:31,120 --> 01:14:34,360
Speaker 1: years and money and blood, sweat and tears putting those

1212
01:14:34,360 --> 01:14:38,320
Speaker 1: other ten songs together. They don't deserve to get under

1213
01:14:38,600 --> 01:14:41,920
Speaker 1: listened to, basically, you know, and that that that was

1214
01:14:41,960 --> 01:14:44,080
Speaker 1: what we were hoping to avoid with our first album,

1215
01:14:44,120 --> 01:14:48,479
Speaker 1: and I think we did, but we just find so

1216
01:14:48,560 --> 01:14:51,360
Speaker 1: much more satisfaction when each song Traditionally, let's you know,

1217
01:14:51,400 --> 01:14:53,800
Speaker 1: there are many people they put on an album and

1218
01:14:53,880 --> 01:14:55,840
Speaker 1: the album. The album could be over in a day.

1219
01:14:55,920 --> 01:14:58,680
Speaker 1: At this point, they can see skip rates on Spotify

1220
01:14:58,800 --> 01:15:00,760
Speaker 1: and if they're in the albums, they may not have

1221
01:15:00,800 --> 01:15:04,400
Speaker 1: another album for years. Correct. Okay, So would you advise

1222
01:15:05,240 --> 01:15:10,040
Speaker 1: other acts to do this? Absolutely? I mean listen, there's well,

1223
01:15:10,760 --> 01:15:14,720
Speaker 1: why don't we get to the artistic Okay? Okay, I figured, okay,

1224
01:15:14,840 --> 01:15:19,000
Speaker 1: keep going. So the artistic points, and this is where

1225
01:15:19,000 --> 01:15:22,840
Speaker 1: Alexandrew really came up with it was that what what

1226
01:15:22,960 --> 01:15:27,000
Speaker 1: they learned when they put out the traditional album was

1227
01:15:27,040 --> 01:15:28,920
Speaker 1: that by the time it came out and in the

1228
01:15:29,000 --> 01:15:32,000
Speaker 1: months after the songs that they had written they were

1229
01:15:32,040 --> 01:15:35,800
Speaker 1: on that album, we're not how they felt anymore. So

1230
01:15:35,840 --> 01:15:37,439
Speaker 1: they were like, that's how I felt when I was

1231
01:15:37,479 --> 01:15:39,960
Speaker 1: writing this, but it's not how I feel right now

1232
01:15:40,800 --> 01:15:44,479
Speaker 1: and in in this world like with instant gratification, like

1233
01:15:44,840 --> 01:15:47,280
Speaker 1: they're like, we want to write a song and put

1234
01:15:47,320 --> 01:15:52,719
Speaker 1: it out. And so that's what the building album strategy allows.

1235
01:15:52,840 --> 01:15:55,479
Speaker 1: We don't finish ten songs and then put them out

1236
01:15:55,560 --> 01:15:58,400
Speaker 1: once a month. They finish it, then it's the next song.

1237
01:15:58,520 --> 01:16:00,639
Speaker 1: They finished, the next one, then the next. But if

1238
01:16:00,640 --> 01:16:04,840
Speaker 1: there's more than one per month, uh, you know, they're

1239
01:16:04,840 --> 01:16:07,880
Speaker 1: always working on a few at a time, and then

1240
01:16:07,920 --> 01:16:10,280
Speaker 1: they decide which one's next, and which one comes after that,

1241
01:16:10,360 --> 01:16:13,240
Speaker 1: which one comes out. It's kind of like they're finishing

1242
01:16:13,280 --> 01:16:16,920
Speaker 1: them and putting them out on a rolling basis essentially. UM.

1243
01:16:17,520 --> 01:16:21,840
Speaker 1: But it's so great for them because you know, if

1244
01:16:21,880 --> 01:16:24,280
Speaker 1: they're depressed, they write a depressing song, they put it out.

1245
01:16:24,320 --> 01:16:26,320
Speaker 1: If they're happy, they make a happy song, they put

1246
01:16:26,320 --> 01:16:29,400
Speaker 1: it out. So, you know, an album is supposed to

1247
01:16:29,439 --> 01:16:32,000
Speaker 1: be a body of work based on how the artist

1248
01:16:32,120 --> 01:16:37,600
Speaker 1: is feeling. This allows them to do that in real time. Okay,

1249
01:16:37,760 --> 01:16:40,639
Speaker 1: you put out a track, tell us how you work

1250
01:16:40,680 --> 01:16:45,639
Speaker 1: it in the marketplace. UM, we make a music video

1251
01:16:46,000 --> 01:16:51,600
Speaker 1: for every track, for every track with what kind of budget? UM,

1252
01:16:51,880 --> 01:17:01,200
Speaker 1: sometimes five dollars sometimes we they're were creative and we

1253
01:17:01,280 --> 01:17:06,519
Speaker 1: have a UM a lot of friends who do videos

1254
01:17:06,560 --> 01:17:08,920
Speaker 1: with us, UM that have been with us since day one.

1255
01:17:08,960 --> 01:17:13,320
Speaker 1: I mean we the Chain Smoker's team. Pretty much every

1256
01:17:13,360 --> 01:17:15,240
Speaker 1: person has been with us since day one, and if

1257
01:17:15,280 --> 01:17:19,200
Speaker 1: they haven't, we've never fired somebody ever. So like once

1258
01:17:19,240 --> 01:17:22,360
Speaker 1: you're in, you're in, UM. And so some of our

1259
01:17:22,439 --> 01:17:26,040
Speaker 1: video guys have been with us, you know, since they

1260
01:17:26,040 --> 01:17:29,000
Speaker 1: were following Alex and Drew to like nightclubs in New

1261
01:17:29,080 --> 01:17:33,479
Speaker 1: York City filming them, you know. UM. And so we

1262
01:17:33,479 --> 01:17:36,360
Speaker 1: we turned music videos around in a day. I mean

1263
01:17:36,680 --> 01:17:40,600
Speaker 1: the Closer the Closer lyric video UM has over a

1264
01:17:40,640 --> 01:17:45,920
Speaker 1: billion views. And our our buddy Rory, you know, rented

1265
01:17:45,920 --> 01:17:50,120
Speaker 1: a car and made it in a day. You know. UM.

1266
01:17:50,240 --> 01:17:53,679
Speaker 1: There's another recent video that we did a few months

1267
01:17:53,720 --> 01:17:57,240
Speaker 1: back for Hope that just like they did it in

1268
01:17:57,280 --> 01:17:59,439
Speaker 1: their house one night because I told them I needed

1269
01:17:59,439 --> 01:18:02,960
Speaker 1: the video by the next day and it cost me nothing.

1270
01:18:03,320 --> 01:18:06,280
Speaker 1: And I think it has like million views or something

1271
01:18:06,360 --> 01:18:09,200
Speaker 1: like that. Okay, so you have the video. How do

1272
01:18:09,240 --> 01:18:18,240
Speaker 1: you work at its streaming services? In radio? Um? It depends. UM. Obviously,

1273
01:18:18,920 --> 01:18:21,720
Speaker 1: we send streaming services the songs and we tell them

1274
01:18:21,720 --> 01:18:24,040
Speaker 1: about them and why they're important and what this one

1275
01:18:24,120 --> 01:18:26,599
Speaker 1: means and where it came from and who who they

1276
01:18:26,600 --> 01:18:32,280
Speaker 1: wrote it with and um and you know, but at

1277
01:18:32,280 --> 01:18:35,760
Speaker 1: the same time, we welcome their opinions. You know, if

1278
01:18:35,800 --> 01:18:38,439
Speaker 1: if if streaming service don't want to support one song

1279
01:18:39,080 --> 01:18:42,280
Speaker 1: more than the other, like I accept that, you know,

1280
01:18:42,400 --> 01:18:46,400
Speaker 1: like we would never for something that people didn't want

1281
01:18:46,439 --> 01:18:49,000
Speaker 1: to promote. You know, we put out a lot of songs,

1282
01:18:49,120 --> 01:18:51,960
Speaker 1: you know, UM, and at the end of the day,

1283
01:18:52,000 --> 01:18:56,120
Speaker 1: they have such a big following. UM. You know, just

1284
01:18:56,160 --> 01:18:58,799
Speaker 1: on Spotify alone, they have I think thirty eight million

1285
01:18:58,800 --> 01:19:01,599
Speaker 1: monthly listeners. Like you're gonna get a read on a record,

1286
01:19:01,600 --> 01:19:06,320
Speaker 1: whether you have playlisting or not, you know, UM and

1287
01:19:06,520 --> 01:19:11,120
Speaker 1: radio it depends, you know. The way I prefer is

1288
01:19:11,160 --> 01:19:12,960
Speaker 1: for a record to raise its hand and then we

1289
01:19:13,000 --> 01:19:16,479
Speaker 1: go UM. But also there are records that we just

1290
01:19:16,560 --> 01:19:19,160
Speaker 1: happened to think are big and have big features, and

1291
01:19:19,200 --> 01:19:23,040
Speaker 1: so we set them up, as they say, and prepare

1292
01:19:23,120 --> 01:19:28,040
Speaker 1: to impact them and and make a planned uh campaign

1293
01:19:28,040 --> 01:19:32,800
Speaker 1: at radio. Okay, but radio comes last. It works very slowly.

1294
01:19:33,400 --> 01:19:36,439
Speaker 1: How does this affect your relative to your month track?

1295
01:19:36,520 --> 01:19:41,040
Speaker 1: A month release pattern? UM is difficult. It's difficult. We

1296
01:19:41,120 --> 01:19:43,360
Speaker 1: have to navigate it. There have been times where we've

1297
01:19:43,360 --> 01:19:47,200
Speaker 1: been working a record UM, and then the next record

1298
01:19:47,240 --> 01:19:50,040
Speaker 1: we put out raises its hand and we're like, oh, wait,

1299
01:19:50,080 --> 01:19:52,080
Speaker 1: this one now, this one wants to go. We gotta

1300
01:19:52,560 --> 01:19:54,960
Speaker 1: we gotta shift, we gotta pivot to this song, or

1301
01:19:55,200 --> 01:19:58,200
Speaker 1: do we work both at the same time or so

1302
01:19:58,560 --> 01:20:01,880
Speaker 1: you know, we've we've definitely faced challenging situations. But we've

1303
01:20:01,880 --> 01:20:04,400
Speaker 1: also been in places where we had three songs on

1304
01:20:04,439 --> 01:20:07,880
Speaker 1: the chart at the same time. Okay, So what's the

1305
01:20:07,920 --> 01:20:10,679
Speaker 1: most important thing in driving success of a chain smoker's

1306
01:20:10,720 --> 01:20:18,000
Speaker 1: track driving success of a chain smoker's track the song itself. Okay,

1307
01:20:18,040 --> 01:20:22,240
Speaker 1: But then there's video, there's radio, there's uh streaming services,

1308
01:20:22,280 --> 01:20:25,080
Speaker 1: there's playlisting. If I said you have to choose one,

1309
01:20:25,200 --> 01:20:27,799
Speaker 1: what's the most important thing in terms of driving success

1310
01:20:36,880 --> 01:20:41,000
Speaker 1: word of mouth by the fans. Okay, So let's go back.

1311
01:20:41,080 --> 01:20:44,840
Speaker 1: You have a totally unique way of doing albums. What

1312
01:20:45,040 --> 01:20:48,400
Speaker 1: other things does the business at large do now that

1313
01:20:48,520 --> 01:20:55,920
Speaker 1: you think should be changed? Um, that's a tough question.

1314
01:20:56,840 --> 01:21:01,120
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't really have an answer for that.

1315
01:21:01,240 --> 01:21:07,760
Speaker 1: I think it's I just wish that, um, there were

1316
01:21:07,800 --> 01:21:14,040
Speaker 1: more distinct avenues for people, um, to get a chance

1317
01:21:14,080 --> 01:21:18,720
Speaker 1: to be heard amongst um the noise. That that's you know,

1318
01:21:18,760 --> 01:21:21,639
Speaker 1: the biggest challenges You're saying the acts themselves, the music,

1319
01:21:21,640 --> 01:21:26,160
Speaker 1: because there's so much cacophony. Okay, But do you find

1320
01:21:26,240 --> 01:21:29,280
Speaker 1: that the business, let's talk about the recorded business. Do

1321
01:21:29,360 --> 01:21:32,599
Speaker 1: you find that it's ruled by baby boomers to its detriment?

1322
01:21:35,760 --> 01:21:38,519
Speaker 1: Is it? Though? Well, I would say that the labels,

1323
01:21:38,560 --> 01:21:41,840
Speaker 1: generally speaking, the people who run them or baby boomers,

1324
01:21:41,880 --> 01:21:44,880
Speaker 1: and generally speaking, the people below them make a lot

1325
01:21:45,000 --> 01:21:48,800
Speaker 1: less money, and the baby boomers who run them tend

1326
01:21:48,840 --> 01:21:52,120
Speaker 1: to be focused on radio. Radio is the number. It's

1327
01:21:52,120 --> 01:21:55,120
Speaker 1: like network TV. The ratings are worse than they've ever been,

1328
01:21:55,200 --> 01:21:58,080
Speaker 1: but that's where the largest audiences that I find. Like

1329
01:21:58,120 --> 01:22:01,320
Speaker 1: you're talking about social media, they could use that line,

1330
01:22:01,640 --> 01:22:03,920
Speaker 1: but they can't get down in the pit with the

1331
01:22:03,920 --> 01:22:08,360
Speaker 1: people doing stuff. I don't think that's necessarily true, bom.

1332
01:22:09,320 --> 01:22:12,560
Speaker 1: I I think that. I mean I work within a

1333
01:22:12,640 --> 01:22:19,960
Speaker 1: record label. Everybody he's working on everything and cares about

1334
01:22:20,000 --> 01:22:25,479
Speaker 1: every thing. Yes, radio is great, but I mean radio

1335
01:22:25,560 --> 01:22:29,240
Speaker 1: more and more is for playing hits. You know, um

1336
01:22:30,560 --> 01:22:33,920
Speaker 1: people understand that they have to get the help the

1337
01:22:34,040 --> 01:22:36,680
Speaker 1: hit get to the point where it can get up

1338
01:22:37,400 --> 01:22:42,240
Speaker 1: the radio chart. You know, it's almost impossible to force

1339
01:22:42,280 --> 01:22:46,280
Speaker 1: a song that's not a hit into the top of

1340
01:22:46,320 --> 01:22:48,600
Speaker 1: the radio chart. But there are also tracks that have

1341
01:22:48,600 --> 01:22:51,679
Speaker 1: been hits all around the world except in America. There

1342
01:22:51,680 --> 01:22:57,680
Speaker 1: have So the track raised its hand and radio said no, yes, so,

1343
01:22:58,000 --> 01:23:00,760
Speaker 1: but I would say it's an imperfect system them. I

1344
01:23:00,800 --> 01:23:03,240
Speaker 1: would not say the track was not good enough either,

1345
01:23:03,360 --> 01:23:05,960
Speaker 1: the label didn't work it right way. Or hard enough.

1346
01:23:06,040 --> 01:23:10,040
Speaker 1: It's sometimes you know, sometimes timing is a big factor.

1347
01:23:10,600 --> 01:23:15,000
Speaker 1: You know, Um, timing is a really big factor. I've

1348
01:23:15,040 --> 01:23:19,680
Speaker 1: definitely witnessed songs that should have been hits not be

1349
01:23:19,840 --> 01:23:24,200
Speaker 1: hits because of timing, timing, because the chain the lane

1350
01:23:24,280 --> 01:23:26,439
Speaker 1: is cluttered, or because what's going on in the world.

1351
01:23:26,479 --> 01:23:30,000
Speaker 1: The lane is cluttered. They went to radio too late

1352
01:23:30,920 --> 01:23:34,080
Speaker 1: and and the hype was dying out already. I mean,

1353
01:23:34,120 --> 01:23:39,559
Speaker 1: there's so many different reasons. Okay, now, Um, to what

1354
01:23:39,800 --> 01:23:46,799
Speaker 1: degree radio formats other than top forty matter? Um. Most

1355
01:23:46,840 --> 01:23:50,559
Speaker 1: of my experiences in top forty UM, So I wouldn't

1356
01:23:50,560 --> 01:23:53,000
Speaker 1: claim to be an expert at the other formats, but

1357
01:23:54,479 --> 01:24:00,400
Speaker 1: you know I have seen records um climb to the

1358
01:24:00,439 --> 01:24:06,280
Speaker 1: top of other formats charts, and that be the real

1359
01:24:06,400 --> 01:24:09,960
Speaker 1: launching pad for them being global smash hits. Okay, let

1360
01:24:09,960 --> 01:24:13,800
Speaker 1: me put it in different ways. Rock did. Now, So

1361
01:24:13,880 --> 01:24:17,800
Speaker 1: what's the future of rock? I think it will come

1362
01:24:17,840 --> 01:24:21,960
Speaker 1: back in different shapes and forms and sizes. Well, I mean,

1363
01:24:21,960 --> 01:24:24,840
Speaker 1: at this point, hip hop dominates the top, Yes, it does.

1364
01:24:25,160 --> 01:24:28,840
Speaker 1: Do you believe that is going to continue? That is

1365
01:24:28,880 --> 01:24:31,880
Speaker 1: going to change? You're a guy who signs things and

1366
01:24:31,920 --> 01:24:33,679
Speaker 1: you say that, you know they're all not the same time.

1367
01:24:33,840 --> 01:24:37,000
Speaker 1: I think that things are cyclical. I mean, one of

1368
01:24:37,000 --> 01:24:41,240
Speaker 1: the aspects about hip hop music is that, um, it's

1369
01:24:41,320 --> 01:24:45,200
Speaker 1: very cultural, it's it's a lifestyle, it's not just the genre.

1370
01:24:45,960 --> 01:24:49,839
Speaker 1: And so I think that hip hop will always do well.

1371
01:24:50,080 --> 01:24:53,519
Speaker 1: But I do think that there will be a natural

1372
01:24:53,600 --> 01:25:00,280
Speaker 1: selection where it won't be as um dominant. Okay, but

1373
01:25:00,320 --> 01:25:02,559
Speaker 1: if we go on Spotify, where all the statistics are

1374
01:25:02,600 --> 01:25:07,320
Speaker 1: visible to everybody on the desktop version, generally speaking, it's

1375
01:25:07,400 --> 01:25:10,760
Speaker 1: hip hop that streams a certain amount of pop, then

1376
01:25:10,800 --> 01:25:13,720
Speaker 1: a certain untain well Latin Latin is its own thing,

1377
01:25:13,760 --> 01:25:16,479
Speaker 1: and a certain amount of country, and then rock down

1378
01:25:16,479 --> 01:25:19,160
Speaker 1: at the bottom. So is it just a matter of

1379
01:25:19,200 --> 01:25:23,760
Speaker 1: those audiences moving to the streaming services, or has the

1380
01:25:23,800 --> 01:25:26,439
Speaker 1: younger generation said this is a hip hop world, screw

1381
01:25:26,520 --> 01:25:29,000
Speaker 1: those other genres. I think they said this is a

1382
01:25:29,080 --> 01:25:31,160
Speaker 1: hip hop world. But I don't think they said screw

1383
01:25:31,200 --> 01:25:34,080
Speaker 1: those other genres. This is just what they're into right now.

1384
01:25:35,439 --> 01:25:39,400
Speaker 1: You know, when when the chain smokers started getting big,

1385
01:25:39,920 --> 01:25:42,200
Speaker 1: E d M, I mean used to write about this

1386
01:25:42,360 --> 01:25:45,960
Speaker 1: all the time, like E d M was crushing, you know,

1387
01:25:46,640 --> 01:25:52,400
Speaker 1: like they were like seventy five huge DJs that were

1388
01:25:53,080 --> 01:25:57,559
Speaker 1: taking over the world, you know, and that eventually, you know,

1389
01:25:57,680 --> 01:26:02,120
Speaker 1: kids were over it, and and and hip hop came

1390
01:26:02,160 --> 01:26:06,400
Speaker 1: in and became, you know, the dominant genre. I think

1391
01:26:06,439 --> 01:26:10,439
Speaker 1: that things are cyclical. I think rock will come back.

1392
01:26:11,240 --> 01:26:15,559
Speaker 1: I think that hip hop will always do well, but

1393
01:26:16,200 --> 01:26:18,720
Speaker 1: won't always necessarily do as well as it's doing right now.

1394
01:26:18,760 --> 01:26:22,240
Speaker 1: So you're an intelligent, worldly guard. What's the intersection of

1395
01:26:22,439 --> 01:26:29,559
Speaker 1: music with the political landscape, if there is any that's

1396
01:26:29,560 --> 01:26:35,280
Speaker 1: when I you know, obviously, I've also read your newsletters

1397
01:26:35,280 --> 01:26:43,080
Speaker 1: about this stuff. But I I you know, I'm curious why, Um,

1398
01:26:43,120 --> 01:26:48,640
Speaker 1: there haven't been as many artists and songs that have

1399
01:26:49,360 --> 01:26:55,640
Speaker 1: made an impact like in previous decades. Um. Uh, you

1400
01:26:55,680 --> 01:26:58,439
Speaker 1: know the obviously I use the Chain Smokers as an

1401
01:26:58,479 --> 01:27:00,479
Speaker 1: example for a lot of things. But past year they

1402
01:27:00,479 --> 01:27:06,559
Speaker 1: wrote a song called sick Boy that um really address this,

1403
01:27:06,960 --> 01:27:11,240
Speaker 1: and as big as they were, that that really didn't

1404
01:27:11,280 --> 01:27:16,720
Speaker 1: get No one really caught onto that, you know. Um,

1405
01:27:16,920 --> 01:27:19,200
Speaker 1: So I don't know the answer. I do think that

1406
01:27:19,280 --> 01:27:22,439
Speaker 1: there will be an artist that kind of comes out

1407
01:27:22,479 --> 01:27:26,160
Speaker 1: of nowhere, um with a lot to say, and that

1408
01:27:26,200 --> 01:27:28,960
Speaker 1: people do rally around that artist, and you know, as

1409
01:27:28,960 --> 01:27:31,759
Speaker 1: far as politics goes, so obviously, with the change Smokers,

1410
01:27:31,840 --> 01:27:35,839
Speaker 1: you've broken the traditional release cycle. Do you believe acts

1411
01:27:35,840 --> 01:27:40,080
Speaker 1: today ultimately have a shorter term or a longer term

1412
01:27:40,080 --> 01:27:44,599
Speaker 1: in the marketplace. That's up to them. But I think

1413
01:27:45,000 --> 01:27:50,320
Speaker 1: songs have a shorter term because you know, kids, um,

1414
01:27:50,360 --> 01:27:57,200
Speaker 1: you know, teenagers and college kids um now are growing

1415
01:27:57,400 --> 01:28:01,679
Speaker 1: up thinking that forty new songs a day is normal.

1416
01:28:02,800 --> 01:28:07,400
Speaker 1: So they are used to burning a record out two

1417
01:28:07,439 --> 01:28:09,439
Speaker 1: in a week or two weeks and then being onto

1418
01:28:09,439 --> 01:28:13,000
Speaker 1: the next thing. So I think that it's harder and

1419
01:28:13,120 --> 01:28:20,400
Speaker 1: harder to have, you know, quadruple platinum hits because songs

1420
01:28:20,400 --> 01:28:25,400
Speaker 1: are getting used and like getting burned out super super

1421
01:28:25,479 --> 01:28:29,120
Speaker 1: quickly by kids. You know. When I was younger, I

1422
01:28:29,200 --> 01:28:32,120
Speaker 1: could listen to a song for on repaid for like

1423
01:28:32,200 --> 01:28:34,840
Speaker 1: six months a year, you know. And I think that

1424
01:28:34,880 --> 01:28:38,800
Speaker 1: the not that there aren't those songs now, but I

1425
01:28:38,880 --> 01:28:42,040
Speaker 1: think that they are. They're fewer and farther between. So

1426
01:28:42,160 --> 01:28:46,920
Speaker 1: I so, you know, the artists um lifespan is based

1427
01:28:46,920 --> 01:28:49,759
Speaker 1: on them continuing to put out great music and create

1428
01:28:49,800 --> 01:28:55,599
Speaker 1: continuing to build fan bases, But the songs themselves probably

1429
01:28:55,640 --> 01:28:59,120
Speaker 1: have shorter lifespans. Okay, using the change Wokers in his

1430
01:28:59,240 --> 01:29:03,000
Speaker 1: example just talk playing out some scenarios. If they had

1431
01:29:03,080 --> 01:29:07,559
Speaker 1: never had another radio hit, do you think there live

1432
01:29:07,640 --> 01:29:13,360
Speaker 1: business in their streaming would remain healthy? Yes, I mean

1433
01:29:13,360 --> 01:29:17,320
Speaker 1: their catalog is pretty big. Okay, so you believe, just

1434
01:29:17,400 --> 01:29:19,719
Speaker 1: like in the past, you have a catalog at lengthened

1435
01:29:19,760 --> 01:29:25,280
Speaker 1: your career. I mean, yes, I do think so. Okay,

1436
01:29:25,479 --> 01:29:29,080
Speaker 1: So what advice would you give a new act. It's

1437
01:29:29,080 --> 01:29:33,200
Speaker 1: all about fans. Just all you have to focus on

1438
01:29:33,439 --> 01:29:37,439
Speaker 1: is how to make fans and what your fans want

1439
01:29:37,520 --> 01:29:41,479
Speaker 1: and feeding them and how you get them to help

1440
01:29:41,560 --> 01:29:46,200
Speaker 1: you make new fans. I think you know, too many

1441
01:29:46,280 --> 01:29:48,479
Speaker 1: new artists think that if they just get on a

1442
01:29:48,479 --> 01:29:53,639
Speaker 1: playlist that they're good, you know, and I know you've

1443
01:29:53,640 --> 01:29:55,880
Speaker 1: said it and everyone says it, But like there are

1444
01:29:55,880 --> 01:29:58,280
Speaker 1: people that get millions of streams and can't sell a ticket,

1445
01:29:58,640 --> 01:30:01,640
Speaker 1: you know, and there are people that sell tickets and

1446
01:30:01,720 --> 01:30:05,280
Speaker 1: can't can't get millions of streams. But you know, if

1447
01:30:05,280 --> 01:30:07,120
Speaker 1: you want to have longevity and you want to be

1448
01:30:07,160 --> 01:30:10,200
Speaker 1: a real career artist like you have to have fans.

1449
01:30:10,360 --> 01:30:13,080
Speaker 1: That's what the streaming services are looking for. They're not

1450
01:30:13,120 --> 01:30:16,000
Speaker 1: just looking at how your songs are performing on their playlists.

1451
01:30:16,200 --> 01:30:19,320
Speaker 1: They want to see that people care. So if you're

1452
01:30:19,320 --> 01:30:21,840
Speaker 1: starting from zero, what's the best way to build a

1453
01:30:21,880 --> 01:30:27,120
Speaker 1: fan base. I mean it's it's everything and anything. It's

1454
01:30:27,720 --> 01:30:31,080
Speaker 1: you know, everything from playing an open mic night. You know.

1455
01:30:31,439 --> 01:30:35,519
Speaker 1: I always tell like, you know, I signed artists very early.

1456
01:30:36,000 --> 01:30:39,400
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a joint venture so we do artist development.

1457
01:30:39,520 --> 01:30:42,000
Speaker 1: So I have to sign artists before the majors are

1458
01:30:42,000 --> 01:30:44,519
Speaker 1: going to sign them, before they have things going on,

1459
01:30:45,040 --> 01:30:48,640
Speaker 1: and really help them build from nothing. So you know,

1460
01:30:49,000 --> 01:30:51,400
Speaker 1: there's some are some artists that I'm working with that

1461
01:30:51,479 --> 01:30:56,120
Speaker 1: it's like, go play in this bar. I don't care

1462
01:30:56,160 --> 01:30:59,519
Speaker 1: if there's ten people there. If you walk away with

1463
01:30:59,680 --> 01:31:03,040
Speaker 1: three new fans, it was worth it. If three of

1464
01:31:03,040 --> 01:31:06,160
Speaker 1: those people will go home and say I saw this

1465
01:31:06,240 --> 01:31:08,840
Speaker 1: act last night and they were amazing. To their friend,

1466
01:31:09,400 --> 01:31:12,240
Speaker 1: it was worth it. And you just build it like that,

1467
01:31:12,360 --> 01:31:16,360
Speaker 1: just organically, and you just grind it out and you know,

1468
01:31:16,479 --> 01:31:19,160
Speaker 1: just like like I was saying before, like Alex with

1469
01:31:19,200 --> 01:31:23,160
Speaker 1: the blogs like the kids, spent ten hours writing a

1470
01:31:23,200 --> 01:31:26,439
Speaker 1: thousand emails to every single blog, Like you have to

1471
01:31:26,439 --> 01:31:32,519
Speaker 1: put in the work, um, and you know, you know,

1472
01:31:32,600 --> 01:31:35,800
Speaker 1: obviously I see these things like people like paying to

1473
01:31:35,840 --> 01:31:38,800
Speaker 1: get on playlists and like that's not the way to

1474
01:31:38,840 --> 01:31:42,080
Speaker 1: do it. You really got you know, you really got

1475
01:31:42,080 --> 01:31:44,799
Speaker 1: to do it. And if people like, if people believe

1476
01:31:44,840 --> 01:31:46,880
Speaker 1: in you and they love your music and they believe

1477
01:31:46,920 --> 01:31:48,920
Speaker 1: in what you have to say, like, it will grow,

1478
01:31:49,520 --> 01:31:52,200
Speaker 1: it will. Okay. So once you've made it, which the change,

1479
01:31:52,240 --> 01:31:56,200
Speaker 1: certain change workers most definitely have, how do you deal

1480
01:31:56,240 --> 01:31:59,880
Speaker 1: with the fans? What's the best thing? I mean, you

1481
01:32:00,000 --> 01:32:02,960
Speaker 1: wif letters whatever, you wouldn't do that now because you

1482
01:32:03,040 --> 01:32:05,479
Speaker 1: already have an established base. To what degree do you

1483
01:32:05,479 --> 01:32:07,599
Speaker 1: have to feed this fan base other than putting out

1484
01:32:07,640 --> 01:32:11,280
Speaker 1: a track every month, playing two fifty shows a year

1485
01:32:12,520 --> 01:32:16,639
Speaker 1: for seven years? Okay? And what about Instagram and and

1486
01:32:16,720 --> 01:32:21,719
Speaker 1: snapchat and stories, etcetera? Amazing compelling content on a regular basis.

1487
01:32:21,920 --> 01:32:25,559
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, every artists different. Alex and Drew

1488
01:32:25,800 --> 01:32:31,719
Speaker 1: are fun, funny, smart, witty, like the things they say,

1489
01:32:31,840 --> 01:32:36,040
Speaker 1: the videos they make, the jokes they tell. Their fans

1490
01:32:36,360 --> 01:32:39,160
Speaker 1: love them for that stuff, and so that's why they

1491
01:32:39,200 --> 01:32:42,120
Speaker 1: feed them with it. Okay. So let's say someone came

1492
01:32:42,120 --> 01:32:45,519
Speaker 1: out with an incredible swat with if they didn't build

1493
01:32:45,560 --> 01:32:51,080
Speaker 1: a fan base, etcetera, it couldn't happen organically. I mean

1494
01:32:51,560 --> 01:32:55,240
Speaker 1: it did for us, with selfie. But you also say

1495
01:32:55,280 --> 01:32:58,599
Speaker 1: that was a novelty fan base. Uh, but we had

1496
01:32:58,680 --> 01:33:02,120
Speaker 1: to go on from that and make real fans and

1497
01:33:02,200 --> 01:33:07,200
Speaker 1: start putting out the real music that we wanted to make. Okay,

1498
01:33:07,240 --> 01:33:11,640
Speaker 1: so you're obviously an educated, intelligent guy. We live in

1499
01:33:11,680 --> 01:33:16,040
Speaker 1: a world of incommittee quality. If someone wants to make

1500
01:33:16,080 --> 01:33:18,439
Speaker 1: a lot of money, there are people who make twenty

1501
01:33:18,439 --> 01:33:21,280
Speaker 1: million dollars a year at infiniteum at the banks, and

1502
01:33:21,360 --> 01:33:25,200
Speaker 1: people make four million dollars a year. Do you think

1503
01:33:25,680 --> 01:33:28,160
Speaker 1: the best and the brightest of your generation are going

1504
01:33:28,240 --> 01:33:31,280
Speaker 1: into this world? You think the music business attracts this

1505
01:33:31,400 --> 01:33:33,479
Speaker 1: caliber or the best of the price of going somewhere

1506
01:33:33,600 --> 01:33:38,439
Speaker 1: where there's more money and more opportunity. I I don't.

1507
01:33:39,760 --> 01:33:42,400
Speaker 1: I don't think it's black and white like that. Just

1508
01:33:42,439 --> 01:33:44,799
Speaker 1: tell me. I know that you write about that too.

1509
01:33:44,920 --> 01:33:48,000
Speaker 1: I think I think that if you love music and

1510
01:33:48,000 --> 01:33:51,600
Speaker 1: you're passionate about music, and you are also brilliant, you

1511
01:33:51,680 --> 01:33:56,200
Speaker 1: still go into the music business. Okay, Well, I would

1512
01:33:56,240 --> 01:33:58,240
Speaker 1: just look at people. Obviously a different thing if they

1513
01:33:58,240 --> 01:34:01,679
Speaker 1: look at people David Geff been irving gays off whatever.

1514
01:34:02,040 --> 01:34:04,599
Speaker 1: Music was the thing that I like to think that

1515
01:34:04,640 --> 01:34:06,840
Speaker 1: I was a pretty smart guy. Growing up, I did

1516
01:34:06,920 --> 01:34:10,120
Speaker 1: not want to work at an investment bank and sleep

1517
01:34:10,200 --> 01:34:12,479
Speaker 1: under my desk every single day out of college. I

1518
01:34:12,520 --> 01:34:16,439
Speaker 1: didn't want to do that. I loved hospitality, I loved

1519
01:34:16,560 --> 01:34:21,400
Speaker 1: entertaining people, and I loved music like I I. You know,

1520
01:34:21,439 --> 01:34:24,439
Speaker 1: we didn't talk about this, but I've been a music

1521
01:34:24,520 --> 01:34:28,560
Speaker 1: lover my whole life. I mean, you know, being in nightclubs.

1522
01:34:28,600 --> 01:34:31,000
Speaker 1: You can't not be a music fan being in nightclubs,

1523
01:34:31,120 --> 01:34:33,120
Speaker 1: and what kind of music do you play if you're

1524
01:34:33,200 --> 01:34:41,679
Speaker 1: not conducting business? Um? So I am a die hard

1525
01:34:42,479 --> 01:34:45,120
Speaker 1: Dave Matthews band fan. Really, how many times you've seen

1526
01:34:45,160 --> 01:34:51,919
Speaker 1: the Dave Matthews And the best Dave Matthews work is album? Yeah?

1527
01:34:51,920 --> 01:34:57,960
Speaker 1: Oh boy. I have to say Crash just because of

1528
01:34:58,000 --> 01:35:00,200
Speaker 1: the number of favorites that I have on their But

1529
01:35:00,520 --> 01:35:02,839
Speaker 1: my number one favorite song is not even on that album.

1530
01:35:03,080 --> 01:35:06,840
Speaker 1: Your number one favorite song is it's called Recently? Okay,

1531
01:35:06,840 --> 01:35:09,880
Speaker 1: I would say Before these Crowded Streets because of Dreaming Tree,

1532
01:35:10,320 --> 01:35:13,760
Speaker 1: But okay, anybody else I love that answer because it's

1533
01:35:14,120 --> 01:35:18,639
Speaker 1: not a common answer. But there's no way that's their

1534
01:35:18,640 --> 01:35:21,360
Speaker 1: best album. I would know. I didn't say it was

1535
01:35:21,360 --> 01:35:24,840
Speaker 1: the best album for me. Maybe that's my favorite. Okay,

1536
01:35:25,120 --> 01:35:27,160
Speaker 1: maybe I know those are two different things. I agree,

1537
01:35:27,280 --> 01:35:31,400
Speaker 1: Other than the Dave Matthews being anybody now or when

1538
01:35:32,000 --> 01:35:36,280
Speaker 1: growing up? You're a fan Beatles? Yeah, my mom was

1539
01:35:36,439 --> 01:35:40,400
Speaker 1: a beatlemaniac. Yeah, she was one of those screaming girls.

1540
01:35:40,640 --> 01:35:44,040
Speaker 1: And you fell into the E d M thing. Are

1541
01:35:44,040 --> 01:35:46,720
Speaker 1: you a hip hop fan? Oh? Yeah? I was a

1542
01:35:46,720 --> 01:35:51,080
Speaker 1: biggie before I got into Dave Matthews. All I listened

1543
01:35:51,080 --> 01:35:56,840
Speaker 1: to is Biggie. How did you get into Dave Matthews then? Um,

1544
01:35:57,040 --> 01:35:59,840
Speaker 1: the real answer is I was in somebody's car and

1545
01:36:00,040 --> 01:36:02,400
Speaker 1: it was playing and it wasn't even a single. It

1546
01:36:02,479 --> 01:36:05,280
Speaker 1: was a song called Tripping Billy's and I was like,

1547
01:36:05,960 --> 01:36:09,000
Speaker 1: what is this and they were like, this is Dave Matthews.

1548
01:36:09,080 --> 01:36:10,840
Speaker 1: And I was like, this is Dave Matthews because I

1549
01:36:10,920 --> 01:36:14,559
Speaker 1: knew their singles from the radio. And I went and

1550
01:36:14,600 --> 01:36:16,479
Speaker 1: got the album that day and I listened to it

1551
01:36:16,520 --> 01:36:19,479
Speaker 1: and repeat and I was like completely hooked. And then

1552
01:36:19,520 --> 01:36:22,479
Speaker 1: I just became a fanatic. Okay, they have a great manager.

1553
01:36:22,520 --> 01:36:25,599
Speaker 1: Corn capsule, Between were the manager, what would you advise

1554
01:36:25,680 --> 01:36:28,240
Speaker 1: them to do that they may not be doing. I

1555
01:36:28,240 --> 01:36:30,600
Speaker 1: wouldn't dare say that, But what I can say is

1556
01:36:30,640 --> 01:36:34,400
Speaker 1: that I used a lot of I used a lot

1557
01:36:34,439 --> 01:36:37,880
Speaker 1: of what I saw them do in building the Chain Smokers.

1558
01:36:38,840 --> 01:36:42,720
Speaker 1: There were lots of little things that they did UM

1559
01:36:42,840 --> 01:36:47,040
Speaker 1: in the late nineties and early two thousand's, and I

1560
01:36:47,120 --> 01:36:50,960
Speaker 1: completely copied it, you know, and used those strategies for

1561
01:36:50,960 --> 01:36:53,400
Speaker 1: the Chain Smokers. And how about the acts that made

1562
01:36:53,439 --> 01:36:56,160
Speaker 1: it in the pre Internet era? Of the classic acts?

1563
01:36:56,439 --> 01:36:59,360
Speaker 1: Actually they have any chance in today's world because generally speaking,

1564
01:36:59,400 --> 01:37:03,639
Speaker 1: their music is not successful commercially. Acts from the pre

1565
01:37:03,720 --> 01:37:08,240
Speaker 1: Internet erea era today, like give me an example, like

1566
01:37:08,360 --> 01:37:14,080
Speaker 1: you two, can they be successful today? It's all about

1567
01:37:14,080 --> 01:37:17,280
Speaker 1: the songs. So you think the songs they have just

1568
01:37:17,360 --> 01:37:19,320
Speaker 1: in general, if you have a great song, you could

1569
01:37:19,320 --> 01:37:21,720
Speaker 1: be a classic act. You could be sixty and the

1570
01:37:21,760 --> 01:37:26,440
Speaker 1: song could be successful. Yes. I think the reason why

1571
01:37:26,600 --> 01:37:32,160
Speaker 1: UM acts when they get much, very very successful over

1572
01:37:32,280 --> 01:37:35,599
Speaker 1: decades and they get older, why they don't have hits,

1573
01:37:36,000 --> 01:37:40,800
Speaker 1: new hits, is because I think it's very hard to

1574
01:37:40,960 --> 01:37:43,960
Speaker 1: write the same way you did when you were young

1575
01:37:44,040 --> 01:37:47,280
Speaker 1: and you weren't rich, and you didn't have the struggles

1576
01:37:47,360 --> 01:37:51,320
Speaker 1: and you know, and you weren't married and you were

1577
01:37:51,320 --> 01:37:54,880
Speaker 1: having relationships and you're heartbroken like you know, you don't

1578
01:37:55,360 --> 01:37:58,640
Speaker 1: have that material to write about anymore, you know, so

1579
01:37:58,720 --> 01:38:03,160
Speaker 1: I think that's that's the reason. I actually think it's

1580
01:38:03,240 --> 01:38:06,240
Speaker 1: they have a fantasy that if they become very successful,

1581
01:38:06,560 --> 01:38:09,240
Speaker 1: their lives will work. And when they reach the pinnacle

1582
01:38:09,640 --> 01:38:12,080
Speaker 1: and their lives don't work, they lose the motivation, which

1583
01:38:12,120 --> 01:38:16,320
Speaker 1: is not radically different from what you say. It depends

1584
01:38:16,320 --> 01:38:19,520
Speaker 1: on the artist, that's for sure. Adam, this has been fantastic.

1585
01:38:19,720 --> 01:38:21,800
Speaker 1: Thanks for all your insights. Can I can I give

1586
01:38:21,840 --> 01:38:26,800
Speaker 1: one anecdotes? It's about you so um so obviously I've

1587
01:38:26,840 --> 01:38:30,120
Speaker 1: been reading your newsletter for a long time. Um, you

1588
01:38:30,160 --> 01:38:31,960
Speaker 1: probably don't know. I don't know if I told you this,

1589
01:38:32,080 --> 01:38:35,200
Speaker 1: but the first time I met you was at Summit

1590
01:38:35,200 --> 01:38:39,760
Speaker 1: at Sea. Really yeah, So I was on summit at

1591
01:38:39,800 --> 01:38:44,639
Speaker 1: S and I went to your lecture and afterwards, Um,

1592
01:38:44,920 --> 01:38:48,040
Speaker 1: you waited around to answer questions from people and we

1593
01:38:48,120 --> 01:38:51,479
Speaker 1: chatted for like two minutes. And you know, you don't

1594
01:38:51,720 --> 01:38:53,640
Speaker 1: I don't because you were the guy who continued to

1595
01:38:53,640 --> 01:38:56,280
Speaker 1: talk when the other people went away. Maybe maybe that

1596
01:38:56,520 --> 01:38:58,600
Speaker 1: maybe that's true. And you said, yeah, email me And

1597
01:38:58,640 --> 01:39:00,599
Speaker 1: I said, oh, you answer emails and you said yeah,

1598
01:39:00,600 --> 01:39:03,840
Speaker 1: if I know you, I answered them and you know

1599
01:39:03,880 --> 01:39:08,120
Speaker 1: you didn't know anything about me, and uh, when I

1600
01:39:08,160 --> 01:39:12,800
Speaker 1: got home, I wrote you this long email about, um,

1601
01:39:13,000 --> 01:39:15,439
Speaker 1: how I did this showing a venture with Doug at

1602
01:39:15,479 --> 01:39:17,360
Speaker 1: Sony and I have a chain smokers and we have

1603
01:39:17,439 --> 01:39:20,280
Speaker 1: this really cool strategy and they're having their right now,

1604
01:39:20,360 --> 01:39:22,439
Speaker 1: having their first hit. It was the song Roses, their

1605
01:39:22,439 --> 01:39:28,280
Speaker 1: first real hit. And um, you didn't write back to me.

1606
01:39:28,840 --> 01:39:32,320
Speaker 1: And then you wrote a newsletter about trying to talk

1607
01:39:32,360 --> 01:39:35,559
Speaker 1: to Eric Schmidt from Google on someone at sea and

1608
01:39:35,680 --> 01:39:40,000
Speaker 1: he blew you off and you like destroyed him in

1609
01:39:40,080 --> 01:39:44,880
Speaker 1: this email. And you have the same experience with me. Okay.

1610
01:39:44,880 --> 01:39:46,760
Speaker 1: Then I got an email from you. Hold on, I

1611
01:39:46,800 --> 01:39:49,280
Speaker 1: get the email back from you, and you you know

1612
01:39:49,280 --> 01:39:53,280
Speaker 1: what you wrote? What good luck? And I And I

1613
01:39:53,360 --> 01:40:00,160
Speaker 1: was like, just because I have all my email, but

1614
01:40:01,200 --> 01:40:04,920
Speaker 1: in this particular case, what I tell everybody that I

1615
01:40:04,960 --> 01:40:08,439
Speaker 1: meet under those circumstances, say reference the fact that you

1616
01:40:08,600 --> 01:40:11,760
Speaker 1: met me. Of course I said that. Okay, then there

1617
01:40:11,800 --> 01:40:14,680
Speaker 1: was something in there was something. I guess what it was.

1618
01:40:14,720 --> 01:40:19,160
Speaker 1: I'd have to go back to the actual email. Okay,

1619
01:40:19,240 --> 01:40:22,960
Speaker 1: let me answer the question a little bit broader. I've

1620
01:40:23,000 --> 01:40:28,160
Speaker 1: gotten into a lot of trouble saying anything about the

1621
01:40:28,280 --> 01:40:32,439
Speaker 1: quality of material. I've had both good and bad experience.

1622
01:40:32,479 --> 01:40:35,040
Speaker 1: I say something mildly positive, all of a sudden, you

1623
01:40:35,040 --> 01:40:37,679
Speaker 1: see an ad, it's got my name in it. Okay,

1624
01:40:38,240 --> 01:40:43,080
Speaker 1: say something negative. People call their followers out. Okay. In

1625
01:40:43,200 --> 01:40:48,240
Speaker 1: your particular case, you're an aggressive guy. I thought you

1626
01:40:48,280 --> 01:40:50,240
Speaker 1: were selling me. Now i'd have to go back to

1627
01:40:50,240 --> 01:40:52,080
Speaker 1: the email, the emails for you. That's think that's four

1628
01:40:52,160 --> 01:40:54,400
Speaker 1: years ago. Now, maybe I just fucked up. I mean,

1629
01:40:54,439 --> 01:40:59,360
Speaker 1: that's certainly possible. Okay. The other thing was it was

1630
01:41:00,400 --> 01:41:03,439
Speaker 1: you didn't It wasn't clear what you wanted from me.

1631
01:41:05,560 --> 01:41:08,400
Speaker 1: I guess at the time, I was hoping you said, wow,

1632
01:41:08,479 --> 01:41:13,360
Speaker 1: this sounds interesting, pretty cool. Let's talk like you did

1633
01:41:15,160 --> 01:41:20,799
Speaker 1: six years later. Okay. Well, obviously for whatever reason I didn't.

1634
01:41:21,400 --> 01:41:23,680
Speaker 1: Maybe you know, it's like people at the point that

1635
01:41:23,720 --> 01:41:27,840
Speaker 1: I was trying to make the difference between a Schmidt

1636
01:41:27,880 --> 01:41:30,760
Speaker 1: and that was Eric Schmidt blew me off live. I

1637
01:41:30,760 --> 01:41:35,400
Speaker 1: didn't you blew you off? Okay, But your point, uh,

1638
01:41:35,439 --> 01:41:37,439
Speaker 1: you know this is so I was gonna write back

1639
01:41:37,880 --> 01:41:42,080
Speaker 1: what an Eric Schmidt type response? But I decided not to. Well,

1640
01:41:42,120 --> 01:41:44,679
Speaker 1: you could I get that type of email all day

1641
01:41:44,720 --> 01:41:46,479
Speaker 1: every time? I mean, I might not be sitting here

1642
01:41:46,520 --> 01:41:48,679
Speaker 1: if I had written that email. No, you know that's

1643
01:41:48,680 --> 01:41:51,960
Speaker 1: not you know, I don't know if I would have

1644
01:41:52,000 --> 01:41:55,080
Speaker 1: remembered it to be honest with you, but you have to.

1645
01:41:55,760 --> 01:41:57,760
Speaker 1: I mean, this gets into my life and it's really

1646
01:41:57,840 --> 01:42:01,240
Speaker 1: a podcast about you. But there's not enough time for

1647
01:42:01,320 --> 01:42:05,439
Speaker 1: me to do everything that I want to do, and

1648
01:42:06,040 --> 01:42:10,520
Speaker 1: how I use my time may not be the appropriate

1649
01:42:10,720 --> 01:42:14,559
Speaker 1: use of that particular time. But you certainly made it.

1650
01:42:15,320 --> 01:42:19,000
Speaker 1: I don't didn't sound like it needed my advice. Thank you.

1651
01:42:19,040 --> 01:42:22,200
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Okay, until next time. This is Bob,

1652
01:42:22,280 --> 01:42:22,760
Speaker 1: less sens