In September of 2007 I was a panelist at the Atlantis Music Conference in Atlanta. It was basically a session where several colleagues from different labels and I shared with the attendees our knowledge of the industry; everything from what we look for in a band, to how to find a good manager to how not to behave at an A&R panel (e.g. don’t argue with the panelist when they tell you your hybrid of rock and rap is a bit dated).
I’ll never forget looking out into the capacity crowd and noticing a young band sitting on the front row eagerly listening to everything we were saying. I think one of them was actually taking notes. I was struck by how young they looked, and how much they stood out from the majority of the rest of the bands in the audience. There was something different about them for sure.
After the panel I stepped off the stage and into the seated area to collect demos from the bands that were handing them out. As I was stepping down, one of my colleagues who had refused to accept demos that day said to me, “What? Do you think you’re actually going to find a band out there that will actually be worth listening to?” Maybe.
The band on the front row was the first to run over to where I was standing to hand me a CD. The singer, who it turned out was still in high school along with the rest of the band, was the leader, and I was instantly struck by her magnetic personality. She seemed to be the type that people are naturally drawn to, the one everyone in the room wants to talk to, but they’re not sure why. In last week’s blog I mentioned the “it” factor that those of us in this industry look for. The thing that we can’t quite put our finger on when we find it, but we know it separates the stars from the rest of the crop. I could tell instantly this girl had “it”. Now, if she could only sing.
I got to my car about an hour later, loaded down with about fifty demos. I sat in the parking lot feverishly looking for the CD that the young band in the front had given me. When I found it, I literally said out loud, “Please have a good voice.” Here’s the thing. Nine times out of ten, the demos I receive at panels are pretty bad, so bad I usually can’t get through the first sixty seconds, usually not even the first thirty. I do listen to everything I get, but I’m always disappointed. This was the exception. I honestly couldn’t believe what I heard. Her voice was amazing, the band was excellent, and the song was incredible. It honestly seemed too good to be true.
I made arrangements to check out the band play live the very next day, and while the performance wasn’t mind-blowing, there were several indicators throughout the show that told me this was a band to pursue. Most of the indicators had been solidified before they even took the stage (the “it” factor possessed by the singer, the great demo, etc.), but seeing them in a live setting sealed the deal for me. There were nuggets, as small as they may have been, of pure brilliance.
I signed the band shortly thereafter. We spent several months making an album, and the remainder of the time since that panel in Atlanta touring the world. That panel was almost two years ago now, and this past week I went to see them play their first ever headline show in New York City. They sold it out, and pretty much blew the minds of all 700 people there. At one point, the singer went to play her acoustic guitar only to find that it was severely out of tune. Instead of panicking, or wasting the audience’s time tuning in awkward silence, she put the guitar on the stage and proceeded to sing the song with no instrumentation at all (the rest of the band was off stage as this was the time during the show for the “solo ballad” part of the show). The entire crowd fell silent, as the “it” factor was personified in that moment. At the end they exploded as my proud moment of the week came together. Two years of hard work, and the young band that sat eagerly on the front row at a conference in Atlanta had become the pros I had hoped they would.
This is only the beginning for them, but if last week’s show is any indication, they just might be a household name by this time next year, and maybe I’ll get to keep my gig! Maybe.
-mm
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