Recording - December 2010 - 51

DECEMBER 2010 TAXI Road Rally 2009

Major Label A&R Panel
Moderated by Michael Laskow PANELIST S
Monti Olson, Senior VP, A&R, Universal Music Publishing Group Cliff Audretch III, Director, A&R, Universal South Angelo Sanders, Senior Director, A&R, Island Def Jam Records Ken Komisar, President, Tennman/Interscope Records
I almost didn’t print this because we don’t have the rights to play the music heard on the panel and referenced by the A&R people. After giving it some thought, I decided that their comments were still very valuable and helpful to our readers, so here it is! – M.L. Monti Olson is the Senior Vice President of A&R and Executive Vice President of Latin Music at the Universal Music Publishing Group. He has one of the hottest and most prolific Pop, R&B, Rock, and Latin rosters in music, from multi-platinum acts like Maroon 5 to Christina Aguilera, Damian Marley, All-American Rejects, Chris Daughtry, to Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Tricky Stewart, Grammy-winning songwriter/producer and Academy Award-winning composer Gustavo Santolalla. [To Olson] How’d I do? Monti has also held senior positions at BMG and at Peer Music, and is a partner in the Atlanta, Georgiabased production and music publishing company Red Zone Entertainment. In his spare time, Monti is the founder of Original Recordings Group, a specialty vinyl-only re-issue record company. This is one very busy guy. I’m glad he’s joining us today: Mr. Monti Olson. Cliff Audretch III is the Senior Director of A&R and staff producer for Universal South in Nashville. He signed Randy Hauser and co-produced his debut album, Anything Goes. His most recent single,“Boots On,”peeked at #2 on the Billboard charts. Cliff has also signed newcomers Jonathan Singleton and The Grove. While working as the Creative Director at Windswept Publishing, he was part of many hit songs, including Tim McGraw’s “The Cowboy in Me,”Rascal Flatts’“What Hurts the Most,”and Trace Atkins’s “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk”Cliff is also a scratch golfer, because every time I see him hit a 275-yard drive, I scratch my head and wonder how he does it. Mr. Cliff Audretch. Angelo Sanders is the Director of A&R at Island Def Jam; he was formerly at Aftermath for 10 years. Mr. Angelo Sanders. Ken Komisar is an industry veteran who served as Vice President of A&R at Sony BMG Music Entertainment since 2000. Cliff Audretch III, Monti Olson, Angelo Sanders, Ken Komisar, and Michael Laskow Prior to that, he spent a decade with the pose for a photo after the Major Label A&R Panel at TAXI's 2009 Road Rally. Sony family in various positions of increasing responsi- know what the process is here, so please forgive me bility, starting in 1989 as Senior Director of A&R for if I’m doing it the wrong way. Epic. In 1995, he joined Michael Jackson’s MJJ Music label, where he was involved in marketing and develYou’re welcome to address the artist personally. opment of their acts. Most recently, Ken was Ken: It sounds good, well-crafted, and musical. appointed President of Justin Timberlake’s joint venFrom my perspective, you’d want to either learn ture with Interscope, Tennman Records. Please give a more about the artist—a little bit more about their warm welcome to Ken Komisar. history to understand what kind of situation it is, where they are in their creative process, what that So the drill on this panel is going to be kind of like the represents to them, and then dig a little deeper. I one we did yesterday, where we are primarily here to mean, at first blush, that sounds like the makings of listen to music, but I’m gonna intersperse questions, a good song. I wouldn’t say, “Omigod, that’s a hit because we’ve got a lot of talent sitting up there, and I record.” But, if that’s what you’re looking for and don’t want you guys to go home without learning you’re inspired by that, it’s compelling. some stuff from them. So I’m guessing that’s the kind of one where you’d All right, let’s play the first song. What do you have, listen to first verse and chorus, like we just did, and Dave? How we’re gonna do this is, I’m gonna play go, “OK, good enough; let me see what’s next,” hit something, then I’ll go to one or two of you guys for a the play button for #2, and if the next track was quick comment, and we’ll move on to the next one. better, you’d keep going. If it wasn’t… Everybody in the room wants to get their stuff heard, so let’s try and keep it moving briskly. But any chance Ken: Absolutely. Because I guess in that case, that’s to educate them when you hear something like,“That an artist package, as opposed to a song demo, which could be better if…”is a good thing. is completely different, so it needs to be taken with a different kind of mindset. I think everybody on OK, we have a Rock act. Who’s the artist? Throwing the panel would agree, but from my understanding, Seven. Let’s hear it. [Track plays] that’s clearly what that is. That’s not a song that someone is shopping for publishing or placement, Kenny, you want to be the icebreaker on that one? so it would take a little bit more in-depth research Continued on page 52 Ken: Sure. Is the artist in the room? He is. I don’t
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