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Did you come in when I was dressed like a sperm?”
Despite her wry tone, Annie Clark — the artist better known as St. Vincent — isn’t joking. Not quite an hour earlier, Clark was posing for her Billboard photo shoot in a hooded, ruffled cream mini-dress in front of a billowing blush-pink backdrop meant to evoke a different bit of human anatomy. (Let’s just say the setup was a spiritual descendant of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work.)
As St. Vincent, Clark conjures an enigmatic, opaque aura. But today, she’s in a frank, funny and freewheeling mood. She jests about the suggestive pictures of female models plastered on the walls around us (“Boner patrol, look out!”) and swerves easily from topics highbrow (abstract Russian painter Kazimir Malevich) to low (an off-and-on gamer, she was briefly obsessed with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). Clark chose to soundtrack her shoot with David Bowie’s coke-fueled 1976 classic, Station to Station, and as we gush over it, the singer-songwriter gives her beige Prada jacket a little shake. “I do like to think this trench coat is giving ‘Dancing in the Street,’ ” she says, referencing the outrageously ’80s music video for Bowie and Mick Jagger’s hit cover. “Minus the cocaine.”
Much like Clark herself, St. Vincent’s Grammy Award-winning output — which has run the gamut from twee indie to ass-kicking art-rock to conceptual electropop — is an arresting mix of the intellect and the id. Her latest album, All Born Screaming, can be experienced as an atavistic staring contest with existence — or simply as a rippin’ alt-rock record.
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“It’s about life and death and love,” she explains. “And that’s it.” For the 41-year-old Clark, at least two of those topics are intrinsically linked to her own identity as a queer artist. “Every record I’ve ever made has been so personal about what’s going on in my life at any given time. I’m queer. I know how to code-switch. The idea of identity as performance has been very clear to me since I was a child.” Even so, Clark shuts down the suggestion that she adopted a mask or performative identity for the album: “I’m queer, I’m living in multitudes, but this record in particular is not about persona or deconstruction.”
Shushu/Tong dress and headpiece, Zhilyova gloves, BY FAR shoes.
Lenne Chai
Code-switching — changing one’s behavior to suit an uncomfortable environment — is nothing new for LGBTQ+ people. Even in the generally progressive-minded music community, Clark says the world queer musicians currently inhabit is “very different” than when she kicked off her recording career in 2006 with the three-song EP Paris Is Burning. “Which is one of those things which gives me a lot of hope,” she notes. “I know there are certain things in the world trending in a scary direction, but all in all, I’d rather live right now than any other time in history. We wouldn’t be having this conversation 60 years ago. I would be a nurse, I would be a secretary, or I would be a mother.”
When I suggest that 60 years ago, I would have been pushed into a heterosexual union and having same-sex dalliances on the down-low, she laughs and perks up. “Exactly! You would have a beautiful wife at home and would be getting your d–k sucked at the whatever. And you’d never know if it was a cop [trying to entrap you].”
As she references the hankie code (as early as the ’70s, gay men used different-colored bandannas to signify sexual preferences) and Hal Fischer’s 1977 photo book, Gay Semiotics: A Photographic Study of Visual Coding Among Homosexual Men, it’s clear Clark knows her queer history. “People the world was hostile to developed these secret languages, secret codes, in order to communicate. I find that fascinating,” she says. “You’re very aware there’s a subterranean, subtext layer to everything that’s going on — and you have your antennae up at all times. That is erotic to me. But I’m glad that [I live in this era].”
As for the downside to LGBTQ+ culture going mainstream? “Well, if you’re safe for the TV screen, you also invite an aspect of grift [from the outside world],” she muses. “Which… I raise an eyebrow at.” To emphasize her point, she cocks her left brow; for a moment, she could pass for a hyperlogical Vulcan on Star Trek. “But there have been plenty of queer people in music. Even if the culture was saying no, there were always queer people in the arts. Please. We have built this.”
For a college dropout, Clark has done pretty well for herself. Born in Tulsa, Okla., she relocated to Texas as a child when her mother moved her and two older sisters to Dallas following her parents’ divorce. (Clark now has four brothers and four sisters from the combined families.) Her childhood obsession with the guitar, ignited by the 1987 Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba starring Lou Diamond Phillips, became serious as she entered her teen years, and a stint as a roadie for her uncle’s jazz-folk duo, Tuck & Patti, gave Clark her first taste of the touring business.
Clark attended Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music but left after three years (though her parents didn’t find out until several years later, when they read it in the press). “Other people have real educations,” she says. “I had philosophy teachers who were like, ‘How is Kierkegaard like Bob Marley?’ ” She shakes her head, almost tenderly. “It’s not. It’s not and that’s fine.” (When I ask how a music school dropout seems to have an endless fount of cultural, historical and artistic references at her disposal, she laughs and asks, “Is that your way of saying, ‘It’s OK you never went to real college’?”)
After cutting herself loose from Berklee, Clark spent 2005 and 2006 on the road with the robe-rocking, symphonic indie outfit Polyphonic Spree, joining Sufjan Stevens’ touring band for a spell shortly thereafter. Her solo debut album, Marry Me, released in 2007 on Beggars Banquet, was a chamber-pop cauldron with notes of Stevens and Spree, but had a playful, wry sense of humor that indicated it was just the tip of the St. Vincent iceberg. (For one thing, the album takes its title from a running joke on Arrested Development — a fact that today causes Clark to rest her head on her fingertips in faux embarrassment before concluding, “It is a great show.”)
On her next release, Actor, Clark’s music developed a jagged, sardonic bite that brought her to the Billboard 200 for the first time (at No. 90). Her top 20 follow-up, the 2011 art-rock statement Strange Mercy, was tinged with pain, fury, self-doubt and confusion — and dispelled any lingering misconceptions that she was a holdover from the demure, precious indie pop of the ’00s. While Clark had always seemed like an artist with something to say, on Strange Mercy, she sounded like an artist who needed to say something.
“In order to get good, you have to go through a series of humbling and humiliating experiences,” she reflects. “On the other hand, you have to have this psychotic belief — an unreasonable belief, truly — that you are going to write songs and make music that is going to matter. And that’s a really crazy thought.” She pauses. “I have that thought — with plenty of self-loathing and self-laceration — but I also have this [feeling], ‘If I don’t do this, I’m going to die.’ ”
Camilla and Marc shirt, Nour Hammour coat, Zhilyova gloves.
Lenne Chai
Among those who took notice of Clark’s creativity and drive was Talking Heads legend and fellow rock eccentric David Byrne. Their 2012 collaborative album, the funky, brass-heavy Love This Giant, netted Byrne his first top 40 entry outside Talking Heads on the Billboard 200.
“Annie is so many things all at once,” Byrne tells Billboard. “Beautiful, inventive, inscrutable — in the best way possible. I know her as someone warm and friendly, but as anyone listening to her music can hear, she’s got a dark side that as far as I know just has an outlet in her music. Would that all of us could do that.”
After a lengthy tour with Byrne — “I love playing shows. I’m up there, and truly, something else kicks in,” Clark emphasizes — she solidified her reputation as an art-rock auteur on her self-titled fourth album, the first of three on Loma Vista, in 2014. With a chromatic purple-blue-pink palette and a gray ’do teased to the heavens, Clark delivered the most stylistically cohesive St. Vincent album yet — and for the first time on wax, she sounded like she was having a blast. St. Vincent won Clark a Grammy for best alternative music album, kicking off an active streak of her collecting at least one Grammy per proper studio release since. In 2014, Clark also spoke publicly about her queerness for the first time, telling Rolling Stone, “I believe in gender fluidity and sexual fluidity.”
With 2017’s Masseduction, Clark pivoted to electropop and paired it with neon-drenched, latex-heavy visuals, as well as some of her most personal songs yet. Co-produced by Jack Antonoff, the album (her first top 10 entry on the Billboard 200) expanded her creative circle to include a range of musicians such as Sounwave, Kamasi Washington, Jenny Lewis, Mike Elizondo, Pino Palladino and Cara Delevingne (the latter of whom Clark dated for a year and a half, briefly putting her in the tabloid spotlight). Masseduction singles “New York” and “Los Ageless” hit the Adult Alternative Airplay and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts, and the title track won her the Grammy for best rock song. Not that she’s in it for the accolades: “I’m a musician because I’m obsessed with making music,” Clark states. “If I wasn’t, God knows, I don’t think it would be pretty.”
As her profile grew, Clark earned her first GLAAD Media Award nomination for outstanding music artist in 2018; that June, she unleashed “Fast Slow Disco,” a dancefloor remix of one of Masseduction’s tracks, along with a music video where she cavorted with a throng of leather-clad men making out with one another. “Happy Pride,” she tweeted. “It was sweet of these boys to let me crash their party.”
Fittingly, the tune’s title was inspired by a text message exchange with Wendy Melvoin, whose romantic relationship with Lisa Coleman in Prince’s backing band The Revolution provided sorely needed representation in the ’80s. “Annie’s a real artist. It’s always satisfying to be friends and compatriots with people that you have respect for,” Melvoin says. “She’s extremely talented,” Coleman agrees. “[She’s] a real musician that was so influenced by what we did, and she had a reverence for us. It was easy to return that because she is so good.”
St. Vincent wearing Ultra Open Earbuds by @Bose and Maggi Simpkins.
Lenne Chai
By 2021’s Daddy’s Home, Clark had nothing left to prove, which might explain why the album — partially inspired by her father’s 2019 release from prison after he served time for a stock manipulation scheme — was her first where she looked backward for inspiration. (Then again, maybe she meant it literally when she titled her 2017-18 tour Fear the Future.) Steeped in ’70s rock, AM pop and queer camp, the album netted her another Grammy for best alternative music album and another GLAAD nomination for outstanding music artist. As a victory lap and era-appropriate tie-in, she supplemented her own headlining trek for the record with a stint opening for Roxy Music’s farewell tour.
Beyond Roxy Music and Byrne, Clark has amassed an enviable Rolodex of rock royalty. She performed alongside the surviving members of Nirvana at their 2014 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony; produced Sleater-Kinney’s 2019 album, The Center Won’t Hold, and co-starred with the band’s Carrie Brownstein in the trippy 2020 mockumentary The Nowhere Inn; contributed to the 2021 remix album McCartney III Imagined (even getting a phone call from the Beatle himself); and feted Eurythmics at the duo’s 2022 Songwriters Hall of Fame induction, performing “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” Having worked with so many of her own musical heroes, she has also paid that forward, contributing to tracks by next-gen fans like Willow and Olivia Rodrigo.
“I’ve been a huge St. Vincent fan since I was a teenager. I think she’s such an inspiring artist and a wonderful person. I was so excited to bring her in to work on this song,” Rodrigo tells Billboard of co-writing “Obsessed” with Clark for the deluxe version of GUTS. “She added so many unique textures and sounds that I could’ve never thought of.”
Those inventive, meticulous methods stuck out to Willow when Clark guested on “Pain for Fun” from the former’s 2024 album, empathogen. “St. Vincent’s prodigious attention to detail is something that I have admired since hearing her for the first time at 12 years old,” Willow says. “To have had the opportunity to be in the same room with her, to witness and observe her process, is something that I will always hold close to my heart and something I will always refer back to for inspiration.”
“She’s an inspiration to me, but I can see [she is] to a lot of other singers and songwriters as well,” Byrne says. “And a somewhat underrated guitar goddess.” (Clark even has her own signature axe, a collaboration with Ernie Ball Music Man, which Jack White played on Saturday Night Live in 2018 and Rodrigo trotted out on her tour this year.)
Another one of those singer-songwriters is, of course, Taylor Swift. Alongside Antonoff and Swift, Clark wrote (and played guitar on) “Cruel Summer” from 2019’s Lover. After years of fan campaigns and three subsequent studio albums, Swift finally released “Cruel Summer” as a single in 2023; it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks and has spent more time on the chart than any of her other hits, earning an astounding 1 billion official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate.
“I remain blown away by ‘Cruel Summer’ being the phenomenon that is it,” Clark says. “Not because it isn’t a great song. It’s indicative of the time we’re in, where a song from many albums ago, that wasn’t even a single at the time, the fans go, ‘No, this one — we pick this one.’ And then they march it up the charts. That’s completely a testament to her fan base being so powerful.”
While some critics and fans have described the rock-heavy, emotionally raw All Born Screaming as a return to form, the album also marks a few notable firsts for Clark. Though distributed by Virgin Music Group, it’s the inaugural release on her own label, Total Pleasure Records, which she calls “just a little cozy place for me.” She’s excited about plenty of young artists but shrugs off any label boss ambitions. “I never want to be the person who is like, ‘I’m so sorry, we can’t afford to pay for your video unless you shill for cat laxatives,’ ” she deadpans. “I’m not trying to be The Man to any talent that I love. It just means autonomy.”
Clark insists that “DIY till you die” is her guiding mantra on all fronts, from making music to mounting tours on a scalable level. “I more enjoy the creative side, but you have to be across all of it. It’s your career. You can’t just let someone tell you where you are going. And putting all those pieces together is fun for me.”
St. Vincent wearing Ultra Open Earbuds by @Bose and Maggi Simpkins.
Lenne Chai
Perhaps more significantly, All Born Screaming is also the first of her own albums on which she is credited as sole producer (though she has co-produced more than half of her discography).
“I don’t think I could have made this record any other way. I don’t think I would have written these songs or explored this stuff without the solitude,” she says. “Around 2019 [I thought], ‘OK, I eventually just want to produce my own work.’ When I was making Daddy’s Home, I started making a plan for my engineer, Cian Riordan, to make my studio proper — to get more into the engineering side, hone my chops and build a playground for myself. But if I’m honest, the seed was planted earlier, because by the time I was 14 or 15 I was recording myself in my bedroom.” (Clark’s studio is in Los Angeles; she splits her time among New York, L.A. and Texas.)
A 2023 study of popular songs by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that just 3.4% of hits were produced by women in 2022, and Clark is still one of very few female producers finding success in the music business — with plenty more, she notes, deserving attention. “There are lots of women making their music DIY-style, and that is production,” she says. “My friend Cate Le Bon [who guests on All Born Screaming’s title track] is a great example of someone who produces herself and other people.” (The album also features drumming from Dave Grohl, Josh Freese and Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa.)
When it comes to ways to increase LGBTQ+ inclusion in the industry, Clark is reluctant to provide any glib or easy answers. “The answer is, ‘Of course,’ but I can’t go, ‘If we only changed this policy.’ ” The Texas-raised Clark does not, however, hold back when asked about Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who she says is waging “an absolute war on women and reproductive rights. That dude sucks. He sucks. I hate that dude.” For a brief moment, she sounds like an exasperated teenager ranting about her high school principal, but soon regains her poise. “What I love about Texas is the toughness and the grit. You can’t be too highfalutin. With love, they’ll knock you down a peg.” She looks thoughtful. “I did run away when I was 18, but at the same time, if you asked me to name parts of my identity, ‘Texan’ would be up there.”
St. Vincent wearing Ultra Open Earbuds by @Bose and Maggi Simpkins. CAMILLA AND MARC shirt, Nour Hammour coat, Zhilyova gloves, JW PEI shoes.
Lenne Chai
As an artist who has explored both identity and technology deeply, Clark is cautiously intrigued by the musical potential of artificial intelligence in the hands of artists. “The tool is as interesting as its holder,” she says, then flashes a mischievous half-smile. “In some ways, I’m more concerned about artists sounding like AI than I am [about] AI sounding like artists.”
Clark is far more troubled by a more established technology in the digital music era. “If you are a big pop artist, streaming is fine. But there is some music that reaches you very deeply but isn’t music that you put on every single day. I’m not going to listen to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme every day. It’s one of the most pivotal records of my life, but I’m not going to stream it over and over,” she says. “Streaming incentivizes songs to be consumable over and over again. Now, certainly there’s great music you want to consume like that — but there’s a lot of music that’s excellent and doesn’t fall into that category. And those artists, because of streaming, are wilting on the vine.” (St. Vincent’s catalog has accumulated a respectable 394.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams.)
Aside from friends like Le Bon, there are plenty of modern artists who keep Clark jazzed about music’s future. “I love Rosalía,” she says, leaning forward in her chair. “I saw her show last year. It was just art. It was so thoughtfully done. Post-modern choreography, flamenco. Just excellent.” All Born Screaming includes “Sweetest Fruit,” a tribute to the late trans artist SOPHIE, whom Clark deeply admired (though fan reaction to its literal lyrics was mixed). British rapper Little Simz is another favorite, and she lights up when talking about Willow. “She’s unbelievable. Her knowledge base and depth of reference is deep and varied. She’s pulling all these things together and making them her own, which is exactly what an artist should do.”
Whether speaking about her fellow artists, the music industry or her queer identity, Clark is animated and engaged; the only time she seems at a loss is when talking about how she fills her time that isn’t spent making music.
“I listen to a lot of audiobooks. Which is so boring,” she murmurs. “I work out. So boring.” Does she cook for herself? “Girl, no. Even playing Zelda, I would make dubious food.” Watch TV? “I will maybe watch something to fall asleep. I rewatched 30 Rock recently. I am obsessed with Girls5eva. It’s all the sensibility of 30 Rock, but with deep musical references. It makes me so happy.” Foster any unusual hobbies? “I walked into this bar across from Electric Lady [Studios in New York], but it was the wrong place — it was a coffee shop that turns into a knitting hour. I got the f–k out of there.”
After nearly two decades of making music professionally, Clark doesn’t seem fatigued or disenchanted by a business that often frustrates uncompromising creatives. If anything, she’s finding it easier to “trust in the process” with seven albums under her beloved trench’s belt. “There’s going to be speed bumps, and there’s going to be days when you don’t want to get out of bed. ‘Ugh, I can’t even face myself.’ And other days where you’re like, ‘Yeah, I am crushing it, wow!’ ”
Calling those polar mood swings “cancers to excise,” Clark says “it’s a miracle” she gets anything done. “The whole thing is chasing this feeling of being lit up and confused but excited at the same time,” she says. “It’s a bunch of people blowing into the same thing to make a balloon and, eventually, it rises. I don’t know how anything happens. I really don’t. The whole thing is mysterious. But I know if I focus on this little thing that I love, it will be OK.”
This story will appear in the June 22, 2024, issue of Billboard.
It’s 9 p.m. on a Wednesday evening in Miami, and Ty Baisden is still taking care of business with an energy level that belies the hour.
“I’m a firm sleeper who gets my eight hours,” says Baisden, his Georgian drawl giving way to laughter. “But what I don’t do is the bulls–t. So subtract the bulls–t, and you’ve got a lot of time to work and a lot of time to rest.”
That philosophy has anchored Baisden since he broke into the business as a manager in 2008. During that time, the native Atlantan also closely observed successful creative/business partnerships including Disturbing Tha Peace Records with Ludacris and Chaka Zulu and Grand Hustle Records with T.I. and Jason Geter.
Given the tenuousness of most manager-artist relationships, Baisden wanted to apply that collaborative model to the right act. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to find an artist that will want to partner with me where they deal with all the creative and I deal with all the business. Then we can build a company together, and we’ll be protected because the company is our protection.’ ”
In 2014, he found an ideal artist-partner in Brent Faiyaz after discovering him on SoundCloud. “It wasn’t an easy thing,” Baisden recalls. “I had executives telling me, ‘Don’t partner with artists; that’s dumb.’ And I had artists thinking, ‘No, I’d rather do something with a major label.’ Brent was the first artist that really believed in the overall process of that kind of partnership.”
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Over the last nine years, the business alignment between Baisden’s firm COLTURE — an acronym that stands for Can Our Leverage Teach Us Real Equity — where he is head of ventures and innovation — and Faiyaz’s Lost Kids label has yielded several successes. Among them: Faiyaz’s 2020 EP, F–k the World, bowing at No. 20 on the Billboard 200, followed by his momentous No. 2 debut with second studio album Wasteland — against Bad Bunny’s multiweek No. 1 juggernaut Un Verano Sin Ti — in 2022.
Then in 2023, Faiyaz’s F*ck the World, It’s a Wasteland Tour grossed $5.3 million and sold 68,000 tickets over 18 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore. Separately, in 2023, he launched his own creative agency, ISO Supremacy, in partnership with UnitedMasters. (Baisden is not involved.) ISO joined forces with PULSE Records in an artist development joint venture, and in May struck gold with genre-melding R&B singer Tommy Richman, whose “Million Dollar Baby” has spent two weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Splitting his time between Atlanta and Miami with a 22-member staff, Baisden, 40, works alongside COLTURE co-founder and head of creative services Jayne Andrew and partner Paris “PK” Kirk. The three are also co-founders and equity partners in COLTURE Holdings, which houses the firm’s nonmusic-related businesses.
“I don’t manage artists,” Baisden says of the business he has built with Faiyaz. “The skin that I have in the game is seeing another Black man be successful in whatever they want to do.”
Devin Christopher
What COLTURE accomplishment stands out over the last 18 months?
Our company vertically integrated and built Brent’s [2023] tour from start to finish. Usually, management will hire out for everything to get done. I partnered with Wasserman Music’s Callender to route it and negotiate the deals. Meanwhile, I handled the entire budget. Jayne handled all the band details, creative direction and making sure Brent felt comfortable onstage while PK handled all the lifestyle and afterparty events. And we each split time going to the different [tour stops] and booking the buses, freight and travel.
That’s not the job of managers, but we’re not managers; we build businesses. To build a business, you’ve got to manage the budget so you can determine your margin. Brent’s tour profited because we controlled every single dollar that was spent. I just think that’s very loud. So many people go out on the road and don’t make money. The artist gets paid, but when it’s time to do your balance sheet, you come out in the red. Many times, when you have other people managing a big lift, you’re going to get blindly overcharged.
How does the COLTURE partnership with Faiyaz and Lost Kids work?
Christopher Brent Wood [Faiyaz’s birth name] and I are business partners. When Christopher turns into the artist Brent Faiyaz and I’m operating on the latter’s behalf, then my job title is manager, for which I get a percentage. That’s probably the best way I can put it. We’re 50/50 partners in Lost Kids, under which we have multiple businesses. That was basically our handshake to one another in the beginning. Those projects and his tours are the financial seeds for Brent and me to go out and make individual investments. Lost Kids gave Brent the opportunity to invest in ISO Supremacy with his high school friend Darren Xu, and now they’re having a huge success with Tommy Richman. Beyond music and publishing, our biggest investments under Lost Kids involve real estate in Atlanta and Dallas and more than 20 startup companies, including Athletic Greens, Therabody, Audio Shake and Seed. And the great thing is three of those four companies — Seed, Audio Shake and Athletic Greens — are led by women.
Lost Kids also sponsors annual initiatives on behalf of female executives and entrepreneurs.
We just finished our fourth annual Show You Off grant program, giving 12 women $10,000 grants each to run their own business or launch a new idea. One of the policies of the grant is to reward Black women that are from the DMV [Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia] area. This year was a heavy one with new ideas involving STEM companies, [artificial intelligence] technology, electric batteries, etc. Thus far, we’ve donated about half a million dollars or more to Black women-helmed businesses.
What additional clients and businesses are under the COLTURE umbrella?
On the producer side, we have Nascent, who’s just finishing his project, Don’t Grow Up Too Soon, that we’ll distribute independently; Jordan Waré and Dpat, who have both worked with Brent. We have a partnership with [podcast] Million Dollaz Worth of Game to help [former rapper/co-host Gillie Da Kid] build out a music division. We’re doing their artist N3wyrkla’s first rollout with Troy Carter’s Venice Music. We collaborate as well with [pop duo] Emotional Oranges on distribution and creative direction when needed. Then, in the same kind of partnership I have with Brent, there’s Canadian female artist Kalisway, who writes and produces funk and R&B. Lastly, we’re helping actor Malcolm Mays [Starz’s Raising Kanan] launch his music career to diversify his business.
What’s the biggest issue facing the independent community right now?
An indie company can put out a song and the song can blow up, but more than likely, the company doesn’t have sufficient infrastructure to make sure everybody’s paid fairly based on their contributions to the record that just changed their artist’s life. The artist and the label are going to get big checks, but the songwriters and producers are probably going to get paid a year or two later, depending on how savvy their manager is — if they even have a manager.
Where do you envision COLTURE three to five years from now?
We have a 10-year plan outlining that parent company COLTURE Holdings will be generating $100 million in revenue by 2030. That’s the goal. Over the next three years, we’re launching our full-fledged media department, including TV, film, podcasting and digital content. The sports division is developing, and we’re continuing our real estate operation. We’re basically building a community and a pipeline for disrupters who can either stay within our ecosystem or build their own businesses.
Additional reporting by Shira Brown.
This story originally appeared in the June 8, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Jessica Berndt has worked in film/TV music for almost a decade, most recently as music supervisor with independent label Secretly Group. “I had a few items on [my] music supervision bucket list,” she says. “An A24 film was at the top.”
In 2021, that dream inched closer when A24 launched its own record label, A24 Music. The in-house entity partnered with Secretly Distribution to build its own catalog of musical intellectual property and ensure its releases appeared on streaming services and in record stores. While it’s rare for a film company to start its own label (excluding major conglomerates like Disney), A24 Music showed signs early on it could be the first successful independent filmmaker to bet on a label: To promote its 2016 Academy Award-winning best picture, Moonlight — which features an Oscar-nominated score by Nicholas Britell (Succession, The Big Short, If Beale Street Could Talk) — A24 hosted a live performance of its score in London.
Ever since, A24 has maintained a music focus across its projects, from 2021’s C’mon C’mon (scored by The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner) to the upcoming MaXXXine (starring Moses Sumney and Halsey). And in May, Berndt was able to cross off that No. 1 goal from her bucket list with the release of trans horror film I Saw the TV Glow, for which she was co-music supervisor alongside Secretly Group founder Chris Swanson.
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Like Moonlight and others before it, I Saw the TV Glow leaned heavily on its soundtrack as a marketing tool, using its roster of featured artists to drum up anticipation among its target demographic months before release. Featuring a score by Alex G and original songs by a slate of indie-rock staples including Caroline Polachek, Jay Som and a title track from Phoebe Bridgers and Sloppy Jane (both of whom make cameos in the movie), Berndt says a catchy new song can drive as much advance interest in a film as a well-edited trailer.
While star-powered soundtracks have experienced a revival in the last decade — including for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Black Panther, The Lion King and Barbie — no one has done it in the indie space quite like A24. The company has expanded its brand as a film company into a formidable and growing music catalog, as well as a meaningful merchandise business and podcast network.
It’s that very strategy that enticed Jen Malone to work with the company as music supervisor on the hit HBO show Euphoria, which was a turning point for series co-producer A24 as a music-focused outfit. “Music can often be an afterthought in TV and film,” Malone says. “In Euphoria, we decided at the top that music was going to be like a character in the show, and A24 supported that the whole way through.”
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Euphoria spawned virality for a number of songs on its soundtrack and, in some cases, led to a streaming uptick of over 2,100%, according to Luminate, following a synch. Whether that was for Labrinth’s original score and songs for the show — two of which he and Euphoria star Zendaya performed at Coachella in 2023 (“All for Us” and “I’m Tired”) — or older licensed works like Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down the Line,” Sinéad O’Connor’s “Drink Before the War” and DMX’s “Party Up,” Euphoria played a large role in igniting trends that would later perpetuate as popular sounds on TikTok.
A24 also creates extended Spotify playlists based on its soundtracks, as well as special-edition vinyl records, both of which continue to strengthen viewers’ relationship with a film long after the lights come on in the theater. On A24’s website, hot pink I Saw the TV Glow vinyl is for sale next to a myriad of other superfan offerings, from coffee-table books and posters to oddities like Marcel the Shell figurines, Everything Everywhere All at Once hot dog fingers and Hereditary-themed gingerbread kits.
And now, just a few years in, A24 Music is rolling out its most ambitious project yet: a star-studded set titled Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to the Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense arriving in July. It follows A24 remastering and rereleasing the band’s 1984 classic concert film, Stop Making Sense, last year.
And everyone seemingly did get involved with the album, which is just as stacked with major stars like Lorde, Paramore and Miley Cyrus as it is with indie breakouts like The Linda Lindas and Blondshell. “I feel like there’s a real sense of play permeating the entire project,” says Evan Whikeheart, head of label and shared services at Secretly Distribution. “It was a real joy to hear how all these artists from different musical backgrounds came together to interpret these songs.”
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Representatives close to A24 Music tell Billboard it’s still the early days of its exploration into music-focused programming but cite a desire to “attribute the success of A24 Music to all the incredible artists we work with.” (The company declined to be interviewed for the story.) Yet Talking Heads’ David Byrne says the A24 team is largely responsible for the tribute album’s success, saying that he was “absolutely hands off” with the process. “When I saw the list of artists who wanted to do it, I have to say I was pretty excited,” Byrne says. “I thought ‘Damn, this is going to be an amazing record.’
“It’s hard to imagine that yet another generation might connect with this film,” he continues. “We like to believe that life is short and art is long, but here, it is really happening.”
This story will appear in the June 8, 2024, issue of Billboard.
When Myles Smith initially posted a teaser of what would become the soaring folk-pop hit “Stargazing” to his TikTok in early April, he had no idea what would become of it — both in terms of its overwhelming fan response, but more pressingly, how the then-still-unfinished preview would sound when it ultimately became a completed product.
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“As the song was gaining momentum, I was like, ‘Oh snap, I’m gonna have to finish this thing,’ ” Smith tells Billboard. A week after making that initial post, which featured him singing a stripped-down rendition of the song’s captivating hook over a simple acoustic guitar, Smith unveiled a studio demo of “Stargazing,” which he continued to use as a teaser — generating 80 million views across several videos — until its official release on May 10.
Soulful melodies, heartfelt lyrics and an online following of fans hungry for more made the perfect recipe for the 26-year-old Luton, England native’s debut on the Billboard charts. With 6.7 million official U.S. streams in its opening week, according to Luminate, the track became Smith’s first-ever Billboard Hot 100 entry at No. 77 on the chart dated May 26. And the song is continuing to heat up as summer rolls in — it reaches a new No. 51 high on this week’s list, boosting Smith into the top five on Billboard‘s Emerging Artists chart for the first time as well.
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As “Stargazing” continues to shine, Smith is taking it all in, without abandoning his go-to strategy: sharing glimpses of unfinished projects with fans along the way. In the past few weeks alone, Smith has already posted demos of the pop-infused folk ballad “Whispers” and the charming love song “Be Mine” to his TikTok. “It could be a ‘Stargazing’ part two,” he teases of the latter track. “You never know with these things. I was itching to get it out.”
Below, Smith opens up about the cosmic growth of “Stargazing,” balancing social media with mental health, his experience being on tour, his dream collaboration list and more.
Where did you get the idea for “Stargazing,” and how did it come together?
It was something that was birthed out of being with the people that I loved in a space that I loved. I was out in Malibu in L.A. [in January], my first time ever there, and distinctly different from where I grew up. I was with songwriter Jesse Fink and a songwriter-producer Peter Fenn, who I’ve collaborated with before. I just signed with my label [RCA Records], and I was like, “I want to write something that’s really warm, fun and happy.” I came up with the hook pretty instantaneously.
It was just us jumping around, about day five into writing — looking at each other with guitars and having the time of our lives. It came from the idea of the people that you love, the things that you love, always being present in your life, maybe in a way you don’t recognize or see. And then that coming into light later in the day, and that euphoric moment of realizing that. The whole song wasn’t finished on that day, but the embers of it definitely were. From the very moment that that melody was found, the warmth in the room was infectious.
Where did the “Stargazing” metaphor come from?
It jumped out of nowhere. It was getting late in Malibu, and we’re looking over at the ocean and the sun setting, and in that beautiful moment, I stood there and it was quite cathartic. I was like, “Damn, I’m doing the thing that I’ve really wanted to be doing while looking at this beautiful night sky setting.” We were like, “Oh snap, is this what it’s called?” We threw the word in and it found its life there.
How much did the initial recording change from the final product?
At the time, it was just really the hook and the bare bones of the verse and melody. I think that’s the exciting part of where we are now in music. Not everything has to be done, and not everything has to be perfect. In fact, the process of getting there was very much a reciprocal relationship between me and my fans. Watching them react to it, I was even more inspired to finish the song. We kept the bones of the demo in there, and we embellished it to bring it to studio standard. We wanted to not step too far away from the magic that had been created.
So when you posted that initial snippet on TikTok, you didn’t have the whole song done yet?
No, the whole song was not done by that point but it was something that we knew was special. “Solo” and “My Home” — my two songs before that — were a similar process. I just fell in love with the bare bones of the song. I’ve got this really itchy finger in which I can’t wait to put something out. I know for a lot of artists, it’s about putting out what’s perfect. But for me, there’s so much beauty in imperfection.
A big part of why I love the audience that I have is that they bear with me as I get through things and as I explore what something should sound like. Them being part of my creative process is integral to the music being what it is and to it connecting the way that it connects. I’m forever thankful to the feedback online. It really matters in that final mastering and finishing of any song that I make.
Has there been any reaction to its chart success from friends or family that stands out?
My mum was exactly like me, and was like, “Is this real? Are you being scammed?” [Laughs.] We got on FaceTime and I got about 50 texts from friends and family because my mum had gone mental on all the group chats. Especially here in the U.K., the reality of a U.K. artist being on the Billboard [charts] isn’t very big, so when you hear it, it does sound a little bit like a dream. Then it happened, and we were like, “Oh my word. We’re making waves across the pond.”
It’s so fulfilling and so inspiring, the fact that I’m able to do this, and follow so many great British artists. To have support across the water and feel like I have a home away from home has just been so humbling, and such a privilege of an experience. Charting on the Hot 100 has such a profound impact on an artist’s journey, to really gain confidence and validity in how they think and feel about their art and their music.
Do you have a favorite interaction or use of the song on TikTok?
The ones that really get me are the wedding ones. This is someone’s biggest day of their life to this point, potentially. And they’ve chosen my voice, a kid from a million miles away who grew up in a town that no one’s ever heard of, as their soundtrack. It stops me in my tracks every time that I see it, and it reminds me that the thing that we do as artists really does have an impact on people’s lives.
Sometimes on the internet, you can be so distracted by the things that don’t matter. When you’re pulled back into reality by those moments, it really amplifies the role of an artist — but also the beauty of the music industry and moving towards social media in a global perspective. I’m so lucky to be a part of a generation of artists who are doing that.
What is your current relationship with social media like?
My relationship is healthier than what it was. We naturally compare ourselves to people so much and look at people doing amazing things. For a long time, I took that as a reflection of what I wasn’t doing. That wasn’t great for me. But I started to use social media, for lack of a better word, in a more selfish way — like, “Hey, I want to use this as a tool to find my community, build relationships and network.” I started focusing on what was important to me, and it became such an incredible part of my artist journey.
Now I have a community that thinks, feels and expresses themselves in such similar ways and teaches me things about myself and the world that I didn’t know. I see it now as an opportunity to connect with people across the world.
You’re currently on tour in Europe. What’s that experience been like?
I did a mini-run of shows at the start of this year, and that was my first moment of bridging the gap between online and real life. It was such a surreal moment. Being on stage and being in cities I’ve never been and people singing lyrics back to me, it stopped me in my tracks every single night. This tour is that, just a little bit bigger. It’s still the exact same feeling. It feels like I’m living a dream. People ask me, “Is this normal yet?” For me, it’s not. I don’t ever want it to be normal.
The magic of living your dream and seeing it every night is what I think what music’s all about. To see people in real life, hear their stories and hardships and sing, laugh, cry in a room together is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve loved every moment of this tour. I can’t wait to go to the States and run it back.
What’s next for you after tour?
After tour I will be taking… I’m lying. I’m not gonna be taking a break. I don’t have time to take a break! I’m going to be straight back in the studio, writing and recording more music. The part I love about what I do, and the part about working with the people I work with and the label that I now call home at RCA, is that they really support my vision of being able to put out music, and not always having to wait.
Who are some of your dream collaborators?
I’m a huge Mumford & Sons stan. I love Noah Kahan — I think what he does is just unbelievable. I can’t think of someone who’s a better songwriter at this current stage. Hozier is a GOAT of GOATs. But if I had to pick an all-time dream, it’d be Chris Martin. I will forever be a Coldplay stan.
A version of this story originally appeared in the June 1, 2024, issue of Billboard.
About a decade into his career with Universal Music Group (UMG) — primarily heading A&R and working as a staff producer for Harvest Records — Tim Anderson had a front-row seat to the late-2010s vinyl boom. “It was still an archaic, dinosaur thing,” he recalls of how labels approached record pressing. He started to wonder why records were so hard to manufacture and had such long lead times — and what he could do about it.
By the time the pandemic hit, Anderson — who is also a songwriter-producer, composing for Suits and working with acts like Banks, Halsey and twenty one pilots — had left his major-label gig and had little interest in producing. Unsure of what to do next, his wife kept reminding him that music is what he knows best and suggested he tackle the vinyl issue that had plagued him years ago.
Twenty minutes later, Anderson made his first call to Scotty Coats, an old friend of his wife’s and Capitol Music Group’s one-time vinyl marketing manager. Coats immediately expressed his belief in the idea of a more sustainable approach to vinyl manufacturing. The call motivated Anderson — who doesn’t have an environmentalist background, admitting he gets confused trying to properly sort his recycling — to figure out how to make his vision a reality.
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He found a video online posted by Dutch company Green Vinyl Records, which detailed the development of an environmentally friendly alternative to record manufacturing that is free of polyvinyl chloride. “I’d been told my entire life that you needed the PVC to make a record sound great, and I just believed it,” Coats says. “Until Tim came along and inspired me to find a better way.”
“We saw it right when we met them that they had made something that could be this huge unlock,” Anderson recalls of GVR. He says the company needed a partner to help scale what it had built, and Good Neighbor was able to provide production contacts at many independent and major labels, especially in the United States. “They needed us and we needed them,” he says.
Soon after, Anderson met Reyna Bryan, president of innovative packaging company RCD, and in late 2023, he quietly launched Good Neighbor, a first-of-its-kind record-pressing company that manufactures fully recyclable discs, with Reyna as CEO and Coats as vp of sales and marketing. He later hired Coats’ friend and UMG manufacturing veteran Jonny O’Hara as vp of productions and operations. “As more people were stepping back into the world of vinyl, a lot of artists were like, ‘Is there a more eco-friendly alternative?’ ” O’Hara recalls. “There were better options coming online, but they were never to the same degree as Good Neighbor.”
“In my business of transforming supply chains, any opportunity to reduce carbon production or eliminate chemicals of concern from the process is a major win,” adds Bryan. “Good Neighbor achieves both.”
Key stakeholders of Good Neighbors, from left: Tim Anderson, Scotty Coats, Reyna Bryan and Jonny O’Hara.
Ryan Kontra
Instead of a traditional hydraulic press, which uses energy to heat up and cool down, GVR’s “futuristic-looking” machine (as O’Hara describes it) uses injection molding of polyethylene terephthalate (PET plastic), which reduces energy by 60% and increases manufacturing by three times. (GVR’s single press in the Netherlands, running three eight-hour shifts, has an estimated capacity of 1.2 million records a year.) A second press will arrive in the United States in mid-September. (Good Neighbor is currently raising money through the team’s pro-skater friends and music managers.)
GVR’s Pierre van Dongen and Harm Theunisse say they looked to the pressing process for CDs and DVDs as inspiration, noting how precise and adaptable it was. And while they say some research on trying this process with records was done in the 80s, it was never finished — until now. It took them six years to “perfect the development,” as they say, which included testing over 200 materials, optimizing molding and developing the direct to record label printer.
Coats and O’Hara are particularly excited about how this new process eliminates paper center labels that require high-heat baking in order to stick to PVC. Instead, Good Neighbor’s labels will be directly printed onto the PET plastic, allowing for individual customization of records — a sustainable step forward for exclusivity. Meanwhile, Anderson is thrilled that the machine is “material-agnostic,” meaning it can mold any material into a record, but Anderson says most don’t sound great — yet. The company is currently testing recycled bottles.
And while Anderson says he leaned on his “purist” friends for feedback on test pressings of the PET plastic and that no one pushed back on quality after listening, he still acknowledges that “audiophiles might not be our target consumer.” With Good Neighbor, he says, the goal isn’t to shame vinyl connoisseurs for their existing collections but to set a new precedent for sustainability in record production.
“If this industry keeps growing at this pace, it’s got to change … When the biggest artists in the world start selling millions and millions of these shrink-wrapped [vinyl], that’s when I was like, ‘This feels like something that would be fun to disrupt.’”A version of this article will appear in the June 8, 2024, issue of Billboard.
For plenty of music’s most compelling artists, going independent doesn’t mean going small — it means reaping the myriad benefits of forgoing the major label route. Across genres, staying independent can ensure an artist has greater ownership over both their creativity and their intellectual property; the ability to pivot or react quickly when a song unexpectedly takes off; and the freedom to put together a team that truly has their best interests at heart. Of course, there are the more intangible upsides to staying indie too — above all, the feeling that when success happens, it’s truly earned.
Here, Billboard surveys some of the most compelling indie artists making music (and chart inroads) now about the challenges and benefits they’ve seen to independence and the advice they’d offer anyone considering it.
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The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “Take mindful steps to get to know and understand your artist identity so that you can become something unique and genuine — whether it’s through vision boards, writing diaries or practicing adjacent forms of artistry to help you flesh out your identity as a musician. It has been instrumental to me in making sure I don’t lose my way.” —Paris Paloma (Nettwerk)
The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “You control the narrative, so don’t settle, and be bold. An artist working independently has the ability to reach their fans directly with no barriers to entry and to create their own culture. [Independence] also provides a comfortable space for an artist to discover who they are and run their business with full oversight of the costs. It’s incredibly important for anyone getting into this business to understand how it works, what you’re signing into and how your money is being spent.” —Josh Sanger, manager, Paris Paloma
Paris Paloma
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“Freedom is the most important asset an artist can have, in many more ways than just artistic. If you’re serious about being independent and you know how to work it, it’s way better than signing with an established label. For example, I own my own publishing company. I own my touring company. The capability of reacting and not being on a part-semester plan or a year plan is priceless. The capacity of reaction is one of the biggest assets of being independent.” —Pepe Aguilar (Equinox Records, Machín Records)
One of the most challenging parts of being independent is…: “Being able to make connections with global artists who are represented by major labels for collaborations.” —Cris MJ (Stars Music Chile/Rimas Entertainment)
The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “[Take] responsibility as an artist, and form a good team that can support you in making the right decisions.” —Sergio Javier Ampuero Vergara, manager, Cris MJ
“If you’re grinding to get to your highest point of success and you started by yourself, it means more when you make it. The celebration when you make it is different because you get to say that you gave all of yourself to your dream, no matter who believed or didn’t.” —Lay Bankz (Artist Partner Group)
Lay Bankz
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One of the most challenging parts of being independent is…: “[When you’re] doing the same thing every day with what feels like no motion, and spending money. No one knows you, no one is there to help you, or believing in you — it’s just God, you, and your dreams.” —Kenney Blake, manager, Lay Bankz
“Being an independent artist means having total control over both your art and your business. This requires being an entrepreneur, taking all the risks and having no one to blame but yourself and your team. Make sure you have a good team. You can still yell at the label when you are the label, but you will be yelling in the mirror.
That said, where there is great risk there is great reward. The potential upside is tremendous when you own your own masters and publishing. Don’t let anyone ever convince you ‘independent’ is synonymous with ‘small’ or ‘broke.’ ” —Andrew McInnes, CEO, TMWRK Management; manager, Sturgill Simpson (High Top Mountain)
“We have been able to have full control of our music without having to encounter a lot of politics and red tape that other artists do. It has given us the ability to do what we love most in the way we feel is best, and it even allowed us the freedom to experiment with different sounds on our newest album, Jugando A Que No Pasa Nada.” —Grupo Frontera (Grupo Frontera)
Why is being independent important to you?: “It gives us the power of decision-making and accountability without relying on third parties. This autonomy allows us to act swiftly and adapt to changes in the market or consumer behavior. As a team we can identify shifts in consumption patterns and work towards addressing them on the same day, without needing to wait for approval or direction from a label. This freedom to maneuver quickly and make decisions on our own terms enables us to stay agile, innovative, and true to the artist vision.” —Lucas Barbosa, manager, Grupo Frontera
Grupo Frontera
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“Independence, to me, is having autonomy and ownership of your art. This makes me feel a closer connection to my audience because they know that what comes from me is from me.” —Laufey (AWAL)
Why is being independent important to you?: “So I can own my music and I can control my whole world more easily. Being able to work and keep my music in my possession [means] I can have everything in the future. That’s why I work with UnitedMasters.” —FloyyMenor (UnitedMasters)
The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “Establish and maintain a clear budget. By implementing a detailed budgeting system early on, I was able to allocate funds effectively, ensuring that I always had enough money set aside for crucial aspects of my career. By tracking income and expenses diligently, artists can make informed decisions about where to invest their resources, ultimately leading to greater financial stability and long-term success.” —310babii (High IQ/EMPIRE)
The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “Always ask ‘Why?’ The music business will make you pay for what you don’t know, and it’s your choice on how you choose to learn. If you do not educate yourself on what’s important for the longevity of your career and choose short-term gratification, you will end up paying for it in the long run.” —Jentry Salvatore, manager, 310babii
310babii
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“An indie artist has to have the understanding and knowledge to grasp that investing in their own career is crucial, whether in marketing, in making better content, in doing big tours and shows. An indie artist is one who makes decisions and pays for them from his own pocket.” —Fede Lauria, manager, Bizarrap (Dale Play Records)
The biggest benefit of being independent is…: “Maintaining creative control over the strategies and music that I create. [My song] ‘Daylight’ [had an] original release date scheduled for June, but I knew we had to get it out as soon as possible based on all the engagement we were building around it on socials. I called my manager and just told him we needed to get the song out, and the team made it happen. I think if I were signed to a [major] label, I wouldn’t have been able to make a last-minute change like that and the song wouldn’t have had as big of an impact.” —David Kushner (Miserable Man Music)
“I learned how to play in public. Taught myself how to play guitar and sing and write songs standing on street corners. If I were you, I wouldn’t sign any contracts, ever, if you don’t have to. Because it ain’t to your advantage. Unless they’re giving you a whole bunch of money — and even then, try and get the cash with a handshake. Let me put it to you like this: If you don’t know who the sucker in the deal is, it’s you.
Asking why being independent’s important is really beside the point. I didn’t set out to be independent. I was always seen as so confusing and so different that the people I was dying to do business with didn’t want me. The woman that discovered us, when she started realizing that I was going to be difficult to handle or tame, one afternoon in frustration, she threw her hands down on her desk and looked across at me and said, ‘Goddamn it, Charley Crockett. It’s a Coke and Pepsi world, and you are going to have to dance.’ She said my problem was that I just wanted to be Woody Guthrie and this was my one golden opportunity. Well, the only thing she was right about is I did want to be Woody Guthrie. Where we disagreed is, I don’t think you have one shot. You just have to keep rolling the dice.
At a certain point, I felt like I was out in the wilderness. And when you get far enough out there, the air is real good. You learn how to survive in it, and you just keep going. Don’t ever turn around.” —Charley Crockett (Son of Davy/Thirty Tigers)
Charley Crockett
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The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “You have to be persistent in selling your musical vision to find your fans and reach the masses. Being creative and trusting your instincts as an artist can help to level the playing field. And most importantly, don’t take no for an answer.” —Ken Levitan, Vector Management; manager, Charley Crockett
The biggest benefit of being independent is…: “I can work closely with my team and lead my projects, making sure my goals come to reality. At the end of the day, as the artist and mind of my project, that makes it easier for all to be on the same page.” —Junior H (Rancho Humilde)
The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “Trust the process.” —Key Glock (Paper Route/EMPIRE)
The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “Trust yourself, be authentic and see your artistic vision through. Continue to create the music that speaks to you that will resonate with your core audience, and don’t compromise for quick commercial success.” —Shaboozey (EMPIRE)
The biggest benefit of being independent is…: “Having the flexibility to move at your own pace. For example, if we want to release a record, we control that internally and can capitalize on any traction instantaneously — rather than having to get approvals from multiple parties. We live in a world where the consumer attention span is shorter than it’s ever been, so being able to strike while the iron is hot is ever so crucial to the success of an artist’s rollout.” —Abas Pauti, manager, Shaboozey
Shaboozey
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“It’s so important for an artist to be able to say yes or no without manipulation or punishment. I believe creative freedom is priceless. Art is beautiful. It is honest, it is therapy, it is healing, it is personal, and it is often disrupted and tainted by business minds and models looking to make a quick coin. While the independent route is not without its own risks [like] self-financing, I am truly grateful to be able to be in control of my life and my art.” —RAYE (Human Re Sources)
The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “Being independent doesn’t mean working alone! It’s an old saying, but it takes a village and it really does. Your team is everything. I firmly believe getting that right is essential for success.” —Paul Keen, manager, RAYE
“Being an independent artist is one of the most empowering positions to be in. Independent artists feel the weight of responsibility for the future of their careers, which I think oftentimes leads to an increase in grit and work ethic.
I think I’ve realized the power and value of a team that’s aligned with the artist’s vision. A small but effective team around an independent artist and the right strategic partnerships can make a huge difference.” —JVKE (AWAL)
The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “Right now, artist culture is very anti-major label. The seed of this is obviously that traditional label deals have been very exploitative. However, I’m noticing that, among young artists, this culture is breeding a fear of engaging with anyone who might be able to help scale their projects. I was speaking with a really talented artist the other day and they were telling me how they’re drowning simply trying to keep up with content creation and writing new songs. Yet, five minutes earlier, they were telling me how they never respond to any music pros that hit them up on socials, because it’s stupid for an artist to have a manager or label partner and give away money when they can do it all on their own. I had to stop them and point out the contradiction.
The great news is, the sort of predatory deals that sparked this label conversation in the first place aren’t all that’s on the table anymore. There are companies out there that allow artists to retain ownership of their music and maintain creative control, while still offering help with all the tasks artists don’t have the time for or network to facilitate, and they’ll do it for a very justifiable portion of the profit that is fractions of what artists had to give away in the past.
If you just want to write songs in your bedroom and hopefully pay the bills, then you might be able to swing it on your own. If you want to go big, building the right team is the best investment an artist can make. There are no billion-dollar businesses that are run by one person alone.” —Ethan Curtis, Plush Management; manager, JVKE
JVKE
David Livingston/WireImage
The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “A personal connection with your team is paramount. As the industry continues to shift, having a team that you trust and can envision being in your life for the next two, five, 10, 15 years is crucial. Katie Crutchfield has always had a very specific vision for Waxahatchee. While it has certainly evolved over the years, having a group of a few core, trusted team members around her has been key to keeping Katie’s goals focused and achievable.” —Reynold Jaffe, Another Management Company; manager, Waxahatchee (Anti-)
The biggest benefit of being independent is…: “Being in control of your intellectual property, how you monetize it, release it and promote it. At the end of the day, you then own all of your own IP, to sell or continue working as you’d like to, on your own terms.” —Dean Wilson, manager, deadmau5 (mau5trap)
“For Djo, the most important aspect of releasing music is to allow for people to discover the songs and who is behind them on their own. By staying independent, he is under no pressure to rush his campaigns.” —Nick Stern, manager, Djo (AWAL)
Why is being independent important to you?: “Because being a musician means being a part of the music industry, it begins to entangle creativity and business — which can be incredibly difficult and painful for artists. Being independent, we are able to maintain creative control over the vast majority of what we do, and it’s something I would never consider giving up.” —Khruangbin’s Laura Lee Ochoa (Dead Oceans)
Laura Lee Ochoa
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The biggest benefit of being independent is…: “As an independent manager who represents independent artists, we are afforded autonomy both creatively and strategically since there is less pressure to hit markers of supposed success that are often informed by financial obligation versus artistry. The music must come first, in its most pure and passionate form. If you bet on yourself, you’re sure to win.” —Dawn White, You and Me, Inc.; manager, Khruangbin
The advice I’d offer any indie artist is…: “Surround yourself with a team that you trust and you know will put your career and the integrity of your music first. I couldn’t do anything I do without my team, from my label to management and beyond. From American Idol to moving to Nashville to being thrown headfirst into the unknown world of the music industry, I’m so grateful I had all of them there to guide me, my music and my career from the very beginning.” —Chayce Beckham (Wheelhouse/BBR Music Group)
The biggest benefit of being independent is…: “I loved being involved [at BBR Music Group] with a small group of passionate people who woke up every day with an ‘us against the world’ attitude. While they have had great successes with Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson, that same passion and drive remains.” —Clarence Spalding, manager, Jason Aldean
Who is “indie”?: The artists featured in this story meet the guidelines of Billboard’s Top Independent Albums chart, which includes labels distributed independently or through the indie division of a major-label group as well as labels that are independently owned and control their masters but are distributed directly through Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment or Warner Music Group.
This story will appear in the June 8, 2024, issue of Billboard.
At just 10 years old, Christopher Brent Wood’s metamorphosis into indie disruptor Brent Faiyaz began.
As he collected CDs by D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill and Joe, among other R&B/hip-hop artists, the youngster would steadily pore over album liner notes, absorbing the behind-the-scenes details of how his favorite albums were made. By middle school, he had set up his first home studio, with a USB mic and downloaded software — the start of his shift from music fan to music-maker.
“I was making money selling beats; that’s how I got a lot of my friends when I was younger,” Faiyaz, 28, recalls today of his teenage years in the Baltimore area. “It’d be like grown motherf–kers coming to the house to get beats off me. My parents were like, ‘Who are these grown adults coming by the house? What’s going on?’ ”
Faiyaz’s parents had once pushed him to attend college. But eventually, that morphed into, “Can you just please graduate [high school]?” Faiyaz recalls with a chuckle, “because my grades were so bad. It was like you can do something all day every day, but if it’s not bringing no money to the house, they figured you needed a plan B or C. But music was all I wanted to do. So I kind of had to prove them wrong.”
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Faiyaz has done just that. Since he began releasing his own music on SoundCloud over a decade ago, he has upended the contemporary R&B scene with his raw, frank lyrics and ’90s-vibed alt-R&B sound — and become a bona fide mainstream hit-maker in the process. After gaining national attention with his guest turn (alongside Shy Glizzy) on GoldLink’s multiplatinum hit “Crew,” Faiyaz dropped his debut studio album, Sonder Son, in 2017. His loyal fan base continued to grow, and he broke through on the Billboard 200 in 2020 with his EP F–k the World, which bowed at No. 20; two years later, his second studio album, Wasteland, debuted at No. 2 on the chart, powered by the platinum singles “Gravity” (with Tyler, The Creator) and “Wasting Time” (with Drake and The Neptunes). Faiyaz has earned 4.7 million equivalent album units in the United States and 6.5 billion official on-demand U.S. streams for songs on which he’s the lead artist, according to Luminate, and he has charted 13 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, 20 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and 33 on Hot R&B Songs. Faiyaz’s solo catalog of songs on which he’s credited as a primary artist generated 2.16 billion on-demand audio streams (inclusive of user-generated content) in the U.S. over the past 12 months ending May 30, 2024, according to Luminate. That’s the most among acts whose catalogs are distributed independently and outside of the major-owned indie distribution system.
It’s Faiyaz’s unwavering work ethic, creative visual flair and keen entrepreneurial instincts that have helped him craft one of independent music’s biggest recent success stories. In 2015, he and his manager, Ty Baisden, co-founded the label Lost Kids, which released F–k the World and Wasteland, and their success caught the attention of music distributor UnitedMasters and its founder and CEO, Steve Stoute. The company partnered with Faiyaz in 2023 to launch creative agency ISO Supremacy, and Faiyaz’s first ISO album, Larger Than Life, arrived that October, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard 200. The same year, he embarked on his F*ck the World, It’s a Wasteland world tour, playing theaters and grossing $5.3 million over 18 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore.
“A lot of it was timing,” the soft-spoken Faiyaz reflects today over his lunch of Mongolian lamb at a tony Beverly Hills restaurant. “I was fortunate enough to be in a space where I had the mainstream hit record with ‘Crew,’ and then I also had the underground sh-t. So I was able to tackle the super music heads and the mainstream audience all at one time. By the time Wasteland dropped, it was just perfect timing.”
Wales Bonner suit and Ray-Ban sunglasses.
Austin Hargrave
Of course, for him to take advantage of such perfect timing, he had to put in the work first. After graduating from high school in 2013, Faiyaz (whose stage surname means “artistic leader” in Arabic and was inspired by a close high school friend who’s Muslim) relocated to Charlotte, N.C. While he worked jobs at a grocery store and Dunkin’, Faiyaz continued to record and upload music on SoundCloud for his budding fan base. That’s where his kindred indie spirit — and eventual manager and business partner — Baisden discovered him. But it was Faiyaz’s singing, not his rapping, that intrigued Baisden.
“I clicked on a song called ‘Natural Release,’ ” says Baisden, who broke into the business as a manager in 2008 before co-founding multisector firm COLTURE in 2018. “It was the only song that Brent was singing and had more plays than all the other songs. While it gave me a whole wave like Frank Ocean, the way Brent’s tone felt made it his own world. I was like, ‘Man, this is fire,’ because he raps how he talks but he doesn’t sing how he talks. It’s a completely different audio experience.”
But despite his love of R&B, Faiyaz didn’t initially see himself as “built for R&B singing. I wasn’t really a take-my-shirt-off-and-show-my-abs kind of guy [onstage], so I didn’t think I was suited for it. And Ty said, ‘That doesn’t necessarily have to be what you do.’ So I just took the things that I would have been rapping about and put it in a way where I could sing it.”
Givenchy shirt and jacket.
Austin Hargrave
Baisden flew to Charlotte to meet Faiyaz, and the pair ultimately joined forces as founding partners in Lost Kids, named for Faiyaz’s high school crew; he has the letters tattooed on his knuckles. “The whole ideology of Lost Kids came from [Brent],” Baisden says. He handles everything related to Faiyaz’s business; Faiyaz maintains control over all creative aspects of his career. (“He isn’t in the studio with me; he isn’t picking my singles,” he says of Baisden.) As 50/50 partners in Lost Kids, Baisden and Faiyaz have — beyond music and publishing — also invested in startup companies, real estate and the Show You Off grant program, which supports Black women entrepreneurs. In a full-circle moment, Faiyaz’s mother, Jeanette, is also involved in Lost Kids’ philanthropic efforts.
“If we hadn’t met each other,” Faiyaz says of Baisden, “we would both definitely still be successful in our respective lanes because we’re both so driven and focused with similar visions. We’re learning from each other, but we didn’t go into this trying to do each other’s jobs. That’s what makes our alliance so special.”
As he and Faiyaz started working together, Baisden laid down one cardinal rule out of the gate for independent success: “That budget is the Bible.” Indie artists especially “have to really understand that,” he says today. “Brent would get mad because I’d say, ‘We can’t afford that, it’s too much. We’ll go out of business.’ ”
“Oh, man, it was the worst,” Faiyaz recalls with a laugh. “I was so focused on creativity that my ideas were outrageous. For me, a budget limited my creativity; it was like, ‘Pop the balloon.’ ”
“The funny thing,” Baisden explains, “[is] that when you look back today at our 2018 video for ‘Gang Over Luv’ [an early Faiyaz single], it only cost $50,000. But we still had Brent on a dirt bike, flying on a plane, the plane blowing up… it was incredible for being shot independently. There weren’t a lot of videos, but those that were shot were good investments. And the [budget] backlash at the time grew a smarter executive.” Now Faiyaz says he knows not only how to work with a budget but “how to maximize off the bare minimum — probably one of the most important things I’ve learned.”
When Faiyaz began truly blowing up in 2020, he found himself among a formidable contingent of male crooners including PartyNextDoor, Bryson Tiller, Lucky Daye and fellow newcomer Giveon. His supple tenor, which effortlessly slides into falsetto range in a way that’s reminiscent of R&B’s ’90s heyday, helped him stake his claim.
“I love things that sound throwback but are unique,” says Grammy Award-winning producer No ID, who collaborated with Faiyaz on Wasteland. “Brent’s music gives me a lot of the energy I felt from what I call the basement crew back then with Jodeci, Timbaland and Static. It has a gospel overtone, but it’s not gospel. There’s a tension in it. But it’s not overly soft even when he says ‘soft’ things.”
Brent Faiyaz photographed April 11, 2024 in Los Angeles. Stüssy x Levi’s pants.
Austin Hargrave
That tension stems from Faiyaz’s raw, fearless lyrics, which explore subjects ranging from life post-pandemic and the pressures of fame to romance and self-love, paired with his melodious and innovative blend of R&B, Afrobeats, rap, pop and other sonic influences. “His music always has a little edge to it. I love witty lyrics and syncopation,” No ID adds. “It’s just a great mixture for me. And a lot of people don’t have that naturally.”
Because of that edge, especially in its lyrics, some listeners have labeled his music “toxic,” pointing to songs like “F*ck the World” (“Your n—a caught us texting/You said, ‘Baby, don’t be mad, you know how Brent is’ ”) and “WY@” from Larger Than Life (“I be doing sh-t I really shouldn’t do for real/That’s why I always tell you to come through for real”). But Faiyaz says he’s simply drawing on real life, whether his own experiences, those of friends or just “keeping my ear to the street and checking the temperature.”
“R&B music is soulful and reality-driven,” he continues. “I want to portray the good, the bad, the ugly… I want to have a song for every situation you could possibly be going through. Life can be toxic sometimes, and I have records for that. That word tends to be the narrative because of the shock involved when people say, ‘Man, I can’t believe you said that.’ But people who have been following my music know that for every toxic record, there’s a heartfelt record, a sweet record. But being toxic was never the vision or intentional identity I was trying to portray. I’m making songs that to me are true.”
The initially shy Faiyaz grows impassioned as he discusses his love of songwriting. Prince and Stevie Wonder first sparked it in him, but he also names Max Martin, Dolly Parton, Kurt Cobain and more from far beyond R&B and hip-hop as influences. “When it comes to songwriting, genre doesn’t matter,” he says. “I grew up on a lot of different music, and I’m big on lyrics. I love writing music because it’s cathartic, my biggest form of release. If I leave it on a song, I don’t have to walk around with it.”
Faiyaz has considered, more than once, what a nonindependent career might look like. Early on, he pitched himself to major-label A&R executives. “The idea of going to a label and doing a deal was only something that I knew to do because that’s what I’d seen done so many times,” he reflects. “They offered me deals that I wasn’t trying to sign: Giving me a percentage of some music that I made before I even came to [them] just didn’t sit right. There was no deep spiritual stance or me planting a flag of independence. It was just, ‘This deal doesn’t make sense, so I’m not going to do it.’ ”
By 2016, multiple labels under the majors were courting him. And following the one-two punch of F–k the World and Wasteland, they came calling again. At that point, it had been several years since Faiyaz had last met with executives on that side of the industry — so despite “already having a grudge” from that first experience, he was willing to hear them out. This time around, however, he kept another of Baisden’s key rules of independence in mind: Know your value.
“It kills me when labels sign an artist knowing who that artist is creatively, but then they try to dictate their music and other things,” he explains. “Nothing is going to stifle your creativity more than having to say yes to some lame sh-t that you don’t want to do or being told no to some really cool sh-t that you want to do. It’s really no deeper than that for me. So I went with my gut.”
Isabel Marant jacket, shirt, pants and shoes.
Austin Hargrave
That brought Faiyaz to UnitedMasters and Steve Stoute. “Brent was unapologetically independent prior to me meeting him,” Stoute recalls. “In fact, that was what made me so interested in him. I knew that he was turning down major labels left and right. He had built a very strong team and infrastructure with his manager, Ty. So what he was looking for was a partner to provide him financial capital to go into other ventures that were creative.”
In a partnership deal signed in May 2023 — which a source close to the situation told Billboard at the time was valued at nearly $50 million — the pair announced the launch of Faiyaz’s own creative agency specializing in “visual and sonic art”: ISO Supremacy (ISO stands for “in search of”). “I liked the model, the creative freedom,” says Faiyaz, who serves as CEO. “And I was able to keep working with the people I’d been working with.” At the agency, “from the artists we work with to the creatives and directors we have on board, everything is pretty much about just what we think is cool [or are] hearing word-of-mouth spreading about something that is fire — and then we see how we’re going to translate and elevate this sh-t to the world.”
“Brent is a very talented musician and visual artist,” Stoute says. “He’s a very intelligent businessman whose contributions to the music business and independent artists have been profound.” One of those artists is R&B/hip-hop singer-songwriter Tommy Richman, ISO Supremacy’s first signee — brought to Faiyaz’s attention by his high school friend and ISO partner/COO Darren Xu — through a joint venture with PULSE Records. (Faiyaz’s relationship with PULSE dates back to 2016, when he entered his first publishing deal with PULSE Music Group after moving to Los Angeles; he renewed it in 2022.) Following his August 2023 signing, Richman — also managed by Xu and who opened Faiyaz’s recent tour and appeared on Larger Than Life — rocketed to No. 2 on the Hot 100 in May with his first single, “Million Dollar Baby.”
“You soak in a lot,” Richman says of his time spent with Faiyaz. “I feel like if I didn’t move with Brent this past year — with the shit that’s happening right now — I would crash and burn. Being with him at clubs or shows, seeing how he interacts with people and how he carries himself, I picked up on a lot. You’d think that hanging out with somebody like that, you’d get a big ego. But honestly, it has humbled me more. He’s just a normal f–king guy from Maryland who just makes beautiful songs.”
As with Baisden, PULSE Music Group senior vp/head of creative Ashley Calhoun and now with Xu, Stoute and Richman, Faiyaz’s business interactions reflect how he has prioritized building long-term relationships as an independent artist. “I’m about the people more than I am about anything else,” Faiyaz says. “If I can run with you and kick it with you when there’s no business being discussed, then you’re somebody I want to do business with.”
Givenchy shirt, jacket, pants and shoes.
Austin Hargrave
Since wrapping his most recent tour in November, Faiyaz, who lives in Miami, has been enjoying some downtime. But that doesn’t keep him from enthusiastically reeling off a list of projects he’s currently developing, ranging from films, commercials and signing more artists to further expanding his clothing brand, NUWO (an acronym, in keeping with his indie ethos, for Not Unless We Own). He’s even picking up a long-forgotten passion again: drawing, which he last did in a class he received a scholarship for at the Maryland Institute College of Art when he was 8. When it comes to creation of any kind, Faiyaz says, “I love everything about the ideation process, every piece of it. Then once it gets to the point of consumption, I’m past it and moving on to the next.”
As our lunch winds down and the restaurant becomes quiet, our waiter returns with the culinary director in tow: It turns out that both are major-league Faiyaz fans. “Thanks for coming,” the director says with palpable excitement. “I wish you’d been at Coachella. Keep doing your thing; you’re killing it!”
Faiyaz seems surprised to be treated like a rock star. “Thank you, man. Appreciate you,” he responds politely, seeming to register a gamut of emotions that evolve from slightly surprised to humble to quietly moved as he agrees to the duo’s tentative request for a photo. But that brief exchange encapsulates just how far Faiyaz has come in his unwavering quest to own all facets of his career — and to telegraph that message to aspiring artists and listeners alike.
“My role musically and artistically, that’s not really up for me to interpret,” Faiyaz says matter-of-factly. “There are still a lot more things I want to learn. But now I’m realizing how important it was to break the mold so that people can see my story, see what we did and say, ‘All right, I can do that. It’s just another way to go about it. It doesn’t really have to be so black and white.’ That has been my role: to usher in this new wave of creative freedom.”
Additional reporting by Shira Brown and Carl Lamarre.
This story will appear in the June 8, 2024, issue of Billboard.
On Sept. 13, 2004, Van Halen was the first major music act to perform at the newly inaugurated Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan. That same year, local and international artists performed at the arena, including Draco Rosa, Daddy Yankee, Juan Luis Guerra, Andrea Bocelli and Korn.
“We wouldn’t have been able to have those shows if we didn’t have El Coliseo,” says ASM Global regional GM Jorge Pérez, who manages the venue. “It was the need we had at that moment in history.”
Mariela Vallines, executive director of the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority, which owns the building and contracts with ASM to operate it, notes that over the past 20 years, the coliseum “has become a cultural hub for the island, bringing people together to celebrate music and sports as the host of world-class events and entertainment. The venue has contributed significantly to Puerto Rico’s economy, generating revenue for local businesses and providing employment opportunities on the island.”
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What’s more, she adds, “it has helped to position Puerto Rico as a premium entertainment destination attracting both local and international audiences that have surpassed 10 million visitors over the last two decades.”
Prior to El Coliseo’s construction, the Caribbean island hosted sporting and entertainment events primarily at two locations: Coliseum Roberto Clemente Walker and Hiram Bithorn Stadium. Still, a high-end venue was needed “to be competitive in tourism” because “we couldn’t only survive on leisure, travel and regular tourism,” Pérez says.
Since its inception 20 years ago, “El Choli,” as it is popularly called by locals, has become known both locally and internationally and the ultimate “dream arena” to perform at for many artists.
“The first goal of any artist, musician or DJ is to play in an arena that big,” says Puerto Rican artist Jay Wheeler, who made his Choli debut in 2022 with four sold-out shows. “It’s like winning a Grammy. Every artist from Puerto Rico will always have the goal of doing something in the coliseum.”
Ángela Aguilar, who graced the venue’s stage at the 2023 Premios Juventud.
Gladys Vega/Getty Images
A wave of urban acts has not only received a seal of approval at the venue but also achieved milestones. Daddy Yankee, with his 2019 Con Calma Pal’ Choli shows, grossed $7 million, and Wisin y Yandel grossed $6.2 million with their 2018 string of concerts, according to Billboard Boxscore. The latter act holds the record for most sellouts, with 105,000 tickets sold across eight shows.
El Coliseo was No. 24 on Billboard’s 2023 year-end Top Venues global chart (in the 15,001-plus-capacity category), and it ranked fourth in the Latin/Spanish-language market venue after Miami’s Kaseya Center, Madrid’s WiZink Center and Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile.
Pérez recently spoke with Billboard about the past, present and future of the venue.
What void did El Coliseo fill when it was built 20 years ago?
The government noticed that there was a need to have a world-class arena. The building we had before was Coliseo Roberto Clemente Walker, which opened in 1973 and where concerts and sporting events were held in the 1980s and 1990s. We also have the Hiram Bithorn Stadium built in 1962. With that came the construction of the Convention Center, which was inaugurated one year after El Coliseo. But the vision was that we needed world-class venues to be competitive in tourism.
We couldn’t only survive on leisure, travel and regular tourism. We needed to provoke groups, meetings, conventions that would have economic movement. To complement that, the government really understood that we needed a top destination. So that’s kind of the history behind it.
There was a lot of criticism at the beginning, even when construction started. But when we look back, it was a very smart decision, considering the exposure Puerto Rico has had in the entertainment industry and how it has opened doors for our artists. When we look back, it was a visionary idea with positive results.
Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot is managed by ASM Global’s Jorge Pérez.
Fronthouse Media
What’s the story behind the venue being named after comedian José Miguel Agrelot?
There were a lot of names and ideas out there. In January 2004, José Miguel Agrelot — who was a comedian, radio/TV host, actor, producer and visionary — passed away. So his name came to the top of the list and it was approved.
One of his most famous TV characters was Don Cholito, which he played during the “Encabulla y Vuelve y Tira” segment on El Show del Medio Día (The Midday Show) in the late ’70s and early ’80s. “Encabulla y Vuelve y Tira” referenced the stringing of a wooden spinning top [a yo-yo] — in other words, to do it again and keep trying. That became an analogy of persistence and optimism of the day-to-day challenges that Puerto Ricans had at the time.
While promoting “The Night of Revenge,” one of the first boxing matches that took place at El Coliseo — where Miguel Cotto won the junior welterweight championship — sports commentator Elliott Castro was the first to say: “Let’s go watch boxing at El Choliseo.” Ever since, everyone knows the building by that nickname, El Choli.
Don Cholito provided optimism, a contagious smile and a vibrant personality — and that character was precisely about persistence and overcoming hard times. Those are some strong characteristics and traits that we have in Puerto Rico. Don Cholito’s spirit lives in every corner of El Coliseo.
Why does the venue play an important role in the career of a Puerto Rican artist?
First, it’s their hometown. We’re considered “The Cathedral of Reggaetón,” and for artists of that genre especially it’s important to play at El Coliseo because it’s like a big test for them. We’ve had the top urbano acts perform here. It’s a key venue, and it [marks] a point in each artist’s career of when they performed here, how well they did and how that impacts their careers moving forward.
Why has it become important for artists from other countries?
You have people [in Puerto Rico] who love and really appreciate live entertainment and can identify a good show. The energy here is amazing. We have an educated and knowledgeable crowd. When the crowd at El Coliseo accepts you as an artist, you know you’re en route to doing good things. That goes back to our culture — how we’re raised, how from a very small age we’re listening to music — we know what a top production is. When an artist gets onstage and feels that energy and acceptance, it fills them with confidence in what they’re doing and producing is special.
Daddy Yankee
Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images
Do Puerto Rican acts get preference in dates?
Not really. We manage our calendar very responsibly, and it’s on a first come, first served basis. I work directly with management or agencies or local promoters to try to find the best fit for dates.
What would you say has been the most logistically complicated concert?
It must be the World’s Hottest Tour. Bad Bunny wanted to break the attendance record, and to do so, they put a very small stage on the south side and put all the production [overhead]. From one point of El Coliseo to the other, all the sound and lighting was on [the ceiling] — that’s not normal. Usually, our stages are large, but they wanted to maximize the audience size. I hear that Bad Bunny’s show now with the Most Wanted Tour is also very complex.
What economic impact does the venue have on the island?
The entertainment and event industry is huge in Puerto Rico and creates 30,000 jobs. It creates $2 billion, and almost $400 million of it goes to the government in the form of sales, tax and other revenue they receive from activities that we host in our buildings. It’s a big chunk of the local economy.
We look at it as an important part of our economic ecosystem. We create a lot of entertainment tourism; people travel from different parts to see a show here. About 15% of tickets purchased at the venue come from a ZIP code not in Puerto Rico. Our vision is to keep promoting Puerto Rico as a premier entertainment and tourism destination. We have a social responsibility to help our community.
In terms of business opportunities that we can bring, the exposure Puerto Rico has gotten through El Coliseo and through the artists that act on our stage has helped put the country on the map. People are realizing that this is a top-notch venue.
Aventura
John Parra/Getty Images
How many people work an event at the venue?
On average at a sold-out event — from events staff to security to housekeeping to operation — we can have close to 400 to 500 staff, not considering the production staff on the artist’s side. We have 26 corporate suites; we have our food concessions. At an end stage, which is the most common setup, we fit 15,000 people, and basically, that’s the average staff that we must [have to] make sure everything moves smoothly.
El Coliseo is now also hosting televised awards shows.
The first one we hosted was the Billboard Latin Music Awards back in 2010, and we resumed in 2020 with Premios Tú Música Urbano. We’ve also hosted Univision’s Premios Juventud in 2022 and 2023. Awards shows are very particular because they take up a lot of time. The setup for one of these shows can be seven to 10 days prior to the show. It’s very complex production, and overall, it takes up a chunk of almost two to three weeks.
After the first awards show we hosted in 2010, looking and finding a three-week period that was not booked became a challenge for us. But when we started again, we realized it was a great showcase for the destination. Premios Juventud, for example, had great ratings and exposed us to an international audience.
What do you envision for El Coliseo 20 years from now?
We are already state of the art, but hopefully, we’ll have a new and larger Coliseo. Even though we maintain the venue in optimal condition, we really focus on keeping this building [able] to comply with all the production riders and high-quality shows that we’ve had.
But the truth is, 20 more years is a long time — and I think that in that time frame, we should be transitioning to a new Coliseo. There has been conversations about building a new stadium in Puerto Rico, too, but I see us transitioning to stay relevant and continue producing results. This was designed as a sports arena, but looking into the future, I’m thinking of a new building with a larger capacity and that’s more entertainment-related.
This story originally appeared in the June 1, 2024, issue of Billboard.
By the time Hootie & The Blowfish released their Atlantic Records debut, Cracked Rear View, on July 5, 1994, the band had already been together for more than eight years. Singer Darius Rucker and guitarist Mark Bryan met while attending the University of South Carolina and began gigging as a cover band called The Wolf Brothers. They were joined by bassist Dean Felber and drummer Brantley Smith, who was eventually replaced by Jim “Soni” Sonefeld. And Hootie & The Blowfish was born.
During the height of the grunge movement, Atlantic Records A&R executive Tim Sommer signed the quartet, which had already built a strong regional following for its jangly, harmony-filled pop rock songs and Rucker’s rich baritone. But the label’s expectations for the album were low.
“The only people [at Atlantic] championing us at the time were Tim and [Atlantic’s then-president] Danny Goldberg,” Rucker recalls. “One guy actually said that if they put Cracked Rear View out, they’d be the laughingstocks of the music business. Grunge was king, and nobody was looking for this pop/rock band out of South Carolina.”
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But Cracked Rear View surpassed all expectations — and then some, to put it mildly. Bolstered by the singalong, uplifting first single, “Hold My Hand,” the album bounced into the top spot on the Billboard 200 five times and has been certified 21 times platinum by the RIAA, signifying sales of more than 21 million units in the United States. The album, which took its name from a lyric in a John Hiatt song, is the highest-certified debut album of all time, according to RIAA data.
Thirty years later, to mark the anniversary of Cracked Rear View, Hootie & The Blowfish are staging the Summer Camp With Trucks Tour on a bill with Collective Soul and Edwin McCain.
Today, Bryan and Rucker fondly remember making the album with producer Don Gehman (R.E.M., John Mellencamp), whom they still work with; their favorite moment at the 1996 Grammy Awards; and where they were when the album first went to No. 1.
A promotional photo used on the band’s flyers in the early ’90s.
Courtesy of Hootie & the Blowfish
You started as a cover band, The Wolf Brothers. When did you start writing your own songs?
Mark Bryan: We were having fun doing the acoustic covers in the meantime, just the two of us. But I think we were always dreaming a little bigger, for sure. Then as Hootie, when we were in school, we started writing, but it was nothing we would want to share with you. (Laughs.)
Darius Rucker: We had decided that we wanted to make a change and [do] mostly originals. So when Brantley [Smith] left and with [Jim “Soni” Sonefeld] coming in, he made it an easy transition. We had written a couple of songs, but when Soni came in, we really started writing.
Soni came in with “Hold My Hand,” right?
Rucker: He played that the day he auditioned for us. He walked out of the room and I told the other guys, “He’s in the band!”
There were certain songwriters and acts you adored, like Radney Foster and R.E.M. How did they influence your sound?
Rucker: There’s always such a country element, and all of that comes from Radney Foster and [Bill] Lloyd. That jangly guitar we use definitely comes from R.E.M. [member] Peter Buck’s guitar with the jingle. It was rock’n’roll but it wasn’t metal. It was something we could do.
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Who is an act people would be surprised to know influenced the band?
Rucker: We listened to a lot of rap along with those country songs. Digital Underground and De La Soul and those bands. They influenced us in a big way. We still do [Digital Underground’s] “Freaks of the Industry.”
Why are the songs on the album credited to all four band members?
Bryan: We’ve split our publishing right down the middle from the very beginning. Nobody knew whose songs were going to be the hits. Our attorney was smart, and he was inspired by R.E.M. Not only did they inspire us musically, but they inspired us on the business side as well because they did the same thing. That fit with the way we were writing together anyway because everybody was bringing stuff in.
Despite the low expectations, the album took off. When did you realize you had a hit?
Bryan: Right when “Hold My Hand” hit, we realized our sound was connecting. Then it was “Let Her Cry,” “I Only Want To Be With You” and “Time.” A lot of times, it’s really hard for the artist, manager and label to decide what’s the right song for the [next] single. The funny thing about Cracked Rear View is there was never any question. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since.
Where were you when the album went to No. 1 for the first of its five times?
Rucker: We were on the road, and it had been moving [up the charts] so much, we were waiting for it to go to No. 1. Then you get that phone call that you’re finally the No. 1 record in the country. It was like, “Great. Let’s go play a show!” When you have so many naysayers and then you have the No. 1 record, it’s a pretty great feeling. You’re not [considered] cool, but you’re selling half a million albums a week.
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The melodies are so upbeat and jangly that it was easy to overlook a lot of the darkness or messages in the lyrics. For example, “Drowning” is about racism. Did you feel some people didn’t understand what you were saying?
Rucker: One hundred percent. I still don’t. “Hold My Hand” was a protest song. That’s a song about “Why are we hating each other?” You’ve got “Drowning,” and “Not Even the Trees” is such a dark song. “Let Her Cry” is a dark song. I think some people were caught up in “Hold My Hand” and “I Only Want To Be With You” and they didn’t look any deeper than that.
Bryan: I think Darius was very overt with “Drowning,” but that wasn’t our intention on a lot of our songs. It was more of that subtle approach to that, which is just treating each other right. I think there were other lyrics, here and there, where he was telling you about how he was feeling as a Black man in America at the time. It would have been nice if people caught up more on that. And I think from our end, too, with the fame that we got, we maybe had a responsibility to write into that a little more, and I don’t know if we ever resolved that.
For the 30th anniversary, do you wish people would give it a deeper listen?
Rucker: We wish they would but they won’t, and the thing that really matters to us is 23 million records sold [worldwide]. Success is the best revenge. Say what you want. Don’t put us on the ballot for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We still have one of the top 10-selling records of all time.
Does the lack of recognition from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame bother you?
Rucker: If we didn’t get in, that’s fine. But you really mean to tell us that we don’t even deserve to be on the ballot?
When was the last time you listened to Cracked Rear View from start to finish?
Rucker: 1994. I’m not one to listen to records after I put them out. Ever. I don’t really love to hear me sing, to be honest with you.
Bryan: When we played it in Mexico last April. We played it from start to finish.
A performance in Raleigh, N.C., during the 2019 Group Therapy Tour.
Todd & Chris Owyoung
In a shocking twist at the 1996 American Music Awards, Garth Brooks won favorite artist. He left the award on the podium, saying he didn’t deserve it and said backstage that you did.
Rucker: That’s one of the greatest, classiest things I’ve ever seen. When Garth did that, it just said so much to us about what we were doing for music. Every time I tell that story and he’s around, he says, “You know where our award is, Darius? On the mantel!” (Laughs.)
The next month, you won Grammys for best new artist and best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals. What do you remember from that night?
Rucker: We figured they had to give us best new artist because we sold so many records. But the second one, we thought [TLC’s] “Waterfalls” was going to win everything. KISS, in makeup for the first time since 1979, and Tupac [Shakur] walk out to present this category. We had just won best new artist and they rush us back to our seats. We’re drunk. We sit down and then Tupac says, “My boys, Hootie & The Blowfish.” That was unbelievable.
So “my boys” meant as much as the Grammy?
Rucker: Exactly! And KISS meant so much to all of us.
Bryan: I can’t physically remember being on the stage with KISS and Tupac. It was so much bigger than me that I almost blocked it out. Isn’t that crazy? It was so overwhelming that I didn’t embrace the moment maybe the way I would have now.
Thirty years later, what do you think is the album’s legacy?
Bryan: It seems to resonate in people’s lives in a very big way. Those stories like [it’s] their wedding song or they say, “It got me through my father’s death,” always keep coming back up to us, and it never gets old. What a great full-circle way as a songwriter to know that you’ve connected with people. As a songwriter and musician, you can’t ask for more. It’s such a dream come true to have made an album that has connected on such a level with people like that.
This story originally appeared in the June 1, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Before R&B-leaning singer Tommy Richman vaulted into the mainstream conversation, he recorded music in his mom’s basement. An ardent supporter of her son’s career, she’d often tell him her favorite songs — but oddly enough, his breakthrough hit hardly cracks the list. “‘Million Dollar Baby,’ that’s the one everybody likes?” Richman playfully teases during our Zoom conversation in late May, mirroring his mom’s reaction. “She likes a lot of older songs way more and [other] stuff off the album, too.” But while his parents may not be captivated by the ‘80s funk-inspired track, the rest of the country has been infatuated, giving him a steady top-5 Billboard Hot 100 hit.
A native of Woodbridge, Va., Richman, 24, grew up listening to 50 Cent and Lil Wayne. Though the small town near the nation’s capital lacked an active music scene, he earned some of his musical sensibilities from his father, a drum teacher. And despite many residents working government jobs, his musical aspirations trumped the idea of a traditional 9-to-5 career. He self-released the somber single “Pleasantville” on YouTube as a freshman in college; then, he spammed various YouTube pages linking to it and urging listeners to “be brutally honest with the last song I posted.”
Trending on Billboard
The positive feedback he received online encouraged Richman to chase music as a full-time career, and in 2022, he met Darren Xu, COO of Brent Faiyaz’s imprint, ISO Supremacy, and his now-manager. Before long, Xu felt Richman was ready to take the next step and connected him with Faiyaz. By last August, the two artists were in business as well, with Richman signing a record deal with ISO Supremacy in partnership with PULSE Music Group. He also joined Faiyaz on his F*ck the World, It’s a Wasteland Tour that summer, and in October, they collaborated on Faiyaz’ Larger Than Life album standout “Upset” alongside FELIX!, which reached No. 12 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart.
“[My team] values me as a person,” Richman says. “A lot of people look at you as an object: ‘We have to stay around this guy because he makes good songs.’ This sh-t wouldn’t have really transpired like that if we didn’t get along as people.”
He adds that “Drake reached out super early when I put out [2023 single] ‘Last Nite.’” And as the A-list cosigns began to accumulate, Richman’s confidence grew. He released two grooving singles in 2024 before his breakthrough, first with “Soulcrusher” and then “Selfish.” On April 13, Richman uploaded a teaser of another track — what would ultimately become “Million Dollar Baby” — to social media, shot in a grainy VHS style and featuring the artist and his friends dancing to the beat in the studio. It went viral, garnering over 12.5 million views on TikTok alone, as his falsetto in the infectious chorus quickly struck a chord with fans: “Cause I want to make it so badly/I’m a million dollar baby, don’t at me,” he sings.
“It was the combination of the sound of the VHS camera, the vibe of the people in the studio, how short the snippet was and how in your face the audio was,” says Richman. “The audio is really loud. I compare the audio to my other TikToks, and the one snippet is in your face. I think that’s why it caught on.”
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He followed it with a few more clips, and according to PULSE Music Group vp of marketing Sara Ahmed, they made the decision to drop the song just four days before its ultimate April 26 release. Richman turned in the master recording at 1:00 a.m. on April 23. “I built him a rollout [plan to] build into the hype of the song,” she says. “We didn’t have much lead time to [create] a campaign.”
Nevertheless, “Million Dollar Baby” had a seismic debut, netting 38 million official U.S. streams in its first full tracking week (April 26-May 2), according to Luminate. It entered at No. 2 on the Hot 100, and atop Billboard’s Streaming Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot R&B Songs charts — a particularly notable feat given the track was released amid the vicious hip-hop battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. Lamar’s “Euphoria” arrived as “Million Dollar Baby” was gaining momentum; in the same weekend as its release, Drake’s “Family Matters” and Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us” dropped, elevating the culture-defining feud. But even as the heavyweights threatened to stymy his opening week numbers, Richman remained unfazed.
“It was a blessing, low-key,” Richman relays. “I was reading a lot of comments like, ‘Damn, this is like the worst time to drop your song.’ It was kind of funny. A lot of people looked at us like we were the palate cleanse.”
“There’s nothing out there like this,” Ahmed adds. “I think people are looking for something new, exciting and different, and Tommy is it. This great song coupled with sharp strategy and Tommy’s determination really carried the song through — and we have barely scratched the surface.”
Gustavo Soriano
In five weeks on the Hot 100, “Million Dollar Baby” has remained a fixture in the top 10, and according to Richman, the song’s music video will arrive ahead of summer. As for a potential remix, fans shouldn’t get their hopes up. “There’s no remix, man,” he says. “A couple people [have reached out]. It’s cool, but for the integrity of the track, let’s keep it by itself.”
As Richman savors his newfound success, he’s already chipping away at his debut album, Coyote. Though he doesn’t have a release date, Richman believes his project will showcase his artistry beyond being a one-hit wonder.
“This is a big record, but this s–t doesn’t define me,” he says. “I’m using this as ‘We’re here. We arrived.’ Not as ‘We made it!’ This is the start of a run.”
A version of this story will appear in the June 8, 2024, issue of Billboard.