Well, the job of an A&R person is to seek out, find, nurture, record and develop musical talent guided by a somewhat unwritten set of rules. A&R people are dedicated to two things, one is finding the music and other is developing and integrating the music into the record company. Each A&R person has his or her own way of doing these two things, but essentially it is finding new talent, making sure that talent is placed properly within the record company and treated correctly, and also making sure that the right kind of context for the talent is created. Context being producer, studio, art work around the album, interfacing with the manager, all of that. It's kind of an umbrella of assets which you can make as far reaching as you want, within reason.

Remember, I'm in sort of an unusual somewhat idiosyncratic place because I haven't really been an A&R person for longer than a year. I was brought in by Danny Goldberg to supervise a couple of labels and to deal with special projects. I actually haven't been in the process of finding bands. However, I have observed my colleagues and I've also been observing other A&R people for the past twenty years. So just on a purely empirical level, I can give you some answers.

I think the initial magnetism of an A&R person to an artist or band is personal and based on the idea that each A&R person has a very strong taste bud. Somehow this band or individual arouses this taste bud and makes it happy.

But then, there's never a complete detachment or insulation from a commercial consideration because the record company has to make money. The ability of an A&R person to maintain his or her position within the company with a certain kind of dignity is based upon having made some good choices in selecting talent.

In my opinion, people think that you look at unlimited amounts of groups. From the phone calls I get and the entreaties I get, it seems to me that most people out there, even people who are not civilians, such as managers and agents, have the perception that you look at every band and listen to every tape. Okay you try. Sometimes you simply do not have enough life and time, in a linear way, to do it. When I get a tape, I do listen to it. There is a misconception that when you call up an A&R person, talk to them nicely and have a decent rapport, immediately your tape is paramount in the A&R person's consciousness and he will be concentrating totally and solely with frenzied obsession on that tape immediately. That is incorrect because there's just simply a stockpile of music to listen to.

We're not supposed to get unsolicited material or encourage unsolicited material. Even if it's solicited, it comes through a connection, a lawyer, a manager, whatever, and there is still a lot of it. Obviously the polite and compassionate thing to do is listen to all of it. My impression is that most A&R people do that (listen). Certainly the people in Mercury do. All of the A&R people that do listen, listen very diligently to a lot of the stuff. But listening to it doesn't mean accepting it or loving it. Sometimes you listen to it and you absolutely loathe it instantly. Sometimes it's the other way around.

Cold solicitation is hard because every tape looks alike and until you actually hear it, at least in potential, it sounds alike. So how does one differentiate? I think you have to put yourself very empathetically into the shoes of the A&R person and say 'What would be the differential here?' The differential is sometimes a connection. For instance, connective tissue in the form of someone you know and someone you trust. That is very important. If you have absolutely no connection with an A&R person, it would seem downright folly to send a tape. With the amount of tape that comes to an A&R person, it would seem that cold solicitation would set you on a weak footing. However, if you don't know anybody and you are totally passionate about your music and believe in your art or as an artist believe in yourself, I think you should send it. You should probably send it to an A&R person that has an artist you admire.

On the whole, be smart and do some detective work. Find out in your circle of friends if there is anyone who is connected to someone in the record business and contact that person. It makes more sense if someone that you know calls and says 'Hey David, I saw this band and I love them. Is it alright if they send you a tape?' And I might say to them, well how much do you love them? And he or she says, 'Well I love them, they're wonderful!' Then you're bound to listen to it. Unless you're absolutely distressed with that person or loath that person's taste, in which case you may say, 'I don't want to listen to it.' This isn't nepotism, it's just human nature. If the connection is trust worthy and means something to you, then you're going to listen to that piece of music.

Well, you can do that. I don't think that it's wrong. I think a cold call is a hard thing to make. It's sort of like begging on the street. People tend to hate beggars and say they're just lay abouts. I think it's harder to beg than to work actually. Have you ever tried to beg? It's really hard. I haven't but I can imagine it is. It's very hard to stand on the street and say, 'Give me money.' But if someone has the balls to do that, I think they deserve to get the money.

In the case of a cold phone call, if you can make a cold phone call and get through to the an A&R person and have enough passion in your voice to encourage that person to listen to your music, then good for you, best of luck. I think that realistically it's not going to be the way that most people get through.

For many years I was actually involved in television and film as a producer, a writer, sometimes a director, and sometimes a performer. So I've done that whole thing. I did many, many television shows for public television and for commercial television.

I started in the sixties doing a crazy talk show that I hosted and then I did the show The Great American Dream Machine in the seventies which was the first real PBS show. We won an Emmy for PBS. I went on to do many experimental television shows for public television. I was actually sort of in charge of experimental and innovative work for Channel 13 for many years. In the late seventies, I started working with reggae artists. I left public television, and became my own producer and did a lot of reggae films. I worked with Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and in 1979, I did a film with Danny Goldberg called "No Nukes" with Springsteen, James Taylor and a whole bunch of great artists. It was a film that was a concert and an anti nuclear tract. In 1982 or 1983 I wrote a film called "The Compleat Beatles." Due to the resurrection of the Beatles this year, my film went to number one in the 1996 music video charts giving it a second go around, a rebirth. So you can see that much of what I did was involved with music. Even in the 1960's, I interviewed Frank Zappa and did similar things like that for television. I've always been involved with musicians and am completely fascinated and involved with music.

In 1994, I did a series on ESPN called "Max Out" which was an attempt by me and ESPN to rob the MTV audience. The series was about extreme sports like glacier skiing, bunjie jumping, skate boarding, wake boarding, motorcycle soccer and all sorts of weird stuff. We put the show together on a daily basis together with alternative music. At that time we were using alternative bands like 311, Rage Against The Machine, Pavement and bands that are just now becoming quite big. We were experimenting and using a lot of rap music and reggae music which put surfing and Ska together. We did about 200 of those shows.

At that time, Danny Goldberg was at Atlantic. Then he became chairman of Warner Brothers. He saw that I'd become involved with music on a pretty deep level. So, Danny and I started talking and I became a vice president at Warner Brothers and then moved with him to Mercury Records as an A&R person but with eye to special projects. Part of my work is spent finding labels. I brought Triloka, which is a world beat (label) from Santa Fe, to Mercury and kind of supervised Triloka and Mouth Almighty. Meanwhile, Danny has given me special projects because I have a producer background and been involved in leading edge or cutting edge work.

Beyond Life With Timothy Leary	The Ballad of The Skeletons

Danny gave me two projects, one was to work with Allen Ginsberg on "Ballad of the Skeletons" which is to be released as a CD five with Paul McCartney. I supervised the making of that record for Mercury. The other project is about Timothy Leary who was a friend of Danny's and an acquaintance of mine. We put together an album about Timothy Leary and his death. It's actually a musical album that will be released soon. Danny brought me in to do those sorts of very idiosyncratic projects emanating from our A&R department. I have several hats at Mercury but I actually think that the catalyst for working in A&R was the ESPN show I did. That was the test where I had to put music and videos together in a context that wasn't MTV, wasn't The Box but ESPN. It was a very bizarre experience combining sports and alternative music together. Danny noticed and it set me up to do more weird stuff. So I'm kind of a strange A&R person.

In terms of how I came to A&R is a very strange route. There are many routes to A&R. The thing that links it all together is whether you have the passion and a taste for music. If you don't have that, I don't think you can work in any aspect of the music business be it at marketing, promotion or anything. So it's not just A&R that demands this passion.

In A&R you have to have the ability to be very deft in your judgements in what you say to people. I think that part of the A&R job is not only understanding music but also understanding words. In other words, how do you tell the talent that you want to bring them to the label or you don't. You really don't want to hurt another person's feelings by saying 'Well this band is just plain absolutely lousy,' and sometimes the band is. There has to be some kind of diplomacy in saying no. There's another kind of skill needed by the A&R person for saying yes in order to bring that artist or band to the label. If the artist has any value what so ever, other labels will also be interested. So, how does one bring talent to the label when perhaps you don't have as much money to entice them as the next label. What entices people? Part of it is the personality, the magnetism, the decency and the honesty of the A&R person. If the artist for one minute suspects that the A&R person, who is expected to be his guide at that label, is a liar or worse that he/she doesn't know anything about music, they won't come to that label, unless there's so much money in the deal that they can't refuse it. On the other hand some artists don't care about money and would prefer to work with someone that understands them. I think all artists would want to be with an A&R person who truly loves their work.

Yes, I do. Frequently there are A&R reps who travel to see someone in their home light. It's good to see someone comfortable in their own environment. NYC is a mecca for bands and there are many, many clubs here and yes, A&R people do go to clubs all the time.

Definitely! In fact, I would say that when they perfect hearing music over the net it will make finding talent easier. I think that the internet is going to be a very, very good way to promote your band your unsigned band. Because after all, when it becomes possible to listen to the music instantaneously without waiting an hour, I think A&R people will use it for finding new talent. It's a marvelous resource, because it's right there on your desk and you don't need to have any kind of conversation with anybody which is important because it means you can make a judgement based on what you're listening to before you have to actually torture someone. Therefore, if you do follow up with an artist or band you found on the internet, it's because you have the desire to. What the internet creates is an ability for the A&R person to motivate the process rather than the other way around. For one thing, going to a club incognito. Usually you're not incognito. You're going to the club because someone asked you. For instance, tonight someone asked me to go see them at 11 o'clock. Usually, if you want to go see something you will go and see it. But it has to be importuned. The internet is much more subtle way of evaluating talent. With IUMA for instance, you have all those bands can check it out. The technology for hearing the music isn't there yet, but when it gets there it's going be a viable resource for A&R. I would have thought that by the year 1998, 1999, 2000 the sound quality will be there and A&R people will surf the net listening for new talent. However, A&R people have to realize that other A&R people are also surfing for the same talent. So the same kind of competitiveness is going to arise among record companies. But I do think that the internet is an important tool because it means that an A&R person can sit quietly in the comfort of their office and make a decision if they want to follow up with a particular musical ensemble rather than being begged by it and it also gives the A&R person an opportunity to do some of the begging.

Obviously, we would take the package that is more complete. It's a more attractive proposition and if you're astute enough, you'll say, "My God, there's a Joan Osborne". What if you hear a voice as unique as John Mellencamp or Bono and you just love it but you don't like the band? Well, it goes back to the Beatles when George Martin loved the Beatles but hated the drummer. Martin somehow managed to inflict Ringo Starr on the band and the band did rather well. I think that, yes, if you're really certain about the person's talent go with it. However, on the whole I would think that most A&R people are looking for finished product at this stage of the game.

It depends on how much distortion is involved. I mean if somebody wants to make something completely different out of you, I think that's inadvisable. But if it's a question of tweaking and saying your sound is not quite right than that's different. I had an experience recently where I went to see a very good singer. My feelings about the singer were that he was almost there but he needed slightly better arrangements and a more powerful sound, because he was a powerful singer. It's easy to tell someone that they need tweaking. If they don't like it, that's fine. But what do they want? If they want a record deal they have to listen to the A&R people because A&R people know how you're going to get a deal or better yet having got the deal, how you're going to succeed in the marketplace. If the talent is so completely reluctant to change they may have a hard time because everyone is going to be giving him or her advice. You shouldn't change your basic inspiration. After all, what an A&R person is looking for is originality and genius. They're not looking for someone who fits into the current so called trend. There are a million bands out there that sound like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Oasis. Generally speaking an A&R person wants to see something original. When you go back to the origins of rock and roll, you think about the originals, people like Ike Turner, Fats Domino, Jackie Wilson and Elvis. You know they knew what was going on. Elvis knew about rockabilly, knew about blues and country music but he was completely unique and he still fit into those categories. Same for Sam Cooke, he was a rhythm and blues artist and basically played rhythm and blues just like Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett but they were all their own exact crystal. They were their own thing and when I think back the same thing applies all the way down the line now. For instance, a band like Radish coming out on Mercury fits into a kind of alternative mold right now but they're entirely themselves. The lead singer and writer, Ben, is unique. He's a little like Cobain and he's a little like John Lennon, but he's not any of those people and that's what attractive. I think that kind of complete originality is what you're looking for. A band or artist can't be so completely original that they don't fit into any genre because then it becomes a novelty record or something. Let's face it, in the great days of the Beatles and the Stones, there were many, many bands...the Birds, the Zombies, the Kinks... they all had something in common. Usually it was the fact that they had four or five guys playing guitars. But they all had their own thing going for them. That's why it was such a rich era.

I think that depends on your own paranoia and sensitivity. I don't think an A&R person would be held responsible if they have a consistent work ethic which is seriously trying to find the music. I think that after years of trying, if every single band that an A&R person finds goes in the toilet, he or she will probably end up working in a leather boutique. I think that most heads of record companies are very aware of the fact that one out of 100, whatever the number is, bands are successful.

There are several ways. One is to be very humble about it and get in at the ground level. This can be working at a record company as an intern or a temp helping A&R directors and vice presidents do their job and learning along the way, and occasionally bringing in a band that they like. But I think initially most A&R people do not want their people to be scouts immediately. They want someone to help them with day to day tasks because the work load is very heavy. Certainly in my case I wanted someone to help me who was very skilled in doing things that I frankly don't have time to do. That is everything from copying to taking letters to learning how to deal with the phone and how to be a filter. That's essentially how one starts in the business. But there are many other ways. You might be a rock & roll manager and decide that you want to be in the system rather than helping someone get in the system. You may get in the business because of your own personal charisma or spark, your taste or how hard working you are. I didn't start at the bottom. I was lucky. I did a quarter century of other work that was somewhat music related to the position and Danny Goldberg trusted my taste and my ability to deal with people. Mine is not a normal road up. Then again my life has been totally abnormal since I came out of the womb. I had worked with the likes of Marley, Jagger, Richards, Muddy Waters, and god knows who else right through my work at ESPN with modern rock. In general, as a younger man or woman, you can come through an entity such as radio because that gives you a certain expertise. Anything that gives you a certain expertise is important to the job. The key is that you think about starting at a fairly low rung and moving up the ladder because no one's going to trust you with major responsibilities unless you have some kind of track record. You don't have to have a group, you just have to show an intelligent and involved connection with the music business. For instance, you start in the music business as an intern, or a temp, then suddenly you're an assistant, then from an assistant you become a coordinator and you show real skills and talent, and people like to work with you, then you can move up the ladder to director and so forth. You also need the ability to both find good music, nurture music, know how to deal with musicians and after that, how to deal with everybody else.

Definitely some A&R people work like that, they delegate. They trust their assistants or whoever they are working with to go out and scout bands. But it's dangerous, highly dangerous to create for yourself the idea that when you get into a record company you're going to be out scouting bands. Someone isn't going to hire you as a scout unless you've already scouted and found some bands that everybody likes. If you've already done it, you can say, 'Look I was the one that found Sheryl Crow' or something and prove it. Fine, then you obviously have some kind of future as a scout. But on the whole just to say that I'd like to be a scout, then make me one, is not going to work. A&R people are sometimes quite suspicious of people who come in with that attitude because it means all they really want is your job. Even though it is foolish to be that paranoid, it doesn't help when you go for an interview with an A&R person and say, 'The thing I want to do is go to clubs. I want to see bands. I'll stay up all night. I'll go to clubs in Paramus, Newark, everywhere ... Croatia.' At first it might seem attractive going out to the clubs all night, but you're not going to be able to stay awake at 9:30 or 10 o'clock in the morning to do your job helping the person you work for in A&R. You're just going to be a late night person burning the candle at both ends, trying to do 15 jobs at the same time and everything else. You'll end up in an asylum.