Interscope Records opens for business in Nashville
Interscope Records, the record label home to Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga and Lana Del Rey, has set up shop in Nashville, and unveiled its local roster with a showcase at the Basement on Monday.
Interscope’s debut roster includes singer-songwriters Billy Raffoul and Elizabeth Huett and rock band Goodbye June.
The arrival of Interscope, which actually established its artist development presence here about a year ago, is another notch in the belt for Nashville’s broadening music scene. Major labels have obviously had country divisions in Nashville, but in recent years they’ve opened non-country imprints as well.
Interscope is a division of Universal Music Group. Warner Music has also opened a non-country division, and Atlantic Records, another Warner imprint, has a presence here as well.
"Interscope has always been a home to such incredibly diverse acts from all different walks of life," said Aaron Bay-Schuck, president of artist and repertoire for Interscope. "There's just no more happening place than Nashville. It presents an opportunity to get into business with country acts, with pop acts, with rock acts. The songwriting and production community is really versatile as well."
To Bay-Schuck's point, the label's debut roster features artists that span multiple genres. Raffoul is equal parts rock, pop and soul, with a delivery that reminds of Joe Cocker. Goodbye June is a straighforward rock group. And Huett, a former backup singer for Taylor Swift, is a singer-songwriter in the long Nashville tradition, with stylings that would fit on country or pop radio. The three artists performed to a crammed crowd at the Basement on Monday night.
Interscope has offices in New York, Santa Monica, Calif., and now Nashville.
Interscope Geffen A&M Chairman and CEO John Janick said the Nashville office creates a pipeline between those music communities and Music City.
Since Universal already has a thriving country division here, Janick said the company will have built-in synergies with that office, run by UMG Nashville Chairman and CEO Mike Dungan.
"There's great artists, great writers, great entrepreneurs," Janick said of Nashville. "We want to be involved with all of those people. Interscope has a rich history of having deals with producers, artists, entrepreneurs. We want to figure out how to make sure we're working with the best here."
Kevin Williamson will be heading the Nashville office and has been on the ground here for several months.
Williamson said he is especially excited about the opportunity to set up a pipeline between Nashville and the other music markets where Interscope has a presence. That means Interscope artists working with producers and songwriters with a diverse array of backgrounds.
"From where I sit, it's been a home for all genres for years now," Williamson said. "I never came up in this business looking at Nashville as only a home for country music."
Ken Levitan, the founder of Vector Management, lauded Williamson's ear for talent. Levitan manages Raffoul, whose old-soul voice captivated him so quickly that he wanted to work with him after only hearing a short cell phone video passed along by a member of Kid Rock's band. Similarly, Williamson and Bay-Schuck both said they wanted to sign Raffoul almost instantly upon hearing him sing in their office.
“It’s definitely an appeal,” Levitan said of Interscope’s Nashville presence. “It’s nice to have their shop here. And I think Kevin has really great A&R ears, and he has a strong presence around the community now. He’s the perfect person to helm the office here.”
Levitan said Nashville’s past two mayors, Megan Barry and Karl Dean, deserve credit for touting the local music community as an appealing place for major companies to set up offices.
“Nashville is a country market, but if you really look at it, every style of music is here,” Levitan said. “I was just talking the other day about the growing R&B community that’s here. It’s interesting because people come here, they love it and they want to stay. There’s no other music community like it in the world and such a part of the daily fabric.
“(The two mayors) have been really welcoming to the music community and realize how important the creative, music side of (the city) is.”
Not long after parting ways with Big Machine Label Group, the Band Perry agreed to a new deal with Interscope. Janick said more details on that arrangement, which is a partnership with UMG Nashville, would be announced soon.
Reach Nate Rau at 615-259-8094 and on Twitter @tnnaterau.