PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic If you are a musician this is a must watch!!!!

Uploaded on Feb 6, 2012

In this clip from www.artistshousemusic.org - John Kalodner is a legendary veteran A and R executive in the Rock/Pop music industry. His career has included stints at Geffen Records, Sony/Columbia Records, Atlantic Records, and Sanctuary Records. He has been involved with such artists as Billy Idol, Journey, Chicago, Steve Vai, Bon Jovi, Joe Satriani, Shawn Colvin, Aerosmith, Santana, Black Crowes, Cher, Iron Maiden, Sammy Hagar, John Lennon, Simon and Garfunkel, Madonna, Whitesnake, Elton John, Damn Yankees, Genesis, and many others.


Legendary A & R Executive John D. Kalodner

Interesting. I remember back in the 80's I did a Uni dissertation on marketing a rock band which included interviewing various record company executives. One of the things I now remember was the A&R guy at Chrysalis telling me that they listened mainly to demos / intro's from music lawyers. He told me to go and find a good lawyer! The other thing he told me that at the time that was an eye opener was that they used the UK market as a loss leader and would promote / finance the bands they liked in the UK market to springboard them into the US market where they made all their money. Funny, that's nearly 40 years ago now. I took two bands around various colleges / clubs in London. Great fun but not for me.... Life had other plans for me. And yes, the bands were not much fun. Huge egos and blamed me for everything.

Well, when I watched this a couple of years ago, and was lucky to find it just the other day and wow it was a reminder. I used to be fascinated by the music business. I wanted to be part of it; But I have way outgrown that. When I was younger, I learned somewhat to play the guitar, some piano, and just kind of have a natural ability for the drums, but I can't play a bass to save my life. Well, anyhow, In my life I have sung for competitions in Californian 1st place, "Denver second place, but, this one I lost to a puppet show" "New York second place, Nashville had a chance to go but at the time could not afford the trip down to there. Then I also got the chance to go back to California and when I did, I sang in front of 10,000 people. So pretty much all the goals that I ever had and music have been reached. I knew that when I was a certain age that I would probably not make it and the music business because when you're younger like that the music business will sign you because they can take advantage of you. And the thing that really shocked me about this video was all the time that I sent out demos of the songs that I had written, they had never gotten listen to because a is not from an music Atty. Or another artist that was already famous. If I had known that, I would've never taken the time to ever send a demo out to a record company. There are some things I read though that said you can achieve success on your own if you build a following in your hometown. Because then you can play it places, maybe bake a CD and celibate performances. But when it comes to the big machine " the record company" they're just all about money. And as he mentions and the video there are artist that are very concededly only care about them selves I happen to know a few of them in my hometown. The only thing that really matters is what they're doing and they don't give a care about what anybody else thinks. One guy that I know in particular he's been trying to ride mine and another friend of mine's coattails for years. He even had the gull to mention that he was just along for the ride, and if one of us got picked up me in this other girl named Gina Alto that is a fabulous country singer he would go with the one that got picked up first. For him, he is a multi instrumentalist and can play just about any instrument on the planet, it would just mean work to him. This guy, had a chance to get picked up a long time ago but he didn't because of drugs. Him and his friend had gotten advance from the record company that was going to pick them up and it took so much her women acid that are ruined their chances to get picked up ever. He blew his mind, because now he has mental problems and he has never come down from the acid. So he's kinda stuck in the place where he left off even though he's on medication to control some of the delusion that he has. So was far as egotistical musicians he is one of them. And I could see with this guy was saying the video because, the musicians that are trying to make it our all about themselves; they could care less about anything that you have to say or do as long as you're useful they will have something to do with you. But the reason I say that this was a little bit disappointing for me to find out was because, I didn't start trying to pursue music at a younger age when I probably should have. Now I know what the record company is all about so this video was actually an eye opener to me. I'm not goanna let it stop me from creating music because I created for my own enjoyment and people that I know and family. I also, make those you two videos because it's something to be proud of even if I'm singing other people songs. I can't count how many songs I have written, but it is a lot and I don't wish to share most of that with the public because a lot of times people are searching the Internet for a ideas off of other songs that I've put my blood sweat and tears and to writing. I'm not saying that I'm the greatest songwriter, but I just all one anybody trying to steal the work that I have come up with.