From 1995 to 2001 I was the Director of Artist and Product for the Twin/Tone Record Group, a label that also oversaw a family of about twelve other labels. Director of A&P is a fancy way of saying that I was ultimately responsible for the artist side of things, and the product side as well. It’s not a title that a lot of folks have had, and the reason is it’s insane. The only part of that job that I didn’t have to deal with was the finance. It was awful and fantastic in terms of business but if ever there was a job that refined me as a person this was it.
As point of reference, Twin/Tone and Twin/Tone Records Group are sort of the same thing but not quite: Twin/Tone proper had their catalog picked up by Restless Records. From that point forward all of the older catalog lived at Restless (the Replacements, Soul Asylum, Ween, etc). TRG was the same people minus a few, same building but a much broader focus then the original.
So to put it into bullet points, I:
•handled day-to-day operations and artist relations,
•oversaw distribution, manufacture, publicity, scheduling, marketing plans, art and branding, including hundreds of ads in print, radio, and television, plus concert series, tours, and video.
•ran point for 12 separate labels, and artists on three continents, several employees, partners and interns with some 200 releases including: Ed Kuepper, Marlee Macleod, Brother Sun Sister Moon, Likehell, The Celibate Rifles, the Beatifics, Lifter Puller, Spare Snare.
We closed down the active part of TRG in 2001. Since we along with Creation Records were the first to go all digital, the focus switched to be only archival. You can visit the on the internet here: Twin/Tone.