American producer Steve Ferrera has a problem with most A&R people — and that's why he's taken a job as head of A&R at Echo, the new record label set up last year by Chrysalis group chairman Chris Wright. Artist‑friendly labels may be a cliché, but Ferrera is determined that Echo really will be different. Here he explains his philosophy...
As far as I can see, most A&R guys become the arch enemies of all producers and all talent. That's why, as a musician and producer, I always said I would never cross the divide and become part of that club. But it was as a result of speaking my mind to Steve Lewis, former head of Virgin Music Publishing and current CEO of Chrysalis Music Group, who also happens to be a friend, that I got talked into it.
At the time he was setting up Echo with Chris Wright, and he pointed out that the only way to change things you don't like about record companies is to get involved. He persuaded me that Echo could be different and I realised that my background as a producer really could be invaluable in an A&R environment.
What I'm trying to do at Echo isn't really a new idea. If you go back 25 years, here in the UK there were plenty of producers involved in A&R — people like Mickey Most, Muff Winwood, George Martin and Chris Blackwell, who all understood the need for nurturing artists and producing excellent records. But since then the business of A&R has been slowly going down the hill because the people who are involved don't have the necessary musical background.
Record companies have been too busy concentrating on making money and forgetting that this is a creative business. It's not selling shoes, it's selling music — but that fact appears to have been lost in the accountant mentality that is so prevalent in most record companies. They spend more and more money trying to polish a turd when in fact the problem often lies with the structure of the song and no amount of remixing is ever going to make it sound better.
With most record companies, producers are caught between making the record that the band wants to make while still trying to please the A&R department that hired them. It's a constant compromise, and so often the producer falls into the void in the middle, with no‑one getting what they really want. When I agreed to join Echo as head of A&R I did so because I wanted to change that situation by creating an artist‑led label where we only sign bands we love and then do everything in our power to help them develop instead of trying to change them into something they are not, which is so often the case these days.
As an A&R man, I have exactly the same agenda that I had as an independent producer. I go out, see performers who have some special spark and some idea of what they want to do, then I try to give them the keys to open the doors they want to walk through. It may be production skills, or songwriting skills, or just general advice about touring and other aspects of the business — it doesn't matter what they need because I see my job as being there to help by passing on the experience I've gained through years of playing, touring, writing and producing.
At Echo we are trying to offer a different approach. It is a small independent label — there are only five staff — and we all have to like the band before we sign it, because there's no point in me loving a band to death and handing it over to a marketing man who doesn't think he can sell it. We get everyone on board from the beginning and that way — as it develops from demos, to board mixes, to the final mixes — everybody is creating a picture in their mind of how it's going to go, so we all understand what we are trying to achieve. One of the things we have fought hard not to do is compartmentalise jobs. Everyone has jobs that they specialise in and are in control of, but we all share the responsibilities. And, with one exception, everyone in this office has played in bands and understands the artist's point of view, which helps enormously.
I guess we have made this into the kind of label that I, as an artist, have always dreamed I could be signed to. All of the bad things that have happened to me while signed to other labels as musician or producer will never happen here. As long as I'm here I will do everything I can to make sure artists get to make the records they want to make, because I believe that trying to force artists to do otherwise is the whole reason why this business is in such a mess. Artists must be given a chance to create their own niche rather than being forced into one that already exists — and to do that they need to make a lot more than one album, so that they get time to develop.
The first thing we tell a band is that our setup is unique and we can offer them something special. If all they are interested in is being signed for a lot of money we tell them to go elsewhere, because we refuse to get involved in the ridiculous bidding wars that do go on. We have the money to spend if we need it — for marketing, for videos, photo shoots, whatever. But to throw money away when you don't need to is stupid. We are prepared to give our bands a chance because our whole philosophy is long‑term development and keeping costs at a sensible level, so that they do get a royalty statement with a cheque attached — which is something a lot of bands never see.
Steve Ferrera has featured as producer, writer, arranger or session player on releases by River City People, Shakespear's Sister, Hugh Cornwell, Eurythmics, Suzanne Vega, Chaka Khan, Julia Fordham, and many more name artists.