FOUNDER / PUBLISHER ZAK KUHN
GENERAL MANAGER BLAIR MILLER
HEAD OF SALES
ALEX PARRY
MANAGING EDITOR
HANNAH BARNES
DESIGN GRACE CAIN
COVER PHOTOGRAPHY
DANIEL PRAKOPCYK
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
JEFF GAGE
BRITTNEY MCKENNA
“SEX IS THE NUMBER 1 EXPERIENCE, BUT A GREAT RECORD IS NUMBER 2.”
It’s Sunday night and this goes to print tomorrow morning. I am blasting AC/DC’s Back In Black, after spending the first part of my interview with famed writer Bob Lefsetz discussing the brilliance of the album. It’s been on my mind ever since. That quote at the very top, said by Bob during our interview, may or may not be true. However, I can say a great album tends to last longer.
At the beginning of this year, my goal was to do a single print issue and debut it at Country Radio Seminar. I’d live out my Rolling Stone fantasy and then go back to being an exclusively digital platform. However, that first print issue was met with overwhelming enthusiasm and support. Based on demand, I committed to doing three more issues this year - one every quarter. Somehow, we pulled it off.
Over 50 pages of print does not happen overnight. I could not have pulled it off without the dedicated team at The Nashville Briefing, who worked day and night. Thanks to all the PR teams, managers and artists who helped us schedule interviews and deliver assets on time. Thank you to the amazing Keith Urban and his team for agreeing to be our final cover artist of the year. And thanks to – oh crap, they’re playing me off! Alright, double time! Thanks to the academy, my family, the teachers who doubted me in school, and everyone else. I hope you have as much fun reading this issue as my team and I did putting it together.
Let’s dive in! - Zak
U.S. News – Best Lawyers has named us “Law firm of the Year” in Entertainment Law – Music seven times. And in Nashville, Loeb & Loeb has been the firm to know for 30 years.
From talent and content creator representation, to sophisticated M&A transactions and IP counseling, we work with all facets of the music business.
With local roots and international reach, we’re ahead of the curve, helping clients reach new heights in an ever-evolving industry.
BEIJING
Set your sights higher. We’re all connected. loeb.com
COMPANY/TITLE
FAV BOOK FAV SONG OF THE YEAR
THING YOU DO EACH MORNING COFFEE ORDER
Riser House, Director of Publishing + A&R
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
“Dollar Bill Bar” - Sierra Ferrell
Workout
Black with splash of milk
COMPANY/TITLE
FAV BOOK
FAV SONG OF THE YEAR
THING YOU DO EACH MORNING COFFEE ORDER
Big Machine Music, Sr Director of Publishing
Brag Better by Meredith Fineman
“Espresso” - Sabrina Carpenter
Cuddle my daughter
My husband makes the best cup of pour over!
COMPANY/TITLE
FAV BOOK
FAV SONG OF THE YEAR
THING YOU DO EACH MORNING COFFEE ORDER
Warner Chappell, VP, A&R / Digital
The Quarter Life Breakthrough by Adam
Smiley Poswolsky
“Don’t Hurt” - Schmitty
Make a coffee for me & a milk for my daughter
Coffee with almond milk
COMPANY/TITLE FAV BOOK
FAV SONG OF THE YEAR
THING YOU DO
EACH MORNING COFFEE ORDER
Tape Room Music, Director, A&R
101 Essays That Will Change The Way You
Think by Brianna Wiest
“Whiskey Colored Crayon” - Lainey Wilson
Drain buckets on the basketball court
Cold brew
COMPANY/TITLE FAV BOOK FAV SONG OF THE YEAR
THING YOU DO EACH MORNING COFFEE ORDER
Boom Music Group, VP I get my non-fiction from podcasts
“Lies Lies Lies” - Morgan Wallen
5:30am wake-up for the gym. Was a struggle at first but now I love the routine! Mix 1/2 a Fairlife shake with coffee
COMPANY/TITLE FAV BOOK FAV SONG OF THE YEAR
THING YOU DO EACH MORNING COFFEE ORDER
Warner Chappell Nashville, A&R Manager
Principles by Ray Dalio
“Jesus Saves” - Riley Green
Listen to demos while drinking a protein shake
Black
COMPANY/TITLE FAV BOOK
FAV SONG OF THE YEAR
THING YOU DO EACH MORNING COFFEE ORDER
SMACKSongs, Creative Director All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Donald Passman
“The Architect” - Kacey Musgraves
Drink a ton of water
Iced latte with oat milk
COMPANY/TITLE FAV BOOK
FAV SONG OF THE YEAR
THING YOU DO EACH MORNING COFFEE ORDER
Sr. Director, A&R, UMPG Nashville Atomic Habits by James Clear
“Texas” - Blake Shelton
Workout
Latte (hot)
COMPANY/TITLE FAV BOOK FAV SONG OF THE YEAR
THING YOU DO
EACH MORNING COFFEE ORDER
Edgehill Music Publishing, Head of A&R
GettingtoYesby Roger Fisher and William Ury
“exes” - Tate McRae
Make my bed!
Iced black americano
congratulates our clients on their 58th Annual Country Music Association Awards nominations
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Jelly Roll
NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Shaboozey
SINGLE OF THE YEAR
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Shaboozey
“Dirt Cheap”
Cody Johnson
“I Had Some Help”
Post Malone
"White Horse"
Dave Cobb, Producer
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Higher
Dave Cobb, Producer
Leather
Cody Johnson
Whitsitt Chapel
Jelly Roll
SONG OF THE YEAR
“Burn It Down”
Lori McKenna, Songwriter
“I Had Some Help”
Austin Post (Post Malone)
“The Painter”
Ryan Larkins, Songwriter
Cody Johnson
“Dirt Cheap”
Cody Johnson
*Client worldwide except North America
FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Kelsea Ballerini
MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Jelly Roll
Cody Johnson
VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
Lady A Little Big Town
Zac Brown Band
VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR
Dan + Shay
Maddie & Tae
MUSICAL EVENT OF THE YEAR
“Cowboys Cry Too”
Kelsea Ballerini
Noah Kahan*
“I Had Some Help”
Post Malone
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR
“Dirt Cheap”
Cody Johnson
“I Had Some Help”
Post Malone
“The Painter”
Cody Johnson
If you’re new around here, let me introduce my podcast, The Zak Kuhn Show. Every week I sit down with leaders and legends to learn their stories and gain their insight on the biz. Here are two interviews with two massive players:
ANDY MOONEY is the CEO of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. After a long career in senior roles at both Nike and Disney, he became the Fender CEO in 2015. In this interview, conducted at the Fender headquarters in LA, we discuss the state of the guitar industry, how new models come together, the 70th anniversary of the Stratocaster and so much more.
BOB LEFSETZ is a famed music critic, writer and author of the renowned Lefsetz Letter. You likely already read his newsletter and know about his massive influence. Read ahead to learn more about the man himself and his thoughts on the modern music biz. The following are highlights from my conversations with both leaders. If you want to watch the full interviews on YouTube, scan the QR code. If you want to go analog and lean into the coolness of print, stay right where you are!
- Zak Kuhn (Founder, TheNashvilleBriefing)
ZAK: Andy, this is such an understated office. Is that your style? Because some of your executives next door have way more guitars and decorations in their office than you do. Is that intentional?
ANDY: The office may be understated, but that whole corridor of guitars outside are all mine. I owned about 30 Fender guitars before I joined the company. It’s since gotten a little more out of control. It’s crept up into triple digits. But especially postCovid, I don’t actually spend a lot of physical time in the office these days.
ZAK: You’re a musician yourself, right?
ANDY: In high school I wanted to be a professional musician. I never went to college. By the time I turned 25, I’d become a qualified accountant and was arrogant enough to want a company to give me a CFO title. The only company that was willing to do that was Nike UK. It was a tiny little company at the time, only a $10 million organization in the UK and only a $400 million organization worldwide. Two years later, they invited me to move to the States. I was 27 and I gave up my dream of ever becoming a professional musician or making my living out of music. I sold all my gear, which I sadly regret.
ZAK: Did you sell anything special?
ANDY: Yes. I had a 66 black and white Strat, which I sold for I think 500 bucks. I had a 66 Gibson SG with a Bigsby, and I sold my 100 watt Marshall stack. All of it went and I moved to the States. Two years later, my good friend Alan Rogan, who was a guitar tech for people like Pete Townshend, Angus Young and Eric Clapton, visited me in Portland. He comes into the house, and goes, “Where are all the guitars?” I said “Alan, I gave it up. My dream kind of passed.” So he proceeded to give me a Tom Scholz Rockman, which was really the first portable amp. I go, “Oh, that’s great, but what am I going to do with it?” He goes, “You’re going to go out tomorrow and buy a guitar and plug it in.” He then gave me one other thing, which was a history of Fender book. The next day, I went out and started my pilgrimage to buy every guitar that was featured in that book. Every guitar that I buy or have built for me now, is one of the guitars that was featured in that book.
ZAK: What’s in your collection now?
ANDY: The 52 Tele and the 54 Strat, which I had before I joined the company are certainly standouts. At one point, I lusted after a guitar that [Pink Floyd guitarist] David Gilmour owned with the serial number 0001. After I joined the company, I asked him if he would be willing to lend it to us to do a faithful reproduction of it, as he did with his black guitar from Dark Side of the Moon He wasn’t willing to do it. And then he auctioned his guitars off. I had a chance to play the black guitar at Christie’s auction house in L.A., and it’s really something special. I then got the chance to play the 0001 guitar, and I was actually disappointed in it relative to what I thought it was. My expectations were a little too high, but I had to have it. So I agreed on a price with my wife, which was pretty darn high, and it went for double that. The same guy who bought that one, I think paid four and a half million for Gilmour’s black guitar.
ZAK: Was it Jim Irsay who bought them?
ANDY: Yeah, I think he paid about 1.5 million for 0001. I went out and collected every photograph that had ever been taken of that guitar and gave it to the Fender Custom Shop builders. They took a stab at it for me. Not only does it look exactly like 001, now it plays exactly the way I want it to. So it’s in my collection, but it’s a little bit of a fake. Ha!
ZAK: You have this quote that I love which is, “The Fender Strat hasn’t changed in 70 years, except for the frets, the electronics,
the neck, the radius, the tuners and so on.” Does Fender get enough credit for all the innovation it’s made over the past 70 years?
ANDY: I think it absolutely does with committed players because they really understand the nuances of all the changes. Leo Fender was a remarkable man. He never played guitar, but he was a very acute listener and a radical designer in the sense that when people first saw the Stratocaster, they literally thought it had dropped out of the sky. Nobody thought it would sell. But everything that’s on it is based on form following function. The body curves, where the controls are and how it’s constructed, it’s all intentional. You can even change the neck out. There are all these things that you can do with the Stratocaster that you can’t do with guitars from other brands, and I think there are many examples of design iconography that’s sustained it over time. The Porsche 911 is one of my favorite cars. Everything with it is intentional. Even the fact that the key inserts on the left hand side so that you could put your car in gear at Le Mans and not lose a beat while you’re kicking it into ignition. Every single detail was thought about in terms of form, funnel, function. That’s the Stratocaster.
Now you might love the original bathtub Porsche, but the performance of the new Porsche is completely different. Performance with the guitar is completely in the eyes of the beholder. We can still give you an absolutely faithful reproduction of a 54 Strat, but we just launched the Ultra II and that guitar is informed by the very highest level musicians in terms of the very specific things that they want to have in a contemporary guitar these days.
ZAK: You guys are calling the Ultra II the most advanced series in Fender’s history. What does that mean?
ANDY: Again, it’s really about taking Leo’s ethos of listening intently to working musicians. We have relationships with 3,600 artists and they are constantly giving us feedback in multiple ways. Everything about the Ultra II came from those many conversations. The body curve, the ability to access the higher register and the neck, the electronics, even the height of the frets. Contemporary players like jumbo frets and they prefer them to be made out of stainless steel. We went through every single element. We really had to master some techniques. Making stainless steel frets at volume, for example, is really hard to do at scale. We’re constantly listening to artists and they point us in directions that we want to follow. That’s really important, because if we can get the more committed players to like and use the product, it’s more likely that the first generation players will use it as well.
ZAK: How do you know when it’s time to drop a new line of guitars?
ANDY: That very first guitar I bought from that book I mentioned earlier was an American Standard. That was back in 1984. When I joined the company in 2015, the American Standard was still there. I think for most people, they wouldn’t have known it had actually progressed, but the life cycle for the product was about seven years. That’s a long time. One of the things I was intent on doing was creating growth for the industry. I felt in order to do that, we needed to shorten the life cycle of the product to four years and also spend more money on marketing. We were a $400 million company back then and were spending less than 5% on marketing. All of it was spent in the trades. I used to describe new product introductions as trees falling in the forest. Nobody knew about them. So we set out to spend more money on marketing. We spent it more on social media and driving customers to our dealers and our websites.
We picked a four year product cycle because we felt that seven was too long but anything shorter then four would be too short. The dealers need to build up inventory and get it out in a commercially viable manner. Four years also gave us the ability to absorb all of the intel that came in from the musicians that were using the products that would then be factored into the next iteration. About 25% of our revenue now comes from new products being introduced. We think that’s been a major factor for driving growth in the entire industry.
ZAK: How did you guys come up with the idea for the Acoustasonic guitar?
ANDY: The Acoustasonic was a pretty radical breakthrough. The brief for that guitar was very simple: design an acoustic guitar that can be used on stage by contemporary musicians that Leo would have designed. There are a lot of great acoustic guitars played by top level artists. My feeling was what you get from those guitars is just one great acoustic sound louder. If you wanted to use it through effects pedals, which a lot of contemporary musicians do, that was a problem. We felt there was potential to have a much broader range of amplified sounds that would come out of an acoustic guitar using contemporary electronics. It would be easier for people to play it and they could play it a little bit acoustically and a lot electrically. They could use effects pedals and never have any problem with feedback, that kind of thing. But that was very radical, and we introduced it right at the front end of Covid. So a lot of artists picked it up and used it to record. None of them were on stage. I see the Acoustasonic Sonic as a 25 to 50 year journey. It’s great to see people like FINNEAS and Jack White pick up the Acoustasonic and love it.
ZAK: Why did you guys decide it was the right time to reissue the Buck Owens Tele? Is there an audience for that guitar?
ANDY: We love going through the history books and doing collections of these types of products. I think in this case, it will be a blend of hardcore Buck fans and people that just go, “Oh this is really cool.”
ZAK: Why is Fender returning to NAMM in 2025?
ANDY: I think we really missed the personal interaction with the dealers. I think that’s the single biggest thing. Even though we’re going back, what I felt had happened at NAMM is that trade shows take on a life of their own. You end up spending tons of money for a very short period of time. We were already compelled to do something different before Covid hit, and then when Covid hit we had to do something different. What we found during the online events we hosted during Covid was that we were able to host them for a fraction of the cost and reach way deeper into the organization.
We’re going back to NAMM for one purpose only, and that’s to spend more time with the dealer base. We’re going to converse with them and really discuss where we want to take the industry and the brand. This time around, we’re not going to have the big expensive booth, we’re just going to have the closing room for dealers. We’re also going to have some gatherings to talk about things like where we want to go with acoustic guitars in the future. We’ll gather a small group of dealers for that. But generally speaking, we’re not going to have a big glitzy booth. In the U.S., our network of dealers still contributes more than 50% of our revenues. In Europe, it’s more than 75% of our revenues. So that community is really important to us.
ZAK: When you started working at Disney, one of your first meetings was with Steve Jobs. What was that interaction like?
ANDY: Steve was grilling me because he was not happy with how Pixar properties were being managed by Disney. I met him, John Lasseter and Ed Catmull at a local sushi bar. The first question Steve posed to me right off the bat was “What do you think makes a great brand?” That was a typical Steve question. I go, “I think it’s a cumulative effect of great products.” And he goes, “That’s not a bad answer. But what I would add though,” which has always lingered with me, “is that every single product that you make is either a deposit or a withdrawal from the bank of brand equity.” I didn’t realize at the time he was making that point because he felt the division I had just been hired to run was making way too many products of a quality level that he was not happy with. But I think his point, nonetheless, was entirely valid. When I joined Fender, one of the things I did was say, “Let’s look across the entire product line and go, ‘Is it a deposit or a withdrawal?’” We said we’re going to stare at everything. You gotta make products that are deposits rather than withdrawals.
The Tone Master Pro was really inspired by some of the conversations I had with Steve. One of the things Steve would say was, “It’s okay to be second, as long as you’re better.” We were not first to the party with the Tone Master Pro, but as someone who had tried to use modeling amps personally, I just felt they were all too complicated. I just didn’t want to invest the time to try to figure them out. Steve was very much about industrial design and elegance of UI/UX. Our goal for the Tone Master Pro was that you shouldn’t need a user manual, you should just be able to turn the thing on and intuitively figure it out. We’ve made a lot of progress down that path and there’s still work to be done. I think that’s why people are really loving the product.
ZAK: You’re a big data guy. Any data currently that gets you excited about the guitar market?
ANDY: I think one of the things that we’re all working through in the guitar market right now, for better and worse, is we estimate 30 million incremental players came in during Covid. Pre-Covid, the abandonment rate was 90%. I don’t have the data on this, but I would imagine that the abandonment rate on that cohort that came in is even higher. Let’s say it’s 90%. That means there are 24 million guitars likely to be floating around that don’t have a home. That means there’s a lot more used product on the market and that is putting pressure on the new side of the market.
Somebody who commits to the instrument for life spends about $10,000, or much more in my case. So if three million players came in during the Covid bubble and stick to the instrument for life, the retail value of that cohort is about $30 billion in retail dollars over the next decade. So you’re going to have these two pressures; you’re going to have more demand for new but you’re also going to have a lot of supply of used. The whole industry is trying to adjust to how this is going to play out. It’s good for companies like Reverb and Guitar Center, who have a mix of new and used, and there are a lot of great guitars out there.
ZAK: The Fender Strat turned 70 this year. Do you think a lot about how to keep it alive for the next 70 years, or does it just feel so secure in pop culture that the best thing you can do is just keep producing them?
ANDY: No anxiety whatsoever. The Stratocaster will outlive me and generations to come. It goes back to the functional nature of the design, it just works. It’s really tough to beat.
ZAK: When you were in college, you took a writing course and wrote something that you handed in. Your teacher said it didn’t have a twist. What did he mean by that?
BOB: I took a writing course when I was a sophomore. This is Middlebury College, which certainly still exists in northern Vermont. Don’t forget, this is the Dark Ages. Pre-internet, preDVD, pre-cable TV. So we were pretty isolated. The nature of these writing courses is you would write something and read it every week. When I would read in the seminar, which was about 15 people, it would be like Springtime for Hitler in that mouths would drop and nothing would be said. I finally wrote something which happened to be about an Alice Cooper concert, The Killer Tour, at the Music Hall in Boston. The teacher said, “That was good, but it needed a twist.”
You know, you’re really gonna get me on a rant here. These are things that I really have a problem with. No one changes the world by following the rules. When it comes to writing, the peak is seen as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Generally speaking, when you read the work of the product there, and other places, it’s all very similar. It’s very dense. There will be all this description, etc. First and foremost, reading must be readable! Just like a record. Occasionally people do stuff that really has quality and takes a while for people to get into, but people have to want to listen to it!
In the ‘60s, there was New Journalism. The number one practitioner was Tom Wolfe. He wrote some legendary books which were already out at that point, The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, which I would tell people to read to this moment, that is nonfiction. He ultimately wrote fiction later in his life. The book was about injecting yourself in the situation and writing about your experience. It was the complete opposite of a twist. I became so disillusioned, I didn’t write anything again for almost a decade.
ZAK: Were you trying to get into the music industry at this point?
BOB: I wanted to be a writer. The dream was to write for Rolling Stone. I’m talking about before I stopped writing in 1972. What people don’t understand is that in the ‘60s, especially in the ‘70s, it was different. You get a lot of people lying about their age, saying it’s the same as it ever was. It is not. Taylor Swift, which is a dangerous subject, since she wrote a song about me, there is mania. But there is no level of mania compared to The Beatles. They were inescapable.
The example I always give is we all listened to AM radio. The British invasion happened at the beginning of 1964. I can sing every lick of “Hello Dolly” and “Strangers in the Night.” Not because I love those records, but because I was waiting for The Beatles’ records. There is not a soul alive in 1965 who did not hear “Satisfaction.” They may not have liked it, but it was everywhere. Whereas go someplace and ask people to name two songs from the new Taylor Swift album. They can’t do it! Maybe the people in attendance can. This is not a put down of Taylor Swift. I’m just saying she is seen as the peak, where as you go down, Chris Stapleton, BTS, believe me — there’s no chance. But we have a media still operating on an old paradigm, and as a result, they’re pushing a narrative which is no longer true.
ZAK: Wait, but did you think you were going to do something in the music industry?
BOB: Thanks for bringing me back. Music drove the culture, and music was everything. I view music as number two to sex. People will drop everything for it. Sex is the number one experience, but a great record is number two. I wanted to be closer to the music. After I gave up on being a writer, I ultimately went to law school because my father would pay. I never had any intention of practicing law, but my main motivation was to
get a job at a record company. At the time, the record companies were run by lawyers. They’re not run by lawyers today. My father was a real estate appraiser, so I had no in. What was the dream at that point? If you had asked me, I wanted to be an A&R guy. I wanted to pick the records. That’s a bad path, certainly today. But if you ask me what I was thinking about, that was it.
ZAK: You’ve said that going to music school is basically like getting a degree to end up in middle management. Did the industry feel like that back then? Or was there more room to climb the ladder?
BOB: You could go up the ladder. You just could not get a job. Tower Records on Sunset, you couldn’t get a job there. You had to know somebody. You had to be a musician. You couldn’t walk in and get a job at many record stores. That would sound amazing to a kid today. If you did get a job at a label and you were good, you could move your way up. Today, it’s people making seven figures and all these underlings.
In addition, if you were a successful musician in the ‘60s and ‘70s, you were as rich as anybody in America and even more powerful. This is what the rock star lifestyle was all about. You could destroy the hotel room and your road manager would whip off from a roll of hundreds how much it cost to repair it. And you could say “No!” Everything today is the reverse. Everybody wants to say yes. The goal is “Okay, I’ll become a big star. I’ll have a perfume, I’ll play privates, I’ll get involved.” Back then, you said, “No, I don’t want to be part of the straight world. I have enough money.” There’s a famous story. The Eagles did a benefit for Jerry Brown when he was running for president. They told him what to do! “Hey, don’t get on stage. This is our audience. Wait until we tell you.” Today, everything’s reversed.
ZAK: In an industry that’s so small, how have you made it as far as you have, being so brutally honest?
BOB: That’s who I am. That’s who my father was. One of the weird things about growing older, you ultimately realize how similar you are to your parents. My father made a good living. Normally, a real estate appraiser is a schlepper. For those who don’t know Yiddish, that’s a guy in a bad sport coat. My father came from nothing. He was an engineer. He lost his job and he said, “Fuck, I’m never going to do this again.” So he owned a liquor store. Then he turned that into another liquor store. Believe me, this is not a chain. I went back for the unveiling of my mother’s headstone a year ago in Connecticut. I took my girlfriend by the liquor store and she couldn’t believe it. They don’t even make stores that small anymore. Literally!
In the late ‘60s, a friend my father grew up with in Bridgeport Connecticut said, “Hey, they’re going to do all this redevelopment here, and no one knows the local real estate better than you.” My father was in commercial real estate on a very low level because he didn’t have any money, but he knew the landscape. That friend said, “If you become an appraiser, I will hire you on all my cases.” So the way it works is a state wants to build a highway. They say we’re going to build the highway through your house. So they have their own appraisal and say, “Your
house is worth $100,000.” Well, maybe you think that’s what it is, and you take the $100k. Or you say, “Hey, I’m getting ripped off.” And they go to their lawyer. The lawyer would call my father and say, “Go take a look.” My father might go out there and say, “You know, $100k is a good price.” But he might say, “Hey, they’re ripping you off!” Ultimately, there would be a hearing. I went with him a few times and he was brutally honest. Also, every night the phone used to ring and my father used to yell at these people, “Shut up, just do what I’m telling you!” He made so much money for people, even though he could only get a flat fee, that they continued to hire him. In addition, my mother was a very social person. There’d be a lot of gatherings at my house and these people would be bullshitting, even my mother. At some point, my father would flip out and say, “That’s completely untrue.” So all these years later, I see that as my identity.
ZAK: Bob, what are the jobs today that people starting out in the biz should try to go into?
BOB: I knew this A&R guy working for a major label as a senior VP. We’re there talking and he goes, “I got into this business to sign another Beatles. Decades later, I never found them.” This business is based on talent. We don’t need people who know every record. We don’t need people who know all the statistics. People would be stunned at the powerful executives who know much less about music than they do. You need to attach yourself to talent. This is something you cannot learn in school. You have to be able to find it, sign it, and nurture it. This rapper Logic had a really big moment. The guy who was the manager went to college to play soccer. That didn’t really work out. So he trolled the internet, took the train to Maryland to find this guy, built him into what he was. He was the manager. The doors opened because everybody wanted Logic. He happened to be a good manager. But you could be a better manager. It doesn’t make any difference. You don’t have the act.
So if you want to be in business, attach yourself to talent. In addition, if you’re asking my advice, you want to be in the touring business. Money is generated and you can work in the touring business forever. Up until the last, maybe this century, the labels were very fluid. There were six major label groups and they would fire the heads all the time and they would reshuffle everybody. That’s not the case anymore. So there’s not that many opportunities. But, you know, there’s that famous joke about the guy in the circus who’s shoveling up the shit from the elephants, you know, “Why don’t you quit this job?” “And leave show business?”
There’s a great line when Jeffrey Katzenberg was number two at Disney, and this is a true story. He would say, “If you don’t come in on Saturday, don’t even think about coming in on Sunday.” He would literally go in on the weekends, and put his hands on the hoods of cars to see whether they were still warm or not to find out whether the person got there just before him. You know, I hear this from musicians, “How am I going to pay my mortgage? How am I going to pay for my kid’s education?” Who told you to have a house? Who told you to have kids? I mean, are you willing to work around
the clock? Having said that, I have a friend who runs an independent label, very successful, and he has a lot of problems with employees because they won’t do the things that people used to do. “Okay, you’ve got to go pick this person up at the airport. It’s 10 o’clock on Friday night. They say, “Well, I’m watching TV.” The point is, if you’re willing to do anything, you’re going to get ahead. Especially in an era where people don’t. But if you want to make it to the top, you have to attach yourself to talent.
ZAK: Last time we were together Bob, you asked me if I wanted money or power in life and said that you cannot have both. Why can’t you have both?
BOB: Everything’s relative. Let me be very clear. Biden stepped down from running for president. They actually have a story in New York Magazine about modern media, etc. I don’t agree with everything they say, but they make this point, which I 100% agree with. Biden stepped down because of what was written in The New York Times. If you look at the financials of The New York Times, they’re terrible. They make a profit, but this is not billions. Maybe if they sold the paper, but even the paper’s not worth that much. Yet, they have an incredible amount of power.
About 15 years ago, Jay-Z made a deal with Samsung for an exclusive track, or maybe it was an exclusive album? What difference does it make? He made the deal with Samsung during the NBA playoffs and got paid seven figures. He said, “Oh, big victory!” At the time, because I knew people involved, they had a budget more than 100 times what they paid Jay-Z. But Jay-Z had incredible power. He could say, “I hate Samsung.” Look at what Kid Rock did to Bud Light! I’m not saying that Kid Rock doesn’t have money. But that’s power.
The other thing is with power, you have the right to say no. I have the power. I can say yes. So, there are many jobs that you can work in your community that are well-paying and maybe even give you a little power in your community. But, when the act comes to town, you can’t call the agent and say, “Give me a front row seat.” You don’t have any power in that world. And look at politicians. Most of them are not extremely wealthy. But they have a lot of power.
ZAK: Bob, one of my favorite newsletters that you ever wrote is you just talking about food at Zabar’s. When you write a newsletter like that, which is long and basically has nothing to do with the music business, what do you hope your audience takes away from it?
BOB: A couple of things here. Those newsletters always get the best response. Always. Because it strikes a note in the heart of people. I was in England about two months ago. My girlfriend says, “Let’s go to Harrods.” OK, we go to Harrods. I walk around. I get a buzz over a couple of things. They have a shoe department there. I’ve never seen that many models of running shoes. They sent me Sennheiser, supposedly the best headphones made, and I saw things at Harrods for four times the price. So I was inspired. I came home and wrote about it. I was absolutely stunned. My inbox went wild. This is exactly like a great record. I wrote something yesterday
and as I’m writing it I go, “This is not great. This is an album track.” If you nail it, it could be about anything because we’re all human.
This is what’s wrong with music. It’s all formulaic. Everyone says, “Make a record like your old record.” They don’t really want that. They want something new. It’s like Steve Jobs famously said, “I do no market research.” Research will tell you where you’ve been, not where you’re going and what people need. So if I miss the target, if it’s not written great, believe me, people go wild on me. So it’s inherently a risk. But it’s all about an experience. I went to Joni Mitchell’s Joni Jam over the weekend. The guy at the Los Angeles Times wrote a very good review about what happened. That’s interesting. That’s not what I do. I explain the experience of being there.
Look at these newspapers. It’s less of a thing now because newspapers are a joke. But when they send somebody to review something and they say it’s bad, occasionally something is bad, but send someone who’s a fan of that band! This is what we live for. The experience. We’re all lonely and people identify. I mean, I wrote about babka, which not everyone’s even going to know, but you should go online and order some babka [editor’s note: babka is a sweet braided bread]. And people were both reminded of babka and they all had to order it because they got the idea of the sensuousness of eating something great. This is what cracks me up. All over the Internet, “This is a good record. That’s a bad record.” Who gives a shit? That’s not what it’s about. It’s about conveying the essence. If I tell you “OK, good record,” fine. But if I tell you “I was driving down the street, I just had a tooth pulled, my radio was on the fritz, I finally got it to work and a record came on, I turned it so loud that person in the car next to me… so I got home, I pulled up the track on my streaming service and played it 20 times in row…” You’re gonna want to play that record! You’re gonna say, “What the fuck!”
The other thing is, if you play that record and go, “Oh that’s terrible,” you’re never going to believe me ever again. So I can’t write that about everything. But when I nail that, you say, “I know that! I know that experience!” I can tell you about going to see The Stones in ‘72, dancing in the aisle and a woman came down and we gave each other looks. That’s all that happened. But I can tell you the experience.
Interview with Bob Lefsetz by Zak Kuhn Headshots courtesy of Bob Lefsetz
by Mike
Nashville might not be the first place that most people would think to set up the headquarters for an electronic dance music entertainment brand. But when Adam Lynn and Zach Ruben, the co-founders of Breakaway, branched out for their first music festival date in Music City in 2018, they could see clear promise for their traveling, pop & electronic dance festival tour in the heart of country music.
“I never had ambitions of moving to L.A. or New York or Miami,” Lynn says of when he and Ruben were on the lookout to expand operations beyond the company’s original home base in Columbus, Ohio. “So it was actually between Nashville and Charlotte, and I felt like Nashville had a lot of great, great things just as a city, and then a lot of the music business had a big presence there.”
It was a decision that perfectly encapsulates the thinking that has made Breakaway one of the most dynamic music brands in the country, and a hallmark of the exciting era of growth that Nashville currently finds itself in. Having gotten its start catering to underserved music markets in Ohio and Michigan, Breakaway has built its brand steadily with dates in cities like Minneapolis, Nashville, Charlotte and Tampa Bay. This fall, they hosted their first Breakaway Takeover at the Wynn Las Vegas, and in 2025 will expand their festival schedule to a dozen dates across the country.
“Breakaway, as a brand and as a company, has changed quite a bit, in a good way, in the last 18 months,” says Andrew Hart, the vice president of brand partnerships, who joined the team earlier this year. “Eighteen months ago, we were at six or seven festivals. This year we’re at 10. We’re definitely the largest touring festival in North America. Next year it’s 12 festivals, in essentially every region in the country.”
Despite the growth, the company has stayed committed to serving what it sees as underserved markets throughout the U.S. “It’s a really cool thing for each local market to rally behind, because when you’re from Tampa, or you’re from Charlotte, you’re kind of overlooked by some of the bigger cities,” says Will Van Orsdel, Breakaway’s chief revenue officer, who himself grew up in Charlotte.
Even before the slated addition of new cities for next year, including Atlanta, Dallas and Philadelphia, Breakaway had become the largest multi-date music festival on the continent—a title once held by the rock-centric Warped Tour. The company’s plans aren’t stopping there, developing a never-before-seen flywheel across live music (recently launching a sister promoter business), always-on media, & artist services that calls Nashville home.
“We really don’t have any peers as it relates to independents left in the [festival] space,” Van Orsdel says. “Everybody that would be a competitor of ours is 30+ years older than us. So it’s kind of this young pirate ship where we can chart our own course, versus going and getting a paycheck at one of the majors.”
That, to a degree, is how it’s always been. Lynn and Ruben started separately staging their own music events as college
students in Columbus, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Lynn attended school. They joined forces in 2010. “The idea was bringing some decent talent to a college market that was really not getting much,” Lynn recalls. It was easy, at their age, to know what students were hungry for. “We were the guys basically right out of college when we started. So we were the guys in our demographic that we were promoting shows to.”
They also had an eye for catching emerging talent before they got big—or, in some cases, huge. Breakaway booked The Chainsmokers, Chance the Rapper and John Summit on some of their first major tours, and Tiësto on his first College Invasion Tour. “I’d say one of the keys to our success is the relationship with talent and how much the talent really loves, not only my partner and I, but the team that we’ve put together,” Lynn says. “And that starts with supporting these guys early in their careers.”
Van Orsdel joined the team in 2018, just as Breakaway was entering Nashville and beginning its initial growth into new markets. They also did their first round of fundraising, having previously been bootstrapped, according to Van Orsdel. “We did a friends and family seed round of funding that Sony Music led through Sony Music’s first-ever live music investment, which is a pretty cool claim to fame,” he says. “And then Covid happened.”
Breakaway, however, managed to keep the lights on through the pandemic, doing countless drive-in concerts at venues in Columbus and Charlotte, one of which attracted thousands of cars to Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The clearest template for Breakaway’s model was Warped Tour, the prototypical traveling festival series that started in 1995 and served as a formative summer rock staple for over two decades before folding in 2019. (It’s touted to return next summer after a six-year hiatus.) It’s a comparison Breakaway doesn’t shy away from, and even promotes in its own literature, although Lynn sees his company having a more strategic approach.
“Their model was going out for two months at a time and booking a bunch of artists and going show to show to show to show—kind of like bang, all in one setting. I think our model is we find the best weekends of the year in all these cities,” Lynn says. Breakaway’s itinerary is spread throughout the calendar, from April to October, usually with at least a couple weeks between each date. They also spend more time in each host city. “I think we’re a little bit more unique in the sense that we’ll go into these cities for a whole week and take over and do merchandise pop-ups with a lot of local talent.”
It’s an approach that has proven to have clear commercial appeal. Ahead of the 2024 schedule, Breakaway announced energy drink Celsius as its presenting sponsor for all 10 dates. Other major brands like Cuervo, Bacardi, Chase, and SeatGeek are also part of the brand partner portfolio.
“The way I position Breakaway to brands is that we’re a 10-month, always-on campaign for them. So it’s not just that they’re showing up once at Governor’s Ball or Lollapalooza for the weekend and crossing their fingers
fingers they get everything they’re hoping for in four days,” Hart says. Instead, there’s a sustained tie-in that can draw on ambassadors, influencers and branded content, with a core live music product that can move from market to market. “We’re giving them much more value, in my opinion,” Hart believes.
One of the areas where Van Orsdel is focused on maximizing that growth is through digital IP. “We’re developing, always, on digital media. Episodic stuff like podcasts, long-and short-form audio and video, to pair with our live business. So we’re developing more of a communication platform that’s always on, either in real life or digitally,” he says. He likens their hoped-for digital presence to what MTV was like for past generations with its promise of insider access. “It’s all centered and rooted in music and pop culture, but extends into local culinary or music scenes.”
It’s not impossible to imagine Breakaway embracing its Nashville home even more fully by branching out into the country music realm. Hart says the staff, about 15 of whom are based in their Wedgewood Houston office, are “bullish” about their adopted hometown.
“Our competitive edge as a brand is that we bring a twoday, premium music festival experience to underserved markets,” Hart says. “So it’s actually very aligned and very
on-brand for us to be building this business in Nashville, and not necessarily being headquartered in New York or L.A.”
It’s a partnership that could be mutually beneficial for both parties. “I think it’s really cool for us to not be like every other country brand in Nashville. We’re this pop / dance music company that’s headquartered in Nashville and continues to drive the narrative of Nashville being a true music city, not just for country music” Van Orsdel argues. “Showing younger, aspiring music business men & women that you can come to Nashville if you’re not in country music, and still thrive and prosper.”
Article by Jeff Gage for The Nashville Briefing
In honor of Alexandra Kay entering what she describes as her “Lover Era,” she’s answered some intimate relationship questions for us below. Submitted by our very own Nashville Briefing readers, read what she has to say about love and catch her upcoming headlining tour Feb-April 2025. Tickets on sale now!
How do you balance a relationship when you’re a touring musician?
Communication is the biggest thing. My boyfriend and I tour together and we definitely have some boundaries in place. We keep a really good work life balance and make sure we spend plenty of time together in our downtime on the road. We watch movies together and go on dinner dates on our days off, but on a show day, we don’t really see each other until showtime. So we look forward to our days off!
Does it matter how quickly you text back a person in the early stages of a relationship?
I would say yes. Willingness to communicate is the best way to tell if someone is serious about you or not. If he is taking days to text you back, chances are he’s not super interested.
What’s your top tip for someone entering the dating scene after a long break?
Make sure to give you and the people you’re dating some grace. It can be hard to get to know someone new, especially after coming out of a long term relationship. Just remember that dating is supposed to be fun and that your new prospect is probably nothing like your ex. Try to keep an open mind.
How do you know if someone is genuinely interested in you or just your career?
I feel like I have a pretty good instinct when it comes to this. I haven’t really dated within the industry for that reason, but I truly trust everyone until they give me a reason not to.
I have a massive crush on someone who is on the same tour as me. How do I test the waters without making things too messy?
I am super forward when it comes to my feelings. Have a little liquid courage if you need it and just get flirty! See if they give you anything back.. and if they do, GO FOR IT SISTER.
What’s one piece of dating advice you wish you had known earlier in life?
Marriage doesn’t fix previous problems in a relationship, it amplifies them.
How do you set boundaries in a relationship, especially when you have a demanding career?
I am very upfront at the beginning of every relationship about how demanding my career and schedule are. Honesty from the get go.
I just got out of a long term relationship. How do I know when it’s time to start dating again? You’ll feel it. Just make sure you don’t force yourself to get back out there before you’re ready. You’re looking for the love of your life, not a bandaid.
I’m an artist and I think I have a crush on one of my fans. Thoughts?
Be very careful with this one. I personally would never do this. You never know what someone’s intentions are. Unless you knew them before they became a fan of your music I would steer clear of that entirely.
What brand are you most excited by right now?
I’ve been wearing a lot of Norma Kamali recently. She takes calculated risks that stand out in a fun way. And there’s a refreshing, edgy, youthfulness to her pieces that I appreciate. I truly believe fashion is one of the most exciting forms of selfexpression and I love getting creative with the outfits I wear.
What piece in your wardrobe means the most to you?
My Stage Haze Jordan 1s have the most sentimental value to me right now. I got them as a gift the day I made my Grand Ole Opry debut and wore them the first time I stepped into the circle. I only ever wear them when I play the Opry.
What piece in your wardrobe do you only have because you’re Alana Springsteen?
A pair of Dickies pants and a jacket that my dad (David) handpainted for me. He surprised me with the pants at my Grand Ole Opry debut, and later gave me the jacket to celebrate the release of my debut album, TWENTY SOMETHING. Growing up, he’d bake and decorate these super ornate cakes for us on our birthdays. He’s insanely creative and talented. So much of my own creativity and love of art comes from him.
What’s a fashion splurge in your wardrobe that you don’t regret buying?
I bought an incredible Acne Studios leather and suede jacket during a trip to New York, and was completely obsessed with it. It was one of those jackets that fits like a glove and feels like home. I sadly lost it when my tour bus caught fire, but no regrets.
1 must have on a red carpet?
Sneakers. I end up in the most stunning but wildly uncomfortable heels on red carpets, so I try to change into Jordans the second I can.
Fave jean brand?
Levi’s. Vintage 501s FTW!
Fave cowboy boot?
I’ve owned a few ISABEL MARANT boots that I’ve absolutely loved. Also, can’t wait for my first pair of Luccheses.
Fave hat brand?
As long as it’s a snapback…
The COVID-19 pandemic was hugely disruptive for the music industry. While the initial changes presented massive challenges, especially for live music, the period of relative quiet also offered many in the music community the rare chance to take a step back from the grind, reflect on their work thus far and dream up new, sometimes surprising, ways to move forward.
For Kevin “Chief” Zaruk and Simon Tikhman, that period of uncertainty proved especially fruitful. On the cusp of the pandemic, the pair of music and technology veterans launched an early iteration of what would become The Core Entertainment, a talent management company that has since grown into a one-stop shop for emerging artists to hone their craft, build their brand and develop a career in the ever-changing music industry.
Nearly five years since its founding, The Core is a major player in country music. Their management roster includes Bailey Zimmerman, Nate Smith, Josh Ross and Nickelback, the latter having a lengthy friendship and professional relationship with Zaruk that led them to The Core. In addition to management, the company has a newly-launched record label, The Core Records, plus a portfolio of investment ventures that include non-music projects.
For Zaruk, a Canadian-born industry heavy-hitter who was instrumental in the growth of Big Loud, forming The Core was the final piece in realizing a longtime dream of redefining what it means to be a music manager. Zaruk tells The Nashville Briefing that part of the company’s ethos is taking proper care and time to make sure an artist is truly ready to break.
“We love to develop new acts,” he says. “We love to sign acts that really are brand new and that no one has ever heard of, or maybe they have a little something going. But we’re not afraid to sign an act early. We’re not afraid to put in the time and develop them.”
Tikhman, a California native and USC Marshall School of business alum, brings a different skill set, but his passion for helping young artists find their footing mirrors his love for helping founders and businesses get off the ground.
“I love to start companies and invest in young entrepreneurs,” Tikhman says. “It’s always been a real passion of mine, and I’ve always worked with different levels of talent in my career — music, athletes, celebrities, all that. I’ve always enjoyed all of it, but in my last gig, right before starting The Core, I really enjoyed the music side of it. I enjoyed A&Ring things and touring. It was just a different aspect of the business that I really was interested in.”
As the company grew, Zaruk and Tikhman recruited nowPresident Tracy Martin to join The Core in 2021. Another Canadian and a power player in Canada’s country music scene — Martin was once the president of the Canadian Country Music Association — she has been
invaluable in helping shape The Core’s global strategy. Martin also brings deep knowledge of social and digital media, helping artists navigate the lucrative but complicated worlds of modern tools like TikTok and more traditional avenues like terrestrial radio. She says part of developing The Core’s roster of talent has been the team’s ability to delineate between viral success and genuine talent, which can be easy to conflate.
“It felt like a lot of the labels started to really double down on TikTok artists, but really quickly realized that there was no longevity because they weren’t actually artists,” she says. “They were more like influencers. I think for us, we realized that fairly quickly. And even though we do have a couple of artists on our roster who we found that way, we were definitely looking for the secret sauce.”
Finding the “secret sauce” involves gut and intuition, but Martin says seemingly simple traits like a good work ethic and a grasp of branding can elevate one talented songwriter over another. The Core can open doors and make connections for artists, but only a committed, hard-working artist can take those resources and turn them into success.
“We want to make sure that you know that we are running a business here, and we want you to be the best
business leader possible,” she says. “We always say, ‘You’re the CEO of your business.’ And we’re trying to give these younger artists the tools of how the business works — the good, bad and the ugly — so that they’re helping make decisions at the table.”
To help artists make those decisions, The Core also takes a holistic approach to wellness and mental health, providing artists access to therapists and other healthcare professionals to help navigate the many pitfalls of growing fame. Learning to deal with the toxicity that can come with developing a social media following is a key piece of this commitment to artist wellness.
Zaruk shares that at a recent CMA-presented panel for artists, he told the group, “You all have the same dreams and goals. But you gotta do yourself a favor. You have to find balance in your personal [life] and your career. Turn your phone off. Find hours during the week where you’re not staring at comments and you’re not worried about posting. Put your phone down and do something else for two hours before you go to bed. Because it will drive you crazy.”
“Let’s normalize talking about mental health,” Tikhman adds. “Let’s normalize talking about breaking artists down physically and mentally until they’ve got nothing, and then they have to go on hiatus because they weren’t able to take care of themselves.”
The Core also invests deeply in the well-being and professional development of its employees. Zaruk, Tikhman and Martin all express passion for maintaining a healthy and collaborative company culture, one they believe encourages their staffers to be their best while taking care of themselves in a notoriously demanding and difficult industry. Accordingly, The Core offers therapy and coaching services to staffers, and leadership is up front about the demands of working in music.
“This is not a nine-to-five,” Tikhman says. “We are in the service industry. When I’m interviewing [potential] employees, I say, ‘If you want a nine-to-five, there’s banking and it’s probably a great paying job and all that kind of stuff. But this job is not that. It’s not that, because if an artist works on the weekend and needs to get a hold of us, we can’t tell them that we don’t work on the weekends, right?”
That always-available mentality is invaluable to The Core’s clients, who don’t take for granted the quality of the partnership they have with their management and label teams.
“Chief and Simon found me at a time I had nothing to offer but my voice and a bad haircut,” Smith tells TheNashvilleBriefing. “I had $14 to my name, and they gave me a chance. They have kept every single promise they have ever made to me, and I am forever indebted to The Core. There’s no one else I would trust to navigate my career.”
As an Artist, You’re often misunderstood.
As an Artist, You’re often misunderstood.
“Working with The Core has given me so many opportunities and developed me in country music,” Ross says, “But the best thing they offer is being part of a family and a team that cares about the artist.”
Asked what they’re feeling particularly excited about as 2025 comes into clearer focus, Zaruk, Tikhman and Martin all express enthusiasm for the newly-launched The Core Records. A week before this conversation, the label dropped its first track, Hannah McFarland’s “Hey Highway.”
Finding a partner who gets that is rare. Banks usually want to PLAY it safe. But that’s not your style. You’ve taken the HARD road. You need a BANK that’s driven by dreams of what could be and not just what is. Is it EASY? No. But that’s the road we’ve both taken.
Finding a partner who gets that is rare. Banks usually want to PLAY it safe. But that’s not your style. You’ve taken the HARD road. You need a BANK that’s driven by dreams of what could be and not just what is. Is it EASY ? No. But that’s the road we’ve both taken.
Finding a partner who gets that is rare. Banks usually want to PLAY it safe. But that’s not your style. You’ve taken the HARD road. You need a BANK that’s driven by dreams of what could be and not just what is. Is it EASY ? No. But that’s the road we’ve both taken.
“We’re about to have our year-end meetings, and we get to sit down as a label and be like, ‘Here are our six or seven artists that are coming out next year, and here’s when they’re coming out and how they’re going to come out and the timeline,’” Zaruk says. “We’re really excited about building these careers and building their live shows, and doing all the things that I think we’re really good at.”
As stars like Zimmerman and Smith continue to rise and newcomers like McFarland, Just Jayne and Anna Graves begin to make waves, it seems the sky’s the limit for The Core and its growing roster of artists and ventures. And while the team is always dreaming and looking ahead, they have more than enough to keep them busy in the meantime.
“Now here we are,” Zaruk says. “We have 22 employees. We have The Core Records under Universal Music Group Global and we have coventures in publishing and our management company. We still have Live Nation as our partner. So, it’s very crazy, right?”
Article by Brittney McKenna for The
Make Wake Artists
Café/Coffee Shop: SOHO OR FROTHY MONKEY NATIONS
Dinner Restaurant: PELATO
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: BARCELONA EDGEHILL
°1824 at UMG, Sr. Culture Marketing Director
Café/Coffee Shop: ALL PEOPLE COFFEE
Dinner Restaurant: BAD IDEA
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: GOLDEN PONY
Guitarist
Café/Coffee Shop: DOSE
Dinner Restaurant: RIP WILD COW
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: SCHULMAN’S
Double Elvis Productions, Co-founder & Advisor
Café/Coffee Shop: LIFE ALIVE ORGANIC CAFE
Dinner Restaurant: COPPA ENOTECA
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: BARCELONA WINE BAR
Ralph Jaccodine Management/ Berklee College of Music
Café/Coffee Shop: PAVEMENT ON BERKLEE CAMPUS
Dinner Restaurant: DAVIO’S
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: SONSIE
Salt Lick Incubator, President
Café/Coffee Shop: DIESEL CAFE
Dinner Restaurant: ALDEN & HARLOW
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: FELIPE’S ROOFTOP
Prescription Songs, A&R Manager
Café/Coffee Shop: GO GET EM TIGER (LOS FELIZ)
Dinner Restaurant: OSTERIA LA BUCA
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: YE RUSTIC INN
Silver Tribe Media, COO
Café/Coffee Shop: GOODBOYBOB COFFEE ROASTERS
Dinner Restaurant: FIA
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: A.O.C.
Jonathan Perry Music, Founder / Music Director
Café/Coffee Shop: SILVER LAKE INTELLIGENTSIA
Dinner Restaurant: KODO
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: ALMA’S
Warner Records, Director of Media & Strategic Development
Café/Coffee Shop: SUNDAY TO SUNDAY
Dinner Restaurant: DUDLEYS
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: RAY’S LOWER EAST SIDE
SymphonyOS, Co-Founder & CEO
Café/Coffee Shop: EARLY YVES CAFE
Dinner Restaurant: ZATAR CAFE & BISTRO
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: THE BACK ROOM
Ice Cream For Dinner, CEO/Founder & Director of Brand Partnerships, Primary Wave
Café/Coffee Shop: AVENUE BAKERY
Dinner Restaurant: ABC KITCHEN
Bar/Happy Hour Spot: OLD TOWN BAR
THE MAKING OF HIGH AND HIS REFUSAL TO SETTLE
Keith Urban isn’t scared to start over.
The country superstar released his 12th studio album, HIGH, in September, though only after a significant false start: While plotting a follow-up to 2020’s The Speed of Now Part 1, Urban realized the record he’d made, a loosely conceptual LP titled 615, just wasn’t clicking. Something was missing.
“I just wasn’t happy with [615],” he tells The Nashville Briefing in late October. “I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, as I was probably so focused on what it was, which was a bit linear. And a lot of the songs were a bit too similar… But I wasn’t thinking about what it was lacking.”
One of country music’s biggest and most successful long-running artists, Urban could easily have released the project anyway, using his household name status to sell records and tickets despite not feeling satisfied with the music itself. Instead, he scrapped 615, called up longtime friend and collaborator Dann Huff and got back to work.
What 615 turned out to be lacking, Urban says, was spirit. It’s an intangible quality he can’t quite articulate in words but can sense with his gut, especially when it’s missing. To find it, he went into the studio with Huff “with no preconceived ideas except to just write, play, have a great time.”
“Suddenly, this spirit emerges,” he says. “The song was ‘STRAIGHT LINE’ that we wrote, then ‘CHUCK TAYLORS.’ And those two songs had this really bristling, joyous spirit. I realized that’s what was missing on the record before this one. It just didn’t have that spirit. And so that became my Northern Star… It doesn’t have to be a tempo song, you know, but does it have heart?”
Reuniting with Huff was a great first step in finding that spirit. Urban says the beloved producer knows him “really, really well” and that the pair’s familiarity lent warmth and comfort to their studio sessions. It also helped that Huff doesn’t write songs.
“I started working with a lot of other producers around 2013 on the Fuse album,” Urban reveals. “Fuse was the first one where I used a lot of different outside producers instead of Dann and what I realized was I wasn’t using a ton of outside producers. I was just doing those tracks with one of the people who was involved with writing the song.”
Though Huff also helmed 615, Urban says the studio environment he created made ample space for his musical experiments. The challenge was writing new material that felt true to Urban’s artistry without recycling past projects.
“There’s a fine line between familiarity and ‘I’ve heard it before,’” he notes. “I’m always trying to straddle that place when I work with Dann to make sure it’s fresh sounding… I’m always making sure there’s freshness and spark and spirit around the edges of that familiarity.”
HIGH is at once fresh and familiar, replete with the poppy melodies, slick guitar riffs, vivid lyrics and impassioned
singing for which Urban has long been known and loved. The record feels especially expansive, particularly in its lyrical subject matter. Themes like presence and gratitude reprise themselves across the album’s dozen tracks, and Urban ventures into deeply personal territory like parenting, marriage and his late father’s struggles with alcoholism.
While Urban did choose to answer the muse in tackling those topics, he says he did not go into the HIGH sessions with any intention to write about a particular experience or feeling, instead paying attention to what came up when he sat down to write. Closing track “BREAK THE CHAIN,” on which Urban hopes not to repeat his father’s mistakes in parenting his own children, especially exemplifies this approach.
“A song like ‘BREAK THE CHAIN’ was, gosh — talk about being reminded that songs come from that very mysterious place,” he shares. “I had no title, no melody, no intent to write that song. It literally just came, just really indescribably beautifully so. It just arrived. The song arrived through us that day, and I was floored that I needed to say that. I felt very at peace with my father and his alcoholism and his passing and the way I was raised. I’ve done so much therapy on this thing in my life, and I’m really at peace with it. I’m good. And this damn song, she said, ‘No, no, no. There are some other things you’re still working on that you’re still very much working on. And here it is.’”
That “still working” part of Urban seems to touch every aspect of his life, and he may well be allergic to complacency, à la that decision to shelve 615. Virtuoso guitarist that he is, he’s still trying new things with his axe, which takes center stage on HIGH in a way it hasn’t in several albums. Intentionally highlighting his playing also helped bring forth that sense of spirit and heart for Urban, who says Huff encouraged him to whip up the tasty solos that appear on tracks like “STRAIGHT LINE” and “DAYTONA.”
“Around the time I was making Graffiti U, Dann said to me, ‘How come you don’t have much guitar on your albums anymore?’” Urban recalls. “And I said, ‘What are you talking about? There’s tons of guitar. There are textures. There are rhythmic parts. He goes, ‘Yeah, I know, but I mean solos. You don’t have as many guitar solos on your records anymore.’”
Urban explained to Huff that he only puts a solo on songs that “pull solos out of” him and that he wouldn’t slap one on a track just for the sake of it. Huff countered, asking Urban why those tracks didn’t make him want to pick up the guitar and what it would take to change his perspective.
“I was like, ‘Damn you,’” he says, laughing. “I don’t have an answer for that. That’s a really good question. I’m gonna have to think about that… Why am I creating tracks that don’t inspire me to play guitar? Because I’m creating the track, too. It’s all me. I’m loving the track. It’s just not inspiring me to play guitar. Why is it not inspiring me to play guitar?”
The songs on HIGH, fortunately, did ask for solos— several of them. The solo at the bridge of “STRAIGHT LINE” finds Urban speeding up and down the fretboard, bending notes into bright bursts as the song reaches its crescendo. And Urban’s guitar on “LAUGHIN’ ALL THE WAY TO THE DRANK” channels the blues and crunch of Chuck Berry before seamlessly shifting to Van Halenesque rapid-fire legato licks.
Soon, Urban will have even more reason to pick up his six-string, as he recently partnered with high-end guitar maker Paul Reed Smith to design a custom model. Inspired by friend John Mayer’s PRS Silver Sky guitar, Urban’s will be made to his personal specifications, minus
a few tweaks by Smith himself, who Urban says is a stickler for quality. He hopes the new axe will bring back the feeling of his early career when, limited by money, he only had one nice guitar and had to make it work for everything he played.
“I’m not interested in having a signature model and all that stuff,” he explains. “It’s really just about seeing if I can get them to custom-build me a bespoke guitar that’s built for my playing style and my needs and see if we can achieve getting that back down to one guitar. That’s the goal.”
That bespoke approach once again mirrors Urban’s quest to be the best at being himself, which often means zigging where others zag. Doing things differently is, conversely, the norm for Urban. Unlike peers who chase trends or retread old sounds to hang onto fans, Urban is genuinely driven by the music itself, regardless of how well it does or if it matches what’s currently charting online or on the radio.
“What happens with artists when they become formulaic is they lose the heart in what they’re doing,” he muses.
“And they go, ‘Well, this works, so I’m going to do it.’
And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but do you believe in it?’”
With HIGH, Urban has made something he believes in wholeheartedly. Though the journey to the album’s completion was a winding, sometimes surprising one, it was the album he was meant to make at this moment. The album that was playing in his heart and needed to be let out. He just had to sit down and listen.
• 2 OUNCES TEQUILA
• 1 OUNCE COFFEE LIQUEUR
• 1 OUNCE ROOM
TEMP ESPRESSO
• 3 COFFEE BEANS
In a shaker, add ice then pour in the tequila, cold espresso and coffee liquid. Shake until the mixture becomes frothy. Pour into a martini glass and top with three espresso beans. Enjoy!
About the Drink:
There’s never a bad time for an espresso martini! I’m a tequila girl at heart, so I love to swap the traditional vodka for tequila. It’s the perfect pairing over dinner, or as an extra pick-me-up before a night out. - Ashley Cooke
Jake Howell is a James Beard nominated chef and the owner of Peninsula in Nashville. Jake’s focus as a chef is to create food that shows a concise point of view. His cooking is vegetable forward, technique driven and personal.
SOUR CHERRY JUS
• 500 G SEEDED CHERRIES
• 100 G WATER
• 125 G BANYULS VINEGAR
TURMERIC OIL
• 500 G PEELED FRESH TURMERIC
• 500 G SUNFLOWER OIL
BURNT CAPER POWDER
• 250 G CAPER BERRIES
CUCUMBERS
• 2 LBS ENGLISH CUCUMBERS
• 2 TBSP CRUNCHY SALT
• 2 TBSP DISTILLED WHITE VINEGAR
FOR SOUR CHERRY JUS
1. Blend cherries, water and vinegar
2. Strain then reduce by half over low heat
FOR TURMERIC OIL
1. Blend peeled turmeric and oil on high for 3 minutes
2. Stain through a muslin cloth and let decant overnight
3. Pour the clear oil into a new container excluding the sediment on the bottom
FOR BURNT CAPER POWDER
1. Dry caper berries in a dehydrator or in a low oven until all of the moisture is removed
2. Cook capers in a dry pan until the ends are burnt. roughly 30% of the caper should have char on it
3. Blend burnt capers into a fine powder
FOR CUCUMBERS
1. Use a melon baller to ball out the cucumbers
2. Toss the cucumber ball with the salt and vinegar
3. Let stand for 15 minutes
TO COMPLETE
1. Add cherry jus to the bottom of your serving vessel. 1 tsp for every 10 cucumber balls
2. Coat the cucumbers with fresh turmeric oil. 2 tsp for every 10 cucumbers
3. Dust burnt caper powder over the cucumbers
19. SONG TITLE:
20. TYPE OF AWARD: 21. VERB (ENDING IN -ING): 22. YOUR NAME:
23. GROUP OF PEOPLE: 24. ADJECTIVE:
25. MUSICAL ARTIST:
FAMOUS COUNTRY ARTIST:
TITLE:
IT’S THE NIGHT OF THE CMA AWARDS, AND I’M FEELING ! AFTER HOURS OF , MY GLAM TEAM HAS ME LOOKING LIKE A . I’M DRESSED IN A OUTFIT WITH DETAILS, AND MY HAIR IS STYLED TO MATCH. AS I STEP INTO THE LIMO, MY IS BUZZING WITH EXCITEMENT. WE PULL UP TO THE , AND THE RED CARPET IS PACKED WITH . I TAKE A DEEP BREATH, AND MY TEAM REMINDS ME TO BEFORE STEPPING OUT.
WALKING THE RED CARPET, I SEE WAVING AT ME! I GIVE A QUICK AND STRIKE MY BEST POSE FOR THE CAMERAS. REPORTERS ASK ME ABOUT MY LATEST , AND I GIVE THEM A HINT ABOUT WHAT’S COMING NEXT.
INSIDE, I FIND MY SEAT NEXT TO AND GRAB A . THE LIGHTS DIM, AND STARTS THE SHOW WITH AN AMAZING PERFORMANCE OF THAT GETS EVERYONE ON THEIR FEET!
FINALLY, THE MOMENT ARRIVES: IT’S TIME TO ANNOUNCE THE AWARD FOR . MY HEART IS AS THEY CALL OUT THE NOMINEES. AND THE WINNER IS… ! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! I RUN UP TO THE
AND EVERYONE
CAN YOU FIND ALL 10 DIFFERENCES?
MORGAN WALLEN
PUBLISHERS
PRODUCER
BREAKAWAY
ZAK KUHN
NASHVILLE BRIEFING
ENVY
CHRIS STAPLETON
ELLA LANGLEY
LAINEY WILSON
THE CORE
LEFSETZ
ASHLEY COOKE
DISRUPTORS
LUKE COMBS
PRINT ISSUE GUITAR
CMA
FILL IN THE PUZZLE SO THAT EVERY ROW ACROSS, EVERY COLUMN DOWN AND EVERY BOX CONTAINS THE NUMBERS 1 TO 9
2 3 6 1 4 6 3 8 6 9 1 7 3 9 1 8 9 5 1 9 4 7 2 5 9 3 6 3 5 9 8 3 2 5
Welcome to the first Nashville Briefing Producers You Need to Know list. This group was handpicked by our editorial team in partnership with the Nashville publishing community. If you’re in the music creation business, you can’t afford to not know these producers. If you don’t know what a producer is, well we can’t help you there. Let’s dive in!
- Zak Kuhn (Founder, The Nashville Briefing)
HOMETOWN: Lebanon, VA
PUBLISHER: Warner Chappell Music / Cornman Music
Will Bundy was born and raised on his family’s cattle farm just outside of Lebanon, Virginia, a small town nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. When Will picked up the guitar at age 12 with his Popaw Chambers, he instantly developed a passion for music and began writing songs. At 19, Will made the move to Nashville to fully pursue a career in music. Since then, he has written and produced over 200 songs for various artists. Notable collaborators include Thomas Rhett, Keith Urban, Jon Pardi, Jason Aldean, Parker McCollum, Larry Fleet, Luke Bryan, Brad Paisley, Ella Langley and more.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Make music that you love. If you love it, there’s a good chance somebody else will too.
NOTABLE WORKS:
• “You Look Like You Love Me” - Ella Langley, Riley Green
• “Damn Right I Do”- George Birge
• “Lights On Nobody’s Home” - Graham Barham
• “Hung Up On You” - Bryce Leatherwood
• “Country Boy’s Dream Girl” - Ella Langley
HOMETOWN: Hope Mills, NC
PUBLISHER: Big Machine Music Publishing
Known as a multi-threat talent in the writing room, Big Machine songwriter/producer Daniel Ross is having a breakout year with singles on Morgan Wallen (“Lies Lies Lies”), Jon Pardi (‘Friday Night Heartbreaker”) and dozens of recent releases by such artists as Nate Smith and Maddie & Tae, among many others. Ross similarly continues to emerge as a producer as showcased this year on “Missin’ Tonight” (George Birge), “Invisible” (Knox), and recent co-productions by artists such as Mitchell Tenpenny, Chase Matthew and Conner Smith.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Best tip I know is to get the song right before you start producing. I’ve wasted hours trying to make a mediocre song do something special. You’re better off reworking the song and getting that right. Sounds basic, but a great song will instantly make the track more inspired.
NOTABLE WORKS:
• “Missin’ Tonight” - George Birge
• “Invisible” - Knox
HOMETOWN: Dublin, OH
PUBLISHER: UMPG
MGMT: Shelby Yoder, Willo
Mike Robinson is a Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter signed with UMPG Nashville. As a prolific guitar player and multiinstrumentalist, Mike has been able to find success while being authentic in multiple genres including pop, folk, singer-songwriter, rock, Americana and country. During his 10 years in Nashville, Mike has been the sole producer on two full length LPs and three or more EPs in addition to producing singles and collaborating on many other bodies of work. Recent cuts include Teddy Swims, The Band CAMINO, LØLØ, Katie Pruitt, Brenn!, emlyn and Hastings, and recent collaborators include UPSAHL, Quinn XCII, Nicky Youre, Bryce Vine and LEW along with writers such as Geoff Warburton, Laura Veltz, David Hodges, Mikky Ekko, Ben Johnson and Jamie Kenney.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
If your vocal isn’t unbelievably good, nothing else you do in production matters. Same thing is true for the song.
NOTABLE WORKS:
• “For The Rest Of Your Life” - Teddy Swims
• “Novocaine” - The Band CAMINO
• “5 to 9” - Walker Hayes
• “Falling For Robots and Wishing I Was One” - LØLØ
HOMETOWN: San Fransisco Bay Area, CA
PUBLISHER: Rhythm House / Warner Chappell
MGMT: Sam Drake / Range
Songwriter and producer Alysa Vanderheym arrived in Nashville in 2012 by way of the vibrant music scene of California’s Bay Area. With diverse credits ranging from Kygo and One Republic to country superstars of today, Alysa landed eight cuts on Kelsea Ballerini’s 2023 album Subject To Change and solely produced and co-wrote Ballerini’s Grammy-nominated EP Rolling Up The Welcome Mat. Most recently, Alysa co-wrote and produced Ballerini’s album Patterns, which was released in October. A Female Songwriter of the Year Nominee at the 2022 MusicRow Awards, Alysa earned her first No.1 hit single with “Cold Beer Calling My Name” by Jameson Rodgers and Luke Combs. As seen with her work on artists such as Jelly Roll, Dustin Lynch, Kygo, Russell Dickerson, One Republic, Kacey Musgraves, Little Big Town, The Band Camino and more, Alysa aims to prove that there is more to Music City than country music.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Your gut will always lead you to the next right decision in a production. Even if it’s a whisper, don’t ignore the inner guidance. Don’t be afraid to step away if you can’t find it yet. Forced creativity rarely translates.
NOTABLE WORKS:
• Patterns and Rolling Up The Welcome Mat - Kelsea Ballerini
• “Lose Somebody” - Kygo/One Republic
• “Cold Beer Calling My Name” - Jameson Rodgers and Luke Combs
HOMETOWN: Raleigh, NC
PUBLISHER: Boom Music Group / Cinq Music Publishing
ADMIN: Warner Chappell Music
MGMT: Mailbox Money Music
Jimmy Robbins is a CMA/ACM Award winning, Grammy-nominated songwriter, producer, and publisher. As a producer, he has earned four No. 1 songs and a Billboard No. 1 album. As a writer, he has earned 14 Top 10 hits and 10 No. 1s: “half of my hometown” (Kelsea Ballerini and Kenny Chesney), “I Could Use A Love Song” (Maren Morris), “It Goes Like This” (Thomas Rhett), “Sure Be Cool If You Did” (Blake Shelton), “We Were Us” (Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert), “Whatever She’s Got” (David Nail), “Beachin’” (Jake Owen), “Lights Come On” (Jason Aldean), “Think A Little Less” (Michael Ray) and ”The Bones” (Maren Morris). Jimmy is currently working on projects for Brett Young, Colbie Caillat, Sacha, Eli Young Band and others.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Remember that production is a service job. You are serving the artist (client) and the song. At the end of the day, the main gig is to make sure the artist and the label is happy. However, there are moments where it’s your job as the producer to fight for what you believe is right for the song because that’s how you best serve the artist.
NOTABLE WORKS:
• “your place” - Ashley Cooke
• “half of my hometown” - Kelsea Ballerini and Kenny Chesney
• “Die From A Broken Heart” - Maddie & Tae
• “Love You Like That” - Canaan Smith
• “This City” - Sam Fischer
HOMETOWN: Ocala, FL
PUBLISHER: Tape Room Music / Warner Chappell
Will Weatherly has seen great success as a producer and songwriter throughout his career. He moved to Nashville in 2013 and has continued to excel in his work pushing musical boundaries to create unique tracks and production. He has earned four No. 1s as a songwriter, including the longest-running Billboard Top 10 country hit, Dustin Lynch and Mackenzie Porter’s “Thinkin’ Bout You.” He continues to work with artists across the genre and beyond, including Dustin Lynch, Dylan Scott, Tanner Adell, Brantley Gilbert, Ashley Cooke, Alana Springsteen, Mitchell Tenpenny and more.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Hangout with people who are better than you, and make music that you want to drive around and listen to!
NOTABLE WORKS:
• “New Truck,” “Good Times Go By Too Fast,” “You’d Think I Was A Cowboy” - Dylan Scott
• “Too Easy,” “Whiskey Blues,” “Love You A Little Bit” - Tanner Adell
• “Back On It” - Dustin Lynch
• “here’s to all my exes,” “I Blame You” - Alana Springsteen
• “Runaways” - Danielle Bradbery
HOMETOWN: Washington Court House, OH
PUBLISHER: Tape Room Music
Songwriter and producer Andy Sheridan began his career in the live music space, touring as a full-time musician/band leader with artists such as Phil Vassar, Rascal Flatts, Hunter Hayes, Ben Rector and more. Sheridan saw his first No. 1 on SiriusXM radio with “Narcissist” by Avery Anna and co-wrote the current Parmalee single, “Gonna Love You,” which is climbing the charts in the Top 5. He has produced for artists such as Drew Baldridge, Rascal Flatts, Sam Riggs, Jordan Rowe, Tayler Holder and more and cultivated a network of hit co-writers in Nashville, proving himself in the room and on production with his creative tracks and skilled musicianship.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Serve the song. Bringing an idea to life, from the writing room to the studio is a huge deal and a collaborative effort. I feel lucky to work with world class musicians and engineers that make me sound like I know what I’m doing!
NOTABLE WORKS:
• Dark Sky and Love & Panic - Sam Riggs
• “She Does,” “Country Born” - Drew Baldridge
• “Warmer” - Rascal Flatts
• “Over Us,” “Boyfriend,” “I Hate California” - Dylan Brady
HOMETOWN: Sydney, Australia
PUBLISHER: Sony Music Publishing MGMT: BABZ
Alex Hope is an Australian producer and songwriter based in Nashville, TN. Alex has co-written and produced singles for Alec Benjamin, Ben Platt, Troye Sivan, Alanis Morissette, & Tegan and Sara. Hope started their career with their contributions to Troye Sivan’s album Blue Neighbourhood, including singles “Wild” (feat. Alessia Cara), “Heaven”, and “YOUTH.” Hope is also known for their production, writing and collaborations with Selena Gomez, Tove Lo, Alec Benjamin, Ben Platt, Jack Antonoff, Wrabel, Broods, Years & Years, Missy Higgins, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Marina and the Diamonds, among others.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
It’s not about having the fanciest microphone or the most expensive gear, it’s about the song.
NOTABLE WORKS:
• “If We Have Each Other” - Alec Benjamin
• “People You Know” - Selena Gomez
• “WILD” - Troye Sivan
HOMETOWN: Syracuse, NY
PUBLISHER: Relative Music Group
Zach is a Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer originally from Syracuse, New York. He has written songs for artists such as Nickelback, Kenny Chesney, HARDY, Cody Johnson, Morgan Wallen, Chris Lane, Chris Young, Dylan Marlowe, Filmore, and many more. Notably, he co-wrote “Born With A Beer In My Hand,” the lead track of Wallen’s chart-topping album One Thing At A Time. Abend also penned “RADIO SONG” on HARDY’s critically acclaimed Mockingbird & THE CROW and “Anything But Love,” featured on Ingrid Andress’ Grammy-nominated album Lady Like. He also wrote on and produced Filmore’s debut album State I’m In. In 2024, Zach notched his first No. 1 single with Kenny Chesney’s “Take Her Home” and his co-penned “PSYCHO” (HARDY) is currently in the Top 10 at Active Rock.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Listen to and pull from other genres. Sometimes we think that certain instruments or sounds only belong in certain sounding songs, but in a different context they can take on a totally new, exciting life.
NOTABLE WORKS:
• “Take Her Home” - Kenny Chesney
• “Hometown Home” - LOCASH
• “Born With A Beer In My Hand” - Morgan Wallen
• “PSYCHO,” “RADIO SONG” - HARDY
• “Anything But Love” - Ingrid Andress
HOMETOWN: Marlboro, NJ
TEAM: Liz Rose Music
Joe Fox is an award-winning songwriter and producer residing in Nashville. He recently penned Jon Pardi’s Platinum No.1 hit, “Last Night Lonely” and won an AIMP Award for “Reverse Cowgirl,” also recorded by Pardi. Currently, he has three songs climbing the charts - Dylan Marlowe & Dylan Scott’s “Boys Back Home,” Matt Stell’s “Breakin’ In Boots” and Josh Ross’ “Single Again.” Fox has also had songs recorded by Post Malone, Jelly Roll, Blake Shelton, Lainey Wilson, Warren Zeiders, Mitchell Tenpenny, Corey Kent, Lauren Alaina, Chayce Beckham and more. His production work includes albums and current radio singles for Dylan Marlowe and Matt Stell, as well as songs for Dylan Scott, Corey Kent and Josh Ross.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Cmd+S
NOTABLE WORKS:
• “Boys Back Home” - Dylan Marlowe, Dylan Scott (writer/ producer)
• “Breakin’ In Boots” - Matt Stell (writer/producer)
• “Last Night Lonely” - Jon Pardi (writer)
• “Single Again” - Josh Ross (writer)
HOMETOWN: Sacramento, CA
PUBLISHER: Big Loud
Jacob Durrett is an ACM award-winning Nashville-based songwriter and producer with over 25 million records sold and five billion streams. He has drawn on his grunge and metal background to create a unique style and sound all his own. Durrett has written/produced for Morgan Wallen, HARDY, Zayn, Nelly, Diplo, Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett, Dylan Scott, Steve Aoki and many others. Wallen’s albums Dangerous and One Thing At A Time have helped Durrett notch seven Billboard Hot 100 songs as a producer since 2021.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Learn your DAW inside and out. Trust your taste.
HOMETOWN: Palm Beach, FL
PUBLISHER: Warner Chappell
MGMT: Foundations Music
A producer, writer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Nashville and Los Angeles, Carrie K is forging a path as one of today’s top upcoming producers. Beginning her career as a touring drummer before transitioning into writing and production, Carrie recently had a hand in production on Noah Kahan’s critically acclaimed Stick Season and its extended editions as well as Koe Wetzel’s recent album 9 Lives and Halsey’s song “Hometown.” She also notably produced five tracks on PVRIS’s latest record, earning a No. 1 UK Rock & Metal Album and recently produced and is currently developing country/ folk artist Maggie Antone.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Limit yourself in order to find new solutions
HOMETOWN: Surry Hills, Australia
PUBLISHER: Sony Music Publishing
Lindsay Rimes is an award-winning talent from Surry Hills, Australia who has built a reputation as an in-demand writer and producer, working across pop, rock and country. In addition to Lindsay’s successes with Nate Smith & Kane Brown, Rimes’ songs have also been recorded by acts including Thomas Rhett, Phillip Phillips, Chase Rice, Dylan Scott, Cody Johnson, Kelsea Ballerini, & Lady A. Lindsay’s work outside of country includes contributing to Troye Sivan’s 2014 EP TRXYE, as well as co-writing and producing the title track of Kylie Minogue’s 2018 album Golden, which debuted at No.1 in the U.K and Australia.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Remember to never stop learning and improving your skills. People are hiring you for your instincts and sensibility. You’re just one piece of the process so don’t let your ego get in the way of a great song.
NOTABLE WORKS:
• “World on Fire,” Whiskey on You” - Nate Smith,
• “Heaven,” “Cool Again” - Kane Brown,
• “Hooked” - Dylan Scott
HOMETOWN: El Sobrante, CA
PUBLISHER: SMACKSongs
Lalo Guzman is a songwriter/producer from the Bay Area. Some of his notable works as a producer include current Top 10 country radio single “Cowboy Songs” by George Birge, “Wish I Never Felt” by Nate Smith, “Ain’t Missin’ You” by Dylan Schneider and more. He has also produced “Chasin’ A Feeling” and “Forever and a Day” by George Birge, “Bad Decisions” by Dylan Schneider and “My Person” by Spencer Crandall, among others. Other artists he has produced include Tyler Rich, Jordan James, Stephen Paul, Johnny Clawson and more.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Trust your first instincts and don’t overthink it.
NOTABLE WORKS:
• “Cowboy Songs” - George Birge
• “Wish I Never Felt” - Nate Smith
• “Ain’t Missin’ You” - Dylan Schneider
HOMETOWN: Circleville, OH
PUBLISHER: Sony Music Publishing
MGMT: Union Entertainment Group, Carter Hammond
Seth Mosley is a 3x Grammy-winning music producer and songwriter who has significantly impacted the contemporary Christian and country music industry. As the founder of Full Circle Music, he has produced and written for top artists including for KING & COUNTRY, Skillet, Gabby Barrett, Chris Lane, Sam Tinnesz, Tim McGraw, and others. His work has contributed to over 30 No. 1 radio singles, multiple RIAA-certified Gold and Platinum records and over two billion Spotify songwriter streams.
BEST PRODUCER TIP:
Sometimes less is more when it comes to production!
The ENVYs are a reader voted award show presented by The Nashville Briefing to recognize “Outstanding Achievement in the Nashville music industry.” Votes were casted across social media over a two week window and tallied up by our team at The Nashville Briefing. The winners can be viewed here.
THE RED DOOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
This is bestowed by The NashvilleBriefing for outstanding contributions to the overall vibe of Red Door and Midtown culture.
MOST LIKELY TO MAKE YOU PAUSE CRYING TO WRITE DOWN A GREAT HOOK
Someone who genuinely cares...but also wants that mailbox money. HERE ARE THE
The person who is brand new in town but who is already more successful than you are.
AMY O’CONNOR
STAGECOACH SOCIALITE
That person who knows everyone.
That person you secretly hate because they work so much harder than you do.
MOST LIKELY TO BECOME THE NEXT TAYLOR SWIFT ...or at leat come close.
That person who is so viral, you need to wear a mask around them.
MOST LIKELY TO BE ON THE ZAK KUHN SHOW Serious nominations only.
DISRUPTORS is a monthly series from TheNashvilleBriefingthat highlights rising executives in the biz who are changing the game. In case you missed them, here are our most recent honorees. Learn about these people now so you don’t end up with them at a party or event and not know who they are!
Angela brings over eight years of expertise in business development, strategy, and creative music partnerships to Soundstripe. Known for her dynamic leadership and innovative problem-solving skills, she has a proven track record of negotiating complex commercial music licensing agreements with both major and independent labels. Previously at Pandora and TIDAL, she managed over $200M in streaming revenue and led bespoke marketing campaigns for iconic streaming launches, including the catalogs of Prince and Aaliyah. As the Global Vice Chair of Partnerships & Development at Women In Music and an active Recording Academy member, Angela continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the music industry. Her dedication to innovation and collaboration has left an indelible mark, reinforcing her reputation as a transformative leader in the field.
PROUDEST MOMENT: With no previous hands-on music industry experience, I successfully persuaded Too Short to join a livestream during a four day artist activation at SXSW (Pandora House) - he joined our Hip Hop curator there to introduce Anderson.Paak (2016) and I have the photos to prove it :)
Hailing from Fort Worth, Texas, Play It Again Music’s Alyssa Ramsey is a University of Texas at Austin graduate with B.A in Advertising and an M.A. in Music Business from Berklee College of Music. After previous stints at Red 11 Music, Rodeo Austin, and Anthem Entertainment, Alyssa joined PIA in 2021. She’s played an integral part in the success of artists like Dylan Marlowe while also overseeing label projects and artist development, including A&R, marketing, branding, and release timelines. Alyssa has been a force in Marlowe’s career, overseeing his touring with artists like HARDY and Dan + Shay. She’s helped lay the groundwork and strategic planning for key projects like his debut album, Mid-Twenties Crisis, and is hard at work adding emerging artists to her roster at PIA including rising songstress Faith Hopkins.
PROUDEST MOMENT: As a manager, I am most proud of watching each milestone of Dylan Marlowe’s career and seeing his hard work and effort pay off. From earning a certified Gold record with “Boys Back Home,” opening for Morgan Wallen at Braves Stadium, having his first single at country radio, and dropping a debut album, it’s been a wild ride that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Nicole was born in Chicago and currently lives in Los Angeles. She got her start in music by creating a Justin Bieber fan page on Twitter at the age of 13 that garnered over 26,000 followers, networking her way into jobs in the live space (ScoreMore Shows), publicity (Columbia Records), management (Red Light), distribution/ label services (AWAL) and college marketing and radio promotion (in2une Music). Over the last year and a half, she’s served as the Director of Promotion and Publicity at Big Loud Rock, the alternative/rock imprint of Big Loud Records. In this role, she oversees the promotion strategy across radio, press, and streaming services for their roster of artists including HARDY, Jagwar Twin, Letdown., Dexter and The Moonrocks, Blame My Youth, Liam St. John, Zoe Ko, mercury and more. With a public relations degree from The University of Texas at Austin and experience from the top companies in the music space, Nicole’s career is just getting started.
PROUDEST MOMENT: Every time I get to see one of our artists play a show and see the crowd of fans and industry personnel connect with the music, it’s a win. Most recently, I got to experience this at HARDY’s first ever sold out Red Rocks show!
Mackenzie (Woodson) Schrambach is a music industry professional with seven years of experience and a degree from Belmont University. She joined The Core Entertainment in 2020 as Digital Director, overseeing digital strategies, social media management, and visual branding for artists like Bailey Zimmerman, Nate Smith and the rest of The Core’s roster. In 2022, Mackenzie was promoted to day-to-day manager for Josh Ross, further honing her expertise in artist development and marketing strategy. Alongside helping build Josh Ross’s career, Mackenzie is developing Just Jayne, a highly anticipated new girl group.
PROUDEST MOMENT: Seeing Josh Ross sell out his first U.S. headline tour was such a rewarding moment knowing all the hard work that led up to it. I’m also incredibly proud of the development of Just Jayne. It’s been two years of hard work, from honing their sound and image to now performing around the U.S.
Amanda is a Nashville-based music professional celebrated for her dynamic approach to artist development and digital marketing. Her career began with a chance encounter while waiting tables, which led to a full-time role in marketing and social media for legends like Kenny Rogers and Sam Bush and rising stars Eric Paslay, Jon Pardi, and Kelleigh Bannen. In 2014, she joined Marbaloo Marketing, managing social media for artists including Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town, Tim McGraw, and Miranda Lambert. After leaving Marbaloo, Amanda spent two years freelancing before the 2018 launch of Quinton Digital, a full-service agency that now supports Zac Brown Band, Muscadine Bloodline, Ben Rector, Morgan Wade and more with digital marketing, day-to-day management and label services. In 2021, she expanded her work with Queue Records, whose first album releases from Nate Fredrick and Texas Hill collectively garnered millions of streams. Amanda now manages Ashley Monroe and Abbey Cone and continues to grow alongside her roster of artists.
PROUDEST MOMENT: ArecenthighlightthatstandsoutisgettingtowatchMuscadineBloodlinemaketheirmajorstadium debut opening for Post Malone at Nissan Stadium last month. Those boys are some of the hardest working people I’ve evermet,andtheirtalentistoptier.It’samazingtofinallyseethemgettingtheexposuretheirmusicdeserves.It’sbeen an honor as a company to support them for the last three albums, and a true joy to have a sideline view as they crush their dreams.
Ashley kicked off her radio career at 18 in Indianapolis, and after making her mark in eight different markets — including a spot on a number one morning show in Orlando — she made her final move to Music City in 2013. There, she worked her way up through various radio gigs, and in 2016, got the call to join the SiriusXM on-air team. A mom of two and a wife, Ashley shares her life’s journey on air, from parenting adventures and hanging out with artists to navigating the heartache of her mom’s sudden passing. You can catch her on Y2Kountry (Ch. 57) from 4 PM to 8 PM ET and The Message (Ch. 65) from 12 PM to 4 PM ET.
PROUDEST MOMENT: Eighteen years in radio have brought so many unforgettable memories — moments I could never have dreamed of when I started. Like the time Blake Shelton gave me the key to the city at one of his shows in Florida — such an honor! Or teaming up with Dierks Bentley for a freezing cold plunge as part of his New Year’s Eve tradition. And I’ll always treasure the handwritten note I received from Taylor Swift.
With over 15 years experience, Victoria Tsigonis has held senior executive positions at Island Records UK, BMG, and Shelter Music Group. She’s currently in L.A. serving as the Senior Marketing Services Director –Americas at FUGA, a Downtown company. With a long history in pivotal artist development and management, international marketing, DSP strategy, and creative direction, she has orchestrated projects achieving top chart positions, playlist features, and innovative marketing campaigns. She’s worked with artists such as Phantogram, ZZ Top, Run The Jewels, FISHER, Chris Lake and Palaye Royale.
PROUDEST MOMENT: The release of the fourth Phantogram album, Ceremony. Being a huge part of the creative process and seeing all the small victories come together is one of the most rewarding parts of this business.
An Australian in Nashville, Gemma has worked across indie record labels, digital marketing firms, recording studios, and an international PRO, eventually becoming Director of Marketing at a major indie distributor. In 2022, she joined Spotify as Label Partnerships Lead where she collaborates with artists, labels, and management teams to create executive-level marketing campaigns. She works cross-functionally to expand Nashville music’s reach while supporting the local music community.
PROUDEST MOMENT: Working with Chris Stapleton’s team on his album Higher was for sure a career highlight and a very full circle moment for me!
Jess Anderson was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Journalism / Public Relations in 2017. Relocating to Nashville the next year, she’s worked with artists like Morgan Wallen, HARDY, ERNEST, Gabby Barrett, Dustin Lynch, Lauren Alaina, Alana Springsteen, Charles Wesley Godwin, Stephen Wilson Jr., Ashley Cooke, Dylan Gossett, Kashus Culpepper, and more. Most recently, she served as Sr. Director of Media at Big Loud Records, founding and building the label’s in-house publicity department. Prior stops include Sweet Talk Publicity, The Press House, and Big Machine Label Group.
PROUDEST MOMENT: Working on two all-genre No. 1 albums and getting the call to join The Lede Company.
Kristi Bradshaw found her passion for the music industry as a teenager, first street teaming for pop-punk bands through Fearless Records. A University of Arkansas graduate, Kristi interned for the Academy of Country Music in Los Angeles after college, ultimately landing in Nashville at Warner Music Nashville. She spent nearly six years in the PR department, working with artists like Dan + Shay, Avery Anna, Chase Matthew and more. Kristi joined OH Creative as a publicist in March 2024, where she now runs point on clients like St. Jude, Tanner Adell, Tracy Lawrence, Dylan Scott and more.
PROUDEST MOMENT: Taking Tanner Adell’s feature on Beyonce’s COWBOY CARTER album and turning it into a year of publicity, landing her national television debut on The Jennifer Hudson Show (a bucket list item for her) plus countless digital and print features. It is just the beginning for her and I’m so honored to be a part of her team.
Florida native Amber Anderson followed her love of country music to Nashville more than a decade ago. Starting her career in sports, she worked for the NBA’s Orlando Magic for seven seasons before making the move to Tennessee. Along with her sports marketing background, she brings experience from the business end of the music industry through her past marketing and organizational work with the Grand Ole Opry and SMACKSongs. When she’s not co-hosting the Country Heat Weekly podcast for Amazon Music, you can find her watching or attending ANY sporting event, working on her clothing resale and upcycling business and Etsy store along with traveling.
PROUDEST MOMENT: We’ve been given so many incredible opportunities through our podcast — from interviewing Dolly Parton to hosting the ACM Awards Red Carpet on Prime Video. I am so grateful for all of these pinch me moments!
