Interview with Donagh O'Leary
“Donagh O’Leary is a legend, he was in the band Jesse James, and he also started up the fantastic Bomber Music, so let’s find out how he get involved with this part of the industry and what he loves so much about it!”
Can you tell us about the formation of Bomber Music? Well, it was originally started to handle the publishing for my songs and the songs of other band members and to make sure we were getting all we should, I ended up helping out a couple of friends too and that was the initial start up. I remember writing to the Music Publisher's Association and they sent me back a pamphlet "So, you're thinking of starting a music publishing company? Our Advice is - Don't" or something along those lines. Made me even more determined!
Who were the first band to sign to your label, and how was this whole process for you? I mean at this point did you realize that you could make a full on career out of doing this? The first band to properly sign were Vanilla Pod. It was a really big deal for me to have a band I respected actually sign a contract and trust me with their music and money. I don't think I had seriously thought of it as a future career yet, I still saw myself as a musician. Vanilla Pod are great guys and really epitomise a punk attitude. They in turn were very happy that they earned a few extra quid and they helped spread the word about Bomber. The second band was No Comply and I was really happy when a few years after they'd broken up Jon asked if I was interested in working with his new band, Crazy Arm.
What was it that attracted you to this part of the music industry so much? I'd been a PRS and MCPS member since I was 20 (a long time ago!) and I saw where a songwriter's income was really coming from. I noticed that 90% of musicians and writers I knew were not collecting their royalties, and often didn't know they were entitled to any. I got to wondering about music in TV shows, ads and films and who placed it there etc and I was lucky enough to get some very good advice. Publishing just seemed a smart way forward, and something that nobody was doing on a "DIY" level. It was easier to start up than a label as there were no manufacturing costs etc and I had very little money.
Can you give us a guide to a typical day of being a part of Bomber Music? Well, since we set up the label over 2 years ago, it's really added to the day! After responding to all the emails in the morning, we check the monitoring service for piracy of our albums, Double check on Youtube and issue take down notices if needed, pack and post the mail order Cds etc, and get the accounts up to date. When all that is done we can get talking to our sync guys about what's happening, what new TV shows , films etc are in production and what new briefs have come in and have a think about whether we have appropriate music to submit etc. Talk to PR guys to see what's going on with new releases etc. Bands aren't always great at communicating so we spend time on Facebook keeping up to date with what the bands we work with are up to. There's usually a few demos to listen to and there's always a constant stream of emails! The website needs updating, info gets tweeted etc. Sometimes we just sit in the garden and talk instead.