We took some to catch up with multi-platinum record producer, A&R executive, songwriter and lawyer, Jeff Blue. He is known for his work being integral in the careers of Linkin Park, Macy Gray, Korn, Limp Bizkit and more. He shares how he got into the industry, how he works with his artists, the importance of an iconic voice and his upcoming projects!
ATHLEISURE MAG: Before we get into talking about your career, what role did music play in your life from day to day before going into the industry?
JEFF BLUE: Music was always a fantasy to me because we didn’t have enough money to actually buy records. So my mom would drop me off at the drugstore and at the market near the magazine rack and I would just gaze through the magazines and it would seem surreal. I’d hear the music on the bus when I was going to school and it was really the way that I connected with I guess the drama and the trauma that I was going through as a kid with a father that had committed suicide. It was hard on me growing up and music was my way of coping and grounding myself. Looking back when I was in college, I felt that the music was literally the soundtrack of my life. I could literally think of any memory that was good or bad and even walking down the street or taking a test, there was a song on my head. That was something that I carry with me forever, because I know that music had the biggest impact on me as opposed to anything else in my life. I knew I wanted to do something with music in my future.
AM: What was your first job in the industry?
JB: Well I had internships. First job – like that I got paid to do?
AM: Well, whatever you felt was a job. Even an internship for some people, that could be like the first position to them that let them know that they were aligned to be in that field.
JB: My first internship dictated to me that I would never be in the music business because my boss hated me ha!
AM: Fair!
JB: The second internship that I had, aligned me with what I wanted to do in A&R and my first real paying job was something that I learned through the second internship where you had to be indispensable and I realized that the only way I was going to get noticed was that I would have to become a journalist and get my name in print to have credibility and a reason for people to listen to what I said. That was as a journalist and I had no experience as a journalist. I called every publication known to man or woman and was rejected by everybody until there was someone that I thoroughly confused into thinking that I was a real writer and hired me to cover a show that she needed coverage of and that was at Music Connection Magazine. From that moment, that night, I wrote about a band that I ended up managing, producing and being the drummer and signing as my first artist at Zomba Music Publishing. So my first paying gig was $10/article at Music Connection Magazine.
AM: It’s always interesting to hear stories like that because a lot of people don’t understand how someone progressed through their career. We see you now, but we don’t know all the things that kind of came together. Just the depth of things that you have done in terms of your roles like you went to law school and you’re a lawyer. How does that help you in the industry?
JB: I think that law school really more than anything helped me with my analytical mind. Being able to separate concepts independent from one another so I can separate facets of something which really helped me with journalism. Being able to discuss performance, crossed with the production, crossed with star power you know as opposed to hit songs and break-ing down the songs into literally the verses, pre-choruses, intros, bridges and break it down to almost an OCD point where you can analyze the drums, the guitars, the vocals and the harmonies. So law school to me, has allowed me to dissect things which is really what the law is – it’s dissecting arguments and points in order to build a case. That was actually the biggest asset that got me into the music business but it had nothing to do with the actual law itself.
AM: I can appreciate that. Our Co-Founder also went to law school and practiced law and he’s the Publisher, has shot our celebrity covers, is instrumental in our biz dev and is also my boyfriend. So seeing his skills and how he draws from them is interesting. Whereas, I sit as the other Co-Founder and focus on the style direction and other areas. So it’s interesting to see how all these things come together and we've both been involved in other music entities and my great uncle was Joe Henderson and I have styled a number of EDM artists so being able to see the music business in so many levels, talking with you who has been in the role of being a publisher, being in a band as you mentioned, the journalism, being a producer, A&R and songwriter, what are your favorite projects to take on as you really do have a 360 of the business?
JB: I like to take anything on that inspires me. I love all genres of music and if you’re talking about music, I happen to love R&B, Hip-Hop, Hard Rock, Rock, Pop and Country. The biggest inspirational moment that I remember ever having and I still talk to this guy. He has to be 80 now and we worked together for the Small Business Administration during the 90s in the earthquake and we worked together as lawyers. It was a horrible job where we made like $6 or $10 bucks an hour – it was 6 days a week. We had a very horrible and rigorous schedule for lunch so we had to run out to get a sandwich and we used to go to Chatsworth Hills and just hang out and this guy was 30 years older than me. He was a nice guy and he was like, “I know you’re a rock and roll guy, but you should listen to this CD.” Because I had my band that I was already talking about and the CD he had was Nina Simone and he put it in the CD player. He was like, “you’re going to hate it, but I’m sick of listening to your rock band when we’re eating our lunch!” I was like, this is amazing and it changed my life. That’s what inspired me in relation to my own band which was progressive alternative rock and just the textures and the sound and when I heard Macy Gray for the first time which doesn’t sound like anything that her music sounds like now for the record that we did –
AM: Really?
JB: Yeah. She was more like a Black Janis Joplin. When I heard her voice, it took me back to that moment eating a horrible sandwich, in a rush, sitting outside in my 4Runner in Chatsworth Hills with this older guy listening to Nina Simone and I immediately lost my mind and I felt that that was the moment and the reason why that guy played me that music. Changed my life!
AM: Speaking of Macy Gray, I remember being in college when it came out and I loved hearing 'I Try' as I was in my freshman year and I went to Indiana University and that song played everywhere! I had never heard a voice like hers and how everything came together. I heard 'Still' and of course I had an epic breakout in college that I thought was the end of the world – it was not, but I literally played that song 55 times in a row crying it out. What was that like finding her, getting her, how was it like working with her and I know you co-wrote Still.
JB: Macy was a demo tape that a woman came into my office with but she was pitching another band with a huge buzz that everyone was trying to sign as a publisher. They were signed with Interscope, but they were looking for a publishing deal. I didn’t like the band and I just said, you're in my office do you have anything else? This is what everyone says because when you’re shopping something, you’re always supposed to have something else. She said, not really, but she goes into her purse and she pulls out this tape. She said I was going to hate it. She said that her publisher, her record label and her manager dropped her. She no longer worked with her anymore. But she said I wouldn’t like it and it was just a reason for her to hang out in my office because I said, I didn’t like her band. I stuck it in the tape deck and my mouth dropped open. She was like, “you hate it right?” But at that moment, I was like this is one of the most awesome things that I had ever heard, but I didn’t want her to know that. So I told her I didn’t like it and asked if I could keep the tape and she said I could. I spent 3 months trying to track her down and the woman didn’t even have her phone number because Macy had gone and left LA because she was having another baby. I didn’t want to ask for her number because I didn’t want to tip my hat that I was going to try and sign her because the price would go up.
So I spent 3 months looking for her and I met her in NY. My boss didn’t want to sign her, but I was convinced. She came back to LA, we started working on new music with a producer named Daryll Swann and this guy Jeremy Ruzumna who is now in Fitz and the Tantrums. We really put it together and literally the label that dropped her, I sent a tape to them and they couldn’t stand her. I had to change the name because Macy Gray didn’t work and everyone hated the music. We changed her name to Mushroom and fooled everybody and we literally had Clive Davis, Jimmy Iovine, Paul Anthony and Atlantic Records whose founder, Ahmet Ertegun who called me personally and said that the Mushroom tape was amazing. It went from being no one wanting to hear to having a bidding war. I was responsible for changing the name, working with her and I was asked to manage her which I should have. All the labels wanted me to manage her and I didn’t think that I had the experience to do that. I was able to get her a deal.
AM: Wow! That’s a story.
Well, Linkin Park is another band that the minute I heard them, I was obsessed with them and I loved their sound and energy. What were you involved with in terms of them and I know that you were connected with Chester Bennington and you brought him into the group. What really sparked your interest with the group?
JB: First of all, I was there again at the inception of that band. The guitar player, I had actually lectured for UCLA last night in a class called Comm 185. It’s the internship class for Comm students at UCLA which I was an alumni of. I lectured every other quarter basically. There was this kid called Brad Delson who was in the class, he infused himself into my life and became my intern. I talk about this in my book and he told me that he had a band that was going to be better than what I had which was Limp Bizkit and Korn. I also had Matchbox 20 plaques up because I didn’t sign them but I tried really hard and I helped them get their deal and they literally gave me their Diamond Plaques and I’m very close with Rob Thomas and Brad looked at everything and said that his band was going to be better than any of those bands on my wall. I hired him as my intern, signed them off of their first show that they had ever played. So one show and they got their first publishing deal and I shopped them for 2 years until we realized that the lead singer needed to be changed. I found Chester Bennington after not being able to get anybody at all to even want to audition for the band because we had played so many showcases and had been rejected so many times that there was a huge stink on the band from a reputation standpoint. It was called Xero at that time. I convinced this kid from Phoenix as a fluke to leave his birthday party and to record a demo based off the instrumentals that I had my assistant send him. I talked with him while I was at SXSW and by the time I got home, he sent me a demo tape so he left his 23rd birthday and recorded the demo and I was blown away. I literally told the band that this was their singer and it took them 6 weeks to get to know him and they kept wanting to audition other singers and I said that this kid had everything that they could have ever imagined with the voice and the persona – super authentic. They eventually had him join the band. Then my involvement was being their music publisher, their quasi-manager – we didn’t have a manager but I functioned as such and I got them their deal at Warner and they were along with my employment contract because I believed in them so much. Still, no record label wanted them even with Chester and they were rejected 44 times. I made them a part of my employment contract and went in as their A&R person and executive produced the album.
AM: As stated before, the credits that you have are insane. Because it seems that you’re so involved with your artists, do you ever have a cap on how many people or projects that you’re working with because it seems so immersive?
JB: Good question. Music is part of my being and so are all creative projects. I always find time to do everything. I don’t have any kids so that leaves a lot of space. I figure that in life, anything that is a passion you make a priority for. I’m always very busy, but I never have a problem getting everything in.
AM: What is your creative process like and does it differ depending on what the project is whether you’re leaning into the A&R side, you’re producing or songwriting?
JB: I don’t necessarily have any process. I just go with the flow wherever the inspiration takes me. To be honest with you, there’s no set way of doing any project that I follow in terms of a regimen. I have tried that where I thought that something worked in the past could be applied and I have found that each project is its own entity and requires its own care and just like in life, any given second of your day will change the trajectory that will maneuver you in that day. So having a schedule that is set and laid out to do a project that is laid out for me will not work for me because I am so integrated into so many different things that different elements will come into play that will change what I would do. That’s one of the things that make me successful in what I do.
AM: Tell me about your new book, One Step Closer: From Zero to #1: Becoming Linkin Park and why you wanted to write this?
JB: Well the book was something that I was asked to write back in 2007 as a counterpart to Donald Passman’s All You Need to Know about the Music Business, but in a story form based on Linkin Park and it was extremely difficult and I gave up which is something that I never do. I just felt that it was exhausting. When Chester passed, it really affected me. I had written a small piece for Billboard Magazine and they were one of the people that had given me a chance early on – Melinda Newman who gave me a job as a writer for Continental Drift which is what gave me my job at Zomba Music Publishing with the credibility of Billboard. So I wrote a small piece for Chester in Billboard and the band’s manager said that he was moved by the article and I went back and looked up through the boxes – about 10 boxes of faxes, CDs, emails, notebooks, hand-written notes and I couldn’t put down my journals. So I thought in this traumatic experience that everyone has dreams and you set out to achieve them. Those that do, most give up after a few rejections and this band and I went through 44 of them. You’re not good enough, it’s career suicide, let it go and through the perseverance of overcoming adversity and being authentic, we followed our true vision and listened to our gut, true talent won out. You can be anything that you want to achieve in life. You just have to really be authentic and persevere. That was a story to me that was inspirational not just for a Linkin Park fan but to any human being.
AM: You have a number of projects coming up that you’re working on from your docuseries, iHeart Radio podcast and your screenplay that’s in development. What can you tell us about these so that we can keep an eye out for them?
JB: The docuseries is called,Unsung Heroes and it’s like my book but takes you on a journey through the decades from the 60’s forward of all genres of music and the socio-political elements that go into the decades and focuses on the A&Rpeople and those putting their careers on the line to discover these artists. It looks at the passion of the A&R execs through the decades of these people that no one wanted to sign. A lot like what I did with Linkin Park is carrying a vision with the artists to affect the world in a positive way. Whether it’s the transition from Disco to Rock and Punk or the transition from Heavy Metal/Hair Bands into Grunge and the rise of Hip-Hop. This is told through those decades and that’s what the docuseries is about.
The podcast is along those lines too. Telling the stories of A&R people and sharing their experiences.
My screenplay is a psychological thriller/horror movie that is about 5 celebrities that find themselves in rehab all with intertwining pasts and each one is facing their own demons, but there is a killer in the rehab facility and it is kind of a combination with Saw X Scream X The Breakfast Club. So it’s very character-driven and it’s all diversity. It goes into diversity issues, #MeToo movement, cultural issues and also deals with depression and the pressures of being a celebrity which is why they are in rehab. The effects of what stardom makes us do and how to keep that stardom so they go on that killing spree.
AM: What led you to wanting to create this kind of screenplay?
JB: Actually, it came out of the book. I had basically finished the outline to One Step Closer and I was dealing with the thoughts of Chester, depression and rehab and substance abuse. How people are dealing with it and how it affects everybody. It’s interesting that you’re making me think about this because I was on a softball team with a guy and the sponsor was a re-hab clinic in Malibu. I just got to thinking that it would be really cool if there was a psychological thriller about these celebrities in rehab and them killing each other and that’s the truth! I wanted to make it a super whodunnit and I love it. I’ve got hopefully, several stars attached and 1 really huge star that I am hoping to get.
AM: Is there a difference for you when you’re working with an artist on their album versus a soundtrack for a film?
JB: When you’re working with one artist on their album, that is a cohesive vision and it’s all supposed to sound like one journey. When you’re on a soundtrack, it’s inspired by the diverse moments in that film. You’re working with several artists. The songs can be inspired by, written for or existing songs that you can choose to emphasize moments in that film.
AM: What is your creative process in writing a song versus being an A&R and then as a producer?
JB: My creative process in writing a song depends on whether I’m writing with another writer or I’m writing with the artist as it matters entirely on the voice and the experience of the artists that are performing it. You want to make it authentic to that artist. I think it’s ideal when it’s co-written by the artist because it’s more true and authentic to them. As anA&R person, the A&R overseas and isn’t as present in the actual writing process. But they oversee the vision and the A&R person works that vision through the record label and to the public as opposed to a producer who is guiding in the studio, getting the right performances, making suggestions on sound, songs and they also oversee and help create the vision. All three are different roles.
I’ve done for example, I had a band that I had known as The Last Good Night, where I played the drums, co-wrote all the songs, A&R’d it, produced it and published it. That was very rewarding because I won a BMI Award as one of top songwriters fora song called Pictures of You and literally that was hands in every role that there possibly is. So rewarding and each role was different. In doing that, it takes a lot of trust from the artist.
AM: You have your entertainment firm, Century Park Entertainment, tell me more about this and what do you offer there?
JB: Century Park Entertainment is where we manage – I have 3 different artists right now who are a variety of DJ, performers, musical artists and songwriters, produce, we have the docuseries, the screenplay and the book. So it houses literary, television, film and music.
AM: How do you define an iconic voice? What does that mean to you and what does it trigger when you hear it?
JB: An iconic voice is an identifiable and unique sound or tone. That could be in a voice. I discovered Daniel Powter who sang, Bad Day, he had a very iconic voice. The same is true for Jonathan Davis, Ches-ter, Fred Durst and Macy Gracy. I think that when you hear a song and it’s playing on the radio and you hear it within 3 notes whether it’s the bass line, guitar line, drumbeat or a vocal and you know who the artists is – that’s iconic.
One thing I always listen to for me, Queen is the epitome of that – when you hear Brian May’s guitar’s tone, Freddie with his voice obviously and the sound that I really believe is Roy Thomas Baker his production on the snare of the snare drum for the percussion is iconic. It’s this mixture of a snare with the high hat and I just love it! Anyone of those things, you can immediately tell who these artists are whether it’s ACDC, Led Zeppelin or whatever. Often the things I look for is authenticity and for the artists to be able to speak their truth and for it to be believable as if you’re speaking towards a friend. On top of that, you need star power, the ability to engage and connect with the listeners, hit songs and above all the quality that a great artist and great songs make you feel like you belong. At the end of the day, we’re all outsiders but at the end of the day, great artists make us feel like we’re not alone.
AM: We always ask our trailblazers who we find to be inspiring, who are 3 people whether personally or professionally that you know or follow that have inspired you to be where you are now?
JB: One I would say is Jason Flom. He’s an A&R executive who started when he was 18 and I just love his passion and immediate belief in artists. He was one of the first people that I met and was really impressed with because he’s authentic and he’s remained a great friend and I have actually worked with him at Virgin. He hired me and that’s where I got The Good Night and where I earned the BMI Award for.
The people that I have encountered in my life – one was Harvey Levin which sounds horrible but I interned for him when he was a legal reporter at KCBS-TV news during college. He took me along on the ride-alongs to the courts. The other assistants rebelled and said I should be licking envelopes. I was an actor during college to get me through and my commercials were playing at the time in the newsroom and Harvey stood up for me and took me with him and said that I should be a legal reporter. He felt I was creative and good on camera. He said go to law school because I didn’t want to just be an actor. I thought it was really cool that he had me interact with him and I learned from that. He inspired me enough to go to law school which was horrible and I modeled my ability to mentor people like Brad Delson from Linkin Park and other people. Almost all of my interns and assistants have all gone on to be millionaires and major senior level executives in the music business. Brad, I took under my wing and his band obviously became Linkin Park and I included him in every single meeting and phone calls, talking to him about the music business and we had synergy with what I was learning because I was a new executive and I allowed him to experience what I experienced and I think that that is extremely important. My last intern helped me guide my book a little bit, he was a UCLA intern and he ended up after I showed him my screenplay, he helped give me some ideas and I gave him writing credit on it. I really believe in interacting with people.
The third person, there’s this guy Richard Blackstone who was my boss at Zomba Music Publishing and he was supportive with my vision even when he didn’t quite understand it. After I became successful, he told me that he always told me no and that he knew he should let me sign some-thing when I kept pushing after a month or two. He trusted my judgment and knew that the stuff that I cared about, I would keep pushing for. It also made me realize that I shouldn’t just jump on a reaction because interesting fades over time. But when he could imagine me jumping on my desk over something, then he could see me signing it. He ended up running Warner Chappell Music and BMG after awhile too.
PHOTOS COURTESY | Jeff Blue
Hear multi-platinum record producer, A&R executive, songwriter and lawyer Jeff Blue on an upcoming episode of our show, #TRIBEGOALS - which is a part of Athleisure Studio, our multimedia companion podcast network! Subscribe to be notified when the episode drops. Listen on iHeart Radio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.
Read the Feb Issue #62 of Athleisure Mag and see Authenticity Rules with Jeff Blue in mag.