The new boss

Rykodisc's new president -- plus the Shods

Cellars by Starlight by Matt Ashare

Back in August, the word came down: Rykodisc, a record label that had been locally based since its inception in 1983, was closing up shop in Salem and moving to New York City. It was hardly a surprise. A year earlier, the label that had been owned by founder Don Rose had been bought out by Palm Pictures, a new company started by former Island Records boss Chris Blackwell. And Manhattan is where Blackwell's operations are based. So it only made sense that he'd want to consolidate his holdings. And from the sound of it, Blackwell was offering Ryko employees a fair deal: though Rose was planning to stay in the Boston area in an executive advisory capacity, the rest of the company's Salem employees were being offered the opportunity to keep their old jobs as long as they were willing to relocate to NYC. Still, questions remained: would Ryko continue to function as an independent company? How would the move affect the workings of the company? Would being in New York instead of the Boston area turn Ryko into just another imprint among the hundreds that have been swallowed up in all but name by bigger companies? And who would be running the label?

Well, the answer to that last question was answered a couple of weeks ago when Ryko announced that Blackwell had chosen 30-year-old George Howard to take over as president of the newly configured label. More important, Howard wouldn't be moving with the rest of the company to NYC. Instead, he and a small support staff would be remaining in the Boston area. So, Rykodisc wasn't entirely moving to New York City after all. Howard's appointment to run the Ryko show provided a de facto answer to a lot of those other nagging questions about the future of the label -- that is, if the Ryko Howard would be running was indeed going to be the same label that had been in Salem all these years and not some pared-down version of the original. So, we took Howard out to dinner at Eat, in Somerville's Union Square, and we asked him to explain.

First, though, some background on Ryko's new president: Howard is a music person through-and-through who, aside from working at Rykodisc, has also played in several local bands over the past decade. For the past four years, he's been working in various capacities at Rykodisc. In 1995 he also started releasing music on his own Slow River label for the purpose of developing local artists, beginning with a CD by local roots-pop veteran Charlie Chesterman. Then, a couple of years ago, those two jobs merged when a number of major labels began showing interest in Slow River, in part because Howard had signed a band, Sparklehorse, whom Capitol had wanted to sign. "Much to my lawyer's dismay I didn't want to have anything to do with major labels," Howard explains. Instead, he ended up signing a co-venture deal with Ryko, a deal that made him president and founder of Slow River under the Rykodisc umbrella. And in that role he's continued signing and releasing CDs and singles by artists from around Boston and elsewhere, including Josh Rouse, Future Bible Heroes, the Willard Grant Conspiracy, and Chuck E. Weiss.

Now, however, Howard has a much bigger roster to contend with. "Ryko has changed," Howard confirms. "There's a bigger structure -- an umbrella structure called Ryko/Palm. Underneath that is Rykodisc/Slow River, which I run; Hannibal and Ryko Latino, which [Hannibal founder] Joe Boyd runs; and Palm, which used to be called Palm Pictures, and which is Blackwell's label. Those four labels feed the sales and marketing team of Ryko/Palm, which is in New York. So, when Joe Boyd signs a new band, he presents it to the bigger company in New York and pushes it through. And, when Slow River releases another Willard Grant record it will be fed through New York the same way. My job as president is to mold and shape Ryko and Slow River, from the A&R decisions to office stationery. And, obviously, some of the lines between Ryko and Slow River are going to be a bit more blurred now."

There's little doubt that Howard is a guy who's deeply committed to music. He's always been involved in the local music scene, whether that meant playing in bands like the Lotus Eaters, Lincoln '65, and Tom Leach's backing group, releasing CDs by local artists like Chesterman and Leach, or just hanging around and going to shows at clubs like the Middle East and T.T. the Bear's Place. And as he's developed a more national scope, he's remained very hands-on. The day before we met with him he'd been in Nashville doing pre-production for a record that he's going to be producing in November for a locally based singer/songwriter by the name of Jess Klein. ("I think she's a phenomenally talented songwriter," Howard enthuses. "She's been put into the folk world, where she does very well, but I think she can have a broader appeal.") And he'd just made plans to travel to England on October 18 to join the Willard Grant Conspiracy, playing mandolin on some dates they had booked opening for Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham.

Still, at 30, Howard may seem a little young to be running a very big little record label. How did that happen? "I don't know all the manumissions that went on behind the scenes," he admits, "but Blackwell and I had a number of conversations. He'd come to Salem, I'd played him a lot of the Slow River stuff, which he liked. I made him compilation CDs. . . . After Blackwell bought Ryko a year ago, I got to know him. I knew there were going to be some changes made at Ryko. And he just called me and asked me to run the place. What attracted Blackwell to me and what he believes I do well is find and nurture new talent."

That in itself should signal a major change in direction for Ryko, which has spent the better part of the past decade and a half focusing on developing catalogue releases, not new artists. "I take slight exception to that," Howard interjects. "I mean, I think Morphine is an example of a new artist Ryko developed, and so are Medeski Martin & Wood. And then there are the Slow River artists -- Josh Rouse, Chuck E. Weiss, Willard Grant. Chris believes, and I agree with him, that great record labels are made by developing new stuff, not just relying on catalogue. My prime focus is going to be on developing new artists, which is what I've been doing at Slow River all along. Being president of Ryko just means that I have a bigger platform and more resources to help develop artists. The title and all that shit doesn't mean much to me. The worst of this job is the politics, already. I don't care about any of that stuff. But it does enable me to do more for my artists, and that's my goal."

Howard has already shown that he has the conviction to do things his way. For example, when Blackwell offered him the job as president, Howard politely suggested a slightly different plan. "I said I'd love to do the job but I want to stay in Boston. And Chris said fine. He's is an amazing individual, and he likes to find and nurture creativity, both in music and in business. So he's not in any way threatened or confused by people who want to do things different from the norm. He's one of the rare executives who will call you and say, `Hey, I really like this Josh Rouse track but I think the guitars need to come up at this specific point.' I don't think the guy from Seagram's is doing that.

"I'm not personally creative in New York. I've spent a lot of time there, and I'm going to have to be there a few times a month. But in terms of really being able to work productively, I don't think New York is a good place for me. I also think it's historically important for Ryko not to be based in New York or Los Angeles, just because it never has been. It's always been an anomaly in that way. I don't know exactly what that signifies, and I don't want to try to articulate it because I think it kind of speaks for itself. I don't want Ryko to be just another label. I like all those rough edges that make us special, and one of those is not being in New York. Ryko is one of the few labels that has a brand identity. People will still buy records because there's a Ryko logo on it. You can't say that about Elektra.

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The best part about being "backstage" when Joe Strummer came to town last year to present the Mighty Mighty Bosstones with a Tower "Walk of Fame" star was seeing Strummer after all these years. The second best part was watching Kevin Stevenson, the frontman of Boston's Shods, follow Strummer around with a huge grin on his face. Because if any local rocker has earned the right to stand in Strummer's shadow, it's Stevenson, whose band often sound a hell of a lot like Joe's R&B-rocking pre-Clash outfit the 101ers, and who performs with some of the same passion and intensity that Strummer used to bring to a Clash show.

A few years ago the Shods were being groomed by the folks at Fort Apache to be one of the bands to benefit from the studio's label deal with MCA. But the Fort Apache/MCA deal fell through, and the Shods were left to fend for themselves. They released their debut CD, Bamboozled, Jilted, Hornswoggled & Hoodwinked, on their own Poorhouse label and were planning to do the same for the new Thanks for Nuthin' -- a collection of revved-up rocking tunes that brings to mind the Clash and early Elvis Costello, and the early Jam as well -- until Orbit drummer Paul Buckley stepped in and offered to release the new CD on his Lunch label. The disc hits stores this Tuesday, October 26, and the Shods celebrate its release with a two-night stand this weekend at T.T. the Bear's Place, on Friday and Saturday, October 22 and 23. Call 492-BEAR.