I've completed my first month working for an Indie record label in Austin. This is basically the halfway point of my summer internship. I already feel like this experience has been totally worth all of the work. I've already learned so much about the business, made so many great connections and had a wonderful time doing it.
In the midst of a massive mailing, I had an epiphany: my job is all about stickers. The labels that go on the envelopes, the seals for the envelopes and the postage are all stickers. I even put stickers on the promotional copies of CDs I mail out.
It's really quite a blessing that I was so fond of stickers as a child. I obsessed over Lisa Frank and collected her stickers in books. This internship would have been my dream job when I was five. I do a lot of counting too, so really everyday is like advanced kindergarten.
Monday was boring as usual with my routine inventory count and tour support. It was a hundred times worse this week though because I was exhausted. Sunday night I went to support my friend, Paul Banks, at his show at Stubb's. Paul was in MSC Town Hall with me at A&M before he graduated and moved to Austin.
The Polyphonic Spree played outside and then was followed by a set of three artists playing on the inside stage. Paul landed the headlining spot for this gig, which is beyond impressive, so I went to watch him. He didn't go on until after midnight though, so it made waking up early for work on Monday morning a little difficult.
Tuesday was another day of mailings. There was nothing out of the ordinary except for a special visitor. Clare's boyfriend came to visit her in the office and I got to meet him, which was neat because he's the frontman for a successful band from Denton. He's noted as being a brilliant lyricist, so it was an honor to meet him.
Wednesday and Thursday were nothing to brag about. I basically cleaned out a huge storage room full of random merchandise and old products. The label holds on to boxes full of old singles, albums and advanced copies for nostalgia but eventually needs to get rid of most of it to create more space.
The rest of the merchandise consisted of dated posters, promotional products and random memorabilia. It was kind of fun to look through it all, but a lot of it was junk. We will call to have someone come pick it up and destroy it.
Friday was by far the coolest day I've had at my internship yet. One of our bigger artists came in early to the office before heading over to a promotional appointment. He's a young pop singer-songwriter from Australia who has had some moderate success on MTV, radio and similar media outlets. His new album is coming out in mid-September and features a duet with Mandy Moore among other big names.
Our artist was scheduled to play at GSD&M, the advertising agency, to promote his new album. Artists need to visit large ad agencies to promote their music for possible use in TV and radio commercials. I was thrilled when my boss, Jay, asked if I wanted to come along with them.
I rode over with our artist and Tommy to the agency. They put us in a mini movie theater/viewing room for the performance. Various executives filled the room to listen to him and pick up some free CDs.
He played around four or five songs for them, answered a few questions, and signed a few CDs. Everyone loved him as he is very charming, silly and a bit of a comedian. It was really cool to be a part of his entourage and be introduced as someone from his label.
After the appointment, we walked over to the Whole Foods across the street for lunch on the patio. It was great to sit and talk to him about his life and career. He told us that he'd been discovered by the Beastie Boys when they were touring in Australia. They liked his stuff so much that they began promoting his music here in America. His music really caught on, so he packed up and moved here to pursue his career.
He stopped in Waterloo Records before heading to the airport to catch a flight to Canada. Because everyone else in the office had a big conference call meeting, I was asked to drive him to the airport. This was really exciting because it meant that I didn't have to stick postage on 400 envelopes and I was able to talk more with him.
Even though his music isn't quite my cup of tea, I really respect him as an artist and all that he's accomplished. He's so friendly and fun that it's almost impossible not to like him. On the drive to the airport we jammed to an Arcade Fire CD and talked about life.
He gave me some inspirational advice. He said, "Life's about taking risks. You should always just go for what you want because generally the people who tell you that you shouldn't are the ones who have failed, and the ones that tell you that you should are the ones who succeeded." What an interesting point!
Next week will be interesting because I'm only working on Monday and Friday due to the Fourth of July holiday. Even though I'll be relaxing in the middle of the week with family and friends in Dallas, I'll be working overtime on Monday and Friday to keep up with all of the mailings and tour support that keep flooding our office. The hustle and bustle of the music industry slows for no one, not even the American people celebrating Independence Day.
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