I also do a bunch of other fun stuff, here are just a few examples…
INDUSTRY REFORM
From the day I started touring with my band, my bandmates and I noticed things that seemed unfair about the way our deals for shows were be structured and executed. We were often not getting paid what seemed like a fair share of the revenues that the show was generating, and we started to learn more and more about the deep intricacies of the live music industry and the ways in which artists are getting regularly exploited by unfair deal mechanics, irrational and outdated industry standards, misaligned incentives, and even simple unchecked clerical errors. We developed systems and practices to try and avoid getting screwed ourselves as best we could, but we (especially Jordan Cohen and I) also began speaking up regularly in both private and public forums with industry colleagues and fans alike about what we were observing.
I ended up writing an op-ed in the New York Times (which you can find by clicking the button below), which was widely shared and led to me and Jordan being asked to deliver a testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing! I’ve since discussed these issues on NBC News, Vice News, Politico, CNBC, NPR, Business Insider, among many others, and spoken to students studying music, business, and law at Harvard, Columbia, NYU and others.
Jordan and I have also used our newly found platform to speak directly with industry leaders and although there is a very very long way to go, we’re happy to played a key role in some cool reforms. Many of them are too technical to include in this short (maybe not short enough) summary, but among them is eliminating venue merch cuts at all Live Nation-owned club venues!
splitter.fm
I created a cool website called splitter.fm with two of my friends (Jonny Koh and Maxson Jarecki). It started with the idea that it would be awesome to give Lawrence fans the opportunity to explore the individual instruments (or “stems”) from our songs. Soon after the launch of the “Lawrence Stem Player,” we found that not only did our fans love it, but we also had other artists asking if we could make the same for them.
So we created splitter.fm, a website where artists can put up the stems of their songs, give behind-the-scenes annotations and much more. So far, we have over 400 artists and over 1000 songs! If you’re a music fan, check it out, and if you’re an artist, set up a profile and upload some tracks!
SOUPbread SOUND
I teamed up with Jordan Cohen and Jonny Koh (two of my bandmates in Lawrence) to create Soupbread Sound, a production company that handles event logistics, tech solutions, equipment rental, creative/musical direction, digital marketing expertise, analytics and budgeting for digital and physical music events. Basically, if you have a cool idea, we’ll make it happen.
We’ve provided gear, services, and ticketing for tons of concerts and events (including all Lawrence shows) that we’re proud of, but most recently we ran point on all aspects of logistics, creative direction, and ticketing for Jon Bellion’s album release events for his latest album Father Figure, including a listening event at Pioneer Works, and an underplay at SOBs. We then ran music direction and consulted on creative direction and production for his sold out two-night run at Forest Hills Stadium.
We also gained at expertise in virtual events during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most notably, we handled all production, promotion, and ticketing for Jon Bellion’s Cove City Virtual Concert in December 2021, in which Jon performed improvised acoustic and orchestral of his arrangements of his songs for over 7000 ticket holders (an estimated 10k+ viewers), taking requests and questions from the audience chat along the way. We also provided those same services for Lawrence’s Virtual Tour, which included 12 concerts and virtual meet-and-greets with behind-the-scenes videos and q&a.
hi-lo jack
I formed a musical side project with two of my favorite and most talented friends. One is Cody Fitzgerald, founder of the indie-rock band Stolen Jars and a frequent collaborator of mine on my composing work for film and TV projects. The other is Dolapo Akinkugbe, a hip-hop artist who releases music under the name DAP The Contract. The three of us went to college together at Brown University, where we each gained followings on campus with our very different styles of music. We realized that although the music we created was so different on the surface, we actually had a lot of shared influences, not to mention a lot of respect and admiration for each other’s projects. So we got together during our senior year of college and set out to make some music that blended all three of our sounds (soul-pop, indie-rock, hip-hop). What emerged was Hi-Lo Jack (named after a card game we liked to play together during college) — a cinematic, nostalgic, energetic, electronic, experimental, joyful three-headed monster that I’m extremely proud of.
Many years ago, we released an EP called “Old New Clothes,” and played just a small handful of shows, but the sound we created has influenced all three of our individual projects, and it specifically acted as a major reference point for the soundtrack for Disney’s Noelle that Cody and I created.
Finally, after years of slowly hacking away at new materials, we just released our comeback single (aptly titled “Comeback”), and we’re so excited to announce that we have a new album on the way next year!
THE MUSIC LANGUAGE
This one is super random. I love puzzles, codes, and games, so one night during quarantine, I came up with a fun way to encode messages into musical pieces — a “music language” of sorts. I spent a few days practicing it until I was “fluent“ in the language I had created. Once my family was sufficiently bored of watching me do it, I decided to build a simple website that allows anyone to play around with it and try to crack the code (more instructions and info on the site). As silly as the project itself is, I’m proud to say that it’s the most legit thing I’ve ever coded fully myself! Enjoy, and let me know if figure it out!