Joe Reagoso
Growing up in the 1960’s, you couldn’t help but be surrounded by some pretty amazing music. Such was the case for Joe Reagoso. From Rock to R&B, Chubby Checker to The Beach Boys, Shindig, Hullabaloo and American Bandstand to A Hard Days Night, Joe figured out rather quickly that Rock N’ Roll was the place to be. A career that started in the Philadelphia One-Stops, transferred to his first promotion job in the mid-eighties working for Irving Azoff and Steve Meyer at MCA Records. After seven years with MCA, he spent some time at Atlantic and EastWest, before a long run with RCA. He returned to MCA in the late nineties and launched Friday Music in 2001. Friday Music is home to a wide array of Classic Rock artists featuring re-issues of classic albums as well as new material from some of Classic Rock’s pioneers.
At a time when record companies were consolidating, you opted to start your label. What was your rationale behind that?
It’s always been about the music with me, and everything else kind of follows later on. I was at a YES show in late 2001, and I looked at this sold-out crowd of young kids, their older brothers, parents, hippies, older folks, etc. digging the sounds of this great Prog-Rock institution. At the time, I just felt there wasn’t enough product out there for this type of audience, or labels with enough tenacity to appeal to that special consumer that wants their Classic and Progressive Rock music done correctly. I figured now was the time to do what I always wanted to do anyway; own a hip and thriving record label.
You’re basically a one-man show, handling everything from contracts to liner notes to re-mastering to A&R.
You have to multi-task if you want to remain in the music business. I have seen consolidation ruin good lives. It’s just the way of the world. Thank God I went to college. I remember all this required business knowledge being drilled into my brain….and here I am today using my law studies, math skills, communications, etc. I do most of my mastering, re-mastering and editing. The software out there makes it a lot easier these days, instead of splicing tape.
I was a music editor for several newspapers and magazines throughout college and afterwards, so the journalist thing is still a big part of my world. I try to share a lot of my knowledge for the music with my consumer and I hope that gets through in our recordings.
What about you’re approach to A&R?
A&R is a funny word these days. I dig most all types of music. That is a part of the A&R process with me. I try to put together music here that reflects what I like, my own record collection in a way, and I want the world to hear it.
The foundation of your label was built on legendary artists like Randy Bachman, The Guess Who, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Canned Heat and Orleans. Who are some of the latest additions to the Friday Music roster?
We just signed a multi-album deal with the legendary Johnny Winter, an unbelievable American institution who just continues to wow audiences with his unique and original approach to the blues and rock genres. He will be opening up the vaults and allowing us to release unreleased gems from his forty-plus years of personal archived live performances, as well as some great new things that will continue his legacy for years to come.
The multi-talented Joe Lynn Turner is releasing a new album with us this quarter titled Second Hand Life-The Deluxe Edition. Joe’s voice has been heard on great recordings (Deep Purple, Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force, Rainbow). I was talking with (Deep Purple bassist) Roger Glover backstage the other day about Joe and Rainbow. I said to him that Rainbow was just one of those bands that made memorable records, like “Surrender,” “Street Of Dreams” and “Stone Cold.” They just stick in the playlist of your mind forever. That is what Joe means to a lot of fans and especially Friday Music.
We are doing a special set of recordings with the estate of Tommy Bolin (Deep Purple, James Gang) for a bunch of his unreleased recordings, live material, rehearsals, jamming…you name it. This is incredible stuff. Unfortunately, he died too young, but his recordings and fan base are legendary. We should see the first couple of them surface in the new year.
Dave Mason has been one of my best friends in the business for over two decades. We released his Live/The Deluxe Edition album a few weeks back, and we are currently celebrating a Top 5 FMQB AC hit with “Deaf Dumb and Blind” He recently opened the RYKO Distribution Convention in New Orleans. The place went crazy. Hit after hit. If you haven’t seen his show lately, call me and we’ll get you hooked up. He’s another living legend.
Richie Furay has an amazing history: Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Souther Hillman Furay. We started things off with two Gospel albums two years ago and now we have a Country Rock album, The Heartbeat Of Love, with a bunch of his good friends helping out like Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Kenny Loggins, Timothy B. Schmit, Mark Volman and Poco.
With our solid artist alliances, you’ve already seen some incredible releases from Deep Purple and David Lee Roth, and in the near term you will see Paul Rodgers and several other great artists to be announced periodically. We have many more things we cannot reveal at this moment, but I can tell you that it’s going to be a great 2008 and beyond here at Friday Music.
You have a unique relationship with many of the artists that are now a part of your label family.
This is a very fine industry when it wants to be. Fortunately, I kept in contact with a lot of the finest artists of all time over the years. I love music and these musicians all have something to say. I want to have Friday Music give them that forum, first and foremost. They deliver some of the greatest music ever made and sold, and their just being here means the world to me. When we kicked this off, I called a lot of my friends like Randy Bachman, Manfred Mann, Procol Harum and Renaissance and asked them to be a part of the team. The first couple of years were just a lot of hard work setting it all up and getting retailers to know about us.
While most of the releases are re-mastered re-releases, a few of the greatest hits packages are actually re-recorded and re-worked versions of the songs. What’s the benefit to that?
First off, I want to thank radio for giving Randy his first Top 5 record on the FMQB AC chart with “Runaway” from his Anthology album. Obviously, the radio folks got it, his fans get it, and (bottom line) he knows how to craft a hit song. Randy wanted to do this for a long time. He is just too busy to record sometimes. He’s either always on the road touring, doing a radio show for Sirius in Canada, or writing songs for other artists. He wanted to do a personal album of sorts of his favorite cover songs, “orphans” as he calls it from his past albums. Plus, he gave us the original forty-five mix of his first single, “Shakin’ All Over” by The Guess Who. It is like his personal mix tape for his fans. Neil Young and Margo Timmons are on “Prarie Town.” “Runaway” was my idea. He tucked it away on a tribute album to Del Shannon, and I said you should put that on Anthology. You should have seen the calls we were getting from radio all over on this. A lot of radio interviews, press, etc. came out of the track, and he is so happy that he could reconnect with his American radio audience again. THANK YOU RADIO!
With the Sweet, Orleans and couple of other projects we have, the hardcore fans want it all: live, re-recorded, re-visited and re-mastered. Classic Rock buyers are collectors at heart, they are loyal and want a lot of their favorite artists output. “Live” albums were all the rage in the seventies. Remember Chicago at Carnegie Hall? It was an event to re-buy your favorite songs again, done live. Everyone had the first two Chicago albums already, why would they want live versions? Well, because they’re CHICAGO. Same principal applies today.
Distribution for indie labels is crucial. Who handles your distribution?
About a year ago, I was approached by the fine folks at RYKO to join the team for U.S. distribution. It was a great opportunity and I haven’t doubted their strength at retail for a minute. We sell a lot of music with this great organization. Plus, RYKO President Jim Cuomo is a huge Procol Harum fan and that sold me. I’m proud to say that we just inked a deal with Universal Music Group of Canada for distribution in the Great White North. Overseas we have the mighty Pinnacle Entertainment Group. They are very strong in the indie label world, and they get our music delivered everywhere outside the U.S. For digital we have our great friends at iTunes globally. These are the biggest distribution companies in the business, and they get what Friday Music is all about, believe in our mission and are all a part of our continuing story.
How do you deal with the day to day challenges of the business, in light of music piracy?
I remember my good friend Burt Bacharach talked about how difficult it was to break into the business as a songwriter back in the late fifties. He discussed the fact that a lot of great songwriters bailed at the time, and he wondered if they had stuck around, would they have had hit records, too. It took a strong stomach for this business back then, and it is kind of resurfacing like this in our industry today.
The theft of music is here, it is not going to go away. I feel the Classic Rock buyer is more loyal then some other genre consumers, and then you read about someone that has an iPod filled with twenty-thousand rock songs, and they didn’t pay for one of them. Theft is a good deterrent to staying out of the business. It’s defeating, but even worse are the store closings. Tower Records, Sam Goody’s, Wherehouse Music, etc. It whacked the life out of a lot of labels and retail staffs.
What does the future hold for Friday Music?
Friday Music has hung in now for five years. We have built a great catalog of music, and we are working as best as we can with all the challenges. I guess those years of working music on the programmers, getting doors slammed on me or eating a lot of bad road food has made me a little more durable, but it is a difficult life for anyone doing this. I am not a soothsayer, but I believe there will be a middle ground in the very near term. I don’t know who will invent it, who will claim it, who will do what with it…but I know serious music buyers, the Friday Music audience, will always want their music and we plan to make it work for them, my artists, my distributors and the label.
For more info on Friday Music, check out www.fridaymusic.com.
**QB Content by Mark LaSpina**
