David Leach began his record career in the late ’70s in the retail division of Polygram Records, eventually moving into promotion and rising to Polygram’s GM chair by the end of his 23-year stint with the label. Little did Leach know, during his storied years at Polygram’s helm, that he would return to the Universal Music Group in 2006 to lead the promotion department for the re-launch of the Decca Label Group, one of Polygram’s most respected brands before it was retired in the U.S. predating Leach’s start in the music business.
Decca was originally formed in the U.K. in 1929, founded by Sir Edward Lewis, who stayed at the helm until his death in 1980. The label, while rooted in Classical music, was known for its diverse roster, including names like Mantovani, Bing Crosby and Duke Ellington. The company grew with the industry and changed with the public’s taste, eventually becoming home to Luciano Pavarotti, along with Pop artists like Engelbert Humperdink, Tom Jones, Marianne Faithfull and Lulu, along with Rock icons The Rolling Stones and Moody Blues. Although the latter acts saw their work released in the U.S. on the newly created London label, as the American Decca had been sold to MCA in the ’40s.
By the beginning of the new century, Decca, Polygram and MCA had all become part of UMG, setting the stage for the U.S. re-emergence of one of the industry’s legendary brands. The 2007 version of Decca is certainly tied to its Classical past, but with a strong commitment to all forms of Adult music.
In this exclusive e-QB interview, Decca’s SVP Promotion David Leach talks about the exciting challenge ahead, as well as what drew him to the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of quarterbacking all radio promotion for such a unique entity.
Talk about the challenges that led you to accept the task of heading promotion for this re-launched, re-imaged label.
The first thing that was appealing to me was the people that were running it, Chris Roberts and Paul Foley, both of whom I’ve known for 20-plus years. They are great record men and both are good people and have assembled a tremendous team of experienced and talented people in every department from A&R right down to finance. So right off the bat, it was appealing because of the quality of the leadership and the people in charge. Number Two, I find the musical mix here very eclectic, very challenging, but also very, very strong in its fabric. We have the number one Classical label in the world. We have a Jazz label that is really starting to ramp up, a Broadway division that is unparalleled, and then we have the Decca Label Group which is starting to sign more and more quality adult music.
So you have those three components, and there are four joint venture distribution-type deals. We distribute the incredible Rounder Records, and we are starting to be involved with some of the promotion. We’ve got a label called Velour Records that is a very well run small label that has a couple of bands – Cat Empire, Kaki King – that are great artists that will be heard from. We have a label out of England called 14 Records that has The Waterboys and Souixsie Souix, both of whom have CDs coming later this year and have made wonderful records. And we have a partnership with World Café Live for their live DVD series. We have a great mix of product and a great mix of people in this thing, and now it’s time to make sense of how to get this music exposed on the radio.
You mentioned the partnerships and artists that Decca has chosen to work with, which seems to present a common thread. What is the A&R philosophy of the label?
Number One is quality music and quality artists. Number Two, we want artists that can tour and help us get out there and work the marketplace. But it’s the quality music we’re after – quality Adult music. The mission statement of the label is to develop an image as the premier Adult music label in the business. We already had that with the Classical division and the Broadway division, which has fantastic soundtracks we put out and incredible Jazz that we’re starting to redevelop.
Along with that comes the Popular music component which is Paula Cole, Mark Cohn, Boyz II Men and Paul Anka’s 50-year career retrospective, which is coming at the end of August.
You mentioned some names that have certainly been important in the Triple A world and the Pop world. Talk about the significance of the artists you’ve signed and what they bring to the label that’s going to help you brand it at radio.
First of all, those are name artists that have careers that are still very healthy and ongoing. We all know how tough it is to get a brand-new act going these days, so these folks at least have a resume to fall back on. They’ve made giant hit records. Now our challenge is to get radio and the marketplace to give these artists a fair look, so we can go back to their existing audience and develop some new audience for them, continue to propagate their careers and help them continue to be relevant on the radio.
Radio, like the rest of the industry, has changed dramatically since the Decca brand was put on hiatus 30-plus years ago. How is the new Decca approaching the new radio landscape to further these careers?
Decca has been very smart in how we approach radio. Radio is not the primary driving force at this record label. Hopefully that’s going to change over time, but right now it’s smart not to put all your chips on the table behind radio. Radio has been difficult the last few years. Radio used to “drive the car.” If you didn’t get on radio, you wouldn’t even put the record out half the time.
Nowadays you’ve got to develop ways to get radio to be excited about your record, to be a partner in the project with you. You want to make them feel good about playing an artist like Paula Cole or Mark Cohn, but as an important part of the mix, not the only part of the mix. We have a great sales division here, with three super pros who know how to get the right records into the right retail accounts at the right time. We have an awesome press department that has taken difficult artists that don’t get radio play, and delivered major television and media hits. We already have the fundamentals of a very good record company, and hopefully [National Director of Promotion] Louise Coogan and I can help radio become a partner in breaking some of these projects and furthering these artists’ careers. I couldn’t be happier about having Louise here. She has a great resume in the business, having done both radio and independent promotion. Her fresh ideas have already opened my eyes to some new things. I look forward to having her as my partner for quite a while.
How do you take advantage of New Media opportunities, without making radio feel like they’re competing with New Media for your resources?
They are competing in many ways. But the fact is radio also has new media departments. They have Web sites and online initiatives that, more and more, you have to get plugged into. I’ve done promotions at stations that have not been playing an artist of mine that I think should be, but we started out doing an online promotion on their Web site with some of their more active listeners. So a lot of times now the first point of entry into a radio station is with their online division, and then you stir it up to the point where it creates enough of a story where maybe the PD will give the record a shot on the radio. It’s not a mutually exclusive proposition.
You’ve described a label that is positioning itself as fairly boutique, yet you’re part of the largest music conglomerate in the world. What are the challenges of maintaining that image in the corporate environment?
Some of the boutique-ness has to do with the niche artists we’ve had. There are very few labels that have a Broadway division that is active and has platinum records, or a Jazz division that contributes big time to the bottom-line, as well as a Number One Classical division. And our Jazz component has two of the greatest Jazz artists of all time – the greatest living saxophone player, Sonny Rollins, and one of the greatest Jazz vocalists of all time, Dee Dee Bridgewater. We’ve got some very cool, great artists, and that immediately brings cache to the label that others don’t have.
On top of that, we have to learn how to bring these artists from 10,000 to 25,000 units, and from 25,000 to 50,000. That’s the challenge that lies ahead for us, and we need to deliver some airplay for that.
** QB Content By Jack Barton **
