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Re: Altsounds Staff Credited in Red Jumpsuit signing
The True Story of How the RJA Made it all the Way to Virgin Records! One day while we were at the studios handling the daily business two young gentlemen walk into our offices and state they want to record a demo with us. We say great lets talk about what you’re trying to accomplish and your budget. They then state before we book studio time and record with Vision we want someone with experience to come and listen to us to tell us if we're ready to record and furthermore if we felt they were any good. We tell them that we never do that without hearing some recordings first. They were persistent and stated they rehearse in Middleburg, Florida and come to find out they were just a skip away from the studios so we said we'd stop by on the way home from work and check you out a bit. We finally found the rehearsal spot which was a double wide trailer off a dirt road in the middle of no where. They performed two songs for us and then wanted to know what we thought and if we wanted to hear another. We said no that will not be necessary and that we thought they were by far the best undiscovered band we have ever heard in our careers and would they like to sign with Vision Sound? They said yes. Shortly after we negotiated a production deal and agreed to work together for two years and assist in developing their young career. This virtually unknown band called themselves The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. During the first 3 months of working with the RJA we (Myself, Freelance Producer Lee Miles, Vision Sound Producer/Engineer Daryl Phenneger and Vision Sound Chief Engineer Paul Lapinski) made the bands very first 6 song demo. We wanted to send this to labels we connect with to see if we could catch any early interest in the band. Vision wanted to make sure we weren't wrong in believing that this band was off the hook and was everything that we thought it was. Our goal here was to at least catch a labels ear enough to make sure they were paying close attention to what turned out to be the bands very fast growth spurt. I worked all the bands pre production and Daryl and Lee worked their usual God given magic producing and recording Ronnie Winters vocals. Ronnie had never entered a recording studio as a lead singer before but he was very humble to say the least and listened to every word the people with more experience than him had to say. Ronnie was like a sponge sucking up everything musically around him. I asked Daryl to teach him how to sing so when people heard Ronnie for the very first time they'd stop dead in their tracks to hear this unknown young man. When we were just about finished tracking and mixing the initial 6 song EP I started sending rough mixes to a person who ended up being a vital part of assisting with generating the RJA's initial label interest. Enter A. J. / Head of artist development for the Kings of A&R or KOAR web site and V.P. of www.altsounds.com Per her request Vision sent A. J. a picture of the band and a few of the finished songs right off the press and she was the first to hear the finished demos. She loved the band and did a small write up on them and posted it on the front page of the KOAR site. We were getting e mails and calls the same day from industry people wanting to know about this band. If any of you are not familiar with A.J, Dean Cramer (KOAR President) and altsounds.com get familiar with their sites, they can be a vital tool for gaining interest from labels. While a flurry of label people called, e mailed and flew in weekly to see the band live none of them were willing to take a chance on signing this young act yet. We finished the initial 6 song EP and we made thousands of promo cd's to be given out for free. We asked the band to hit the streets and give these free promo cd’s and flyers out to the kids that they felt would be their core target audience. Not just their home turf, the band traveled to different cities, schools, shopping malls and colleges just to give people free promo music so people could actually hear the band. One of them would generally stay home working the free marketing tool myspace like 15 hours a day to reach out to any new fan they could get to listen to their music. All of the guys in RJA worked incredibly hard. They hit the streets for months and months promoting themselves face to face with perspective fans while continuing to promote all over the web.. They finally all quit their day jobs and lived on pennies a week just so they could spend all their time, not just their “free time” promoting RJA. These kids wanted this BAD and would stop at nothing to make sure that everyone knew who they were and soon all of this hard work starting paying off. What seemed like almost overnight we were getting calls from labels, fans, magazine and newspapers all wanting to know who this band was. The RJA's fan base was growing extremely fast and the band was continually busting their butts night and day trying to gain even newer fans. We knew with the right promotional approach and exposure in addition to having an electrifying front man like Ronnie Winter leading the band with "that voice" the RJA would not go unrecognized for long. So far everything seemed to be working perfectly and exactly to the plan for generating a large buzz for the band, a crucial element for gaining label interest. Vision Sound combined with all the bands hard work had made the RJA the most sought after original band in North Florida in just 15 months. The band was becoming so popular that the buzz about the RJA started gaining national attention along with management offers from some very reputable firms, but the RJA nor Vision felt that any one of them could really do anything more for us that we weren't doing for ourselves already. We defiantly knew we were at the point in the bands career where we needed good management tightly knitted within the industry and strong legal representation but just didn't find it yet.. At this point we already had record deal offers but no where near the record deal The RJA nor Vision had in mind. We finally met our match when we got a call from Mr. Steve Tramposh, former Senior Director of A&R at Elektra Records. Since Elektra Records was no more after their merger with Atlantic Records Steve was now a free agent. Steve decided to take a different route this time and started his own Management Company called "Launch Pad" and The RJA finally found the home they were looking for.. Steve took the bands demo straight to an old friend who just happened to also be the President of Virgin Records, Mr. Jason Flom. Jason flew the band to New York immediately and signed them in October of 2005 to a very promising multi-record deal just days after hearing the band. Due to the host of people involved at Vision Sound, Launch Pad Management and Virgin Records, the bands future seems very bright indeed! The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is finally getting the recognition they deserve! Scott Fravala Owner/Vision Sound Records LLC Discoverer/Producer of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
__________________ I am a Welsh Record Producer, Graphic and Web Designer, Film Maker, Photographer, Artist and Writer. Phew, that's a mouthful! Hit me up if you need work done.
Comment Posted on: August 23, 2007, 06:02 PM
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