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Invisible DJ Interview by Benjamin Hunter |
Young, business savvy, and eccentric as a hurricane wrapped in a box of tsunamis, Jeremy Wineberg is bringing a fresh new way to help artist get the cheddar they need to exist. He’s that Invisible DJ in the shadows, jockin’ the freshest product in the grocery store of new talent. He marries them to fashion retailers, and the end result, is a handwoven niche market, that’s proving to be quite fruitful for this young entrepreneur.
Wide-Eyed: Growing up what type of music were you listening to say in your adolescence? Those years of great change that many kids go through. I was interested in what type of music you were listening to then.
Jeremy Wineberg: I think for me, you know, high school was a roller coaster of different music, it was a little bit different then how I view music now. I grew up loving Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, Green Day, that whole rock/ska movement, I think of the 90’s. I think me being born in ‘85, obviously you’re asking me about my adolescence, 90’s into 2000 would have been Eminem, Doctor Dre. I think I was very influenced by what was played on the radio, what my peers were listening to, which I think is so different than now. Now it’s like this open market, like this individuality, where you can go online, read blogs and find out about new music by yourself as opposed to what it used to be; ‘well what are your friends listening to, what is top 20 at Tower Records?’ which no longer exists. So that’s pretty much what I was listening to growing up.
WE: So back then the model for consuming music was the DJs and the radio stations and then you had a few different niche markets. But, for mainstream culture we didn’t have the technology that we have today where you can create your own individualized playlist.
JW: Which is good and bad. I spoke at South by Southwest, it’s actually kind of cool, they closed their panels in December and they gave me a call about three weeks before and said, “We’d love for you to come and speak.” They actually flew me out there, which was kind of cool, to talk about the digital music age. I always throw myself against the wall and bounce back and forth going, well, individual downloads, is it the right thing, is it the wrong thing, are people not appreciating music as much, is that the right thing, is that the wrong thing? I think it is the thing and I think it has a lot to do with iTunes and selling them. I mean look at Steve Jobs. He came in 2003 and went, ‘You know what, I have the perfect solution to save all of this from people downloading music from Napster and Bearshare, or whatever share it’s called, MP3.com,’ all of these sites that pretty much no longer exist, because there were no laws or restrictions. No one really knew what file sharing was, it wasn’t really illegal, it was kind of this idea that people could share between each other and it was virtually created overnight. Jobs came in and said, “I have this solution and this device where I am going to get people to now instead of downloading something for free, they’re going to pay a dollar for it.” Unfortunately, as he continued to become innovative, all of these major labels are now going. Capital has closed its doors. EMI laid off 400-500 people, Universal is trying to figure out if it’s going to be in business in the next 8 months. They’re still trying to sell CDs when no one is really interested in that model anymore. So it’s kind of fascinating for me to watch all of this.
WE: So what was the impetus for starting Invisible DJ? What brought you to this beginning?
JW: I was always interested in music. I kind of came from a musical background. My father was one of the founders of Goldenvoice. So for me it was growing up and going to shows and being the 15-year-old running the box office at the Palladium. I went to go and work for Madonna when I was sixteen. I worked at Maverick Records and in my early college years, I went to the firm and worked for Jeff Blue for about 2 years, working with Korn and Limp Bizkit and artists that used to be there. I was a customer in Ron Herman. It was Christmas, it was December, buying presents and I heard music in the store and I said, “Who arranged your playlist?” I met this guy named Brett Brooks who is the men’s buyer for the store and curated the playlist for the store, we talked and I said, “I want to start a record label” and he had the same vision that I did. He was a lot older than I was which allowed me to look up to him as an older figure to learn from. What’s exciting is the label started everything. It was casual, it was like, ‘Do you want to work with me on this?’ and I didn’t really realize what I had when I went into it. I would tell people I started a record label with Ron Herman and they were like; ‘That’s the biggest store in the world, in Los Angeles.’ Through that I have been able to build relationships with so many people, including people in the music industry that I never would have been able to meet. As we talk further I’ll tell you about some other projects I am working on which are kind of cool and creative. So yeah, that’s pretty much how I got started with Invisible DJ or how I started Invisible DJ.
WE: So, political science. I would think a guy like you, into fashion and music, perhaps might have studied marketing or music business. You studied political science. Give me some background from your studies in political science over at Northridge.
JW: I went to Cal State Northridge which is the only school I applied to in LA because I was planning on going to my first pick, NYU, which is back East. Every time I thought about transferring I ended up continuing to stay because I was working on a new project which then was Invisible DJ and so forth and used that money that I made from promoting to travel the world. I lived in Vietnam. I lived in Thailand, Hong Kong, China, everywhere. I became a more cultured individual. I kind of went, ‘Well what do I want to study at Northridge?’ I inquired into the music program and they told me that I needed to be able to play an instrument to get into the music program which I thought was really interesting because, to me, music industry is behind the scenes: it’s promotion, it’s the agent, it’s the manager, it’s the publication, it’s everything but being a musician. They were very strict with their policy. I tried to fight the system and I couldn’t. So I actually went into liberal studies; liberal arts. I kind of created my own major. I focused on music, art, science, history. I was kind of like, I can do music myself; I don’t really need to learn. I was taking these music classes and by senior year, I was in music 5 advanced something… like music promotion. They asked us to go and put on a concert. I’d be basically like, teaching that class. I was like, ‘I don’t need to major in this. I’m going to major in something else. I’ve taught myself how to make it in the music industry so I am going to now go to college and learn how to do something or learn about something that I have no idea what to do.’ So that was my major.
WE: At SWS last year, you had stated that bands these days need more “corporate touchpoints” in the context of how the new model of the music industry is working. For the people with more of a punk rock sensibility, they might consider that selling out. What are your thoughts about art and commerce and how they are dependent or not dependent on one another?
JW: I think times are changing. I’m trying to think… uh… punk rock. When did punk rock start? I think punk rock sold out when it became more of this cultural movement where everyone was dressing like punk rockers. Right? People were buying into this look, into this lifestyle and into this music.
WE: Rather than creating it for themselves; like the old DIY movement. It’s not creative, it’s not DIY, it’s the commodification of punk, fuckin’ Hot Topicicized.
JW: Right. I mean, I think that punk rock sold out when Green Day considered themselves punk rock. Or when Sum 41 considered themselves punk rock. So, I think that with, not to dodge the question, I think that in retrospect every certain genre has sold out, I mean, you look at rap and you go, “We’re hood.” You’re not really hood, I mean you know you’re making 15 million dollars a year, you’re not hood. I mean, let’s get real. You know, like, stop singing about smoking crack when, you live in a house in Beverly Hills. What’s interesting to me, in terms of artists attaching themselves to brands, is that it is the last avenue where there is still money to be made. Aside from touring. You look at bands like Vampire Weekend and MGMT and they are constantly being offered corporate sponsorships and they’re taking them because as great as they are, they’re not selling a million units. So there needs to be some sort of other income to support their own tour that their label is not funding because all of these bands now are trying to go in with different deals. So, if an artist can team up with some sort of corporate sponsorship and go out there and exploit themselves in any way possible and then walk away making some money from that; I think that artists are satisfied. I don’t think people look at the word sellout anymore. Now music, it’s just about trying to make some money any way we can.
WE: Sustain the tours. There aren’t massive records sales anymore. I totally agree with you.
JW: It’s a bummer. Are you going to go to an art gallery and look at a painting and go, it’s a beautiful painting from a new up-and-coming artist and it’s… are you familiar with the artist Skullphone? It’s like you look at a Skullphone who’s a propaganda artist, but you know what, I’m just gonna buy like half of that. I just want the phone part. I don’t even want the skull in it. It’s like a record. You’re suppose to buy it and listen to it through its entirety and it’s completely lost now with these 99 cent downloads…its gonna be interesting. Oasis is gonna put out their next record, I was just reading about it and it’s going to be a continuous mix. So you either want to buy it or you don’t. You’re either gonna listen to it or not.
WE: It’s not tracked out?
JW: Yes, yes exactly.
WE: You’ve made your claim to fame making mixed albums for fashion outlets and for different retail entities. Do you think record stores are dead or could there still be, in this strange, new, innovative world, room for record stores?
JW: For me it’s more lucrative to make compilations than to go out and promote artists. That’s just what I’ve seen; what I’m doing at this moment in my life. In terms of promoting music, I think you look at the retailers like Hot Topic, you look at the retailers like Hollister, you look at Urban Outfitters, you look at American Apparel and you go, these are stores that niche to a very specific demographic and if hearing music in these stores, like, you go into Hot Topic and you’ll see The Academy Is… you’ll see Hawthorne Heights, and Avenged Sevenfold is selling hundreds of thousands of CDs out of Hot Topic. You put Avenged Sevenfold in Urban Outfitters, it’s not going to sell. But if you put Death Cab for Cutie in Urban Outfitters it’s going to sell. So I think that promoting music, for me, a successful model is placing a very small selection of music at each moment in time in the store and only carrying and selling about thirty to forty titles. It’s how much is it going to cost me to go and buy the CD before I get to even purchase the CD. You see that with Virgin Megastore now closing its stores. I mean we just lost our Virgin on Sunset. I mean that’s a bummer. I used to like to go to Virgin Megastore. That was the first real record store where they tried to bring in fashion. Hot Topic was a fashion store where they tried to bring music in; Virgin Megastore was a music store that tried to bring fashion in. And we’ve now lost that. The only one we have now is on Hollywood and Highland.
WE: You do have Amoeba though, man. What’s Amoeba doing different?
JW: You know we do have Amoeba which is great. And everyone goes to Amoeba. They have the largest selection of music.
WE: Insanely creative about the way they market things too.
JW: That’s what I think. More music is selling in the new traditional ways which is fashion. I mean, that’s how we all got started.
