Q&A: Behind The Scenes At Music Industry Success Story AWAL

After meeting thousands of musical artists and industry execs over my career, I can safely say the single biggest key to a successful long run in music is to never stop being a fan. Of course there are many other factors — professionalism, work ethic, relationships — but remaining a fan of music is definitely first.

Proving my point, CEO Lonny Olinick, President Pete Giberga and GM Bianca Bhagat, the trio at the top of white-hot label, distributor and music company AWAL are clearly still big music fans.

When I meet with the three of them at the L.A. AWAL offices right before the Fourth of July holiday weekend, it is a long list of names — from their artists such as Nick Cave and Laufey to artists they are fans of like Trent Reznor and Radiohead — that come up over the fascinating and very enjoyable hour-long talk. Meeting with the three of them is just like geeking out about music with friends, a very welcome change from some exec interviews. And it gives great insight into the success of AWAL. Artists want to work with people who can talk about and are fans of music.

I spoke with Olinick, Giberga and Bhagat about how AWAL works, the artists that define the company, upcoming projects and much more.

Steve Baltin: Are there artists right now that to you really define what AWAL is?

Lonny Olinick: I guess I look throughout our history and there’s a bunch of artists that I think have A, made us better, but B, creatively are artists that both have music that really speaks to people, but then also is really meaningful commercially. So I look at the artists like Steve Lacy and Kim Petras and Rex Orange County and Tom Misch and the list goes on and on, Little Simz who not only define culturally important music, but also find ways of doing billions of streams and really building big commercial businesses. And I think that’s the place that we’re pretty unique in being very A&R driven, but also finding things that I think speak to people in meaningful ways. So I think there’s a lot of those kinds of artists that if I look at our history represent the best of what we do.

Baltin: There’s a term that I love, “disruptors.” You have the Miles Davis, the Fiona Apples, the Tom Waits. So who are the artists throughout history that would’ve been the quintessential AWAL artists?

Pete Giberga: I personally think Trent Reznor to me would’ve been a classic AWAL artist. He had his own vision for what he was doing. He was doing something outside of the what was then the commercial spectrum. And he was an outlier to that. And he carved his own path and built his own lane. And I think that he was very disruptive and was able to make a serious mark on the world with what he was doing.

Bianca Bhagat: We’ve been talking a lot about Bjork lately, just like in relation to a couple of our artists. But I feel like an artist like that, who just very much was not paying attention to making music that’s going to fit into specific commercial roadmaps. Just making music that was exactly what she wanted to make, but then also building this whole world around it. It wasn’t just about the music. It was like she was such a multi-hyphenate artist in a way. And the visuals and the worlds that she was building for her and her fans to live in. That’s the work that I love doing the most with artists now. And we have some artists that are like that too. And so I feel like she definitely would have made sense for the AWAL model, for sure.

Olinick: It’s almost the opposite example, but I always look at what Radiohead did in being very commercial and then taking a complete left turn and making the records that they really wanted to make and putting out music the way that they wanted to put it out, I think it’s a very relevant thing for the business we’ve built where we try not to look at the past. We try to really look at what’s the relevant thing for an artist to do at that moment in time and let the music ultimately dictate all of the other things around it. And so much of the time people are focused on the opposite of that. It’s like, “Who are we going to sell this to and how are we going to sell it?” Instead of going,” Okay. I’ve got this amazing body of work. Now, let’s work backwards to figure out how do we get people to care.”

Baltin: How do you find the artists you work with? What’s the criteria you use?

Giberga: The process starts the same way that it would start at any other type of record label. We’re looking for artists that we feel there is an artist proposition that exists there. The repertoire that we’re listening to is something that we are passionate about. Those are the perfect ways to enter a conversation. And then from there, it’s about understanding if we feel they have an ability to build a community and understand who they are. I think the fundamentals behind true artistry is understanding who you are as an artist. You don’t have to understand that from the jump, but at some point soon you need to have a good feeling of that. And then having a tireless work ethic, which we have a much harder job being able to judge that from the jump but that is really the fundamental of what ends up coming down to great artistry. And it’s all driven by amazing repertoire. So if we are loving the repertoire and we do feel like they have a strong understanding about what kind of base that they’re trying to build or the base that they are currently building, that’s very appetizing for us.

Olinick: There are a couple things. One, the artists that we’ve had that have been the most successful are the artists who have the strongest vision of who they are. If you have an artist who comes in the room, and you’re like, “Okay. How do you want this to go?” And they’re like, ” I have no idea. You tell me.” That’s not, generally speaking, an artist who can blaze a trail. And so, I think to Pete’s point, the artists that really have a strong vision of where it’s going, our job is to help fill that vision out, help build the world around it. That’s one. And two, we have the advantage of having this business model that allows us to have lots of different entry points with different artists. And so when we find something we love, our world lets us go, “Okay. This artist, this person, they haven’t figured out these five things yet, but there’s something magical here so let’s find a way of starting out early and doing distribution for them.” Versus something where they walk in, and we’re like, “This thing is ready for everything that we can potentially bring to the table where we can go and act as a record company and do it.” So we have this benefit of really looking at the artist through a lot of different lenses, whether it’s early or late in where they’re in their development cycle.

Bhagat: I think in terms of some of the artists that we’ve worked with that fit into what everybody’s talking about, we have this artist that we signed called Laufey. I think we started working with her at the very, very end of 2021. We released her debut album later in 2022 and now we’re getting ready to release her second album on September eighth this year and it’s been incredible. She has the things that we’re talking about in terms of I think she’s making music like nobody else. I think her sound is just very uniquely influenced by her classical training, by her deep love for jazz music. But she’s also a Gen Z artist who writes lyrics from the perspective of just super accessible Gen Z lyricism that’s relatable, that resonates with a younger fan base. So it was definitely music we weren’t hearing anywhere else. And she also had the thing that Pete mentioned of just being an incredibly hard worker. You spend a little bit of time with her and she’s one of the hardest working artists I’ve ever worked with. And she will tell you that it’s a job for her and it’s different than other artists. We’re about two years into working with her now and it’s going so tremendously well. We just crossed 400 million streams on her catalog and seven million monthly listeners on Spotify. She’s selling out all of her tour dates across North America, Asia, Australia and Europe. It’s this true global audience that she’s building. And I think AWAL was the perfect place for her because we were able to embrace music that didn’t necessarily fit into any traditional format, but just that we really felt passionate about and knew that there would be an audience for and she was willing to really partner with us to do that work. And we were able to find that audience and create this whole world around it that’s been going incredibly well.

Baltin: So when you talk about the different places that people can work with AWAL, where does Laufey come in? Is she on the label?

Bhagat: Yes, Laufey came in on the label. I think when we started working with her, she was a few months after graduating Berkelee. She’d only had an EP and a few songs, but she had already started building a little bit of a fan base throughout the lockdown just by using TikTok and social media. So there was already a little bit of momentum there. So it felt like at the time it made sense for us to bring in the full teams on it. So that basically meant that signing her to the label, immediately she had the full power of the marketing team, our digital marketing team, our sync and brand partnerships team, our visual creative team that helped her with all of her creative direction and her videos and images and all of that, our radio team and our publicity team. So we really rallied around this project from the jump. And as things grew, we were able to pull those levers and bring people in in deeper ways as it made sense. But where we’re at now, she definitely has the full force of the full label.

Baltin: It’s got to be gratifying too that when you work with someone on that extent and see the development. Discovery is still the best aspect of music.

Bhagat: Yeah, I agree. It’s so fun to work on campaigns when they’re massive and you’re playing huge festivals. But I think the artist development work is by far the best part. I think that when you’re actually in the trenches with an artist and getting to decide what the story is and what the narrative is and how they’re presenting themselves to the world and the first impressions, that’s the stuff that sets the stage for their entire career. And so I would way rather be at the stage of helping shape that than inheriting that. That’s the important work. And so, yeah. I think that’s what we’re doing with our artists everyday and have assembled what I think is just the best team in the business to really do that work.

Giberga: Yeah, I think artist development is a never ending challenge. But that is what I am the most interested in. I always love that challenge because being able to help somebody in their career even when you’re ebbing and flowing in the peaks and valleys of what’s happening, watching them grow and potentially come into prominence, is incredible to witness. I’m always awestruck by being able to find somebody new that I’m super excited about that seemingly an hour earlier I was just seeking something that I didn’t even know was there and now something’s in front of me that makes me so excited like I’ve never heard music before.

Baltin: What was the last discovery that just blew your mind?

Giberga: I would say Lovejoy. Lovejoy was something that I came across during the pandemic and it was when it was just the front man, Wilbur Soot, who was doing his solo career. And by the time Lovejoy was ready to put out their debut EP, I was very aware that it was coming and who they were and what was going on. And I was getting a lot of information from people who were peripheral to the process and just happy to be in the fan base. I was fascinated by the fact that it was seemingly this gigantic fan base that was otherwise invisible to the entire world. And when I saw the numbers of what happened when they put out their first EP and then in turn a few months later, their second EP, I was just blown away by what they were able to do. And the whole time they’ve been here leading right up to now where we’re doing really well and about to head into hopefully having a top 10 single in alternative radio. We are in a place where we are witnessing something that is somewhat of an anomaly and similar to Laufey. That’s one of the things that is so gratifying is when you’re working with people who are doing things seemingly on the same path that everybody travels but they’re doing it in a totally unique way. That is an incredible feeling. So that’s really the last time that I can remember coming across something where I was just like I almost had to put the pieces together to understand how big it was.

Olinick: There’s an artist we signed not that long ago called Hemlocke Springs. Everything about it is fresh. The sound, the aesthetic, the story she’s telling. Actually we have this sizzle reel we play sometimes and she’s one of the last pieces and there’s 20 seconds of music there and just looking at that takes my breath away. That’s the s**t that you do this for. Those moments where you actually find something that you believe in and then I look at our role as really important and also peripheral. The artist is the thing that matters more than anything and when you find artists like that being able to contribute in even a small way, it’s gratifying. It’s the most important thing we do every single day. So, yeah. Hemlocke is a special artist. We’ve put out two records now and they’re all just amazing songs.

Baltin: I agree word of mouth remains the best way to become attached to an artist.

Olincik: We put out the last four Nick Cave records. That blows my mind. The music is incredible and that takes my breath away every time I see anything about him in the building. He’s someone I’ve grown up having the absolute utmost respect, a person who’s been at the top of his creative game all the way through and the live show is as vibrant as a live show I’ve seen recently, honestly. That’s something I heard about from a friend when I was much younger and I still remember that moment. An advertisement isn’t the thing that’s gonna make me go deep and spend a ton of time with music. It’s a great piece of content, a great song or a friend exposing me to it.

Baltin: That’s funny actually that you say that because it was seven years ago today that he played the Greek.

Olincik: That was probably the first show I went to when I was deeply involved in this and it blew my mind at the Greek.

Baltin: It was one of the most spiritual shows I’ve ever seen in my life. It was astonishing. He’s so funny too man. I’ve only gotten to interview him once and he was hilarious.

Olinick: He is. It’s interesting because the shows are so spiritual and the lyrics are so heavy but he has such a levity to him too and I think he’s such a good example of an artist that’s truly created a fan community in the deepest way possible the way that I think most artists try to.

Baltin: Can you look at it and understand how he went from headlining 3000 – 5000 seat venues to arenas?

Bhagat: It all starts with the music. I think he makes music that is stunning and it’s so singular and it’s heart wrenching. But from my perspective, I think it’s because he’s just been so vulnerable with his fans and he’s made it about more than just the music. I think that he’s created forums for him to talk to his fans, but then also his fans to talk to each other. And I think that’s a key part of it is that it becomes about so much more and going to these concerts is this religious experience for everybody and it’s something that they look forward to and they travel around the world to have this experience not just with Nick but with each other too. And I think that’s something he’s just done unlike any other artists I think I’ve ever seen that I’ve worked with.

Giberga: And I think that’s exactly it. I think it takes a lot of courage to expose the lens that you look at the world through to a huge group of people and when you’re able to do that that’s what we’re talking about with the disruptor. Credibility gets built on the fact that you’re standing on a platform and saying something that maybe nobody else is saying or very few people are saying and that takes a lot of hopes up.

Baltin: What is coming up the rest of 2023 you are excited about?

Bhagat: [Little] Simz is finally coming here for a North American tour and she’s coming off of a really incredible couple of years. She won the BRIT Award for Best New Artist, the Mercury Prize for Best Album last year. She released a surprise album in December of last year. We just shot a video with the iconic video director Dave Meyers and we just put that out. She’s about to go to Australia for a tour and doing festivals in Europe and the U.K. She stars in the Netflix series, Top Boy that’s coming in fall. There’s just so much momentum around her right now. So having her back here in fall, I think is something I’m looking forward to.

Olinick: And we have a Bruno Major record coming up that’s his best record he’s ever put out. The Laufey record is coming.

Gibera: Maddie Zahm has an incredible story to tell. She’s from Boise, Idaho and she’s lived a wild life already for a young woman. She has a tremendous voice and she’s an incredibly prolific songwriter. And when we first came across her, there was one song that the narrative was very powerful. And upon hearing the other songs that were attached to what was going to be a first EP, all three of us were collectively blown away by what was being said.

Baltin: What makes AWAL unique in your mind?

Olinick: It’s not enough to just have a song. There has to be something more around it. And so it’s all of our job or our marketing team’s job to really try to understand the artist. Because I look at it like this is a two-sided thing when we work with an artist. It’s them selecting us and us selecting them. And I think often in the process you lose that. We want to be in business with artists who we can help. And if we don’t get deep enough we don’t really know if our visions aligned or our goals aligned. So it’s a really important part of the A&R team’s job in particular to really get around it and understand it in the same way as we would have in previous times where things didn’t move as fast. Now we have to do it faster sometimes but it’s still a core part of the job to understand “Why does this exist? Why does it matter?” I think the thing that’s always made us unique and distinct is in a world of where distribution is much easier to do, we value the creative and the A&R above everything else. And I think for any company that exists in this world, that’s often not the mentality. The mentality is get as many things in, push them out the door and see what happens. We’re sort of the opposite of that. We’re looking to sign artists but we’re looking to do it in a really boutique way. And you’ll see us just add to A&R, creative marketing. All of those areas are the places that we think we bring value to clients and to artists. And that’s the thing that really matters to us more than anything is being of value to the artists that we partner with.