Tuesday, May 19, 2020 • 49min
Brushfire Records - (Jack Johnson, Bahamas, G. Love)
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In this episode, I interview Emmett Malloy of Brushfire Records (Jack Johnson, Bahamas, G. Love).►► Download our Free Guide for Independent Record Labels → http://OtherRecordLabels.com
Find more resources for independent record labels and DIY artists like our “How to Start a Record Label” checklist at http://OtherRecordLabels.com
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Emmett Malloy
Scott Orr
Transcript
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Scott Orr
00:02
Hello and welcome to a new episode of Other Record Labels. I'm your host Scott Orr thank you so much for tuning in, where we talk about the art and culture of running an indie record label.
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00:12
Speaking of record labels, if you are new to the show or new to starting a record label or you're currently running a record label, make sure you head to our website, Other Record Labels to check out some of the resources we have there, including our free guide, which kind of summarizes some of the wisdom that has been shared with us in our interviews over the past couple of years.
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00:33
So go to otherrecordlabels. com to check out that and other resources we have for existing labels and for new record labels.
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00:42
Speaking of record labels today is a very exciting episode. Imagine your group of friends you're hanging out and one is a filmmaker filming everything you guys do. And another one is another guy in your friend group is the guy who's always playing acoustic guitar. Now imagine fast forward 10, 15, 20, years later, and these now iconic individuals, the filmmaker Emmett Malloy and the acoustic guitar player
Jack Johnson
, who have gone on to do some incredible things. And while you're listening to this episode, go ahead and google them and Wikipedia them and see the projects that they've been involved in over the years. And no doubt uh something that you have probably enjoyed in that mix.Share
01:27
Uh such a such an honor to talk with them it today. One of the co-founders of
Brushfire Records
and you know, Jack Johnson
is an iconic artist and has really played an incredible role in the evolution of indie music and um, and how we view it and how it crossed over into the mainstream. So such an incredible episode. Today. I hope you really enjoy it.Share
01:51
Thank you so much for doing this by the way.
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Emmett Malloy
01:55
Yeah of course.
Share
Scott Orr
01:55
This is such a pleasure to chat with you and I have such a...
Share
Emmett Malloy
01:57
Yeah, yeah, don't do these often meaning, you know, I feel like I can count on one hand how many
Brushfire
comprehensive conversations I've had so many interesting.Share
Scott Orr
02:11
I'm honored.
Share
Emmett Malloy
02:11
Yeah, yeah. Thank you. I'm psyched to do it. It's a that's a good part of this era is reflective, you know?
Share
Scott Orr
02:19
No, that's true. I have this photographic memory but only for moments when I'm buying records. Like for some reason I can grab a record off the shelf and remember where I got. I have this memory. I have this memory of seeing the first
Jack Johnson
record here in Canada
at an...Share
02:34
And I think it was one of, I think it was even one of those cd players where you could put on headphones and sample it.
Share
Emmett Malloy
02:39
Yeah I love those.
Share
Scott Orr
02:40
And I remember, yeah, I bought it right there and I was wondering like, was that record released on
Brushfire
? Did that label come afterward?Share
Emmett Malloy
02:48
Like what? No, yeah. Came came after it. So I'll give you a little history of it all. You know,
Jack
, Jack
and I were young guys and and um, all connected through the surf world. So through making sir films. My cousins are the Malloy brothers.Share
03:06
We direct, Me and my brother Brendan direct as the Malloy brothers. So it's this funny overwhelming family where people always feel like a Malloy brother is watching over them. Um, but my cousins were on the
North Shore
surfing, becoming pro surfers, you know, California kids making a name for themselves. And they connected with Jack
there just because he's a staple, his family as of the North Shore
history.Share
03:34
And they, I at this point was making films working on like as an editor, working on like movie trailers. I cut like the
Star Wars
episode one trailer and was working on like movies for studios, but I was getting to know all the the ins and outs of the business. And I started to direct a few music videos um, for bands like San Diego kind of punk bands that were ended up being like Blink 182
and unwritten laws and cool bands from the past.Share
04:11
Anyways, my cousins were like um, it could we do a film with all your gear because I was always saying, hey, we could do it And I felt like I was at a point where I could confidently say yes to that and they said all right, we want to shoot some 16 millimeter and incomes.
Share
04:27
Their friend
Jack Johnson
who was at film school in Santa Barbara
. Anyways, we all started making films and becoming best of friends and all of us, we're finding our voice or what we were good at. And you know, through hanging out with Jack
for a long time.Share
04:44
He all of a sudden just started playing songs when we were hanging out whether it be traveling or making films and you know, he would go from like a pavement cover to one of his own.
Share
04:55
And and you wouldn't know the difference because they were both like good songs, you know, like I didn't know anybody. You know, I never had a friend who was like good at writing a song or anything at that level where like all of a sudden you're friends like Elliott smith or something and you didn't know it.
Share
05:12
And so he, he started making these four tracks and, and through our surf network, those started kind of finding their ways, finding it themselves into the hands of
Kelly Slater
and Rob Machado
.Share
05:26
And guys that had, you know, at that point, their own way of influencing people with their taste, whether it be writing about it in a magazine and all of a sudden his music started to gain this like underground, like Bo Jackson quality about it in in the world because it was good and undeniable when you heard it, so...
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Scott Orr
05:48
Can I ask you, sorry, can I ask you what year this is?
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Emmett Malloy
05:51
Yeah, this is like probably 97, okay, kind of getting into 98. Um and so anyways, just the quick version is that that started to circulate and at the same time we were making these films of which
Jack's
music started to become a bit of the soundtrack of, but we're also super influenced by the Ben Harper's
and the G. Love's
of the world who had put out their first records that were staples in our diet of creativity and traveling and whatnot.Share
06:25
So I remember we had
Ben Harper's
manager, this guy J. P. Plunier who ended up producing, Jack's
first record came in to look at this edit because we wanted to use a Ben Harper
song and you know in walks this like french, you know, very like uh you know, he's a trendsetter himself, so he rolled in and we were like holy sh it, Ben Harper's
manager, you had never met a manager or anything at that point.Share
06:52
And so he came in, he watched our films and a relationship started to grow out of that, where he then he knew all about our surf films. He knew
Jack's
background and family, he was that type of guy who historically knew a lot about surfing and skating and music.Share
07:10
So we we all got on real good and and you know, cut to like all of a sudden that
Jack's
music and these tapes started finding their way to record executives and um I remember specifically Lenny Waronker
and Mo Austin um really interested in it at DreamWorks
at that time.Share
07:29
And you know, we started to catch like a fun like you know the mini disc we're landing everywhere. And then I was in
L. A.
and I would make a bunch of cassette tapes and go pass them around. And so suddenly J. P. was just like we thought we were going to sign a deal somewhere.Share
07:48
But nobody, everybody just would say like they bring
Jack
in, he played these unbelievable songs, whether it be Flake
or posters, fortunate fool. Those were in the first repertoire and we'd sit in these offices and you'd watch people's jaws drop and then nobody, I think everybody thought we were too young or something.Share
08:08
You know, certainly there were artists that young being signed but we we didn't have any official, we rolled in and here's this guy saying like I may never want to tour ever. This is just like I want to make surf movie. He's you know, he was given the like I felt like good will hunting.
Share
08:28
You know like I was like you would walk out of there and he would have said everything that would probably reflect back wouldn't have made you want to sign him, he would at that point people were really giving people a lot of money to say we want you for a long time.
Share
08:43
And so anyways, at the end of it all J. P. was just like "why don't we just do a record?" and we'll start a label and we'll put it out. So we began as partners with them and they created A level at that time a label at that time it was called um Ever Lov... no it was called
Enjoy Records
.Share
09:04
And then it's now become
Everloving
and they put out a lot of great records over the past decade. But they put out our first record and we also did it with Modular
in Australia.Share
09:15
So our friend steve pav was really on
Jack
early and got him on a great label there and we went out as that and then Jack
hit the road with Ben Harper
and that was just connecting so great. You go to the show and it just was a magical connection. And so that record came out real independently but then the song got on radio at 91X in San Diego
. Flake
really started to take away and then sudden Jack's
on the road and our small label the record wasn't where it needed to be just because it was the reality of of what we were prepared for. And at that point, a lot of big labels started to come in.Share
10:00
We had then put out a few surf movies and are on our own on our own that that felt like we had you know we had just we had matured a bit, you know, like that's it. We kind of started to realize like, hey, we could do a lot of this ourselves.
Share
10:16
I was very confident as a guy who was, you know, um I was good at seeing things through, you know, with
Jack
, like I'm always been a good guy working with artists.Share
Scott Orr
10:29
Oh that's great!
Share
Emmett Malloy
10:29
Because I feel like maybe I'm half artist, half business guy, you know, kind of stuck in the middle neither here, neither here nor there. But you realize you're kind of like, ah well shit, I'm one of the guys who can kind of cater to both sides, which you find now through this much time in it, you feel like you see a little more of your good at one or the other.
Share
Scott Orr
10:53
Yeah.
Share
Emmett Malloy
10:53
And so, you know, my relationship with
Jack
was always real solid because um I kind of, you know, him being from Hawaii
like he never wanted a part of this business, you know, it wasn't like he ever aspired to be famous or it just kinda happened and it was this very natural thing and suddenly this, your friend is kind of your makeshift manager because he would get calls from like people and they'd say, I mean, I remember it specifically a do you have a man to bring your manager and he was like, he was like okay and he hung up and he's like, I told him, I'd bring my manager and I was like, okay, well here we go. And then, you know, cut to now, his wife and I have continued to manage him all these years.Share
11:36
And that's a lot of why it feels the way that it does and you know, as much as that's a positive for us, it it can also be real limiting at times because our our palette, it's almost like you have to be related to us to be part of our gig, which is why it feels family oriented, but it's hard to bring people into your family, you know, because they got to check a lot of boxes and so that's always been part.
Share
12:05
But from there we we when the record kind of took off at radio,
Flake
did, um we became, you know, the folks from Republic Records
, Monte
and Avery Lipman
who unbelievably are still running that label this many years later.Share
12:24
Uh just kept showing up and they convinced us like, look dude, we don't want to act like we can guide you creatively. We just think you guys, you know, this records got it and we want to support it and let you guys do your thing.
Share
Scott Orr
12:41
Was that a rare, was that a rare state of mind for a label to be in the Late 90s?
Share
Emmett Malloy
12:44
Yeah, yes, for sure. Because like when we did that deal... I mean, I'll put it, I'll give you some context. I remember when
Jack
won a Brit Award
after better after in between dreams, he won basically like the best, you know, foreign artists in at the Grammys
at the Brits
. So it was a big deal.Share
13:06
And he was like out there playing
Better Together
, sandwich between Kanye
and a hundred gold dancers and you know, in walks me and Jack
with a stool, a guitar, just kind of something you'd see out of a funny, charming movie and he goes out and smashes it. Much like Elliott Smith
did you know, same sort of charm.Share
13:27
But I remember
Prince
really hooked him down that night because Prince
then at that moment was signed to Republic
and Jack's
deal was a big, you know, one of those deals that a guy like Prince
would have loved. Like you maintain everything, you get it's just a it's a basically it's a business collaboration but the creative is all you guys and the money stayed mostly in our thing because we were like, "we've done this, you know, we want your support, we want to get it on radio, we want to play on that level. But we kind of just want to be our rootsy label".Share
14:04
Like our family-run business at the core and you know, we were able to even get a better deal than we had struck with ever-loving and enjoy at the time because that deal was more of like we're 50/50 we're just happy to get a deal, you know?
Share
Scott Orr
14:21
Right, right.
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Emmett Malloy
14:21
And from that point forward, we realized even from there, we can improve greatly because we were just saying no to everything until people got kind of outrageous. And then you're like, okay, well maybe this is a yes now and, and that's continued on with
Jack
and a lot of his things. I mean, certainly a lot of people have struck that deal now. It was a turning point type of deal.Share
14:47
And um, but it gave us a label to be kind of hide behind those same credence is, you know, and again from there, it's not like I have another
Jack
on our label where you can sit there and really demand the kind of deals that you deserve and you know, he can always worldwide probably cover it.Share
Scott Orr
15:07
Sure.
Share
Emmett Malloy
15:07
It was more complex after that. But you know, even coming out of the gates with guys like
Matt Costa
, we were able to give them great deals and sell real records and, you know, whatever. I look at it with Joshua Nicotra that runs the label with me.Share
15:24
I mean, we're still around which, you know, I've watched every other label come and go in. A lot of it's that we've had like little like almost like when
Michael Jordan
retired for a year, you know, we take kind of years off and then like now I feel like we're in this zone where I'm like, I feel a lot of creativity coming out of our camp.Share
15:45
And with the guy with new people, like a fee that are basically brothers now there, you feel like another really cool chapter ahead for
Brushfire
, which two years ago I would have been like, maybe just gonna get deeper into filmmaking right now because I'm very, you know, I was a filmmaker before I was his fake manager and so it, you know, I'm also, you know, I get on little spurts where that's something I really want to have a lot, you know, more focused energy on.Share
16:18
So it's, it's a juggling act, but we still, we still can do it and I actually feel this is going to be a real big year for us because Jax revving up if he's got a record done and we're going to start doing fun, like collaborative projects just because we're kind of, I think this, this pandemic has kind of put us in this fun space of like
Jack
just like starting to work on track tracks remotely with people.Share
Scott Orr
16:45
Oh, that's cool, yeah.
Share
Emmett Malloy
16:48
Yeah, that works good for him, you know, he can sit at home and his board shorts and do it, you know?
Share
Scott Orr
16:54
What was it like? I mean... I was completely back then, I was completely enthralled with all these post
Dave Matthews
singer-songwriters that were coming onto the scene? What were things like back then? Do you think there was a um a certain spotlight on the singer-songwriter that helped you guys?Share
Emmett Malloy
17:10
It certainly felt it, you know, I don't know, because that feels like it's continued. But there was a batch there. I mean, specifically, obviously, I know
Jack
played a show with Dave Matthews
in college, they opened for him once, so he, he had some like, ringside looks at that, but I feel like he was probably always viewing himself as being more like, I'll probably in a punk band or you know, that was kind of where I think his heart was.Share
17:39
But I don't know, I definitely know, like, since the beginning, it's, you know, we've been like dueling in a fun way with the success and career path of
John Mayer
and watched them become still the big guys, you know, the big artists of that time, both so successful in their own way, John impervious can almost join in on anything and pull it off. It's insane.Share
18:08
I mean, he has transcended so much and
Jack
is probably, you know, they probably, you know, I know, John's commented on Jack
just admiring how he's never changed, you know?Share
18:21
And so I think at the beginning it was like, they were like, you know, you could not be competitive, we weren't actively competitive, but I mean, those two records came out almost at the same time. Like, literally, I feel like they came out within a very short window because we were tracking that I remember when that video, his first video came out, I was like "what? They shot a little bit on film?"
Share
18:45
Like I was, "that's our trick!" Things that you would, nobody knew that they were all they were affecting us, because we were like, I mean, the last time we had been in a competition was probably like in a sports game. You know, it was like this new world where we were like, competing, you know, in a funny way, like, it was like a fun uh you know, challenge or something.
Share
19:10
And so there was him, and then we saw like, guys, like,
Howie Day
blow up then, maybe, you know, that career, I don't know where when, same with like, a Jason Mraz
, who like, that popped up and we were all like, "what that guy is just trying to be G. Love
!" you know, the beginning and those things where you, again, you look back now and you say, hey, we had a cool influence, you now can be on the other side and say those are all fun things to look back on.Share
19:40
But yeah, it was, it was a big genre then, and I feel like it was something we really paid attention to, because we were in it, it was like, us trying to find our way in it and trying to be, you know, always be like, what would
Ben Harper
do, what would Ben Harper
do?Share
19:59
And then all of a sudden
Jack
blows past Ben Harper
, like in, I felt like a month.Share
Scott Orr
20:05
Wow...
Share
Emmett Malloy
20:05
And, and then you're on the other side of that, going like, okay, is this now like a co-headlining tour, what is it?
Share
20:15
But again, all those things just turned into great friendships and um lifelong relationships, but at the time it was a lot for us, we were young and and you know, just trying to figure it out, you know, it was, it was new terrain, it was the wild west for us.
Share
Scott Orr
20:35
It's funny how for younger people, for younger fans of
Jack Johnson
, you'd have to tell them who Ben Harper
is, and for younger fans of John Mayer
, you'd have to tell them who Dave Matthews
is.Share
Emmett Malloy
20:45
Agreed. Yeah, it's really interesting that way, you know?
Share
Scott Orr
20:48
I remember when we're, as we're still talking about other singer-songwriters, I remember
Donovan Franken
writer around the same time and he was such a great artist, and love that guy, I picked up his first record... And I remember I was having a consistent vibe for the label, something you were conscious about, was it people are coming here because of Jack
and his aesthetic, so let's do more of that.Share
Emmett Malloy
21:10
Yeah, I think it was a little bit kind of what we knew, you know, I'd like to say that it was, but you know, it was like the same guy, taking photos the same dude doing the layout,
Jack
produced and wrote a lot of that record, Jack Studio, you know, so those things, but it has been a, like I told you earlier, a little bit of a push and pull that philosophy because like on that record, I think it really set up the record, but then cut to like a year later, I think Donavon
was feeling like, "I don't want to just be Jack Johnson"
uh you know, "I don't want to be another surfer, songwriter!"Share
21:48
I'm
Donavon Frankenreiter
writer and again, Donavon
, somebody we've all known since we were little like Jack
film, Donavon
in surf movies when he was young and Donavon
was the megastar and Jack
was the, you know, blue-collar filmer.Share
22:04
And so, you know, we, there's a lot of back story in some of these relationships, but you know, the
Donavon
one is a clear thing of that one succeeded because it felt like Jack
in a lot of ways and I think that ultimately became a reason why he was excited to do his next record somewhere else because he felt like he, you know, maybe wanted to set a different path.Share
Scott Orr
22:32
So let's go back to that era because I was actually just reading this morning about the dawning of the
iPod
and back in 2001 that would have happened over this time. What was that?Share
Emmett Malloy
22:44
Like, can you take me back straight up, straight up iTunes, Jack's On and On record was like their, their top launch for iTunes. I remember being in like having the, you know, equivalent of an
NBA
back then, which is just like, hey be cool about this, you know, uh that, that that hole and that's why that relationship with him and Apple
, I think has continued to be a very successful and well fit one for us. They supported him, like a founding, you know, father of that platform, but that on Itunes, you know, not specifically, it wasn't like a collaboration or anything, it was just straight timing and it was an artist that, that, you know, Jack
ended up doing a keynote with steve jobs right before he, you know, um died and and steve was a massive and very knowledgeable um guy about Jack's
music and his business decisions, you know.Share
Scott Orr
23:48
That's incredible. That's so cool. Yeah, I did not. Well, I mean, I, I can think back to that 2000 to 2003 era and that's really cool that, I mean, you guys probably had no idea what iTunes was gonna become.
Share
Emmett Malloy
23:60
Yeah for sure.
Share
Scott Orr
24:00
Launching that that's incredible. Let's go into the filmmaking side, can you tell me about that connection?
Share
24:06
And I remember, I mean, we're talking about like me being in this, this community as a fan. And I remember when
Thicker Than Water
came out, it seemed natural for something like that to come from the Jack Johnson
camp, but now you're telling me that was where the origins are. So how has filmmaking stayed a part of the label or, or even been the core of the label?Share
Emmett Malloy
24:28
Well, I think it's it's it just is because that's kind of our infancy and that's where we kind of grew out of, you know, I mean, that's where mine and
Jack's
relationship came, that's where Jax, I think artistic eye and and a lot of the songs that he wrote were those trips, obviously a lot of personal stuff too, but those trips are really all over the first two records for sure. And so I think it's just kind of whatever, that's who we were.Share
25:01
I think if you look at
Jack
, I mean, truthfully, I think it's kind of more Jackson's surfer before all else, you know, I mean, that's what he is. And so the filmmaking was this like celebration of the background and the influences that he was and is, and then the music started to become this undeniable talent that was growing out of the doldrums of making films, you know. Like for instance, he got into guitar when he heard got in an accident when he was young and, and then he was able to, you know, have all this downtime, not serpent playing music, but yeah, I just think the filmmaking also do, it was kind of who I was and wanted to be as well.Share
25:46
So like, as you're sitting there going like "oh my God, my friend is blowing up, we're starting a label!" where, you know, the workload in his camp for the last two decades has been immense on me. And it wasn't ever something that I was like, "that's what I'm going to do!"
Share
26:03
But I always wanted to be a filmmaker. So it just, I made sure the filmmaking was part of what I was doing with
Jack
and brush fire and making Jack's
videos and you know, those things just all continued and then it was, you know, he was busy making music, but I still wanted to see surf films being made because I felt that they were so integral into our story and to our background into who we were.Share
26:30
And so we continued on and my cousin Chris made a few more movies under
The Moonshine Conspiracy
. That's another interesting thing if you look at our and on and on the first, you know, couple of copies that record came out and did really well out of the gates and we were called The Moonshine Conspiracy
. That was who we made um surf films under that, you know, kind of moniker.Share
26:54
So we were just going to be a label called
The Moonshine Conspiracy
and we put it out in a label called Moonshine Records, threatened to sue us. And we were so young. We, we didn't think like, oh, we should just go back to him explain, we don't have much to do with one another, but we just were like "fuck it, we'll just change our name".Share
27:12
And I always regret that. But I do love that. We landed on
Brushfire
Films and we then spun Moonshine Films to the Woodshed Films and so we were Brushfire Records
and Woodshed Films.Share
27:27
But lately we're bringing back all
The Moonshine Conspiracy
stuff because I finally reached out to that guy on Instagram and he's like "yeah, it's cool, I don't care!" And he was really open-minded and I, you know, some of me was like "God damn it! Why didn't I do that two decades ago?"Share
27:42
But the other part was like, you know what, it's kind of a time because right now, like for instance, I'm doing a biggie documentary for netflix that I'm near done with. It's the first licensed film that the family has ever put out, you know, that I could use everything. And I'm witnessing like the nineties are really, people are very nostalgic for the nineties right now. And so I'm like, well that's our era. So I'm just more real excited for what we can do moving ahead.
Share
Scott Orr
28:13
I want to talk about music videos for a second because I know that, you know, looking up on your Wikipedia, that's something you have played a big role in, um, especially for a certain era. In your mind, what has traditionally been the goal of music videos back then and what role do they play today?
Share
Emmett Malloy
28:33
It's hard for me to get super into the today answer, you know, because I still feel like, you know, I still get asked by bands I like whether it be
War On Drugs
or somebody and I'll go out and shoot what kind of feel video like I would have used to have shot, you know, now, I guess the way people, things can connect, you know, if I was working with the young band, I think I would have to just sit, listen and learn kind of like I do when I do ads for brands, you know, you just have to really get into the philosophy of what everybody's trying to connect with.Share
29:08
But back then it felt like you had a song good enough to get money to go make a film, you know, and you just wanted to like, you know, again much like, uh, you were talking about the singer and songwriter's like back then there was only like a handful of directors that did music videos that played on the big level.
Share
29:28
And so it was competitive that way where it was like, I want to take down, you know, I want to be as good as spike jones, you know, that's the stuff that you did, it was a little more of that. It was, you know,
Blink-182
kind of really competing with Sum 41
channeling some of that energy and for Jack
, it was always like, you hate, you don't want to put yourself out there that way.Share
29:53
The, the idea of doing a music video to a lip sync track.
Share
Scott Orr
29:58
Yeah, oh sure.
Share
Emmett Malloy
29:58
Never sat right with him. So for us it was always like, what's a creative or physical challenge that I can give you that will make you excited to go make this film clip because you appreciate this tradition.
Share
30:11
But he could never get into the idea of just like making a standard video. So that's been a hilarious process through the years of trying to figure it out. And lately, he's kind of just taking it to his own mind and done like kind of more roots ones that he does at home, stop motion or uh, you know, kind of things like that and that's been fun to see.
Share
Scott Orr
30:35
I think the authenticity of those type of videos resonate more nowadays.
Share
Emmett Malloy
30:40
Oh yeah sure, no doubt!
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Scott Orr
30:40
Uh, for a lot of fans. Um, when you were doing things, um,
YouTube
and streaming video, we're evolving so quickly. What was it like being a filmmaker? What is it like being a filmmaker at that time at this time? Is it stressful to keep up with how quickly the tech is changing?Share
Emmett Malloy
30:58
Yeah, I mean, I feel like filmmaking, in general, is kind of like a stressful gig. It's so competitive and it's just always like, you're only as good as your last thing and you put out something and by the time it comes out you wish it was different or everything has changed. But I don't know, I still think it's kind of the same thing. Something is good or not, iIt hits...
Share
31:20
The thing I've liked about our projects and films is they seem to hold good through the years and I like that we're not, you know, I think my, um, the thing I pay attention to most is kind of connecting with the feel of what we do things to be authentic and emotional and real feeling and those seem to be more timeless elements.
Share
31:43
So I think I'm a little still trapped in a little bit more of an older school mentality in that world, but doing ads and campaigns for companies, you have to flirt in the modern era and participate there. So I do have to keep sharp in those worlds as well with the label.
Share
32:03
You have to be sharp like a guy like a fee right now. You know, he's as much of an entertainer as he is a musician and I want to take advantage of that going, oh man, now I got an artist that really can blend both disciplines well and we're feeling real confident about what's ahead for us, taking advantage of what the modern world has to offer.
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Scott Orr
32:26
Sure he is probably the funniest comedian I've ever seen live.
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Emmett Malloy
32:30
Yeah, don't you agree?
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Scott Orr
32:33
He totally does. I feel like going to a concert is like a stand-up with a little bit of music. What a treasure, let's talk about. I want to ask you just a little bit about the still on the same vein of this visual side of things, because you started out as a filmmaking um with surfing and then the music as a soundtrack. And then of course
Jack
blows up um the marriage of visuals, visuals and music is that important. Do you think that should be important for artists and for labels?Share
Emmett Malloy
33:04
Yeah, I mean, I always like when an artist has a real point of view, I mean, the one thing I will say as a label we've never been is like "this is our this is our sound and blend in it". It's it's always hard having an artist label because I think people overthink it, you know, like they do try to like either react against it it or or blend in too much with it and sometimes not get it right.
Share
33:30
And so, but that's that's other than that it's kind of like been this very free spirited relationship, which again, I relate to them all. Like you do what you do. I'm not, I want you to feel prolific and channel the energy of your ideas and your vision for your record. So I think the visuals, you know, again, you can kind of all apply them, you know, with
Jack
, it's always been very collaborative. I think he's known, I can pull off anything.Share
33:59
So we've always been ambitious with our ideas and and wanted the visual thing to like have something fun or bring in a big celebrity that he just thinks it'll be classic to work with because they'll do all the goofy stuff and he can kind of play it straight and were like a matte cost at the beginning. Um you know, he was so young that he had all his influences. So I feel like he was excited to go with the flow a little bit.
Share
34:28
He was a very tasteful kid and new, like again, was influenced by all the right people of the past and embodied them in his presentation. So there was a lot to work with, but there was also at the core, a young kid just excited to be like, wow, that's a film camera, you know, things like that, that you're like come along for the ride, you know, and, and then you saw his confidence grow in each video.
Share
34:53
We got to a place where he got a little more ambitious with it. Then somebody like
Afie
is so loaded with artists and friends and his network that certainly I've done quite a few things with him, but he's best when he does his own thing and it feels really spirited by him, I'm there to help and whatever.Share
35:16
But yeah, we do, you know, we still value the whole process, you know, I want the album covers to look great. I still think a little bit like it's the physical package even though it's, it's a distant second to what people are reacting to.
Share
35:31
But I will say, I do think after seeing this
Kokua Festival
going and see how great Jack
was on that level, knowing a these kind of good, I feel the new version of Brushfire
is going to be a cool, a blend of music and entertainment. That's, that's what my prediction is. Not necessarily tons of new artists, but just kind of having more fun with some of the content.Share
Scott Orr
35:57
Well, it's so great whenever talented people don't take themselves seriously.
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Emmett Malloy
36:02
Yeah.
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Scott Orr
36:03
I think that's what I mean. That's what I love about
Afie
. And and and let me ask you just real quick about Bahamas
. I mean um this is uh a fee is probably one of our greatest natural resources here in Canada
.Share
Emmett Malloy
36:16
Yes! So awesome.
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Scott Orr
36:16
But let's, can you tell me about his journey to the label and how that all came to be?
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Emmett Malloy
36:22
Yeah, it's a great one. So we have mutual friends um like so
Leslie Feist
is was friends with a girl named Ginella that used to work at Brushfire
. And um so through that relationship, his um Pink Strat landed in my lap at that point, it was a finished record and had been out but real limited release. Um nothing in the States.Share
36:49
I really dug it. I met his manager Robbie Lackritz, who we've gained a great relationship and he actually produced
Jack's
last record, which is another great sign of how our relationships all take on, you know, you just end up jiving with talented people, you know, like "wow, Robbie is very smart and has great ideas, produces great records"Share
37:12
So anyways we met, he came to our office and I remember I was like, I think I was about to have now, I wasn't in kid phase yet, but anyways I, we had a great chat and I was like, and he was from
San Diego
, even though he lived in Toronto, so we knew a lot of people through the surf world and a few things where we connected and I just said "look, we're we're into it, you know, we'll we'll do it" and Jack
kind of, you know, was getting around to his music, but I was like "this is the guy, trust me, like let's do this!"Share
37:44
And and so then he came to town and I remember like he was doing a show and I was like "let's go surfing!" and I took him out surfing him and Robbie with my office and I took him out on maybe a little bit of a suspect day, you know, it wasn't like maybe the easiest and and and anyways he ended up cutting his foot bad and there's me on the deck of my friend's house, like looking after him, like a, you know, a boy scout and here I am and again, it just had that feeling of like we're all like look at this, we've known each other for five minutes.
Share
38:17
This is kind of a business day and look at our thing and he chatted about it that night at his show in L. A.
Share
38:26
And whatever from there, the relationship grew and, and we've, you know, we've stuck behind that guy and done very well with him and I think the best is yet to come. I still think he's relatively underappreciated. I think maybe, you know, like if you look at his
Spotify
numbers and his, you know, some of the data, you'd be like, he should be a lot bigger than he currently is.Share
38:53
And you know, that thing is just a matter of time. He's had flirt, he's flirted with hits and uh and his music, you know, you just know he's the real deal and, and that's somebody I hope we can do records with for a long time. And he's kind of the second win of brush fire I think without him, I'd be looking at like let's just fold it down to kind of
Jack
and Jack
.Share
39:18
But instead we had kind of our most exciting artists, you know, guy who's kind of now shown the greatest career outside of
Jack
on our label. He's with us for a couple more records, which that gives me a timetable to be like cool, let's just say for the next at least five years, let's get busy and do some cool stuff and that's why I like fires. I've never made it so big that I put myself into any funny spot.Share
39:47
I've always spent the means that I had josh and I and Kissy that, that helped run the label and
Jack's
day today, we just a real low budge and simple and, and kind of all get after it. And so I've never got the flash office or the crazy thing that made me feel like, oh, I gotta get this. I've always been able to say, hey, if it fits and it's good, we'll do it. And, and that's continued to be a nice philosophy because it's spared us from feeling like we got to go bankrupt or something, you know?Share
Scott Orr
40:21
Well that's exciting to hear because I mean you really do have the right to, you know, shut things down or slow things down. And, and you were talking about the reminiscing, I mean you could just do re-issues for the rest of your life.
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Emmett Malloy
40:35
And yeah, we want to do a coverage record right now where everybody covers another band and that sounds really exciting to me and like there's, we haven't done any of those things like I got, you know, like
Lee Scratch Perry
right now, wanting to remix some Jack
songs and I'm like, you know what guys, we haven't done any of those things.Share
40:56
Let's do them all for a while and then let's make new stuff because that's of course what you're, this stuff will inspire, inspire you to do.
Share
Scott Orr
41:05
That's incredible.
Share
Emmett Malloy
41:06
And
Jack's
every time Jack's
done a cold lab, it's been great. I mean even if you go back to the handsome boy modeling school version of his song Breakdown
, people still are like, "I wish you'd do a whole record like that". The cool thing is one day we probably will, but we haven't yet and he's made all his records with the same band, the same setting.Share
41:30
And you know, in one way I'm like, we gotta mix it up in another way. I'm like, who we haven't because now we can do almost anything and it won't feel like we're chasing or um we're doing something we already did before.
Share
Scott Orr
41:46
Are you kind of touched on this earlier? Are you guys feeling motivated and prolific in during this pandemic? To be prolific during the pandemic? That's Awesome.
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Emmett Malloy
41:54
Yeah. Well that festival was a great example. I mean that raised over $250,000 of which we thought would just be, you know, maybe we thought we'd raise 50 and it was really entertaining and it showcased like, well sorry, the wind is bad.
Share
Scott Orr
42:14
That's ok.
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Emmett Malloy
42:16
If the, you know, like with our background, of course we're going to make an entertaining show and make the transition smooth and
Jack
, he loves to collaborate with people. So of course the collaborations are going to be good. And so it just started to make us all go like, let's do more of this. Let's try and again, who knows? And I pray the world snaps back somewhat closer to normal soon.Share
42:40
But you know, for now we'll go and I can tell
Jack
have fun doing it. And I know eighties already locked and loaded with a record and were more now. Like I just got him to uh, on, they're doing like quickies, redoing the princess bride right now I think is uh, and so that is something where he's kind of been qsked to score one of the..., uh, track. No, it's Mark Knopfler, Mark Knopfler
tracks.Share
43:11
And so you know, those are just fun things that are happening out of this weird moment and I hope that continues to grow and will be front and center for it. But I definitely feel like we're going to have a fun, productive, uh, run right now, but we will, when we snap back to because um, you know, our two kind of heavyweights already to go. And, and that's when we, as a label have more and that's when you start going off, we're up and running.
Share
43:42
Let's do this that and the other two because we're in full source because like I went and did a film on biggie and another film that took me, you know, that year was a little focused on that and thank God sometimes my juggling act doesn't work out as well as other times, but I feel like I'm finishing things and then the good thing is I can then move into, um, you know, really being focused on
Brushfire
, new offices, new things that just feel like whatever you need to like stare at the mirror every day and convince yourself you can do some cool stuff. So I feel like a nice fresh chapter ahead for us.Share
Scott Orr
44:26
Do you have a, what was the year that brush fire officially started? You know, like how many Years have you been at this?
Share
Emmett Malloy
44:30
Yeah, it's like right around 2001.
Share
Scott Orr
44:34
Okay, so you're approaching a 20th.
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Emmett Malloy
44:36
Yeah, we are for sure. And so many different albums and almost, you know, 25th closer to that for
Brushfire Fairytales
. Well, I guess it's more of a 20th. But yeah, we're we're hitting some great milestones and we're kind of still the same group of people.Share
Scott Orr
44:54
That's incredible, beautiful.
Share
Emmett Malloy
44:55
Josh still works with me and Casey me now has been there for north of a decade and that's kind of it. And then
Jack
and his family and then we flex up for touring and um figure out, you know, each album cycle we put together according to the size and scale of the record.Share
Scott Orr
45:15
That is, is so incredible. And it's so encouraging to hear your state of mind 20 years into it, especially when you have the right to sit back and cash in on the artist. So it's so, it's so cool to hear that. Thank you so much for doing this. I've been such a so much fun to chat with you.
Share
45:32
You know, I've been, I've been a fan of of
Jack
now for 20 years and it's such an incredible career and Bahamas
obviously, I probably shouldn't admit though that the record that gets the most plays around here is the Curious George
soundtrack that's pretty iconic.Share
Emmett Malloy
45:50
You know, it's, it's one that I think even
Jack
grapples with. You know, I think that the album outshined the movie, you know, we kind of view that and wish that there was more to that film when you see the great animated films like the latest Spider-man
or you know, we wished maybe they would have, but that, you know, that's a big reason why young college kids and whatever love Jack
now, because they grew up with that record and then realized that well, he's got a ton of records and they're all good.Share
46:23
I always say to
Jack
, that's one of my favorite records of yours period without any disclaimer.Share
Scott Orr
46:30
Yeah for sure!
Share
Emmett Malloy
46:30
I'll even take the sharing songs and you know, it kind of came at a point when his career where, you know, we were at that point, you know, you're after in between dreams, there was a real critical buzz and
Curious George
.Share
46:45
I think some days got a negative rap feeling like he's just some corny kids artist and it was, you know, those are just like any review thing, you'll read one excellent one and one that feels really maybe mean spirited and focusing on something. But I know that record is a staple for every family and it's not often now that we both have kids, how valuable is a record, you can all like.
Share
Scott Orr
47:12
Absolutely and it's timeless still.
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Emmett Malloy
47:14
Yeah. And it has a great message and it's educational and entertaining and beautiful.
Share
Scott Orr
47:19
Oh yeah!
Share
Emmett Malloy
47:19
I agree. You know, and that's a record that I think is is now you look back, it's like it's a big part of who
Jack
, how he evolved to where he is now. And he is, he's one of the popular guys that's, that's really stayed the same, you know, I mean he's like my most normal friend.Share
47:39
I mean try you know like I got guys have nothing going on that are so much have so much more baggage than
Jack
and here's a guy who's, you know, become so popular around the world. I've seen every tremendous high you could ever imagine with this guy, 35,000 people out in front of him at times for his own show.Share
48:01
Um all over the world singing songs and languages they don't even know every word and he's the best dad, the most normal dude and it's just kinda just become more and more elite in my category of like dude, I get around a lot of your type, famous people, You are a very unique, you're a gem and we'll appreciate you more and more as the years go-by.
Share
Scott Orr
48:30
That's beautiful. Thanks so much for doing this and I'm truly honored to talk to you. I really appreciate.
Share
Emmett Malloy
48:35
You too, thanks. It was fun. Like I said, I don't do much. You almost got me emotional.
Share
Scott Orr
48:39
Thank you all for listening. Please go to our website, otherrecordlabels. com to grab some of our resources, including our free guide for indie record labels, as well as a checklist for folks who are in the process or thinking about starting a new record label. Check out
Brushfire Records
and all of the great artists, including our sweet, Canadian Bahamas
. Um, and uh, and thank you so much for listening.Share
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Scott Orr
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