An Interview with Jeffrey "Jeff" Daniel

Since Brown, I have continued to work in music, both on the performance side and the business side. For several years I performed in and wrote music for a number of bands in New York City including Automanic and Action Figures. During this time, I held day jobs at EMI Records (producing box sets, greatest hits albums and EMI’s Legends of Rock n’ Roll Series) and Entertainment Weekly (producing CDs for direct response TV ads like “Pure Party,” Hot Dance Mix,” “80’s Explosion,” and everyone’s favorite “Lite Gold”) and consulted record labels, producing metal reissues of Sepultura, Obituary, Deicide, and Biohazard for Roadrunner Records.

I then joined forces with Billy Straus (Brown class of ’82) to form Rock River Communications, whose focus is producing CD compilations for major brands and retailers. Around the time Rock River took off, I decided that living out of a van trying to be a rock star was not prudent career path. It should be noted that I did not exactly have a record deal on the table (yet!). As such, I chose to give up the dreams of rock stardom and settle down with my business and my wife Kristen O’Loughlin Daniel (Brown ’92). Since joining Billy in 1996, Rock River has grown to a staff of 12. We produce branded CDs and webradio for companies such as Pottery Barn, The Gap, Old Navy, W Hotel, Volkswagen, Banana republic, Jaguar, Jamba Juice and others. We also recently moved into the video game space and now music supervise and license music for major video games.

On a personal level, we moved to San Francisco four years ago. We have two beautiful daughters, Lily, 3, and Clementine, 1. They are both big music fans, and Lily is known to rush the stage at Dan Zanes concerts and hip hop shows.

1. How, if at all, did your years at Brown prepare you for a career in cd creation/music?

Brown had a great music community including many musicians and folks who now work in the entertainment industries. I landed my first job at EMI Records from a Brown graduate I heard speak at a music industry career seminar at Brown.

2. Will the internet kill cd sales? What happens to the music industry? How does it adapt?

The internet is certainly changing the music industry, but it won't kill CD sales, at least not for quite some time. Our clients (clothing stores, coffee joints, hotels, fashion brands, furniture stores, car dealerships, restaurants etc.) are selling more CDs than ever. One of the results of the 200 new ways to get music and 35,000 new albums being released every year is that many people can't stay on top of it, so they give up. These people want someone to editorialize for them and will buy CDs if we make it easy to find them and present them with the right music.

Digital distribution will hit mass audiences when the record labels lower the price of a song from $.99 to $.50 or even $.25 apiece. Eventually, as digital distribution takes hold, the album model may fall away as artists will focus on producing and selling singles. The old artist development process that we grew up listening to is totally gone as labels now look for a big hit to explode an artist right away. If they don't find one, the artist is dropped.

3.a. Who is your favorite all time artist?

Jeff Buckley, Massive Attack

3.b. What's your favorite new artist (within the past 2-3 yrs)?

I like the heavy stuff like Failure,Year of the Rabbit, Tool and Mars Volta. Also, Dan the Automator, The Fire Theft, Clem Snide.

4. Whatever happened to the Jeff Daniel band?

Playing solo and in Big Blue Squid and Big Daddy were great fun while I was at Brown, but in NYC I was a small fish in a very big pond. My biggest listeners are now my daughters.

5. Any plans to reunite with Andrew Altschul now that you are both in San Fran?

I recently attended a reading Andrew gave of one of his short stories, but we aren’t planning any drunken acoustic night reunions in SF. (I seem to recall, or rather don’t recall, falling off a bale of hay while performing in the Chapin Lounge.) Andrew has come a long way too…he’s a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford’s prestigious graduate writing program.

6. Who's your favorite contestant (any season) on American Idol?

Every night Kristen watches it (which feels like every other night), I do my best to leave the room - I can hear it on the TV as I type this. I don't mean to be a music snob, but the show epitomizes everything I hate about the prepackaged and cookie-cutter nature of most pop music major record companies and radio conglomerates continue to jam down our throats. However, if you’d like to produce a CD of that crap for your company, please call me right away.

7. What song would you have auditioned with if they had it when we were young enough to be eligible?

Black Sabbath’s “Fairies Wear Boots” (Or “Downtown”)

8. Given the choice: chicken cutlet or baked ziti?

Definitely the cutlet, with a good size dollop of that “cheese product.”

9. What songs would you put on a cd for a 444 Brook Street reunion bash?

That’s a tough one – at the time I lived there I was listening to a lot of heavy stuff like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. But for parties, I tend to like soulful chillout stuff for background like Zero 7, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Massive Attack and Koop, so I'd probably go for that for a party. Anyway, I'd like to think we’ve all matured musically (and personally!) since those days.

10. Would Bush or Kerry be a better president for the music industry and why?

Well, Bush probably would for the major players in the industry (Warner, Sony, Disney/Halliburton and Clear Channel, etc.) as he will allow more and more consolidation, which every good Business Econ major knows increase the efficiencies of scale and investor return. However, this line of thinking leads to less free-thinking, less artistic expression and fewer new areas of music being explored. The more the industry consolidates, the more Britneys, Jessica Simpsons and Avril Lavignes there will be. Only vanilla superstars could possibly sell enough many albums to satisfy the big boys and Wall Street. So, in the end Kerry would be much better for the arts and the future of music for our kids.