Vine Leaves Literary Journal first featured 6 of my paintings earlier this year in issue #6 of their magazine. I woke up this morning to an email from their team that I’ve been selected for their new “Best of 2013” issue, which releases December 1st. It’s always an honor to be recognized for my work. Much love to Vines Leaves for this honor. Check out the screenshots below and stay tuned […]

First of all, I want to congratulate you for taking a big step forward in your career as a songwriter.  If you’re considering submitting one (or several) of your songs for a music business opportunity, then you’ve gone to the next level beyond just writing songs and hoping the world will come to you.  This being the case, there are a couple of classic mistakes you should be careful to […]

The internet has been on fire ever since Pitbull announced his next major single, Timber, which will also feature Ke$ha. Personally, I’ve known about this for a few weeks now, as my client Sermstyle actually produced the record (now a co-production with Dr. Luke). Excited is an understatement! Pit is a HUGE international artist that sell$ and this record is easily a #1 at Billboard. From Pit’s tweets you’ll be able to judge […]

So I woke up this morning to another art feature. Talk about blessed! This actually marks my 25th magazine feature since Janurary 2012. Anyways, the newest issue of Sliver of Stone Magazine features my Veils of Carnality painting. Check out a screenshot below and click here to view the full feature.

Champaign, Illinois-based art and literary magazine, Storm Cellar Quarterly reached out to me recently about featuring my art in their newest release. Of course every look is a great look, but they actually wanted to display my Heartache Sit Down painting on the cover of their magazine. That’s huge! This actually marks my 3rd magazine cover and I’m definitely looking forward to more. Check out the screenshot below and click here […]

One thing that fascinates me about how bands develop is the ‘leaps’ where a band grows exponentially over a short period of time. Very few bands grow at an incremental rate their whole career – but what causes these leaps? In practical terms, how can you double or triple the size of your fan base in a short period of time? I urge you to not just read this post […]

I’ve watched some of my students grow into exceptional writers, begin relationships with publishers, and end up with staff-writing deals—even number one singles. But most of the songs I heard were “good”—and “good” isn’t good enough to rise above the work being produced by the top hit makers. Recording artists who are writing for themselves need to write exceptional songs that define and support their artistic identity, while having an […]

Recently, the MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS drove an astonishing 18,495,883 tweets over the course of the event and at various points throughout the evening even garnered 306,100, 219,800, and 194,500 tweets per minute at different moments. Was your brand active in real-time conversations surrounding the VMA’s? Is your Twitter account often active during publicized events? This is just one way of actively placing your brand in front of relevant conversations and adding […]

Not-at-all newsflash: The music industry is a completely different animal than it once was. While it’s true that the music industry has been a perpetually evolving beast since the beginning, never before have we seen such super-sized, fundamental shifts in such a relatively small time in terms of how music is produced, shared, bought and sold, and how success is quantified and achieved. For future generations, this new way of […]

This past weekend was iStandard’s BeatCamp LA and the staff reached out to have me host a panel/class. In essence, the topic was “Meeting the A&R” and I discussed how creators and managers can prepare for meetings with A&R executives. I truly enjoy sharing my experience in the business so we actually ended up discussing a lot more than expected. Take out your notepad and check out the full 45min video below.