THE INDEPENDENT- HOW ANGIE APARO LOST HIS LABEL & FOUND HIS HOME
by Bret Love
There are millions of musicians who would kill for the good fortune of Atlanta-based singer-songwriter Angie Aparo, who hooked up with producer Matt Serletic and signed to Clive Davis’ Arista Records in the late ‘90s. His debut album, The American, broke through at modern rock radio in 2000 on the strength of his hit single, “Spaceship,” and his song “Cry” was later covered by Faith Hill, who ultimately won a Best Female Vocal Performance Grammy.
But while Aparo admits enjoying his brief climb to the music biz mountaintop, tectonic shifts in the industry’s structure soon left him without a label, major or otherwise. These days Aparo is among the thousands of indie artists using the Internet to build his fan base, and his last 5-song EP, El Primero Del Tres, was entirely self-released despite production by Dan Huff (Dixie Chicks, Faith Hill, Rascall Flatts). We recently caught up with Aparo to discuss his return to the indie world, and how websites like MySpace are changing the way music is marketed and promoted.
How did your life change when you went from being an unknown singer-songwriter to a Top 40 artist on a major label?
It changed it dramatically. From an artistic standpoint, working with those kinds of people always produces huge growth if you’re willing to let it. In a weird way, I struggled with losing the independent spirit I’d grown up in. I had creative freedom, but it took me a while to adapt to having people around me when I was used to getting in a car with my guitar and playing up the coast. It becomes a whole machine, and it took me a while to realize that everyone was on my side. But the interaction with Clive Davis was especially amazing.
Was there anything in particular you learned from him that stays with you now that you’re back in the indie world?
Oh, sure! My philosophy is that if you think you know what anything in life is as you approach it, you eliminate everything it could be. Going into that relationship I was just so open to it, and I picked up so many little things from Clive– everything from how to build a set list to how to view art. I tend to enjoy those lessons, and I definitely carry them with me.
It was a fruitful collaboration; why did your relationship with Arista fall apart?
Clive was being pushed out of the company and we got caught up in it. We were about to release “Cry” as the next single, so we were postured to break out. We had an option to follow him, but we thought it would take him a year to start the new company, so we figured we’d get lost in the shuffle either way. We bet on staying with L.A. Reid, and it just didn’t pan out.
How do you view the monolithic changes in the music business since you began your career? It seems like a completely different ballgame now.
Yeah, it really is all about the Internet now. I love it, and we’re using every aspect of it. To be able to shoot me singing a song in my hotel room and have it as a podcast an hour later is just insane. It’s approaching the immediacy of live performing. I still think the right relationship with a strong indie or major label is valuable. But where before it was, “God, give us ANY record deal, please!” now it has to be really right. I think all the access to fans through the Internet has really strengthened indie labels, and that’s the most exciting thing for me. I think it’s good for business.
You may be releasing your music independently these days, but you’re working with Dan Huff. How did that relationship come about?
That was through the interaction with Faith. I was close to having three songs on her last record, two of which I sang on, but for various reasons they got dropped from the record. I met Dan during those sessions when I was singing backup for her, and he and I hit it off. We were sitting around one night and I said, “I don’t have a deal and I don’t have any money for someone of your stature, but would you wanna do something together?” He said yeah.
The success Faith had with “Cry” must have given you some financial freedom. Has your success as a songwriter made it easier for you to take a more independent road as a performer?
Yeah, I think so. I’m living in Atlanta, but I’ve been going to Nashville every couple of months. I’d never co-written a song before I started meeting all these unbelievably wonderful writers, and it’s good for me because I’ve found a community up there. If you’re a good songwriter, you can go up to Nashville and make a good living. But without really going after [a career as a songwriter], I don’t know how many “Cry”-type hits you’re gonna get. I think being a songwriter will allow me to take more risks as a performer, but I don’t know, because I’m not making a conscious effort to get cuts. But it definitely allows you to make decisions like, “Well, I don’t really want a label right now...”
Your last release was the first of three planned EPs. What’s the concept behind them?
I was writing songs for the first EP, and there was a line in “Spider Song” that says, “We all need our enemies.” That just sat in the back of my head for a while, and the more I thought about it, the more these songs about conflict and war and peace came to me. Not just the war of nations, but internal conflicts, relationships... So the whole second record came from that one line, and the third record deals with love and unity, and the inspiration for that came from a song on the first EP called “Only.” So in a weird way the first EP gave birth to these other two records. The whole idea of conceptual works has sort of gotten lost in the age of digital music. So it all goes back to the idea of being free as an artist, and wanting to remind myself that the best art comes when you’re not worrying about the business side of things.
No comments:
Post a Comment