Industry Veteran Dan Catullo Talks About the "Road" to Success
by Hal Selzer
"You have to hit the Internet and tour like crazy. That's what we're doing with these bands," says Dan Catullo, president and CEO of Coming Home Studios, who has just started a new label, Cement Shoes Records. "They have to stay on the road until I tell them to come home. I don't think radio translates into sales like it used to."
Catullo is basing the new label on what he sees as a current lack of artist development at the major labels. "Major labels don't want to take risks anymore because everybody's head is on the chopping block," he says. "God forbid anybody takes a risk. They follow the same formula, whether it's Mariah Carey or Hawthorne Hts., you know, 'If the single sticks we'll keep going, if not we'll give up.'" It's about building up a fan base. Most big bands take two or three records to build it up. You can't run a music company by a formula; formulas don't exist. Careers don't happen overnight, they happen over time, over building things up. It fascinates me how people aren't developing artists anymore. I love it because their loss is my gain. We're going to develop these artists."
Dan knows about what he speaks. His experience includes dealing with just about every major label, and includes over 15 years in the music business. Starting as a tour manager, he ended up heading Coming Home Studios, for which he produced over 40 television specials and live concert DVDs for artists including Matchbox Twenty, Dave Matthews Band, Godsmack, Duran Duran, Marilyn Manson, the Go-Go's, Rush and Usher. He was recently awarded a JUNO Award (the Canadian Grammy) for directing and producing "Rush In Rio." He's also been nominated for three Grammy Awards and a Billboard Music Award.
Although very successful in the video field, he really wanted to get deeper into the music end of things. "I went to a friend of mine, Peter Kupco, the founder of London Records," he says. "I partnered with Peter and we brought in Jimmy Rollins, the Phillies shortstop, as an investor partner. He wanted to have a label, and has a bunch of urban acts. We're not an indie, we're not a major. We have big budgets, real marketing budgets. Touring's the key; that's why we started the Congress Of Corruption tour. We had a semi out there with a huge production. So we're really big believers in touring. My partners and I really believe in the same philosophy."
The Congress Of Corruption tour features three of the acts on the label: Ill Nino, Ra and Godhead. All three had developed an initial fan base at former labels, but didn't have sufficient sales volumes to keep a major interested. Catullo stepped in and not only signed them, but put them out on a six-week trek with major production, tour bus, the whole deal. The tour was a great success. "In just one month, our unique visitors on the website went up by over 200,000 people," he says. "All three bands were seen as openers, but on this tour they were seen as huge headliners."
While the touring base has always been a staple of the heavy metal scene, Catullo isn't limiting the label to those types of acts. Anything he thinks can be built into a major artist will attract his attention. "I won't sign a band that's considered a trend," he states. "Like, I don't know if emo is going to last. I want career bands here that will grow with us. We want bands where each record will get better and better. It's challenging. The DVD business isn't challenging anymore. I just did Nickelback; where's the challenge in that? You know it's going to be number one. It's not something I'm doing for money; I'm doing it for passion. I have tons of Gold records from the DVDs of the bands I've done. It's going to be really gratifying for me to have a Gold album on my wall from one of these bands that I built up."
He advises bands to look long term, and look at what's happening and revise their business plan accordingly. "For example, there are markets where a record is on top in radio play, and it's not translating into sales," he explains. "Soundscan shows that sales were in areas where the band played. 'Aha, it's all about touring with these guys.' Every artist we have, I tell, 'Stay on the road until I call you.' It's like the Godsmack way. They went on the road relentlessly, and they stayed on the road until they built their base up."
