NOISEMAKERS: THE SPRING SYNDICATE
In our latest roundup, we present eight more stars of tomorrow from various parts of the biz whose dedication and effort make their superiors look good.
This week's entrants will also find their faces in our most recent mag. Lucky for them, this feature—and $8.95—will get them a "special" chaggacino latte from participating Whole Foods locations.
Alisa Applegate
VP, Promotion, Virgin Music
Amy Winehouse’s 2007 performance at The Roxy was understandably a career highlight for Applegate. She’s currently boosting Lauv’s “All 4 Nothing (So in Love),” “a feel-good song for the summer,” Surfaces’ “I Can’t Help But Feel”—deemed “fuego!”—Rema’s earworm “Calm Down,” off March’s Rave and Roses, Culture Jam’s “Waves” f/Gunna & Polo G and Renni Rucci’s “Don’t Like Me”—“next up for all the bad bitches.” When she’s not cooking up promotion strategy, Applegate’s cookin’ in the kitchen. We’ve been told to stay out of the kitchen (we can’t take the heat).
Max Braun
Agent, Wasserman Music
Having worked with Rex Orange County (whom he met via SoundCloud) since 2015, Braun is savoring the triumph of the English artist’s latest tour—which boasts a score of sold-out dates, including one at the Hollywood Bowl—in support of his new album, WHO CARES? Braun is likewise overseeing road shows for such acts as slowthai, BADBADNOTGOOD, Disclosure, Sad Night Dynamite, Adam Melchor and Gesaffelstein. “One of my best friends owns a ghost town where I spent a lot of time during the pandemic,” he reports. Any town with us in it tends to become a ghost town.
Kim Valderas
Senior Director Artist Relations, Motown Records
Valderas had the pleasure of working with Migos in 2018 when they hit the road with Drake for Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour LIVE!, one of the highest-grossing rap outings in history. She’s also lent her expertise to the careers of artists like Lil Yachty, City Girls and Lil Baby. Nowadays she’s wrangling SXSW and Coachella dates, a tour for Tiana Major9 (who is supporting Jazmine Sullivan) and Kem’s co-headlining trek with Babyface. Back in the day, Valderas practiced aerial acrobatics. Alas, she was unable to silk her way out of appearing in these pages.
Josh Love
Partner, Reed Smith LLP – Entertainment and Media
In 2015 LaPolt Law principal Dina LaPolt gave Love his first shot at being a music attorney, which he calls “a dream come true.” The California State Summer School of the Arts Foundation board member joined Reed Smith in 2016, excelling at catalog acquisition and now also advising clients on music-rights issues related to digital-content distribution and new technologies (including NFTs and other web3 applications). A 2014 USC law school grad, Love loves him an authentic L.A. hole-in-the-wall. It’s a shame he couldn’t avoid this hole-in-the-music-industry.
Meg Hourihan
Director, Licensing & Soundtracks, RCA
Hourihan was stoked to see the Taco Bell commercial she worked on—which featured Doja Cat covering Hole’s “Celebrity Skin”—air during this year’s Super Bowl. In 2021 she doubled the number of placements she secured in 2020 and thereafter got Tate McRae’s “you broke me first” into the trailer for February’s The In Between. A self-proclaimed “professional fangirl,” Hourihan, who has an M.A. in Producing Film and Television from Royal Holloway, University of London, appears for exactly three seconds in a 2014 McBusted video. You can catch us at McDonald’s.
Ben Farber
Senior Director, Streaming Strategy, Warner Records
Farber was critical to enacting WMG and Amazon’s largest partnership to date, 2019’s pact with The Head and The Heart, which saw a Pike Place Market rooftop performance (and livestream) attended by 20k, Prime documentary and exclusive live album. More recently, he made Omar Apollo an Apple Music UpNext Artist and worked on campaigns for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Unlimited Love, Neil Young’s Barn (securing a Zane Lowe interview) and Zach Bryan’s “From Austin.” In 2022 Farber achieved a long-held goal: completing the Ventura Marathon. We slipped on a banana peel.
Nina Lee
Director of Communications, The Oriel
Born in Brazil and raised in L.A. by Korean parents, Lee is proud to have seen client 88rising make history with Asian talent on Coachella’s main stage (and to serve as a role model for Asian Americans climbing the biz ladder). She’s also publicizing Amazon Music, godmode (the music company behind Channel Tres), UPSAHL (who just made her TV debut on Corden), Sean Paul (whose Scorcha drops 5/27), Maxwell (touring arenas with Anthony Hamilton & Joe) and Grammy winner Lucky Daye. Lee makes restaurant-quality chicken wings. You should see us do the Chicken Dance.
Jed Weitzman
Head of Music, Logitix
Few people can say they met Neil Young while the legend was wearing a wizard hat, but Weitzman can also claim he worked with Gary Shandling on The Larry Sanders Show and lived in Rome while helping Morrissey make Ringleader of the Tormentors. At Logitix, he enhances artists’ understanding of the secondary ticketing market so they can successfully navigate the primary (it’s all about the data). Weitzman informs: “I take ice baths every Sunday and for a sober guy, there’s no better rush.” The data actually shows there’s no better rush than avoiding us.
