A TASTE OF RAINMAKERS:
IAN HOLDER
Sony Music Publishing SVP Creative Ian Holder is a crucial player in pubco chief Jon Platt’s world, though Holder served at the company for some time before his boss’ arrival. In his current post, he plays a key role in developing A&R and is spearheading the pubbery’s growth in the creative hotbed of Atlanta. His signings include breakout rapper Jack Harlow, as well as Moneybagg Yo, Lil Tjay and Lil Durk; before that he served at BMI, where he was director of writer & publisher relations.
Can you take me through your early life, where you grew up and when music first was important to you?
I was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Long Island. My parents immigrated here in the ’70s from Guyana. So, my older sister and I are first generation. I remember music and sports being an important fixture in my household early. My first experience with music was playing viola in the school orchestra. My sister was into Top 40 pop. My mom was into soca, calypso, reggae. My dad was into soft rock and jazz. I wasn’t a fan of hip-hop until the early ’90s because I felt it didn’t have enough melody.
Do you remember the first time you discovered music of any genre that electrified you?
Yeah, it was probably hip-hop—watching Video Music Box at a friend’s house. It piqued my curiosity, and I started to dive into that aspect of culture. It became who I was. But the different musical interests helped shaped my thoughts, even to this day, and how I respond to that first note of a song.
I remember being the baby of the family, riding all the way in the back. We were driving with my older cousins in our Subaru station wagon. And one of my cousins popped in a Pharcyde cassette. It just resonated. Once there started to be more melody in hip-hop, it started to draw me in. Even to this day, I’m a sucker for melody. It makes my heart smile thinking about those days.
Before you had your first gig, where did you see your career? Did you envision something in music early on or did that happen by happenstance?
Early on, probably before college, I knew I wanted to work in either sports or music. First I failed at sports. I went to Christopher Newport University in Virginia for basketball, and I played at Nassau Community College in Long Island. Junior year, I changed my major two or three times; I wasn’t inspired. I knew the only things that could inspire me were sports and music.
Toward the end of my junior year, a friend and I decided to start a record label. We didn’t know anything about anything. We didn’t have any relationships. We just wanted to be the next Roc-A-Fella Records. I decided to go back to junior college; at the same time, I enrolled at the Institute of Audio Research to learn engineering and get the basics of how to communicate in the studio. If I was going do this, I needed to take it seriously and create a foundation. Also, I knew at the end of that nine-month program, they helped you get an internship. I remember they had five places for me to meet. Three of them were studios; the other two Zomba and Epic.
My first meeting was with Epic, and I remember walking into that building, I had never been in a record label before, and coming up the elevator, you hear this noise, noise pollution, almost. As soon as the elevators doors opened, it was music from here, music from here, music from over there, posters everywhere, people in jeans. And there was this energy. I’ve been hooked ever since.
Who did you meet there?
I met Amanda Rosamilia [now Simone] and Dino Delvaille in A&R operations. I remember convincing Amanda not only to hire me but to let me start that day. She was supposed to make me wait until the semester started because I was supposed to be getting credits for it. From that point on, I interned for 11 straight months until they created an assistant role for me.
Did you see a place for yourself at the label? Did you immediately want to be in A&R?
I didn’t see a path for me because at that time interning at a label was different than it is now. You didn’t get paid, and a department could have about seven interns and everybody’s fighting for the same job that may not even open up. But I knew I wanted to be in A&R. If anything, I thought it was gonna be at a label.
Read the complete interview here.
