JUSTIN ESHAK AND IMRAN MAJID: THE HITS INTERVIEW

On a November evening in L.A., Island Records Co-CEOs Justin Eshak and Imran Majid are mingling with buzzers and well-wishers at the Forum Club just before one of their breakthrough acts, Sabrina Carpenter, takes the stage at another of her sold-out arena concerts. In a rumpled T-shirt and sport jacket, Eshak has the air of an adjunct college professor; Majid, a little blingier, sports a blue knit Gucci polo. Both are in their early 40s, and both wear their extraordinary 2024 success lightly.

When Eshak and Imran took the reins at Island in 2022 after running the A&R department at Columbia, the label that Chris Blackwell founded and made synonymous with independence and creativity was floundering. Current market share was down to 0.7%; worse, perhaps, the label lacked an identity.

Today, Eshak and Majid preside over what is, pound for pound, the hottest label in the business. Their YTD current market share stands at 2.4%, thanks in large part to Carpenter and Amusement/Island supernova Chappell Roan. The two pop singer-songwriters are nominated for six Grammys apiece, including the entire Big 4: Record, Song and Album of the Year and Best New Artist. It’s the first time in Grammy history that one label is home to two acts nominated for all four awards in the same year.

“It’s very rare that the higher-ups trust the artist fully,” says Roan in an email. “It proves that Justin and Imran’s method of trusting in the artist results in success and longevity. I am very grateful to have a company that trusts me, and I trust them!”

“Justin and Imran are collaborative and supportive partners,” writes Carpenter. “They encourage an open dialogue, which is important to me. It’s amazing to work with them and the Island family, and even after all this time I feel like this is just the beginning!”

Island’s new beginning also includes recently signed viral sensation Gigi Perez, U.K. acts Lola Young and Olivia Dean, Latin star Carin León and Americana singers Wyatt Flores and Medium Build, along with more established artists like Shawn Mendes, Brittany Howard and The Killers.

Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge, who hired Eshak and Majid away from Columbia, warns not to be fooled by the pair’s normie vibe. “Beneath those cool demeanors are two guys who are enormously ambitious and driven, love music, are dedicated to their artists and are determined to win,” he says. “My kind of guys!”

Those kinds of guys normally wouldn’t be caught dead with guys like us, but by the time they realized this interview was for HITS and not a real magazine, it was too late.

How did you two come to run Island?

Justin Eshak: We had both worked at Republic previously. Imran was actually my intern at one point, and we developed a rapport. I went into management for a while, and he stayed at Republic. And then in 2013, he and I went to work at Columbia, and we ended up running the A&R department. We developed a bit of a reputation as a duo.

Did you mean to become work husbands?

Eshak: It's more like circumstances led to it. When we went to Columbia, there was no office space because they were going to move buildings. Ashley Newton, who was running the A&R department, wanted us to share an office. And we found out that we enjoyed it. It helped to have somebody to bounce things off of. And we covered a lot more ground in terms of genre.

We ended up co-running the A&R department when Ron Perry came in, and then he promoted us to the co-heads of A&R. So we had a bit of a reputation as partners, and then Lucian recognized that and approached the two of us.

Imran Majid: In the infinite wisdom of Sir Lucian, he was probably, like, How do I fuck the competition even more? I know, I'll take two instead of one!

What was the recruitment process like?

Majid: It was pretty straightforward, actually. It was during COVID, so we did a Zoom interview, and Lucian kind of just offered us the job.

After one Zoom?

Majid: Yeah, it was funny—when I got on the Zoom, I thought the screen was frozen because Lucian had his head down. And then he picked his head up and he goes, “Well, boys, what are we doing?”

Eshak: It was like a stress test! He said, “I'm giving you a piece of real estate you just can't say no to.” Imran and I had learned the importance of lineage from being at Columbia. I thought it fit us perfectly.

Why did you think it was such a good fit?

Eshak: There’s the legacy of the label. But at the same time, it wasn't a 300-person company. We were attracted to the idea of being able to run a label that could scale artists but was a bit smaller. It was about 50 people then.

Majid: We learned how to survive in a small company when we were part of the original Republic team, which was 23 people at the time. And then at Columbia we learned the importance of curation.

Eshak: This may sound corny, but we thought the future of the business aligned with the past of Island Records.

How so?

Eshak: I think the industry goes in different waves. One moment it can be an executive-driven business, then the next it can be producer-driven, then artist-led. I think right now it's very artist-led, and that was Island Records back in the day.

Why do you think we're in the midst of an artist-led period?

Eshak: The gatekeepers just don't have the same influence they once did. They’re reacting to what's happening in the real world, in online fandom and touring fandom.

Majid: The conversation is so different today when you speak to young artists. They’re very connected to their fans, and they want long careers. They care about touring. They care about protecting their creative craft. They care more that we as executives understand them and their vision of who they are, as opposed to what we’ve done and what our roster is.

Do you think we're living in a particularly pop-music moment right now?

Eshak: Complicated question. What’s interesting to me is that a lot of the pop that's having success is coming from the ground up. You look at Chappell or Charli xcx, they’re breaking from the culture and from being on the road, as opposed to a top-down sort of thing.

Majid: You could make a similar argument for Noah Kahan and Zach Bryan. These are all great songwriters with distinct points of view.

Was there a tipping point in the past 12 months where you guys stopped and thought, holy shit, this is really happening?

Eshak: This is a great one. We were ice-cold as a label. And then the craziest thing happened: There was an earthquake in New Jersey. A real one; my house was rattling. It was a Friday [April 5]. That earthquake changed everything.

Majid: That was the day Chappell’s “Good Luck, Babe!” came out. The next week, Sabrina’s “Espresso” comes out. Someone from our staff asked, What's the next natural disaster we can capitalize on?

Eshak: The honest answer is that Imran and I were very confident in the 2024 that Sabrina and Chappell were going to have. We talked in the beginning of the year. We're, like, If these couple of things go well, we'll be on our way.

What's the division of labor between you guys?

Eshak: Evolving.

Majid: Depends on the day.

Eshak: It used to be that when we were co-heads of A&R, there was a natural divide along genre lines. But now that he and I are doing these other things, there's no real defined distinction.

Majid: And we're a small company. Thirty dedicated people right now.

How did the Republic CORPS umbrella change things for you guys?

Eshak: It was pretty seamless, because we had a pre-existing relationship with Monte and Avery [Lipman]. There wasn't really any guessing in terms of their way of thinking or doing things. And we’d already tapped into Republic for radio, for example.

Majid: And to Monte and Avery's credit, they’ve very much allowed us to cultivate a culture at Island. Any reorg is painful, of course, because there are layoffs that come with it. But they’ve been unbelievable in terms of allowing us to do our thing while at the same time giving us access to this brain trust, overseen by Jim Roppo.

Eshak: If you look at the way that Monte and Avery have always operated that company, they give people agency in their own success. They've never been the type of leaders to try to control.

You guys obviously had hits at Columbia, but what are you finding interesting or challenging about navigating this success as co-CEOs?

Eshak: Because we're not a large company, it's been challenging figuring out what we can and can’t do. So, for example, a big part of our philosophy has been: Don't over-sign. Because we knew that if we did that, it would kill us.

As A&R guys at heart, that must be difficult.

Eshak: A&R people naturally want to get things signed. We have A&R people at Island who want to get things signed. And so we have to keep a very strong filter on what we're doing to ensure that the things that we're signing get the attention they deserve.

Majid: Another thing is, I've been behind the scenes my whole career. Even when we had success at A&R, we didn't have to be the face of the company. Now, it’s important that we're projecting what Island is, based on the success we're having. That’s new to us.

Eshak: We're learning a lot. Even this year's Grammy process was a big learning experience: the different rules, the different strategies. In our first two years at Island, we didn't have anything that would really be considered.

Majid: Lucian has this great line, which is, Assume your power. Which to me means to remind yourself that you are running this company; you are leading these people. Be vocal with the artist. Be vocal with the managers. Be vocal with your staff. And be vocal out in the market. And that's a learning curve for us.

Speaking of learning curves: Chappell has publicly struggled with some of the demands that modern celebrity brings. What role can Island play in helping her navigate the pressures?

Eshak: As far as the creative process goes, she’s pretty crystal-clear in terms of what she and Dan Nigro want to accomplish. It doesn't need any sort of navigating from us, as evidenced by her performing “The Giver” on SNL. She's the kind of artist who ultimately is going to do what she thinks is cool, what she loves.

And when's that song coming out?

Majid: TBD. But it will come out!

Eshak: In terms of navigating the pressures of everything, she just needs some space. I think her state of mind has actually been misrepresented on the Internet. She just needs downtime, to decompress, to process it. For us, it's about making sure that that time is preserved for her.

Is there someone else’s career that you see as a good model for hers?

Eshak: Bowie. Madonna. She can do so many different things. She has this ability to write a dance-pop song and then be able to perform “The Giver,” which sounds totally authentic. She's from Springfield, Missouri, and country music was part of her culture. She was probably hearing Shania Twain when she went to the grocery store. She has a way of being able to process these things and then communicate them.

What was the rationale for not putting the SNL performance of “The Giver” on YouTube?

Eshak: She wasn't ready. And the song wasn't ready.

Majid: All we really care about is the relationship between an artist and their fan base. If we get that right, and we allow the artist to be creative and take their time and build their world, good things happen. It's not conventional. Because for a lot of people, you have to keep feeding, keep feeding, keep having hits. We want to put out music based on, Is it right for the fans? And when you have people like Sabrina and Chappell, who have great instincts, it's just going to work.

Eshak: Look at the things we've been fortunate to have success with. Most of the success is coming long after the songs are released. We’re about to have that now with Lola Young, who’s signed to Island in the U.K. "Messy" came out there in the summer, and it's about to start moving here. A lot of the Chappell songs from Rise and Fall were three or four years old. If you recognize that, it takes some pressure off this idea that you have to have everything absolutely perfect when a song comes out.

You think about Gigi Perez, you think about Sabrina, and how they had to release music to sort of learn how to move forward. Labels historically have made the mistake of not allowing their artists to do that. We think about this a lot: How do we create an environment where a young artist can get to their first album sooner? The prevailing wisdom is that you’ve got to build demand, demand, demand, and you're not going to put out an album until there's this crazy demand. But that can hurt the artist's creative development.

What’s changed the most about A&R in the past few years?

Eshak: One thing that's different is that a lot of what's really working is between an artist and either one creative partner or a small core of partners. You have Chappell and Dan, Olivia and Dan, Taylor and Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, Billie Eilish and FINNEAS. Sabrina and her core team. To me, that's changed a lot from, say, five years ago, when you had artists working with lots of different writers and producers.

Majid: It also feels like there’s an emphasis on good record-makers right now. Look at Jackie Winkler, who signed Sabrina and works closely with her and whom we just promoted to head of A&R. Five years ago, it was all about identifying would-be hits and getting them out to the marketplace. Now, we're back to knowing how to make a record.

This is a broad question, but how do you see the state of hip-hop right now?

Majid: I actually just had this conversation with someone. I've seen this cycle before. It’s almost like hip-hop is in the process of shedding a skin. There’s a generational shift happening.

It’s funny—I went to Little Rock, Arkansas, recently to see a band. And I texted Justin, Monte and Avery that three or four years ago, this would have been a hip-hop crowd. But now some of those same college kids listen to Zach Bryan, they listen to Morgan Wallen, they listen to Luke Combs, they listen to Treaty Oak Revival, they listen to Shaboozey.

Eshak: I live in New Jersey, and one day a couple of years ago, I was sitting on my porch, and these three teenage boys biked by and they were blasting Zach, and that's when I knew things had changed. Because if it had been two years before that, it would have been Juice WRLD or Polo G.

Majid: Hip-hop is always going to be good. It is such a fundamentally important American genre, and it’s gone through this before.

Favorite record this year that's not on Island?

Eshak: Billie Eilish.

Majid: Billie.

Eshak: I think she's incredible.

Majid: My other one? Rod Wave, "25."

Who’s an artist from the Island archives that you've discovered or rediscovered since you got to the label?

Eshak: I've really grown to respect Robert Palmer. I knew the hits from when I was a kid, but the catalog is fascinating. Also, Steve Winwood. Some of those ’80s albums are phenomenal.

I'm not the first person to make this observation, but that was an interesting period of disruption in the business. You had MTV and the CD era, and artists were trying to figure out how to fit into the new world.

When you’re not minting new pop stars, how do you spend your time? Do you have hobbies?

Majid: During the gardening leave Sony put us on for nine months, I took up golf. It’s so clichéd, but it changed my life. I wish I’d started sooner. It wasn't about the networking; it was just for me.

Eshak: I'm like an old man. I go fishing with my son. I like to read a lot of nonfiction.

What have you read recently?

Eshak: I'm reading a book called Sleepwalkers, about the political conditions leading into World War I. I'm reading Kochland, about the Koch brothers. I'll find something that will pique my interest, and I'll listen to every podcast that I can about it.

Majid: We are so different with our hobbies. I like golf, I like watches, I like fast cars. But we're both down-to-earth New Jersey residents at heart.

Photos (from top): Majid and Eshak with yet another sign of their success (photo: Andrew Zaeh); With UMG topper Sir Lucian Grainge and Sabrina Carpenter; the Islanders with Republic co-founders Monte and Avery Lipman; with Carpenter; Majid and Eshak fail to avoid a photo op with our own Lenny Beer; with Gigi Perez and Island's PJ Walshe; Eshak with Olivia Dean; Eshak and Majid flank Chappell Roan; Eshak with Brittany Howard; the pair with Island founder Chris Blackwell