Member Spotlight #6: Susan Busch, Director of A&R at Domino Records & Domino Publishing North America
Interview by Tara Gardner
I’ve had the sincere pleasure of corresponding with Susan over the course of a couple of weeks over emails and man, it’s the same feeling I got back when I was 10 years old, writing letters to my summer camp pen pal…
Since the recent (has it not been 100 days yet?!) change in the U.S. administration, personal relationships have taken more of a serious weight in my life which is no surprise — it’s the need, now more than ever, to surround yourself with positive, good people. But I also find new acquaintances and strangers on the street affecting my mood/outlook more than usual. It reinforces daunting feelings when strangers are unkind, and it’s like a weight has lifted when people are pleasant for no reason.
Of course, this is all inspired by my emails with Susan. And this intro has nothing to do with Susan’s career which really needs no introduction… so here’s to shining a light on good people. May they, much like Susan, find success in big areas of their life so we have somewhere to put our pride and know at least some things are as they should be.
SUSAN BUSCH
Director of A&R at Domino Records & Domino Publishing North America
shesaid.so: How did you land your first career position?
Susan Busch: I was the music director at my college radio station in Austin, TX (KVRX) and while I was there I interned for a few labels and promotion companies to learn more about the business. I was also a BMG College Rep during my last year of school which led to a full time job as a Sales Assistant out of the BMG Atlanta branch after graduation.
ssso: How did you transition from heading Radio Promotions at Sub Pop into an A&R role?
SB: I was hired to do college radio and slowly, as the years went on, I took on non comm, commercial and then eventually oversaw the whole dept. It was a great experience and I’m very glad to have learned so much about how radio works, but my personality isn’t necessarily 100% suited for promo and I always wanted to do A&R.
At Sub Pop the A&R group is a committee that you have to be invited to join so I started passing along new bands that I liked to the group just to plant the seed that it was something I was interested in. A couple of those bands got signed to majors or major indies and I think that’s what finally got my foot in the door. That said, I still ran the Radio Dept. there until about 2010. Most of the people that do A&R there pull double duty.
ssso: How has A&R changed throughout your career?
SB: One major change, at least for me, is the number of artists I work with who prefer to make records on their own rather than with a producer in a proper studio. The traditional, or what some might call “old school”, method of signing a band/artist, getting a batch of demos together, spending a while talking about producers to find the best match and then booking studio time, is becoming less and less the norm. So many artists want to self-produce now and make records at home. It’s cut out some steps of the record making process, but I haven’t found that it’s impacted the artist/A&R dynamic in a negative way. It’s just a new way of working!
ssso: How do you discover new music? Or, what’s your favorite way to discover new music?
SB: This is always the hardest question for me to answer because it changes so often. There was so much music discovery to be done with the plethora of small blogs that existed in the early 2000s. The culture of hyping something to death wasn’t quite in place yet so bands were allowed to exist for a bit longer before exploding. I wasn’t really friends with any managers or lawyers when I first started doing A&R so I just combed the internet for new blogs and took in as much new music as much as I could. So at first it was mostly that. Then of course there’s the live element which I would say is my favorite way to get sucked into something new. Chances are, if you’re going to see a band you already like you might like the opener. I’ve found some of my favorite artists by just bothering to show up early. I don’t use scouts but I do bend the ear of people around me and talk to artists about other projects that are exciting to them.
Lately I’ve found that exploring connections between people I already know and love, whether that be location or related projects, has led me to some really interesting discoveries. For instance I work with an artist called Hand Habits at Domino Publishing and I discovered her while she was playing guitar for another one of our publishing clients. I went to see him but was just transfixed by her guitar playing. It was actually her first show playing with his band too. She just blew me away. Turns out she has her own artist project and now we work together!
ssso: Do you have any A&R deal-breakers?
SB: I do actually. I’ve been doing this long enough to draw some firm lines in the sand. I won’t work with people who are disrespectful to me or the team at Domino. I also won’t work with people that have managers that are disrespectful. The people that surround me work so hard and I truly believe it’s part of my job to bring in artists that are going to enrich their working experience. It’s not always going to be awesome and there will for sure be a bit of chaos but when the environment is toxic, a project is doomed from the get-go. I learned that the hard way and it’s a lesson I took to heart.
ssso: What does your work-life balance look like? Are you always reachable? If so, why is that important to you? If not, where do you (personally) draw the line?
SB: My work-life balance has changed a bit since I’ve had my daughter and I’d say it’s absolutely for the better. I try very hard to leave early enough to feed her dinner and put her to bed and that’s 100% our time. I’m still largely available but I don’t allow myself to get sucked into work during the hours that are dedicated to her. The world will not come to an end if I don’t answer an email for a couple of hours. I do have an open door policy with my artists though. Everyone has my personal contact info and is totally free to call me anytime. It’s very important to me that everyone I work with feels like they can come to me with anything.
ssso: What does good leadership look like?
SB: A good leader listens, is available, gives constructive criticism, supports growth and motivates.
ssso: What has been your proudest career moment?
SB: That’s a tough one! I’ve had a lot of reasons to be proud over the years. I will say that having a group, Bob Moses, nominated for two Grammys this year was very cool. They worked so so hard and were really excited by it all. It’s fallen out of fashion in some industry circles to be excited by the Grammys but I was thrilled that they were recognized. And the fact that they were so excited made it that much more meaningful. They won one of them too! We all went to the ceremony together and just had a ball. I felt very proud to be there with them that day.
ssso: What lesson have you learned the hard way?
SB: I was very young when I started out in this business and I didn’t speak up for myself enough for a long time. I could have avoided some pretty bad work experiences by just addressing issues head on, immediately. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. If you don’t use your voice there’s no hope to start a dialogue to try and solve whatever the problem is. As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten much more assertive.
ssso: Is there an aspect of the music business you would like to see change? What would you push for or do differently?
SB: There are so many things I’d like to see change, but one thing that’s been heavy on my mind lately is the state of music journalism. I would love love love to see music journalism get back to a better place. Some of the most widely read sites have basically been turned into paid content outlets or gossip mags. Not having websites or print publications that cover emerging acts in a meaningful way hurts so many parts of the business. Entire campaigns are derailed because so many of the outlets that used to be launch pads for a project no longer do longform coverage or even review records consistently.
I’m hopeful that something new will emerge soon. There have been some signs of light lately with sites like Talkhouse and The Creative Independent.
ssso: Where do you get your fuel/drive/inspiration from?
SB: I still get such a rush when I find something I love. It doesn’t even have to be a band or artist I have any intention of signing. But finding a big tune or seeing a really great show can give me energy for days. And I’ve found a whole new drive after having my daughter. It’s been really motivating! I hope that she sees how much I love what I’m doing and is inspired to chase whatever her own passion is.
ssso: What’s the next big thing?
SB: Australia. The whole continent. Nothing but good vibes coming out of that place right now. (I’m only half kidding.)
ssso: What should we know about you or what you’re currently working on?
SB: Speaking of Australia! I’m working with a new band from Australia called Middle Kids that have been on tour for the past few weeks in the US and I just couldn’t be more excited about them. They just made it through what could have been a soul crushing 7 shows in 3 days plus countless radio performances and interviews during SXSW with smiles on their faces and a bunch of new fans under their belts. I can’t wait to see how things develop for them in the coming year.
