Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture
Welcome to "Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture," where we delve into the essence of branding beyond the surface sheen. A brand is more than just a logo or a slogan; it's a reflection of identity, values, and reputation that resonates within our cultural landscape. Enjoy as we peel back the layers to uncover the raw, authentic stories behind the people and products that shape our world.
This isn't your average corporate podcast. Join Tom Frank, partner and chief creative officer at Merrick Creative, Mickey Factz, Hip Hop Artist and Founder and CEO of Pendulum Ink, and Jeffrey Sledge, a seasoned music industry veteran, for "Unglossy" as they get to the heart of what truly drives individual and organizational brand . In a world where where image is carefully curated and narratives meticulously crafted, we're here to explore the moments of vulnerability, pivotal decisions, and creative sparks that fuel the relationship between brand and culture.
Get ready for a thought-provoking journey into the heart and soul of branding – the unscripted, unfiltered, and truly Unglossy truth. Tune in to "Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @UnglossyPod and join the conversation.
Unglossy is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios. Let your story take the mic. Learn more at https://merrick-studios.com
Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture
Shawn Barron on Mixed and Mastered
On the debut episode of "Mixed and Mastered," Jeffrey Sledge sits down with A&R visionary Sean Barron to uncover the untold stories behind modern music’s biggest stars. From discovering Drake on MySpace to shaping hits at Atlantic Records, Barron shares how instinct, hustle, and timing propelled him from Buffalo to the industry’s inner circle. With behind-the-scenes insights on working with talents like Miguel, Frank Ocean, and Bruno Mars, this episode offers a rare look at the art—and heart—of making music that lasts.
Subscribe and listen to the full episode at https://mixedandmasteredpod.buzzsprout.com/
Unglossy will be back later this week with playwright, poet, actor, director, and producer, Keenan Scott II.
"Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture," is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio and hosted by Merrick Chief Creative Officer, Tom Frank, hip hop artist and founder of Pendulum Ink, Mickey Factz, and music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to hear this thought-provoking discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @UnglossyPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://unglossypod.buzzsprout.com/
Unglossy listeners. Last week, we gave you the official trailer for a new podcast from Merrick Studios called Mixed and Mastered, with host Jeffrey Sledge, and now here's a sneak peek of episode one of Mixed and Mastered with special guest Sean Barron, an A&R mastermind. Enjoy.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Mixed and Mastered, the podcast where the stories of the music industry come to life. I'm Jeffrey Sledge, bringing you real conversations with the people who have shaped the sound of music. We're pulling back the curtain on what it takes to make it in the music business. These are the stories you won't hear anywhere else, told by the people who live them. This is Mixed and Mastered. Okay, we're here at Mixed and Mastered. One of my favorite people, sean Barry from Buffalo, new York, buffalo's finest, appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Yeah, man, thank you for appearing, man, I'm looking forward to this interview. It's going to be good man.
Speaker 2:So like I said you grew up in Buffalo, new York. You know York, with Westside, gunn and Benny and all those guys. Yes, sir, home of Rick James. Yes, sir, wait, do y'all count? Is it Niagara Falls? That's not you. Is that Buffalo? I mean, that's close enough, it's close enough, right, close enough. It's like 20 minutes away, exactly. I remember years ago, man, when I did promotions before I did A&R, and one of my stations was WBLK, okay, yeah, in Buffalo. I remember going up there and the guy, the program director, the music director at the time, a guy named Roger, came up to me and said he's a good dude. He took me to the place where he said they invented buffalo wings At the Anchor Bar.
Speaker 3:That's probably it, yeah, some restaurant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but those are not the best wings. No, they wasn't really five, but I was like these ain't really that good. I mean, I respect you bringing me here, but these ain't really like lit. It's other spots way better, way I figured, yeah, yeah, so tell me a little bit about growing up in Buffalo.
Speaker 3:No, it was good. I had a cool childhood, was heavy going outside every day with my friends, was playing basketball almost every day. That was like my thing. Yeah, just had a cool childhood Just riding my bike around the neighborhood. Regular kid stuff. Yeah, regular kid stuff Outside every day. The computer didn't come till like later on. I think I got a computer when I was like in eighth or ninth grade. So, uh, that's when that that came along and then I was more so on the computer and doing all that stuff. But, yeah, just regular childhood, regular.
Speaker 3:Just, how'd you tap into the music? Yeah, I mean, I think my mom had a part to play in that. She was always playing music around the house. My cousin was a dj and he still is a dj. Okay, shout out a tech, he's a dj down here in atlanta right now. Okay, he was at the radio station at 10 b10. Okay, yeah, so shout out to him. Shit, sorry about that. No, that's all good. Yeah, so shout out to him. He was a dj that, no, that's all good. Yeah, so shout out to him. He was a DJ. He put me on to a lot of stuff. I remember hearing early Nas, early, you know, big L all that stuff from him, so shout out to him. And then I just think that, yeah, I just loved music, I was always into it.
Speaker 3:I was always looking for the newest songs. Loved music, I was always into it, I was always looking for the newest songs, I was always looking for the new artists. Yeah, just being outside too, like in here, having cars go by and just playing all the new stuff. I remember hearing Nori for the first time N-O-R-E Nori I had somebody inspire for the first time and I was like what's that? Yeah, just all stuff like that being in it. See, I was like what's that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, just all stuff like that. Just being in it, being in it, yeah, being in it. So you said you played ball. You still play, man, I haven't played ball in forever. You gave it up. You let it go.
Speaker 3:I got to get back out there, though. No, I want to get back out there, I just haven't.
Speaker 2:I haven't played in forever.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you playing every day, hours and hours a day. Yeah, when I went to high school I ended up playing varsity, started for three years. I got some accomplishments. First team all catholic because I went to a catholic school, okay. So yeah, I was a hooper cool, cool, cool.
Speaker 2:And I know, I know the hooping took you to college. You played in seton hall yep, yep, I didn't play.
Speaker 3:So I made the team, but I ended up not playing. Okay, the coach was like, since I was a walkon, it really wasn't a spot for me. He was like you'll make the team, you'll practice with the team, you'll travel, but you're not going to play in any games. And that sort of discouraged me. But I should have just kept going because I was good. I would have probably ended up playing, but I just let those words discourage me and then was looking for my next outlet, and that's when music came into the spotlight. So tell us about that. How?
Speaker 2:did that happen?
Speaker 3:Yeah, my homie A-Butter. He was a rapper and he was like yo, you should manage me. And I didn't know what to do. So I went and got an internship and I ended up interning at Republic Records, the building on 57th and Broadway. I was going there three times a week and just learning a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 2:It was cool. Who'd you work for over at the Republic.
Speaker 3:It was this dude named Jordan Walker, and so I interned in new media, which is like digital marketing, now slash A&R, and at that time sorry about that At that time it was MySpace. That was like the big thing.
Speaker 3:So he was searching for artists on MySpace and he like taught me like how to go through the three columns and search for all the artists you could like pinpoint, cities, countries. It was crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he taught me how to do that and the first artist who I came up on doing that was Drake, and that sort of like led to, you know, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. So I know you said you reached out to Drake and had a conversation with him.
Speaker 3:So I reached out to. So after my internship I started working at Koch. So this was the time when Jim Jones was over there he had just dropped ball and DJ Khaled was over there. Ray J was over there when he did Sexy Can.
Speaker 2:I Younger, it was a real machine at that time.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I hit Drake up like months before I even started working at Koch. I hit him. I hit Drake up like months before I even started working at Koch. I hit him. He hit me back, he sent me his info and he just so happened to be in New York for a Degrassi thing. So I remember he was like yo come meet with me the day before the meeting. So we went to his hotel. He was staying at the Time Hotel.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, the Time Hotel. He was staying there with me and my homie, danny, went there. We chopped it up with him and the next day we brought him in for a meeting with Allen. What was the vibe like?
Speaker 2:back then.
Speaker 3:He was super cool. He just wanted to work. I remember him mentioning Kanye and Pharrell at that time, which is funny where stuff happened. Yeah, he was super cool, super humble. I mean he still seems the same way to this day. I haven't spoken to him in forever, but he still seems like a humble guy. Still seems like a humble guy, yeah, but uh, yeah, we brought him up there. They unfortunately passed on him and then I just started telling other people about him and that's how I met mike karen.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, so tell me about that.
Speaker 3:Well, mike mike, mike the scientist, yeah so, uh, it's funny, me and my homie danny, we was doing like unsigned artist showcases in New York Okay.
Speaker 2:Where did you do those showcases oh?
Speaker 3:man, we did them at two different places. I forgot which places they were. The first one we had Mickey Facts. We had Currency. We had Nipsey Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was crazy, the people you had eventually got signed yeah, got eventually got signed, yeah, yeah we was definitely on to something, so uh we had made a flyer and we just emailed the fly.
Speaker 3:We got a list of industry contacts and we just emailed it to everybody and mike caron hit me back. He was like yo, this is dope. He's like send me whatever artists and producers that you think I should be looking at. So I sent him drake and I sent him a bunch of other stuff that I was looking at at the time and we stayed in contact and right after so, 2009 came around and we all got laid off at kotch. Um, it was the recession and it was just those times. So, uh, I was like what am I gonna do next? So I found this artist on myspace. His name was amir obey. At that time he's going by fresh, he does it and I sent it to mike and mike was like yo, this is crazy. He flew us out to la literally the next week and then he signed him and gave me a job at atlanta.
Speaker 2:So amir obey, that's not the kid, uh. Portland.
Speaker 3:No, no, he's from well, he's from Detroit and Brooklyn. He's from both, but I think he was signed to Def Jam after he got off Atlantic.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, okay, cool.
Speaker 3:So you got him signed over, so I got him signed to Atlantic and, yeah, he gave me an A&R job and literally got thrown into the fire. I didn't know what I was doing. I was doing, I was just up there.
Speaker 2:I knew music. Of course, you were in the process of doing A&R how to make records.
Speaker 3:I was just doing A&R. I didn't really know what I was doing but, I, was in the fire and I learned quickly. He definitely taught me the process of song making and making hit songs and all that stuff and I just took it and I soaked it in and I just added it to you know, because I go for feeling, I added the process of making a hit record to the feeling and it's history ever since.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I hate to sound like the old dude you know what I'm saying Back in my day, but I think that a lot of what you said that feeling thing, is missing more now. There are records that have feeling it's not like nobody's doing it. There are plenty of people doing it Drake, kendrick, future, whatever we could keep naming them but there are a lot of people that don't understand that feeling part. No, for sure, I agree. I mean, I think that's why there's a lot of older records that still you know the Michael Jacksons or Teddy Pendergrass, whatever they still 40, 50 years later. It's because of how they feel, for sure.
Speaker 2:Those records come out today and still hit the same way, absolutely, because, again, they're great songs, you know they're written properly, all that stuff. You just hear something that just feels inside your body as it pauses, instead of just like this is a great record, but it doesn't make you feel any kind of way, you know? Sure, so, without giving away all my secrets, tell us a little bit about what you learned about the process of actually making records from him. Definitely, yeah. Bit about what you learned about the process of actually making records with him definitely yeah, so we was in the studio.
Speaker 3:I was in the studio for my first, like two, three years non-stop, like we. At first we were up at paramount and then we were there for a year and then he ended up buying that building on coanga we were. We were in that building. So I was literally in the studio from 11 am until whenever I left, every day, and we were having every major songwriter, every major producer in the game coming up, you know, early Miguel, early Frank Ocean early.
Speaker 3:Ty Dolla, $ign early, jeremiah early whoever you could think of was coming up there writing songs for us and producing for us. So it was just an amazing time up there. He had a rule book in every room with several rules of songwriting and I mean they, they work. So one of the rules was like repetition. Another one was like when you spell something like boozy, did I, n, d, e, it's like that always works asking a question like it was just a whole bunch of different things that you implement to the song to, like you know, make sure it was the hit and I don't know again I don't.
Speaker 2:You know I hate to sound like the you know the back of my day guy, but I and cause I don't know how it goes now, but what you said about all those people coming through the studio, it really you really like, you really learn a lot by like watching how people work. For sure I'm sure Frank and Ty don't work the same. I'm sure Frank and Ty don't work the same, even though they both are phenomenal, but they have different approaches. So you kind of learn things. That's how, when I worked at Jive, the studio was called Battery Studios. We were on 10, and Battery was the same building. It was on 7. So we'd always go downstairs and I learned so much about sitting in the studio and watching people work and how they use this and how they make beats and how they. You know they really kind of soak up a lot of information. Besides, don't have that experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I mean even more. I mean Bruno used to be in there before. He had a record that went crazy. So yeah, just sitting in there seeing these people's processes and how they make songs, I just soaked it all up.
Speaker 2:Is anybody in particular that's there, I mean, besides time, we'll get to later but anybody else in particular that stood out to you as far as their processes and how they work?
Speaker 3:yeah, um, I mean a lot of people pop. Ron zell was another one who was early, yes, yes seeing him work was amazing, man. I mean, it was so literally we had like the pick of the pick when we was working, so it was just everybody who was in there. It was just a great time.
Speaker 2:That's incredible man. So wait, you worked with Johnny Shipes for a minute as well, correct I did?
Speaker 3:So after I got let go from Koch then I worked with Shipes for like three or four months.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was quick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was real quick but it was still impactful. I still learned a lot over there. I remember he had me take like eight boxes of mixtapes. It was Nipsey Bullets, ain't got no name, I forgot which volume it was, but he had me take like eight boxes on this cart to the mail, to UPS. It was crazy.
Speaker 2:Walking down the street.
Speaker 3:Yeah, walking down the street with eight big boxes of mixtapes to kick them out. It was crazy.
Speaker 2:Had he signed Joy Badass by that point, or was it before you?
Speaker 3:No, it was just Nipsey, and I think he had Smoke Dizzy and I'm trying to think did he have anybody else? Nipsey was like the main focus at that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah grinding it out. That's cool. So you worked with Mike, you signed your guy and so after that you worked several times.
Speaker 3:So after I got Fresh signed then technically that wasn't my signing, that was Mike's signing. He signed our artist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. My first signing was Diggy Simmons, so I brought him up there and this was Now Did you connect with Diggy via kind of watching at that time the reality show Run's House, or you just no.
Speaker 3:He had put out a freestyle where he was rapping on the rooftop.
Speaker 3:And everybody had started to see it and it was going viral at that time and I was like man, this kid is crazy. Through my homie brad, I knew one of diggy's friends and I reached out to him and he connected us on the phone and uh, yeah, then we started chopping it up. I met with rev and the whole team, perry and chris lighty yeah, yeah, rest in peace, but yeah, no, I sat with them and then we brought him up and we ended up doing a deal and then, right after we did the deal, he did another freestyle. Then Kanye had this thing called Kanye University where he was just posting.
Speaker 3:I remember that, yeah, and we ended up posting Diggy and then it just like Exploded Boom. It was like crazy.
Speaker 1:That was a special sneak peek of episode one of Mixed and Mastered. To hear the full episode, search and subscribe to Mixed and Mastered on Apple, spotify, youtube or wherever you catch your podcasts and if you like what you heard, please give the show a review. We'll be back later this week with an all new episode of Unglossy. This week's guest is playwright, poet, actor, director and producer, kenan Scott II.
