Their co-venture, Blue Label Records, launches this fall with Amazing, the first release by the Orange County, California based pop/rock band Ten West. Earlier this year, Ten West won the regional for Best Pop Band in San Diego at the L.A. Music Awards; they are currently up for Best Indie Artist of the Year for the entire competition. Described spiritedly by Couevas, who is also their manager, as “what might happen if Dave Matthews, Matchbox 20 and Jack Johnson had a love child,” Ten West’s debut will be available on download sites (via Select-O-Hits Distribution) and in stores November 14. The debut single “Amazing” ships to Triple AAA radio stations nationwide on October 31; on October 14, the band, led by lead singer Jon Ogden, is shooting a video for the song in Laguna Beach.
Prior to his involvement with King, Couevas was a five-year Air Force veteran who worked in various capacities (first selling merchandise, then tour managing, finally managing and sometimes producing) for bands like Baltimore’s Can’t Hang, Long Beach’s Bargain Music and San Luis Obispo’s Longview. While in the military, Couevas - who grew up in a very musical environment with a mother who was pals with legendary icons like Patch Adams and Wavy Gravy - created a makeshift studio in his barracks and recorded tracks for his fellow servicemen. He first met King when King was playing keyboards for Pepper and Couevas was tour manager for their opening act, Bargain Music. They didn’t collaborate, however, until Couevas was in a studio at Laguna School of Music, getting ready to record the popular Orange County based pop/rock band Ten West. King was next door, working with Nick Hernandez of Common Sense, and the sound engineer for both projects suggested that Ten West bring in an outside producer for the album. “Ronnie loved the few tracks he heard, and our initial plan was to only do one song,” says Couevas. “But he got so into it that he immediately wanted to do the whole album. He realized Ten West would be easy to find a big audience for, so we started talking about pooling our resources and starting a label that we could launch with Ten West. Ronnie is a talented and versatile musician and producer, and he was happy to learn of my strong ear for talent, plus my ability to secure financial backing.
“Breaking Ten West is our major focus as we launch the label,” he adds. “The key to longterm success will be signing great artists and building a small core of them to give our full attention to. We want to give really good bands a good chance to get out there and do well on an independent level. The idea is to be a one stop shop for bands and musicians, taking care of everything for them, from promotion and distribution to music videos, an in-house publishing company, and of course, full scale production services by Ronnie himself.”
King’s longtime publisher, Jay Warner of Brooklyn Music Group, has signed on to be Blue Label Records’ resident publishing company. Quarterbacking the distribution, radio promotion and marketing efforts is Omni Entertainment, who set up the distribution deal with Select-O-Hits. Steve Pina, CEO of Omni, says, “We’re looking for big things from the label and their first artist, Ten West. Ronnie King’s track record in the business is unique, and we’re big fans of his work with everyone from 2Pac to Offspring. We’re excited to partner with such an exciting creative force. We also think that Ten West’s music taps into a growing resurgence in interest in what people used to call ‘soft rock,’ a trend profiled in Spin Magazine recently as a fascinating ‘Rebirth of the Uncool.’ We’re doing heavy radio promotion as well as interactive marketing with myspace.”
For King, who will also use Blue Label Records as a platform to release his own solo projects (his last was The Muse in 2004), the new label presents another unique challenge right off the bat: producing and marketing a band whose sound is more mainstream pop than almost all of the others he has ever worked with.
“After so many years behind the scenes, I’m really excited to be a businessman in the music business,” he says, “and I’m looking forward to using the resources I’ve acquired over the years to help make it happen. It’s a great opportunity to finally be a player on the independent scene. It’s a great idea to launch with Ten West because their appeal is so broad and their sound so strong and viable, but as the label becomes more established, who knows? I can bring in my punks and thugs, too. I love my street level music, and believe that punk and hardcore are different sides of the same coin. But we’re willing to work with all sorts of artists and be as eclectic as possible.
