urgent help needed!!!

Warwickthumb · #1 07-05-2004, 09:12 PM

Hello Everyone,
Recently someone has poasted a message on my bands messageboard stating they have recived our demo and wants to fly us down to Orlando for a meet and greet. Obviously everyone in the band is excited. We have broken though recently. BUt we all agreed we would get back together for this. Since this is want we always wanted in the first place. Whats wierd though is only a few people that I can think of recived our demo, we never played in Florida, but somehow he got it. So we are trying to find out if this is legit. So if anyone knows of anyone that Works for Warner(i guess thats warner bros.) let me know how we can find out ifs legit. If you want to ceck it out. Go to www.angelfury.com and then messageboard. I never got a chance to finish the site be casue we broke up. BUt its still been up all this time. So please if anyone can help let me know. We did leave contact info for him/her to get a hold of us with.
Thanks so much,
Joe

Warwickthumb · #2 07-05-2004, 09:15 PM

Also,
HE used the handle warnerrep. and his name is H.Frank

**Josh Ryan** · #3 07-05-2004, 10:22 PM

ask for email, get phone numbers and more info. It sounds sketchy. Good luck though.

odie · #4 07-05-2004, 10:27 PM

Moving to band management. Get more info.

Also are you guys in Wisconsin? I noticed the 608 area code. Thats my old hood.

Warwickthumb · #5 07-05-2004, 10:32 PM

WE left contact info to get a hold of us. I know it sounds wierd, but i dont know anyone who would do this. We broke up like 2 months ago. We were based in WIs, janesville as a matter of fact. I live in roscoe though. Move it wereever dude. I need to find out whats going on!
Joe

Thee · #6 07-05-2004, 10:33 PM

I think if I were conducting offical business such as this, I would not do it via message board. Even if for some reason your contact information wasn't on your site (unfinished or whatever), I would think he would have your real world contact information with your promo material that came with your demo?

Eric Moesle · #7 07-05-2004, 10:58 PM

Legit, professional contact would NEVER, ever happen by way of a message board posting . . . .

Music Attorney · #8 07-05-2004, 11:19 PM

Hi Joe:

A few thoughts/comments/questions:

1. Make sure the airline reservations are round trip ;-)
2. Does your demo really not have contact info on it?
3. I wouldn’t be discussing the band’s break up and certainly not in an open forum.
4. When you say “this is want [sic] we always wanted in the first place”, what is your definition of “this” and why do you want it? IMO, if bands were better educated about the current biz, fewer and fewer might want “this”.
5. There are all kinds of stories about demos getting into the hands of A&R reps and I can assure you the one your describing isn’t even close to “weird.”
6. Most importantly, DON’T sign anything without EXPERIENCED professional advice! I can’t tell you how many bad situations I’ve had to try and get artists/bands out of because the artist/band followed the advice of a manager/lawyer who, although well intentioned, thought they knew what they were doing, but didn’t. I don’t mean any disrespect to any of the advisors in your camp, but contracts can be very serious stuff and are not the kind of thing where you should worry about hurting someone’s feelings or just go on blind faith that the person knows what they are doing.

I checked my contacts at work and I don’t have any Warner contacts in Florida other than for their Latin division. However, I know most of the people in the L.A. office so I will try to remember to ask around.

Best of luck to you!
MA

thrash_jazz · #9 07-05-2004, 11:23 PM

Sounds fishy to me. If the guy really works for Warner, I think it far more likely that THEY would come up there to see YOU.

thrash_jazz · #10 07-05-2004, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Music Attorney

Hi Joe:

A few thoughts/comments/questions:

1. Make sure the airline reservations are round trip ;-)
2. Does your demo really not have contact info on it?
3. I wouldn’t be discussing the band’s break up and certainly not in an open forum.
4. When you say “this is want [sic] we always wanted in the first place”, what is your definition of “this” and why do you want it? IMO, if bands were better educated about the current biz, fewer and fewer might want “this”.
5. There are all kinds of stories about demos getting into the hands of A&R reps and I can assure you the one your describing isn’t even close to “weird.”
6. Most importantly, DON’T sign anything without EXPERIENCED professional advice! I can’t tell you how many bad situations I’ve had to try and get artists/bands out of because the artist/band followed the advice of a manager/lawyer who, although well intentioned, thought they knew what they were doing, but didn’t. I don’t mean any disrespect to any of the advisors in your camp, but contracts can be very serious stuff and are not the kind of thing where you should worry about hurting someone’s feelings or just go on blind faith that the person knows what they are doing.

I checked my contacts at work and I don’t have any Warner contacts in Florida other than for their Latin division. However, I know most of the people in the L.A. office so I will try to remember to ask around.

Best of luck to you!
MA

This post is pure gold, as always. Thank you MA for your insights.

Music Attorney · #11 07-05-2004, 11:47 PM

After reading a few of the other posts, I just wanted to add that this process can and should be very simple. The guy will either contact you or he won’t. If he does, the band is in complete control as to whether the next step is something the band is comfortable with (i.e., flying to Florida, him coming to see you, him asking for more material, or whatever). If it starts feeling weird or you are asked to do something you’re not comfortable or there’s too much time and effort required, then don’t do it. It’s not any more complicated than that.

At this point, there is no reason to spend a lot of time thinking this could be your big break nor is there any reason to assume it’s a scam of some kind. Just take things a day at a time and see what happens. The band is in control here and, except for maybe a little time and effort, doesn’t seem like it has much to lose.

MA

Warwickthumb · #12 07-06-2004, 10:18 AM

The only info on the demo had our bands website addresse on it I belive. MA, ive heard stories about getting signed to labels. And I do agree it may not be such a good thing. Everyone was for it. In fact the singer and guitar player are moving down to Nashville to see if anything will happen. I decided to stay here since I have a job i enjoy. BUt I will admit, the thought of making it always sounded good. I just got sick of playing gigs were no one really shows up, or driving hours and hours to find out that only 5 people showed up!! At least a label will promote you better I guess. Anyways, i figured if they are going to pay for a ticket, id at least check it out. Still, i have no desire as of right now leaving my job. Thanks MA also for checking out if the orlando guy was legit. The latin diviosnthough would be good down the road because me and some friends are starting a latin style band. Anywas, thanks everyone for the suggestion. Well see what happens. I dont know how it could be a hoax, we havent played in months, and everyone knew we broke up.
Joe

Woodchuck · #13 07-06-2004, 11:37 AM

I have to disagree with one thing here. Sometimes professional business is started through a BB if a person cannot get other info, however; contact info. is usually left in the messge and followed up by the poster. I'm not saying that this is the case, but it does happen. In this case, since they left no info., I'd tread lightly. I hope it's legit. Who knows, maybe this will be the kick in the diaper that gets you guys on your way. Maybe not, but one can hope.

odie · #14 07-07-2004, 10:10 AM

Warwickthumb- No sometimes labels dont promote you well. If they do they charge you for it. I have national bands on big labels plying for 25 people in larege towns. I saw Flotsam and Jetsam back in 91' with less than 50 people.

Warwickthumb · #15 07-07-2004, 10:28 AM

Well,
I dont think weve heard anything back so I guess its so unfortuante hoax. Ahh well, probably for the best I guess.
-Joe

Music Attorney · #16 07-12-2004, 02:37 PM

Since I said I would follow up, I thought I would let you know, for what it's worth, the person I contacted at WB had the following to say:

"I'm not familiar with anyone with this name. However, in searching through our directory, we do have an H. Frank out in one of the field offices. I can't say whether he and your H. Frank are indeed the same person though."

Best,
MA