Emily White: Young Mr. Hines

(UPDATED) Guest post by Emily White of Whitesmith Entertainment and Readymade Records.  White, Young Hines and Brendan Benson share their story today as part of The Hypebot Sessions at NARM's Music Biz 2012.

When I started working with Brendan Benson a few years ago, he sent me a list of artists he was into, all of which were very familiar to me from Elvis Costello to Liz Phair to Bon Iver.  However, there was one name on the list that I didn't know: Young Hines.  I assumed Young was a super hip indie Nashville up and comer from Brendan's scene that I had missed the boat on.  And Young is all of those things, but it turns out he is really new to the mainstream / indie music industry.

I don't generally care about press / PR “stories” as I think the music should speak for itself.  But something like this, you can't make up.  Brendan was having his house painted and the workers happened to be listening to music.  The artist caught Brendan's ear in which he inquired, “what is this??”  The house painters said “Our friend Young Hines.”  Brendan looked Young up on the good old internet and found a song he was instantly drawn to called “Only in a Dream.”  Brendan decided to cover the song and reached out to Young via email saying, “I covered one of your songs, hope that's ok.”

I've since been told that Young nearly fell off his chair when receiving the note.  Around the same time, I reached out to Young to see if he was free to get together with my new management client and hopefully write together.  I had no idea it was a big deal for a NYC based manager to be reaching out to him as he played it very cool and we quickly set up a session.

Brendan and Young became fast musical partners with Brendan calling me saying that he HAD to make an album with Young, he couldn't not, the music was so good and he was instantly drawn to what Young had going on.  Thus, we put together some studio time and got these two catchy writers and multi-instrumentalists in a room to make a record.  I came down to Nashville to visit while they were in the studio and my mind was blown.  Brendan was on (and is still on) a producing roll in 2011, and this was the third album he'd produced in just a few months, including his own and another artist he fell in love with; The Lost Brothers.  I sat in the studio and watched a scene and whether he likes it or not, a brand naturally evolve around Brendan, his music, and production work.  I saw Brendan tapping into an incredible group of friends and players in Nashville to create these albums.  I also saw the value of all of us working together and supporting each release as a team, as opposed to shopping multiple albums Brendan produced out to different homes.  Even if I could do so successfully, I realized we could do more by launching the family I was witnessing before my eyes into the world as opposed to setting up different partners for each individual release and hoping these partners would remain in tact throughout the release of the albums. 

At the same time, I sat in the studio with Young's girlfriend literally setting up his Twitter account and showing her Fanbridge and other free fan engagement tools to start building a career properly.  It dawned on me that evening that WE should build a home for all of these great artists and music instead of relying on partners that despite great intentions, might not necessarily be interested in all of the releases or even worse, we have no guarantee they'll be around for the long-haul when we sign up for a deal.  So I stayed up till about 5 AM and the business model and vision for Readymade poured out of my brain.  The name was easy, Brendan had released an EP in the 90's under his Readymade imprint and we did the same with his Well & Goode 7” with Mark Watrous last year.  But this time we had full albums, a community of musicians supporting each other and a concept in which a custom team is built around each individual artist that is sustainable while the artists maintain their rights and creative control.  Fun stuff.  Around the same time Brendan had Young open for The Raconteurs and it was clear that there was a lot we could bring to the table in helping launch a new artist.

That was last Fall. In January, we had our team in place and formerly announced Readymade Records & Publishing.  And our first release?  Young Hines' Give Me My Change, which was the music that put the final stake in the ground for us to come up with Readymade and how we wanted to distribute and market artists Brendan produces, should they want help in doing so.  Again, I'm not one to care about PR “stories” but I'm constantly blown away with all things about Young the more I've gotten to know him.  He's literally the youngest of 7 children and a few days after he was born, his parents hadn't named him.  The nurses wrote Young Mr. Hines on his birth certificate and the name stuck.

Young's album was released in April and quickly received the benefits of the very experienced and hand-picked Readymade Records & Publishing team.  Now the record is out and we can get even more creative with what we're doing; there are no limits.  Young will be touring the US, UK, and Europe with Brendan this month but after that, I'm looking forward to people discovering who Young is as an artist beyond everything we've attached to him to with Brendan.  And that is already happening.  I've received calls from various colleagues freaking out about Young's music who didn't even know Brendan produced it.  I'm proud to say Give Me My Change has rightfully so started to take on an organic life of its own, finding new fans every day who are drawn to Young's acoustic ballads as well as his manic rock screams.  And Young helps us by being a gifted all around creative talent, self-directing his music video for “Rainy Day” on an iPhone and amping up the production for “Can't Explode” by grabbing Brendan and various Readymade players for the video, which I can't stop watching.

I'm honored that Young Hines is Readymade's first release and that I'm a part of the team.  I look forward to watching his growth as an artist and a person as we all continue to experiment on the growth of his career.  I heard today Young loved his recent Google+ Hang Out with his fans so much that he requested another.  If you're on the West Coast, UK, Europe, Midwest, or Northwest, in the coming weeks, come experience Young live so you can truly feel and understand what I'm talking about. 

And if you're at NARM today, Young will be on a panel that Hypebot has graciously put together with the Readymade team.  I will be on it, but you can get enough of my business speak here and elsewhere on the web.  Come on by if you can to hear about Brendan's point of view from an artistic and production point of view as well as Young's story and excitement form his mouth as the three of us will be speaking today at 3 PM.  Can't wait!  Come say hi.  And thanks as always, for the support.

MORE:

• Emily White: Why Commission Based Teams Are Awesome For Musicians & Why You Should Want One

• Meet Young Hines: Inside A Career Launch