Industry Profile: Camille Barbone

— by Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen

Camille Barbone, vice president and general manager of Winedark Records, brings 27 years of intense entertainment experience to her job ranging from key positions at major record labels to Madonna's personal manager.

At Winedark Records, a part of the Universal distribution family, Camille coordinates all aspects of the label's creative, operational and retail development. "I deal directly with the artists and managers regularly and am involved in new artist contract signings, negotiations and deal making," she explains, emphasizing, "I do not do A&R; it's an area that I stay away from."

However, Camille brought Sevendust to Winedark. "Sevendust was my signing in that I had a relationship with the band's management that existed prior to Winedark's formation as a label," she says. "I will utilize other relationships with managers and artists to bring other established artists to Winedark."

Artists also on Winedark are the UK band Rain, DC based band Lloyd Dobbler Effect and a few surprises Camille is not at liberty to reveal at this time.

Early in her career Camille held key positions at major record labels production director for Columbia/Epic Records (1972-74); director of New Release Production for Phonogram/Mercury (1975-76); director of A&R for Buddah Records (1976-77); vice-president and general manager of Artist Relations for Aezra (EMI) (1999-2004).

As production director for Columbia/Epic, Camille rose to head up the department and was responsible for coordinating the effort of all 28 departments that were involved in recording, manufacturing, marketing and distributing music. In 1977 she left label life to manage independently forming August Artists Ltd., an innovative alternative for the new music scene in New York City. It was during this time that Camille discovered, developed, managed, presented and signed Madonna to the mainstream music business from 1980-83.

Known in the industry as a true artist developer she has worked with major labels to launch the careers of many artists. Other clients have included Nona Hendryx, Jim Dawson, Baillie & The Boys and others. "I co-managed Nona in conjunction with Vickie Wickham," Camille says. "She's a great lady and a dear friend. This was in 1991-92. I signed her to a publishing deal with PolyGram and also arranged for a co-written soundtrack project with Dave Stewart. Jim Dawson and Baillie & the Boys were in the '70s. Mistle Thrush was the early 90's when I was a partner of Long View Farm Studios."

Camille has also owned and operated two key recording studios: Gotham Sound Studios in New York City in 1977-81 and Long View Farm Studios, a world-class residential recording facility, located on a 120 acre farm in rural Massachusetts, from 1992-94. At Gotham, Camille worked with Melba Moore, Edgar and Johnny Winters, The System, David Johansen p/k/a Buster Poindexter, and others. Long View clients included The Indigo Girls, Geezer Butler, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Michael Bolton, and Living Colour.

Camille has also created and produced major musical concerts and series such as the 13 week American Express Songmasters Inside-Out series, the Gospel segment of Woodstock '94 and two concerts at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City for the Coca Cola Company.

In addition, Camille, who recently completed studies for a Masters Degree in Psychology at The University of Southern New Hampshire, also has held teaching positions at Raritan Valley College and Warren Community College and launched the entertainment marketing and internship program at Baruch College.

Camille has lectured throughout the country at seminars, workshops, and conventions and has been interviewed by major newspapers, magazines and television specials such as 20/20, Cue Magazine, Robin Leach, Entertainment Tonight, BBC, Channel 4 UK and Fox; has been featured in numerous books on the entertainment industry and Madonna and was a key character in a Fox made-for-TV movie on Madonna. She is also a freelance writer having written for New England Performer, The Circle, RI Ear and a bunch of fanzines, mostly on artist management and development. She is currently working on a book.

Why did you return to a record label after all these years?
No matter how good a manager you are, the record label holds the key to an artist's success. Whether political, economical or consumer driven, the decisions a record label makes relative to supporting an artist are truly the differentiating factor. As a label head who knows management, I find myself in the unique position to truly impact an artist's career, to make a difference and to have more control over development, marketing and the other artist development efforts that are integral to an artist's viability and ultimate success.

How did you get into management?
My original entry into the business was working for record companies. The role of management always attracted me. I talk artist very well and was very often put in a position to have to explain the label's position to the artist and his or her manager. I enjoyed the relationships that I had with artists. I felt, and still do, protective of creative people. There's a fine line between genius and insanity. There's nothing as unique as the way an artist looks at the everyday world. To this day it intrigues me and makes me want to slay dragons for them and make things work in their career.

What makes a good manager?
It's a mixture of things: a rock solid knowledge of the business, a good set of contacts and networking skills, people skills, discipline relative to follow up and cold calling, good marketing instincts. Now that's the business side. Here is a bit of the human side: you have to understand the emotional and psychological make up of the creative mind. You have to understand the difference between talent and drive (one is useless without the other), you have to be patient and extremely honest.

Trust is the most important thing that a manager and artist must have for each other. You have to be realistic and grounding; too often managers enable the ego trips and outrageous demands that artists feel justified in making. They use isolation as a way to control their clients. A good manager doesn't make an artist helpless. They should be able to hop in the car, pick up their dry cleaning and stop for a coffee on their own no matter how popular they are. Of course, the press is a problem, but a good manager can handle that aspect as well. It's about controlled access and anticipating problems.

What did you learn at record labels that you brought into management?
Organization and follow through for sure but also the basic knowledge of how a record label works and what goes into the decision-making process.

What did you learn in management that you have brought to Winedark Records?
Artists are unique. They are living and breathing commodities and have to be handled as such. The music is such an intimate and personal part of the artist. It's such a paradox to deal with: the CD sits on a shelf and is sold like any piece of merchandise but what is embodied on that CD is the life, experience, expression, hopes and messages of a real person.

How did you get involved in owning two recording studios?
Temporary insanity. I'm now out of remission and completely cured.

How did you wind up managing Madonna?
Madonna was squatting illegally in the building where my studio Gotham Sound was located. She was well aware that I was one of the few people who actually had major label contacts and worked with the mainstream music industry. So she campaigned to get me to a gig by flirting with my business partner Adam Alter and giving him a tape of her band. I was going 24/7 with the studio and a managing band on Atlantic and a couple of other unsigned acts, and I needed another artist to manage like I needed root canal work. I didn't realize that this really interesting young woman that I kept running into and exchanging one liners with was the same artist that my partner was hounding me to listen to.

Eventually my partner got me to one of Madonna's rehearsals. She knew who I was long before I knew who she was. After a few missed shows I did see Madonna perform at Max's Kansas City in N.Y. She was playing a knock off Stratocaster and singing with Breakfast Club. I signed her that night on the spot.

Why did the management of Madonna end?
Ah, the ending. Let me say that you know you have something big in the music industry when people try to steal it away from you. After doing a lot of work on Madonna, building a band of top notch, now well-known, musicians, doing a four-song master at Media Sound--one of the premier studios of the time--spending a great deal of money on salaries, Madonna's overhead, networking and generally managing Madonna smack into the middle of mainstream music, the word got out. People began to contact her directly and promise her things that I couldn't deliver. My company was brand new, terribly under-funded ,and I wasn't a member of the good old boy network of managers and labels that work hand and hand.

While I was trying to close a deal with Paul Atkinson at Columbia, a team of underground industry folks were coordinating Madonna's breach of my management contract. It took about three years to settle the deal, get paid for my work and put the entire thing behind me. It was one of the most difficult times of my life but I learned a great deal and feel that everything happens for a reason. In retrospect I could have worked it out differently by going to one of the major managers I knew who belonged to the good old boy network and cut him in.

I would've been able to hold on to her that way but pride always comes before a fall. Actually, I'm happy with how my life and my career have unfolded from that point on give or take a few dark moments.

Do you and Madonna still keep in touch?
We've gone our separate ways, too intense a time for us both. I admire her and look forward to making our peace in the future. We're both a whole lot older and wiser now.

What is he difference in managing a superstar vs. an up-and-coming artist?
When you manage a superstar, you're basically a glorified and well paid order taker. The demand has been created, the audience is vast and the value of the artist has been established. It doesn't require the artist development skills needed to manage a new act. For new artists you have to create the demand, grow the core audience and in stages get everyone to confirm your estimation of your client's value to the industry and the public.

Managing a new artist means that you have to provide contacts and develop associations with all the other individuals that make up a successful artist development team: entertainment attorney, publisher, record label, booking agent, publicist, road and technical crew, band and anything or anyone else that is needed to launch a career.

It's quite a dance and only a handful of managers have the skills to take artists from the up-and-coming stage to superstardom. You must believe in the artist in spite of all the obstacles that block your way. It's costly too and requires a war chest of funds to break the artist. In the past, development dollars came from the record labels, but now it's rare to see a label come to the plate. By the way, even established artists cost a great deal of money to advance until such time as they're self-sufficient.

Do you miss managing artists?
Hell no! It's the "hair shirt" of the music industry. It's by far one of the most difficult jobs to have, but it teaches you a whole lot more than any other position in the industry could. I have a love-hate relationship with my days as a manager: a lot of struggle, a lot of hard work, a lot of learned, incredible contacts made. It's a paradox; if you manage correctly, you can manage yourself right out of a job.

Any interesting Madonna stories?
Madonna stories. Let's see..like when I first introduced her to William Morris agents at a Japanese sushi bar and she felt that the best way to get the attention focused on her was to let out a huge belch, or when I was in a really important meeting with the owner of Media Sound to discuss her recording and she barged in to my office to use my mirror to shave her underarms, or when we were at a photo shoot and she placed rosary beads around her neck with the cross tucked into the waistband of her pants and said, "Look Camille, even God wants to get into my pants." No I don't have any good Madonna stories. LOL

First concert attended
I'm dating myself but what the heck, The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965. I wasn't a screamer though. Everyone wanted to marry George or Paul; I wanted to be George Martin's daughter. No lie because she would've had the behind-the-scenes look at the band - in the studio, hanging out and talking about their music and life. It was the first sign that I wanted to work closely with artists and ultimately led me to want to be a manager.

First concert worked
This was a classic; Earth, Wind and Fire opening for Sly and The Family Stone, 1971 at Madison Square Garden. I'd just joined Columbia/Epic Records as the manager of New Release Coordination. I was learning and eventually would become responsible for all departmental activities needed to release a recording. I was the liaison between A & R, Marketing and Operations.

First industry job
Manager of New Release Coordination, Columbia/Epic Records.

Career highlights
Managing Madonna, producing the gospel segment of Woodstock '94, launching WineDark Records with the signing and release of the new Sevendust CD.

Career disappointments
Managing Madonna and realizing that Pro Tools was going to really impact recording studio ownership. I owned Gotham Sound in NYC and was a partner of Long View Farm Recording Studios, a residential studio in rural Massachusetts. It was 125 acres--barn, horses and a lovely, magical place to make music.

Greatest challenges
Deciding to go back to working at record labels after being an independent manager and business owner for almost 25 years and going back to college to get a degree in Psychology. I just graduated from The University of Southern New Hampshire.

Best business decision
Leaving a job at a major label to manage, own studios and experience the music industry from the ground up. It taught me so much. It enabled me to learn about every aspect of the industry. There isn't anything I haven't done -- all legal of course -- in the music industry. Record production, concert coordination, artist development, management, etc.

Best advice you received
Being in the music business is like being a short order cook. You have to keep moving, put everything back in its place when you're finished using it and having a lot on your plate means that you're good at what you do.

Most memorable industry experience
Stepping out on the North Stage at Woodstock '94 for a tech check and looking out at a sea of about 350,000 people. It was about 10 a.m., raining hard and you could see people and tents and blankets clear to the horizon. To me, attending the first Woodstock would have been a religious experience. I was a tad young to go, and my plans to attend were thwarted by very alert and sneaky parents. I was in awe of the experience as I watched movies and documentaries about that day in upstate New York.

Favorite team/athlete
New York Yankees. My dad was a NYC policeman, which meant that sometimes he was off in the day time. He would take me to Yankee Stadium. We would sit in right field so that he had a chance to catch home runs for me. I saw him catch a Mickey Mantle home run on the fly. I had it autographed and still have it today.

What friends would be surprised to learn about you
I'm very shy about singing in front of others. I'm not a shy person. I can make conversation with anyone. I've been interviewed and appeared on TV. I'm pretty musical so I'm shocked that no one notices that I lip sync "Happy Birthday" at every party.

Industry pet peeve
Not returning calls from newcomers to the business. I've an obligation to help them get started or to point them in the right direction.

Office paraphernalia
You name it, I have it. On the tech side: Blackberry, one button computer back up, label maker, gravity defying pens and a computer that could do traffic control at any airport. I love technology. I've lots of memories from my career in my office: photos, recordings, etc.

If I wasn't doing this, I would be..
... a veterinarian. I love dogs, actually all animals, but dogs are my favorites. I have four -- one Yellow Lab and three Irish Wolfhounds. I compete in trials, conformation shows and love traveling with my pack. Dogs are just perfect living breathing entities. I admire their morals and ethics. They love unconditionally. They never hurt deliberately -- providing they have not been tampered with by humans -- and they smile more than they frown.

Industry mentors
Most of my knowledge came from diving in and learning it the hard way. But I've been lucky to work with, for and around, a few amazing and legendary industry types: John Hammond, Jim Foglesong, Bruce Lundvall and Vicki Wickham.

Camille can be reached at: 908-537-6616; e-mail: Camille@winedarkrecords.com

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