10 Questions with ... Dave Lombardi

NAME:Dave Lombardi TITLE:Head Of Promotion COMPANY:Caroline/Astralwerks BORN:New Jersey RAISED:New Jersey

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

College and club DJ; owned a record pool; National Club Promotion for Island/4th & B'Way; National Alternative Promotion and Marketing for Pellegrino Promotions; National Manager Alternative Promotion for Warner Bros.; National Director of Rock Promotion at WB; Senior National Director of Alternative and Rock Promotion for Arista; and now Caroline/Astralwerks.

1. What are you most proud of from 2007?

Keeping my staff focused and passionate through a rather tumultuous year, during which we took the Kooks project into year two.

2. How has your job changed in the past year with the return of Caroline Records?

Besides having a bigger staff, we have much more music in our system, and managing that has become a big part of what I do. Not only does Caroline have artists, but we also work projects on labels distributed by Caroline, and we also work with EMI-affiliated labels like Mute, Manhattan and Tooth & Nail now. So I'm interacting with outside label managers as well as the label managers for Astralwerks and Caroline and our internal project managers. Also, it's gotten us back into the Rock game through Caroline-proper artists like Cinder Road and Pride Tiger, plus projects on Century Media and Nuclear Blast.

3. Favorite part of your job? Least favorite?

I essentially get to talk about music for a living. Even when my inbox is stuffed, it's stuffed with e-mails about music. When the meetings start to pile up, I remind myself that they are meetings about music. That's the favorite part of my job. The least favorite are the times when I wonder if my efforts on a given project are having an impact.

4. What was the first record you worked to radio and what has been the biggest change since you first began doing radio promotion?

The first record I worked to radio was Wire's "Eardrum Buzz", which I worked as an indie in my first radio gig. That was after I had left Island/4th & B'Way and headed to Pellegrino Promo to start up the Alternative division there. One of the biggest changes, and there's been so many, is that in the early days, relationships alone could get you lots of adds. Now, for the most part, those relationships simply give you the access you need so you can make your case.

5. Things are changing rapidly in our business. If it were it up to you, what would you change in our "system" to give your bands a better shot ?

We're kind of already doing it: stop focusing on the airplay charts. For a label like ours, the charts, especially the Alternative one, really don't help. If our primary objective is to get records on the charts, when approximately 60-70% of those panels aren't going to be interested until we're moving heaven and earth, then there's hardly even a point in starting with most projects. But we try to focus on developing the airplay we get regardless of format, and use that to build as wide a base as possible for our bands. Besides, if you do that and the song starts to get some traction, the charts will take care of themselves. You've just got to be willing to give a project the time it needs to maximize is audience without using the airplay charts as your primary, or even secondary, measuring stick. Happily, there are some great stations out there that share that philosophy (or are able to!).

6. Repetition breeds familiarity. How does your label increase exposure of your artists outside of traditional radio promotion?

We do the same things everybody else is trying to do: viral campaigns, unique marketing partnerships, late night TV performances, placements in video games, Commercials, TV and movie synchs, exposure at sporting events, in stores, restaurants and hotels, etc. Luckily, with a brand like Astralwerks, we're a perfect fit for many of the latter, who see great benefits in using our music to augment the environment they provide for their customers. Also, we've found it particularly useful for our employees who commute to loudly hum or sing our songs while on their preferred form of mass transportation. That very often leads to conversations (and some confrontations, too) that give us invaluable opportunities to work our music "door to door", so to speak.

7. Every promotion person has a record close to their heart that for one reason or another never broke through -- "The One That Got Away." What is your "One That Got Away," and what did you learn from that record?

You know, every promo person has a couple of records that didn't go as far as hoped or expected. Maybe you couldn't get them played enough, or at all, or maybe you got them played a lot and they didn't sell... and there's so many different reasons why. But now that I'm at the end of my 20th year doing promotion, I'd rather look back upon some fond memories that are close to my heart: charting the Pogues on the Billboard Dance Chart back in '88; my first #1 and Gold record (M/A/R/R/S "Pump Up the Volume"); breaking through with Ministry at Active Rock and helping them to their first (and only, I believe) Gold record with Psalm 69; being involved with the excitement of Jane's Addiction in the early 90s; helping to finally break the Goo Goo Dolls over the course of 3 albums; getting Active Rock airplay on bands like the Jesus And Mary Chain, Dinosaur Jr. and Primal Scream (Funny thing is, getting records like that on Alternative radio today would be an accomplishment); being involved with Linkin Park's first album -- the excitement around launching that and what it meant to WB at the time; taking Outkast Top 10 at Alternative with "Hey Ya" while at Arista, and since I've been at Astralwerks, being involved with Beth Orton's first #1 Triple A song ("Conceived"); taking Sia Top 30 at Alternative with "Breathe Me"; helping to make Placebo relevant again to U.S radio; and extending the aforementioned Kooks campaign into a second year.

8. What would surprise people most about you?

I actually hate music. No. The thing, the cause (outside of my family) that I am most passionate about after music is New Jersey. I carry the Jersey torch.

9. What music do you listen to when you're not working?

Oh, VHS Or Beta, Air Traffic, Bat For Lashes, Athlete, Hot Chip, Babyshambles, Carbon/Silicon, the B-52's, Small Sins, the Little Ones... Seriously, I listen to everything. On the weekends, I plug my iPod into the home system, and on there I have everything from true punk to classic rock to reggae to disco to new wave to funk to 60s and 70s one-hit wonders to lounge to the Rat Pack to current indie favorites. If I like it, it ends up in iTunes and then on the iPod. And I'm one of those lucky ones who pretty much gets to listen to good music all the time at work, because I really do like just about everything I have here.

10. What was your favorite station to listen to when you were a kid?

99X in NYC when it was a "New Wave" station, and then WDHA and WLIR. When I was a little kid, the big AMs WNBC and WABC provided the soundtrack for my life. I still have great affection for the pop and soul records of that era.

What are your hobbies?

Riding my bike, coming up with ridiculously narrowcasted iTunes playlists, obsessively following the Mets and Steelers, and spending as much time as I can with my wife Kelley and son Dante.