10 Questions with ... Jeff Gillis

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

• WPDH/Poughkeepsie swing personality and Promotions Director 1982-1989.
• WPYX/Albany Director Of Promotion and Marketing 1989-1994.
• WKRL/Syracuse/WKLL/Utica PD 1994-1996.
• Geffen Records Midwest Regional/Boston Regional 1996-1999.
• Dreamworks Records Northeast Regional 1999-2001, National Director/Rock Promotion 2001-2004.
• DRT Entertainment Head Of Radio Promotion 2004.
• Reprise Records Sr. Director of Alternative Promotion 2004-2008.
• RCA/Jive Records Sr. Director of Alternative/Rock Music 2008-Present.

1. What got you interested in the record business?

I had spent almost 10 years in radio in various capacities and started meeting label reps. Music is what I got into radio for in the first place, but on a day to day basic, the job was becoming more and more about sales calls, remotes, and club nights and less about music. The label reps came in and talked about nothing but music, which I found appealing so I started working them all over for job leads.

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

As a child, my father gave me a portable radio that was always on WABC/New York. That was all we could get up in the sticks, but that's all I would have wanted to listen to at that time anyway. Later on, I loved WNEW but it was difficult to pull in so I listened to WPDH and WPYX in Albany -- both stations I wound up working for.

3. What may surprise people the most about RCA Records?

I'm not sure that there's anything here that would actually surprise people if they're paying attention. I was on the outside looking in for years and saw that the label, as well as Jive Records had an enormous amount of hit records. Hits don't happen on their own so I assumed that the staff must be an incredibly accomplished group of executives that know what they're doing. Lo and behold, I was right. The record of success here across all platforms and formats is no accident.

4. Where do you get your greatest pleasure in doing record promotion?

I really enjoy the early stages of getting to know a band or an artist and making those initial forays into radio. Sometimes the artist connects in a particular market and sometimes not. It's fun connecting the dots, watching them play to small crowds in small rooms, and then finding yourself watching them play to a sold out crowd in a much larger venue a year or two later. It's an enormous sense of accomplishment that everybody at the label gets to share. You look at each other at these moments with knowing glances like, "Wow, look what we helped do".

5. Do you have a favorite market you like to visit and why?

I love visiting Boston because it's like going home. I still know almost everybody up there. I don't get to go nearly as often as I'd like. I also like to go to the Midwest because it's probably a part of the country I'd never have gone to if not for this job.

6. What is the toughest part of your job?

Considering I could have ended up working at IBM, a grocery store, or digging ditches, I wouldn't say that there is a tough part to talking to radio people about records or getting paid to go see bands play.

7. What would surprise people most about you?

That I'm not nearly as quiet as I appear and that I do have a temper.

8. What has been your biggest career highlight?

There's been something at every label. At Geffen, it was simply getting hired because anybody in this business that knows me knows how hard I tried to get a label job. At DreamWorks, it was being a part of the build up of the label, working with legends like Mo Ostin, Lenny Waronker, Johnny Barbis, Michael Ostin, and many others. We broke a lot of bands and got a few #1's from Jimmy Eat World to Lifehouse to Papa Roach to Buckcherry to Nelly Furtado, to AFI. We got on quite a run. At Reprise it was working American Idiot and breaking My Chemican Romance. Here at RCA/Jive it's been reuniting with Billy Burrs who I worked with at Geffen and being a part of the amazing success of Kings of Leon. On the Jive side, the band is back together -- Burrs, Warren Christensen, Michelle Munz, Devin Rosevear -- we all worked together at Geffen. And I finally get to work with Joe Riccitelli who I've known since he was our Island regional in the Northeast when I was in Albany. We're having fun.

9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without _____ _______?

Waking up.

10. If you were to leave the record business today and you could choose any other occupation, what would it be?

Fine Arts photography

What are your hobbies?

Photography and biking.

Last non-industry job?

Worked at a soda fountain in Pine Plains. The stipulation was that I could walk out at a moments notice to go fill in at WPDH.

First record ever purchased?

Elton John "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy"

First concert?

Rush (with AC/DC opening) at the Mid Hudson Civic Center. Farewell To Kings tour.

Favorite band of all-time?

U2