10 Questions with ... Dan Michaels

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

It's not incredibly uncommon for an artist to transition from a career on the road and stage to an office job on the other side of the music industry machine. But it's certainly more rare to find someone balancing both sides of the simultaneously. As a founding member of iconic, Christian alt-rock band The Choir and Senior VP of Marketing and Promotions at FairTrade Services, that's exactly what Dan Michaels has been doing for the better part of the past two decades. To remarkable success.

1) How has your career path taken you to your current position at Fair Trade Services?

It kind of started with a saxophone, a church and a band with funny name. I grew up in Orange County, CA. I didn't get saved until after high school and that's when I started going to Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, CA (Chuck Smith) in the mid-80s. I didn't know that Contemporary Christian music existed until I got a call from the singer of a Christian band called Youth Choir in 1983. He was involved with Calvary Chapel's record label, Broken Records, and asked me to join the band. Youth Choir's music was exactly the sound I heard in my head when it came to what I wanted to do musically. I had been working as a musician at Disneyland and doing session work playing the sax, but the kind of music I was really into was alternative, new wave and punk, which were the sounds of this new band I joined.

After one record and one EP, we got signed to Myrrh Records (Word) and changed our name to The Choir. We toured constantly and made four albums for Myrrh. My partners in the band, Derri Daugherty and Steve Hindalong, also had a recording studio and Word gave us a production deal to go out and discover, record and promote new artists in the early 90s. We called our label Glasshouse Records.

Around that time, Myrrh relocated their offices from LA to Nashville, so we followed them out there and set up shop in Tennessee with the studio, Glasshouse and the band. By then, I was helping move things along with The Choir on the business side as well by helping manage the studio, working with our booking agency and road managing. Steve and Derri signed a publishing deal with Benson Music in 1994 and they learned that the label was going to start a Christian rock label imprint and needed a marketing guy. They recommended me. I got the job. I worked for Benson doing marketing, then A&R, then back to marketing for about six years.

After my first three years, Benson was sold and became part of Provident Label Group and Jeff Moseley came in to be the president. I really connected with Jeff during his time there. Jeff is a visionary, confident, honest and smart straight-shooter. But he left after two years to start his own company M2.0. A year after Jeff left, I was let go from Provident. I got tapped to do marketing for another new imprint called RedHill Records which was the record label for a very young Katy Perry (then going by her real name Katy Hudson).

I was at RedHill for under a year when Moseley reached out to me to discuss the possibility of working for his new record company (INO Records with later became FairTrade Services). So, I popped by Jeff's office and he told me about this "band from Texas" and this female singer/songwriter from St. Paul, MN that he was wanting to sign and felt he could use my help. He played me a few songs: "I Can Only Imagine" by MercyMe and "The Word" by Sara Groves. I told Jeff I would be very happy to work for him. It will be 18 years this October that I've worked here.

2) What are your day-to-day responsibilities within your position as SVP of Marketing & Promotions? (What does a typical day at the office look like for you?)

My job is to oversee promotions, marketing and sales at FairTrade. I generally intersect daily with our promotions and marketing team, A&R and Moseley on anything from big picture to budgets, release-planning and timelines. I also connect throughout the week with artist managers, Columbia Records (our distribution partner) as well as Provident Distribution. I also have connection points with some of our partners at radio and digital/streaming retail each week. I don't micro-manage the teams here, as I'm confident in their talents, experience and relationships. My desire is to support each person to build their plan, timeline and budget for their projects and encourage ownership in what they do.

3) What are three projects you're particularly proud to have been involved with during your career with INO/FairTrade?

There has been many artists, projects and songs that I'm very proud to have been involved with over the years here. Narrowing it down to three, these come to mind:

MercyMe & "I Can Only Imagine" - What a fascinating song and such a remarkable story. Just the fact that Christian radio and their listeners took to the song, hitting #1 for multiple weeks and selling hundreds of thousands of albums for a start-up indie label with a new artist made for an amazing success story that could have ended right there. But it didn't end. I remember saying to Moseley some months later, as the band was getting ready to put out their second record, that I just felt there was something left to do on "I Can Only Imagine"- that it didn't feel finished. But I couldn't articulate why or what to do about it. A short while later, the song picked up a new life through a run at mainstream radio. Fast-forward about 15 years, and a movie is made that tells the story and inspiration behind the song. What's next for this song? A Broadway musical?

I've told Laura Story that I am jealous of her. I am. She is a musician, singer, songwriter, author, speaker, worship leader, mom and wife. I'm lucky to make it to the gym a few times a week. Her song "Blessings" is so personal and vulnerable and it was very brave of her to include it on that album. I'll admit I had my doubts that a vocal/piano ballad with no drums and bass would work at radio. But I listened to and trusted the teams here at the label and got to witness the impact and success of a very special song.

I hope I get to work with Sara Groves until the end of my career. Her voice makes me feel something deep down inside, her words often mesmerize and her songs are just cool, fun and gorgeous. She's an artist's artist and I'm fortunate to still be working with her since 2001.

Honorable mention: Phillips, Craig & Dean's success with "Revelation Song." It almost didn't go on the album as a studio production, as they wanted to cut it live with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. But even the studio version was never intended to be a radio single. I remember listening to the mix for the first time on a drive to Atlanta and being so captivated by the song, PC&D's vocals and production that I insisted it be the first single.

4) Who are the label's emerging acts you're particularly enthusiastic about breaking?

These three new artists have been our focus the past few years: Micah Tyler, Jasmine Murray and Austin French. James Rueger, FairTrade's A&R VP has done a terrific job developing and enabling them to make excellent music. Each has a unique story, style and voice and I'm very happy that all have had success at radio. There's much more to come from each of them and I'm motivated to see it all through for these talents.

In development is songwriter/producer and hip-hop/pop artist Zauntee. I'm looking forward to his music, story and voice being unleashed in the days to come.

5) In recent years, The Choir has come out of a hibernation period, playing more shows and recording new material. What prompted the resurgence and what has that involved? What role have you played in getting the band back in working order?

The Choir is the band that opened everything up to me in the Christian music industry. We began around 1983 and remain active to this day. While we never retired, we did take a couple of extended breaks between the late 90s to 2010. Steve and Derri went on to create the City On A Hill worship series and Steve co-wrote the song "God of Wonders" while I was walking the path in the record label business. The last eight years has been more active, simply because of the encouragement and support of our fans and reinvigorated love for creating music together.

We attempted crowdfunding an album in 2010 and it was pretty successful. Since that album, we've released four others, plus a live album. My focus remains on my career with FairTrade, so my wife actually handles the day-to-day with the band, managing the booking, web store and a lot of the social media.

6) How has your band career helped your professional marketing career?

Having been signed to a label, toured months on-end and hunkered down in a studio working through the creative process of making an album has given me a unique perspective and understanding when working with artists. I am sympathetic to the challenges that come with living this strange life and can empathize over the sacrifice artists endure throughout their career.

Also, The Choir ultimately cast their net deeper than wide. That's a fancy way of saying we were never commercially successful by certain standards and I felt the insecurities, frustrations and doubt that came with that disappointment. Those experiences instilled in me a highly-motivated desire to give every artist my best. I just will not leave any rock unturned as I look for opportunity and success for our artists. I feel compelled to stay on top of trends and best practices, but also think differently on their behalf. I don't want to let them down.

7) How have you managed to effectively navigate The Choir tour schedules with a separate heavily-involved, full-time job?

Well, I simply don't get to go out on tours. Steve and Derri certainly have the ability to carry the show without me though. My wife sends them on the road and I join them when I can on key shows. If they're out for four or five weeks on tour, I might travel out to do two or three weekends. Last year, we did a special event tour in celebration of an album anniversary and I used my vacation time to go out on most of those shows. My priority is working for FTS, and as much as I love The Choir and am proud of what we continue to do, I remain focused on what I need to do for the FTS artists.

8) The band released the new project "Bloodshot" last month. What personal significance does this album hold for you?

The Choir continues to explore and reveal, whether crafting new sonic textures or shining a light into shadowy corners of the heart in our desire to uncover intimate truths just as we always have.

We launched this new album alongside the reissue of [1989's] "Wide Eyed Wonder." That album was about the innocence of a newborn baby. Contrast that with "Bloodshot," which is about us in our 50s. We're weathered and world-weary, and we're certainly not innocent. But we still see beauty in life through bloodshot eyes.

Hindalong continues his pattern of unflinching personal revelations through his lyrics, and Bloodshot might be his riskiest statements ever. The joyful highs and tearful lows of his marital life have been chronicled in the past through many of the band's songs. At Bloodshot's core is a story of brokenness and rebuilding.

The 34-year marriage our fans had glimpsed through the prism of Hindalong's lyrics ended last year, and he writes about the emotional damage both inflicted and sustained. Some of the songs speak to the unraveling of a relationship that they expected to weather through all storms. But at the album's root is a commitment to extend mercy to loved ones in turbulent times, and to rise from disappointment with grace and integrity.

If anyone is inclined to check it out, it can be heard here http://smarturl.it/thechoirbloodshot

9) What have you enjoyed most about going back out on the road at this point in your artistic career? Does playing a live show now energize you as much as it did in the 80s/90s?

It's way more fun now. We're doing this for the fans, the fun and the creative satisfaction that comes along with performing and making music. We're better musicians now and much more confident as individuals. After more than three decades of our partnership, we understand and now ignore our irritating quirks. Rather, we extend much more grace and patience as well as find pride in our loyalty and brotherhood.

10) When-every now and then-you're not involved in anything music-related, what else do you do with your life?

I've been married 22 years. No children, but we have dogs. American Eskimo breed. My wife and I enjoy the hobby of competing with them in agility competitions and I train one of them for obedience and tricks. I also try and keep my mind fresh and learn something new and out of my comfort zone every several years. While I'm a musician, I've never played a guitar. So about five years ago, I took lessons and learned how to play two songs on the acoustic. Recently, I've been studying to read, write and speak the Kurdish language. Nashville has a very big Kurdish community and I had the opportunity to connect with some and learn their history and culture. Theirs is a fascinating, sad, yet inspiring, story.