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MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a sequence by which we ask influential music trade figures concerning the tracks which have – to this point – outlined their journey and their existence. Subsequent up is Denzyl Feigelson, Head of Platoon (now a part of Apple Music) founding father of AWAL and way more apart from. The Key Songs In The Life Of… sequence is supported by Sony Music Publishing.
When friends in MBW’s Key Songs sequence hear the quantity seven, they’re often fairly sad. It appears a small, some may say merciless variety of tracks to pick out to symbolize a life and profession in music.
Some, actually, create a workaround, inventing double-A sides combining singles that weren’t launched in the identical decade not to mention on the identical slice of vinyl (that’s okay, Jon Platt; don’t fear about it Caron Veazy). Others simply say f**ok it and decide 10 (we’re you, Gary Gersh).
Denzyl Feigelson, nevertheless, could be very pleased with seven. “It’s my quantity. There’s seven letters in Platoon, my complete life has been concerning the quantity seven. Plus, that was the mission: choose seven. And that’s what we do at Platoon, we full the mission.”
So, in that spirit, and earlier than he begins his essential course checklist, right here’s our starter checklist, of seven issues you must learn about Denzyl Feigelson:
1) After a life-changing telephone name, he performed a pivotal function within the creation of Paul Simon’s Graceland – making multitudinous connections between South Africa and the US earlier than finally occurring to work for Simon within the States.
2) Within the mid-Nineties he retired to develop into a mail-order flower-farmer.
3) He has managed artists together with Johnny Clegg & Savuka, Kenny Loggins and Ladysmith Black Mambazo while additionally, as a part of Shep Gordon’s Alive Enterprises on the finish of Eighties into the mid Nineties, working with Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass and The Pointer Sisters
4) He based AWAL in 1997 earlier than promoting it to Kobalt for a seven-figure sum in 2012.
5) He labored with Steve Jobs on the launch of iTunes within the US in 2003 and moved to London to work on the worldwide growth of the platform in 2004.
6) He curated the iTunes Pageant from 2007 to 2016
7) In 2016 he based Platoon, a music firm that made an terrible lot of noise with out saying very a lot – and performed an enormous half in discovering Billie Eilish (and lots of different artists) earlier than being bought to Apple Music (Feigelson didn’t minimize and run, he now runs Platoon inside Apple).
Now, over to Denzyl…
1) Hugh Masekela & Miriam Makeba, Soweto Blues (1977)
This can be a protest tune concerning the Soweto rebellion in 1976 [forcefully put down by the then apartheid-based South African government, leading to somewhere between 176 and 700 deaths] and it was the primary time I heard protest in a tune.
The lyrics in Soweto Blues are so extremely sturdy, highly effective and fearless. It gave me braveness and conviction, it modified my life.
I grew up within the apartheid period South Africa, within the Orange Free State, which is the guts of Afrikaans nation. Then I ended up in Johannesburg, the place I shortly obtained into politics, as a 12/13 12 months previous. Soweto Blues was the tune that gave me the braveness to talk my thoughts.
“his tune was an vital signal of the occasions for our nation. And so they have been horrible occasions.”
The arc of the story, which we’ll come to in one other tune, is that I started working with each Hugh and Miriam in a while.
Again then, although, this tune was an vital signal of the occasions for our nation. And so they have been horrible occasions to be black (or non-white) in South Africa.
Due to the place I grew up, on a tiny farm, I wasn’t uncovered to any sort of apartheid. We have been totally different, we had totally different lives, however they have been my pals, they have been my greatest pals.
And this tune was about an vital rebellion and, as you’ll see, it actually formed how my profession developed.
2) Sixto Rodriguez, Sugar Man (1970)
So now I’m a teen. I’m simply studying play guitar. I’m forming a band in my storage. And Rodriguez has the largest banned album in South Africa [Cold Fact]. It was seen as a protest album.
However this was my expertise of placing a band collectively, listening to an album and saying, these are going to be the primary 10 songs that we play.
And the entire thing, in fact, is that we thought he was lifeless. That was a heavy time. As a result of at the same time as a band, folks have been afraid of us taking part in these songs.
Our dad and mom have been like, are you certain you wish to do that? You could possibly get arrested for going out and taking part in these songs.
I had an older brother who was a jazz trumpeter, who additionally influenced me. He took me to Soweto the place he was taking part in jazz. He was additionally fairly politically lively, at all times bringing folks dwelling and hiding folks in the home.
My band was an actual storage band, we performed within the Excessive College. I bear in mind coming into a contest to do what was principally a Bob Dylan impression, simply me and a guitar. And I gained!
However I didn’t assume I’d be a musician. It wasn’t an enormous plan, it was simply having enjoyable with my mates.
3) Cat Stevens/Yusuf, Father and Son (1970)
Similtaneously I’m studying guitar, I’m discovering this complete singer/songwriter scene. I had a tough time attempting to determine on one, as a result of all of them closely influenced me, however the one which stands out nonetheless is Cat Stevens.
His lyrics spoke to me and to a technology. And on prime of that there was his melody strains, his voice, his persona, how he seemed… he was sort of a rock n roll star, however he wasn’t a rock n roll star. He seemed like he could possibly be your uncle.
I simply adored every thing he did. I adopted him and I discovered each tune. I may play any Cat Stevens tune that ever got here out to this present day.
There have been different greats in that space, in fact. There was Jackson Browne, there was Joni Mitchell, there was Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills and Nash. Nevertheless it was Cat Stevens who most closely influenced the best way I finally grew to become a musician, as a result of I used to be in a position to examine what he did, he was the one I associated to. He was like a religious instructor.
And I selected Father and Son as a result of my father handed away after I was that age, discovering and loving Cat Stevens. I feel this tune helped me by way of that trauma, it helped heal what I used to be going by way of as a younger teenager.
4) Johnny Clegg & Savuka, Scatterlings of Africa (1982)
The fascinating arc of this story is that I found Johnny Clegg and Juluka in South Africa simply by going to see them play dwell within the Seventies.
They have been Sipho Mchunu and Johnny Clegg the primary interracial group ever in South Africa within the years of apartheid, interracial apartheid. Johnny’s a white South African, however he liked Zulu music, he discovered the Zulu language, and he partnered with Sipho [Mchunu] to develop into Juluka.
They have been continually banned from taking part in dwell, however they nonetheless did, they nonetheless managed it, and so they wrote songs for his or her technology.
Scatterlings of Africa is a tune that everyone ought to hear. it’s so unimaginable and simply speaks so powerfully to what was occurring on the time.
Scatterlings of Africa is a tune that everyone ought to hear. it’s so unimaginable and simply speaks so powerfully to what was occurring on the time. However there’s additionally a lot pleasure in it, there’s loads of sentiment regarding the tribal aspect of how South Africa works.
Now, fast-forward and I went on to handle (with Shep Gordon) Johnny in 1989 – one other full circle.
In 1973/74 I’m going to school in America, I take guitar classes, develop into a bass participant and transfer to Hawaii to kind a band known as Heartstrings, which was the band in Hawaii on the time
We opened for Fleetwood Mac, we opened for Bob Marley. When an enormous band got here to Hawaii, we opened for them.
I went again to South Africa in 1982 and whereas I used to be there I performed bass in some recording periods and I met a singer named Steve Kekena. In reality, I ended up producing his first English report, and that led me to begin working with Johnny Clegg, who by now was working with a producer named Hilton Rosenthal.
At some point, I used to be within the studio with Johnny and Hilton, when Paul Simon rings up, and asks to talk to me and Hilton. He mentioned, ‘I’ve obtained this cassette, it’s known as one thing like Zulu Jive Hits Quantity 3, it was given to me by a DJ…’
He had been writing to the report label on the cassette, however no one was getting again to him. So he went to Mo Austin and Lenny Waronker at Warner and mentioned, ‘What can I do? I actually love this music, I wish to know extra about who’s making it…’ They mentioned, ‘Oh, we simply met Denzyl and Hilton at MIDEM, we’ve signed Johnny Clegg to Warner, these guys will certainly have the opportunity that will help you.”
That’s how I got here to be speaking to Paul Simon from a studio in South Africa, and we then crated up 50 albums to ship to him in America.
A couple of weeks later we get a letter saying, ‘I really like this monitor, I really like this band [etc.], are you able to get the musicians collectively and convey them to New York?’
We mentioned, ‘Effectively, that shall be robust, why don’t you come to South Africa?’. However this was on the time of the UN boycott, so he needed to clear his journey with the ANC, and with folks like Harry Belafonte and Quincy Jones, which he did. And he got here for 3 weeks.
And I helped co-ordinate all these musicians that he had favored. I obtained in a van and went out to the countryside and located all these musicians; we put a band collectively, and people three weeks fashioned the premise of Graceland…
5) Paul Simon, Diamonds on the Soles of her Footwear (1987)
I’ve picked this monitor from Graceland as a result of it contains Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who I went on to handle, because of Paul.
I labored on the complete Graceland challenge from starting to finish.
Paul introduced me forwards and backwards from South Africa to New York, bringing numerous musicians with me for numerous tracks. Finally he mentioned ‘Look, why don’t you simply come work for me?’ So I joined the Paul Simon group.
Paul was now ending the report on the Hit Manufacturing unit in New York, we additionally went to Arizona to report Below African Skies, we went to New Orleans and did a monitor there.
In direction of the top of the challenge, we introduced Ladysmith to New York and so they created Homeless and Diamonds.
When the album got here out, there’s at all times this stress on an artist to have a business hit, a radio hit, and there was nothing there that folks thought would try this on this report.
Then we went out on tour and began taking part in it and other people have been simply going nuts. It was a type of data that folks simply obtained. The music was so joyous. I spent seven years on that challenge, from 1982 to 1989. Graceland formed my life – in the absolute best manner.
6) Pink Floyd, Cash (1973)
This one truly goes again a bit. Pink Floyd have been an enormous affect on me. And Cash was an enormous affect on me.
Earlier than I left South Africa I went into the military [through conscription]. And the South African military was not a enjoyable expertise. However Pink Floyd saved my life. As a result of all I did was take heed to Pink Floyd.
It additionally modified my life, as a result of the bassline on Cash is so nice. After I went to New Mexico within the mid-70s, I went to see this jazz guitar participant and mentioned I wish to study guitar. He checked out me and mentioned, ‘I actually need a bass participant’. I mentioned, ‘No, I wish to study the guitar.’
On the finish of my first lesson, he gave me a stupendous Fender Jazz Bass and mentioned, ‘Take this dwelling, I feel you’re gonna prefer it’. I went dwelling and I discovered the bassline to Cash and immediately I used to be in love. I grew to become a bass participant. In reality, I grew to become besotted with bass.
7) Billie Eilish, Ocean Eyes (2016)
I’ve to skip complete eras, together with from 1997 after I began AWAL in my storage in California, to promoting it to Kobalt in December 2011 – and that’s a interval that in fact contains a lot wonderful music.
However I’m fast-forwarding to 2015ish in order that I can embrace this. I’m the editor of iTunes, amongst different issues, and I’m a heavy SoundCloud consumer. I discover a tune known as Ocean Eyes – and I discover it’s not on iTunes.
I monitor down the managers and it seems that the artist, Billie Eilish, is 14 years previous. Her dad and mom are, like, we don’t wish to get entangled with the enterprise, she’s too younger.
I completely perceive that, however I additionally inform them I’ve simply began this factor known as Platoon, it’s simply me and Lucie [Watson], each deal is a one-page settlement, no cash adjustments palms, however this tune must be on the market.
“Billie and that tune actually helped form Platoon.”
They have been, like, nice: we such as you, you want us, let’s do it. And naturally Billie and that tune actually helped form Platoon.
It was so sturdy, it simply took off. We began seeing these numbers, and other people partaking, asking, who is that this? I imply, there have been two of us on the label, so it’s not like we did all this advertising and marketing; it confirmed the ability of tune.
Simply that complete expertise with Billie, together with her household, working with Danny [Rukasin] and Brandon Goodman, the administration staff, it was simply so wonderful – to not point out getting to look at Billie and Finneas work. It was such a particular partnership with these guys.
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