About
January 1987 - The first issue of A Dirty Little Secret (ADLS), a music and culture fanzine is born, printed “borrowing” the photo copier from the principals office of a Long Island, NY high school.
Many years of following the dream and working my way up the ladder, I’ve been able to build an experience that now spans over 15 years with several of the world’s leading media companies in the music, social media, cable TV, film & publishing industries, at major corporations and start-ups alike.
This includes work as a senior A&R executive for several major record labels whose artists influenced my love of music (and the writing of ADLS) in the first place, such as Elektra, Capitol, Virgin and more, discovering/working with talents that many would find familiar today. Even started my own - Launchpad Media & Entertainment, developing, managing, A&R and producing my first act to an award-winning Platinum debut, with worldwide festival headlining appearances, major department store ad campaigns, clothing lines with Tony Hawk, film/TV syncs and licenses, and media appearances such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, among other successes.
There’s also my involvement in the very early days of social media and music on the Internet. Billboard Talent Net was a groundbreaking website considered to be among the first meaningful music, social and B2B networking sites on the web (and a precursor to Facebook and MySpace, among others); where among other responsibilities, I wrote about and introduced music executives and fans around the world to new talents such as John Mayer, Nelly Furtado, Alien Ant Farm, Anthony Hamilton and Amerie, to name a few.
Along the way I’ve been invited to speak as an industry expert at numerous conferences, workshops and panels around the country and the world, including Midem (Cannes, France), Popkomm (Germany), SXSW (Austin, TX), CMJ (NY), Atlantis (Atlanta), NEMO (Boston), Orlando Music Festival, Philadelphia Music Conference, and many, many more.
Earlier days were spent volunteering at the legendary alternative radio station WLIR, as a college radio DJ/audio engineer at WBAU, a gig at Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, and my first major label record company position at EMI. Along the way I also worked with talent and programming at American Movie Classics (AMC), and founded a successful industry social network, special events and nightclub promotions organization, including extensive contracted project work with The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammy’s), with whom I am now a voting member.
Fast forward to January 2012. Exactly 25 years later, ADLS is reborn on the web at www.adirtylittlesecret.com.
Poke around the site and make sure to “Subscribe,” “Follow” and “Like” in the appropriate areas. Lots more to come.
