Mike Lembo
Funzalo Records | Mike's Artist Management
| Funzalo Music
www.funzalorecords.com
www.mikesmanagement.com
BIOGRAPHY
Mike Lembo’s motto, “From little things big things come,” couldn’t be more appropriate than when referring to his 30+ years in the music business.
Walk into Lembo’s Tucson, Arizona offices and the first thing that strikes you is “what exactly does this guy do?” Your eye is immediately drawn to the framed rock posters, plaques and gold records lining the walls. A Platinum Sales Award to commemorate sales of over 1 million copies of the album “Different Light” by the Bangles; a multi-platinum sales award for over 8,000,000 sales of No Doubt’s “Tragic Kingdom”; sales awards for Hole’s “Live Through This” and Radiohead’s “Pablo Honey” – over 100 plaques, awards, gold and platinum records in all. Then there’s the huge statue of Nipper, the RCA dog. You can tell this is the office of someone who works in the music business, but in what capacity, exactly?
From his start in early-70s Gainesville “managing” a band called Mudcrutch (who went on to change their name and become massively successful worldwide), to his current incarnation presiding over his own record label and managing musicians and top-tier music producers, Lembo’s “little things --> big things” adage is clearly at work in his long and storied career.
“When I say I ‘managed’ Mudcrutch, all that means is that I was the kid with the van,” Lembo laughs. “We were all kids, and the only credit I can take is that I schlepped them around and I told them that they were a good enough band to get out of Florida and go take a stab at it. Although if I would have kept them at that age, you never would have heard of them Now everybody knows them, everywhere.”
More than 30 years later, Mike Lembo has gone from being “the kid with the van” to starting his own record label (Funzalo Records), management company (Mike’s Artist Management) and publishing company (Funzalo Publishing). Funzalo’s artist roster includes Tony Furtado, Luca, Amelia White, Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart, Mint, Jules Shear and brand new signings Green Pitch and The Breakers.dk The Mike’s Artist Management roster includes Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade of Camp Street (formerly Fort Apache) Studios (The Pixies, Hole, Radiohead, Morphine); Craig Schumacher of Wavelab Studio (Neko Case, Calexico, Robyn Hitchcock); Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Marilyn Manson, Queens of the Stone Age, Rush, Shadows Fall, Son of Sam, Velvet Revolver); Jim Dickinson (Mudhoney, Big Star, the Replacements), among a good many others. For more information about Funzalo Records, visit, www.funzalorecords.com or www.myspace.com/funzalorecords. For more information about the producers, visit www.mikesmanagement.com.
“I grew up on Long Island, but in 1968 I moved to Florida with my folks. That’s how I ended up going to school in Gainesville. I did that for a couple years and then decided to go out on my own. First I went to Boston, where I worked with a regional booking agent, Pretty Polly Productions, for a couple years. Next I moved to New York and started managing artists. I landed the first record deal for Robin Lane and the Chartbusters (with Warner Brothers). I also managed John Payne (Arista and Mercury), NRBQ (Mercury), the Pez Band (Sire/Passport) from Chicago ...”
“One of the best things we did back in those early days was rent out Yankee Stadium for an NRBQ cover photo shoot. Remember the record? It was called ‘NRBQ at Yankee Stadium’ and the cover was just a shot of the empty stadium. The back had a picture of the band in the stadium. It wasn’t a gig or anything – the place was empty. We rented it out for $300. It was a great 70s style promo idea and we really had fun with it.”
During Lembo’s time in New York he also got into the world of music publishing. “I was doing consulting for MCA Music Publishing. I started working with the great songwriter Jules Shear, who ended up writing 2 songs for Cyndi Lauper’s first record. One of those songs, ‘All Through the Night,’ hit huge.”
When Lembo was managing Shear, the songwriter was also making records with his band the Polar Bears. Mike and Jules worked together for 20 years, and eventually went their separate ways. Interestingly, and in typical fashion for Lembo’s career, Jules and (possibly) the Polar Bears will once more be working with him in 2007, when their new record is slated to come out on Funzalo.
By the mid-80s, Lembo was managing two bands out of Australia, Died Pretty and The Church, the latter of whom had huge international success with the song “Under the Milky Way.” He was also handling the group’s publishing, and in 1992, looking for a change of venue, he sold all his publishing holdings and made enough money to move to Tucson, buy real estate and start his own business.
He immediately started working with Tucson’s Sand Rubies (formerly the Sidewinders), helping them land a deal with RCA. His relationship with the producer Jim Dickinson soon had him focusing on Dickinson’s sons, Luther and Cody, and their heavy blues-rock trio, the North Mississippi Allstars. He managed the Allstars in the late 90s/early 2000s, helping guide them to a level where they were selling lots of records, appearing on late-night television, touring more than ever (including playing huge European festivals) and being the buzz band at SXSW in 2000, the year of their highly anticipated release, Shake Hands with Shorty.
“After I worked with the North Mississippi Allstars I saw the business changing,” Lembo remembers. “I wanted to develop a business model where the artists and I could share all the different possible revenue streams.”
Lembo had also taken on management of producers in the early 80s – among them Peter Coleman (who produced Pat Benatar) as well as Kolderie and Slade. (Mike’s Artist Management was originally Mikes’ Management, with Lembo and another Mike – Mike Bone, another industry vet – working together. Eventually Mike Bone went on to work a bunch of major-label jobs, including president of Mercury Records in 1990 and stints at Arista and Island, among others).
Lembo reminisces, “At the time, I was working with Paul and Sean and a band they were producing called Clockhammer. From my association with the producers and the band, and by making a P&S deal with the band’s label at the time (First Warning records, part of BMG), we got hooked up with Radiohead. Soon Paul and Sean were producing Radiohead’s debut record, Pablo Honey, which went on to sell hundreds of thousands of records and was nominated for a Grammy. They also mixed The Bends.”
All these different elements and players – from recording to marketing to managing the producers and hooking them up with different artists – started to work together as more than the sum of their parts. Publishing also plays a major role. For instance, in about 2000, Lembo also struck a publishing deal with David Lowery and Cracker (and now Camper Van Beethoven).
Right around the same time, Lembo saw a show by banjo player/guitarist Tony Furtado. “I thought Tony was an amazing player, and his live stuff was just great. I firmly believed he had what it takes to go to the next level, and I wanted to have a hand in that.” Lembo approached Furtado about managing him and putting out his next record. Furtado said yes, and Mikes’ Artist Management had a new client who needed a label. So Funzalo Records came to be.
“Funzalo was kind of a play on words at the time – sort of Italian/New York-ese for ‘funds are low,’” Lembo quips. “We wanted to use our resources wisely and be a clearinghouse for many artist services. By managing the artists, publishing the music and managing their publishing, we could be a one-stop-shop for film, TV and advertising music supervisors. Through tour management, we could develop the artists on a market-by-market level. And by putting the records out ourselves with the label, we were able to get solid distribution to retail. Basically with Tony’s signing, we started to hammer out this business model that we’re continuing to fine-tune today.”
Seven years later, the model is chugging along. In accordance with Lembo’s “From little things big things grow,” adage, what began with a teenage kid driving a van for his friends in a band has become a multi-tiered business. Thirty-some years of experience, making new contacts and keeping in touch with them, and creative problem-solving have helped grow Funzalo Records.
“Tony Furtado’s gotten to a level that he’s deserved to get to, and we’re constantly working on getting him more. He’s doing better at radio with this record than he’s done in his whole career so far,” says Lembo. “I’m currently working hard on strengthening our foreign distribution, and we just got deals overseas for Luca, Tony and Green Pitch. Foreign and domestic booking is being shored up, and we just signed 2 new bands (Green Pitch and the Breakers.dk), and have more coming down the pike. Plus we’re constantly on the lookout for new projects for our producers. It’s a very exciting time for Funzalo Records and Mike’s Artist Management.”
