David Bason

David Bason (born February 22, 1973) is a music manager and record executive.^[1] During A&R stints at RCA Records, Roadrunner Records, Decca Records, Century Media Records and Red Bull Records he signed The Strokes, The Dresden Dolls, Amanda Palmer, New York Dolls, Matt Skiba, Blaqk Audio, Andrew WK, Badflower, and The Cult.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Bason has managed Thirty Seconds To Mars, James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins/A Perfect Circle), Cerebral Ballzy, Beta Radio, Amanda Mair, Zipper Club, Blondfire, and Flora Cash, as well as many Grammy-winning, platinum producer/engineers, including David Kahne (Lana Del Rey, Sublime), Dennis Herring (Elvis Costello, Counting Crows), Jon Kaplan (Cage the Elephant, Gavin DeGraw), David Bendeth (Paramore, Bring Me The Horizon), Elvis Baskette (Slash, Incubus) Chris Shaw (Public Enemy, Bob Dlyan), and Kenny Carkeet (Night Riots, Bear Hands).^{[7][8][9][10][11][12]}

Biography

Bason began his career as tour manager of Treble Charger in 1997, where he met David Bendeth, a subsequent management client.^[13] In 2001, after leading the charge at RCA Records to sign the band The Strokes, Bason began running the alternative arm of Roadrunner Records, where his first signing was The Dresden Dolls – whose lead singer Amanda Palmer went on to become a Kickstarter cover girl and New York Times Best-Selling author, as well as signing The Cult and The New York Dolls for their 2006 comeback album, One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This.^[14][15][16]

In 2006, Bason founded the Universal Music-distributed Stay Gold Records where he signed punk rock bands and produced several dub reggae remixes.^[17][18] In 2014, Bason was asked by Phil McGraw to be president of Hundred Handed Records, home to Coheed and Cambria’s recent albums including The Color Before the Sun.^[19]

In 2009, after seven years at Roadrunner Records and A&R stints with Red Bull Records, Decca Records and Century Media records (where he signed Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba and an AFI side project) Bason was recruited to join the LA-based boutique firm The MGMT Company.^[20] While there, Bason managed Atlanta-based group The Constellations (Virgin Records), guided indie-pop band Blondfire to a bidding war deal with Warner Bros. and signed infamous N.Y. black punk band Cerebral Ballzy to Julian Casablancas’ Cult Records label.^[21][22][23]

In 2017, Bason became a partner at Wax Audio Group, a label releasing audio books on vinyl with book publishers Harper Collins and Hachette.^[24][25] Bason hosts a popular music management podcast, The Storytelling Show, in which he and Joe Sib, Matt Pinfield and The Mowgli's discuss managing and A&R in the music business.^[26]

References