Years inside the noise
Author · Music and television executive · Artist manager · Los Angeles
Whittier kid, tour busses and vans, MTV, management shop, coffee roaster, novelist. Different rooms, same job: find the thing before everybody else does.
Nine years a music and talent executive at MTV. Managed White Denim and Barrie-James O'Neill. Co-founded Coffee Bop in 2024. Published my first novel, Street Freaks, in 2026.
Born 1971 in Whittier, California. Street Freaks is set on those blocks in 1987. The rest is below, in order.
01 / Career timeline
1971
Born and raised there. Same blocks, same skate spots, same 1987 the novel runs on.
2001–2003
An independent music mail order distribution company, ahead of its time. Catalog nobody else was carrying, plus a partnership with Welk Music Group.
2003–2006
Crew for Pete Yorn, Grandaddy and Year of the Rabbit. Tour managed The Willowz. Three years of load-ins through Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds, Hove, La Route du Rock, Frequency, Lowlands and Pukkelpop, on bills with Foo Fighters, My Morning Jacket, Super Furry Animals, Elbow, A Perfect Circle and The Greenhornes.
2006–2014
Nearly a decade as a music and talent executive. Music coordinator on The Hills, Pimp My Ride and Skins.
2006–2021
In-house at MTV next to the music supervisors, and talent logistics on the ground: Linkin Park at the 2010 Video Music Awards, Miike Snow at the 2010 Movie Awards, Odd Future at the 2011 MTVu Woodie Awards. Later, trailer music on Summer of 84, on-set music consulting for FOX's Paradise Hotel, and music supervision on It Takes Three.
2007–2009
Built and hosted a show on Little Radio for artists nobody was playing yet. Live sessions and interviews.
2007–2010
Caught the band at SXSW, ran into them again on a blog from the MTV desk, signed on to manage. Closed their Full Time Hobby deal in the UK and a Downtown Records deal covering US releases plus worldwide publishing.
2014–2016
Management, A&R and executive production across the HATE EP and the Cold Coffee album, plus a worldwide publishing deal with BMG. Start to finish, in-house.
2023–2024
Started a Los Angeles specialty coffee brand with Anne. Small batch, roasted fresh, out the door in 2024.
2025
Barrie-James co-wrote Lana Del Rey's "Brooklyn Baby" while I managed him. It passed a billion Spotify streams in October 2025.
2026
First novel. 57 pages, 1987 Whittier, published through my own imprint, Acid Bird Books.
02 / What I built
Novel // 2026
Five kids point a strange machine at themselves and wake up a dead cable channel. The town watches. The number climbs. Fifty-seven pages, no padding.
57 PAGES · ISBN 9798199344333
Read it →Label // 2014–now
My label. Management, A&R and executive production under one roof: the HATE EP and Cold Coffee. Now the imprint behind Street Freaks.
How it went →Coffee // 2024
Specialty coffee out of Los Angeles, co-founded with Anne. Small batch, roasted fresh.
Drink it →03 / Elsewhere
Profiles, press, credits and the places to buy things.