Poor Rich Folk band members create artist cooperative

by PegNews wire

Poor Rich Folk’s Luke Brawner and Andy Brannon’s goal to start a management label was always the plan and they have made it happen with Milieu Artist Cooperative.

“It’s an expensive process," Brawner noted, "[but] we always wanted to do studio work.”

Brawner and Brannon have always wanted to help manage new independent artists.

“You can be more successful as an independent artist now,” Brawner said. “Our purpose is to protect [the artists] and our goal will never be to sign artists to a record.”

After much success and performing with Poor Rich Folk, Brawner and Brannon have seen, heard and experienced themselves a lot of the problems and struggles facing independent musicians today.

“Through the years of playing with other artists [we saw] a lot of them were frustrated because they didn’t know how to make themselves successful,” Brawner said.

Brawner and Brannon’s experience with Poor Rich Folk only helps them to better understand and manage independent artists.

“We have made every mistake in the book,” Brawner said. “We can tell artists don’t do this or this is a better idea. You can’t cut corners when creating an image.”

Milieu is a unique and wonderful juxtaposition of Ari Gold and a mother hen and wants its goals and its client’s goals to be in sync.

“I think it is important for artists to be willing to spend money, make money and then reinvest it,” Brawner said. “[We] feel that Milieu is a model of the music business for the future…letting artists be independent and control their own careers.”

However, and fortunately, Brawner was quick to point out that Milieu is not just one giant PR firm.

“We are not just a booking agency, which is why we are called an artist cooperative,” he said. “We are trying to set ourselves apart from the traditional business model…[which is why] we make it a point to enter into fair, short-term contracts with our artists.”

While Milieu does plan on using traditional methods of spreading the word, it intends to rely heavily on word of mouth and music sharing sites such as Noise Trade and Drop Cards.

“It’s all about word of mouth, getting out and playing shows,” Brawner said. “We will do some traditional stuff [such as] advertise with Paste and other music magazines and release podcasts…[But] promoting the idea of independent music, that’s our market.”

The overarching goal for Milieu is to be a society of artists with resources for artists.

“What we really want to be is a community of independent artists with a similar goal,” Brawner said. “We are a central point [where people] can pool their resources.”

As for now, Milieu is not looking for overnight success. Brawner and Brannon have every intention of making Milieu a grassroots company that devotes most if not all of its time to the artist.

“We are intentionally not trying to make a living off this yet,” Brawner said. “We are trying to grow our business organically…Keep a small roster and a fair percentage.”

So far, Milieu’s roster includes South Carolina native Dylan Sneed; Matthew Mayfield, former front man for Moses Mayfield and formerly signed with Columbia Records; Judd and Maggie, a bother/sister duo in Nashville; and Act of Congress, a Nickel Creek-ish sounding, yet still highly original, group from Birmingham.

Brawner insists that while Milieu does keep an open mind when bringing in new artists, and they will absolutely listen to submissions, it has to be music that they love.

“[We are] not going to work with artists just for the sake of working with artists,” he said. “We’re intentionally keeping our roster limited. We want to give all our artists 100 percent attention.”

While Brawner admits growing a grass roots company does take a significant amount of time and money, the future of Poor Rich Folk is certain.

“We’re still at it,” he said.

This story was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community.