There I was, standing on the corner of Sunset and Vine in the grime-ridden streets of Hollywood. A place that was once rumoured to be covered in gold had turned to dust, though the hot California sun still shines down upon it. Waiting with my fellow low-income bus dwellers, I stood, anticipating the nerve-racking ride to the neighbourhood of Silver Lake. I was home sick and was told this was where the hipsters rest. Hailing from Toronto where most of the 22-35 year olds can only identify with having over sized non-prescription glasses and predominantly wearing clothing people sweat and fucked in fifty years ago (true hipster fashion), I was curious how this translated in California. On this day, however, I never found out.
The Los Angeles transit system tested my patience, as ten minutes had now passed with out any sign of a bus, while I received a text message from Jason Croke. I wouldn’t say that Jason and I knew each other well at this point. Now a resident of LA, he and his wife, Michelle Calvert, are from my hometown of Toronto. Back when Michelle and Jason lived in the north, Michelle was, for a period of time, my boss. It wasn’t until she held a company Christmas party at the house she shared with Jason, that he and I first met and instantly found our love of music to be common ground. During my visit in LA, I would have loved to see Michelle, but unfortunately she was out of the city. They were the only ones I knew in the Los Angeles area, so Jason and I had made loose plans to hang out. When Jason wrote me that text message, he asked what I was doing. I responded with letting him know about the agonizing long wait for the bus and that I could be persuaded to change my plans. He told me to walk to Amoeba and he would meet me in five minutes.
Five minutes passed, and there was Jason on the corner in front of legendary record store, Amoeba in his air-conditioned, non-public transit vehicle. When I hopped into his car, he was eager to show me one of the many and great musical sites of the historical and wild city. So off we went to the Chateau Marmont. In case you are not aware, this West Hollywood hotel has a colourful life as a haven for celebrities. From being the former address of both Jim Morrison and Neil Young, to having beautiful oriental carpets where Jim Belushi took his last steps, any celeb worth knowing or groupie worth interviewing has walked through these doors. In fact, while Jason and I indulged in our beverages, a very tiny, sour, and elderly Glenn Close was seated just a few tables down from us on the patio. Since this is a very popular hangout for the famous, no photographs of any kind are allowed. Therefore all I have for you is my eyewitness account. Though our time together there wasn’t long, Jason and I did have some great conversations, sharing our stories and musical knowledge. From telling me about all the great Toronto shows I had missed while I was young and learning my ABC’s, to his rough career adjustment after moving to LA. Not to worry, Jason landed on his feet and is now the Director of Sales in the LA office for Vancouver based record label, Nettwerk.
I don’t know many people in the record industry, especially people who work in the industry and are living in LA. Curious to know more, after I arrived back home, Jason and I set up a more-candid-than-usual phone interview. It was during our talk that he alone gave me hope for the major record labels; that there is still passion for the music and it’s not all about dollars and cents for everyone. On a nice summer evening, after I came home from my day job in Toronto, I picked up the phone to reach Jason in LA and we talked about his musical beginnings and his path to the west coast.
Jason grew up in Barrie, Ontario, a suburb north of Toronto. I would give you a reference for how you might know this city, but I can’t think of one. I can tell you there’s an exit on the 401 East to take the 400 North to Barrie. It’s a tricky exit and I have had many close calls with almost, accidentally driving to Barrie, instead of my destination because of it. Coming from a city that has no memorable identity did not seem to bother him; Jason was able to step away from the usual. As he told me, his musical education came in a package with his rebellious youth skateboarding around town: “[Skateboarding] impacted the decision of appearance, attitude and then the music just came along with it.” He continued by saying, “right off the top, right when I can start saying I liked music, it had already become a way that I wasn’t going to go with the grain. I was going to go as far away from it as possible. As much of the time as possible, really.” The music Jason was talking about at this point in his life was mainly grunge, before anyone knew it to be grunge. He confessed that Nirvana was one of the worse things to happen to him. Or at the moment at least it had seemed to be, as he told me, “That underground scene was a great thing until Nirvana came around.” Jason identified with an underground scene whose fate was to be dragged through the mainstream mud.
As Croke matured into his twenties, it actually was Nirvana that helped him see the light when it came to the music industry, and how an unknown band making it big is actually a beautiful thing. Jason showed his soft side when he admitted, “There is a romantic side to the business of music, with the stories [for example], the day Nirvana got signed and there’s all this drama behind it and I love that shit. I just thought it was incredible. That a small label in Seattle got this shitty Seattle band and virtually changed everything… that started peaking my interest into what record labels are and what they do… It’s kind of hard to do both. Be the business guy as well as the artist. The business side is an art form in its own right… how do you take a band that are not good to some and great to others, market them and create a career for four people. It’s pretty incredible… At a certain point I didn’t know where I was going to end up, but I knew I was going to carve my way into that industry.” That is exactly what Jason was able to do, from working as a reviewer for legendary Toronto record store, Sam the Man, to being in sales for Select Distribution, which allowed him to work closely with the iconic Beggars Group. Jason was on a path that most up and comers in the music industry look to for inspiration. So why did he leave Toronto for LA?
Speaking from my own (biased) experience, Toronto can be frustrating for almost any creative industry. My own background includes working in an art gallery, working for a top fashion designer and in the music industry. When someone wants to try another city for a chance to explore the bigger and better, I do come down with a hint of jealousy. That’s why when Jason and his wife Michelle left town, I couldn’t blame them and didn’t question it. I was, however, still interested in why they made the decision. I know they had both lived there at one point in their twenties, and it seems that after so many years, the Hollywood Hills missed them and seemed to pull them back. Los Angeles looked like a good career choice as Jason started to envision his future in Toronto, and wasn’t sure how much further he would get in a city where the most creative industries have lower ceilings than most creative capitols. It did take some time, but Croke was able to find a position that he loves, and that loves him right back, at Nettwerk in Los Angeles, and his infatuation of the industry has remained true. He told me with hints of joy in his voice, “It’s priceless and can’t get any better. Through all the years of me being in the industry in Canada and now LA, the cast of characters that have come through my life, some of them funnier than others, some of them complete assholes, you learn off of all of them and some of them are lazy and you learn off them too because you think ‘oh, you’re just lingering, man you’re not doing anything’ and those are the guys that you go, ‘great, I’m going to stomp right past you as you’re sitting there doing nothing, so you’re out of my way.’ The there’s the next guys who are really good at what they do, you want to beat them, but you also want to be them.“ On the topic of avoiding the music industry on account of its instability, unpredictability, and slim chance of making the big bucks Jason reassured me, “The dollar itself, sure we all need one to get by. But I think at this rate it’s more the passion that keeps you in this game and I wouldn’t give it up for anything to be honest with you. It would be hard to tell you to start selling cars and make triple the money.”
Bands Jason is recommending to friends these days:
Black Marble
The Fall
Pissed Jeans