Shaking up the music industry, one album at a time

Joe Brent makes it his mission to help fellow musicians have “artistic and financial agency over their music.” In 2021, the Queens native, who grew up in Tampa, Florida, started a record label called Adhyâropa with a system that is fairer to artists when it comes to earning revenue from their music.

“Everybody knows that streaming doesn’t pay artists very well, but I think people don’t have an idea of ​​how bad it really is and how bad it’s gotten,” he said.

Brent, 48, who lives in Washington Heights, originally created the label for his “activist band,” 9 Horses, where he plays “mandolin and then guitar, violin, piano and a lot of other things.” As fate would have it, his friend released a record at the same time and signed to Brent’s label, and “that was the last time I contacted anyone.” Word of mouth spread, and now the label is about to release its 90th album.

Brent’s path to becoming a professional musician includes attending Berklee College of Music in Boston and even traveling to Italy to study with a mandolin virtuoso there. Once back in New York, he made his solo debut at Carnegie Hall and landed a seat on Broadway. Most recently, he was the mandolin player in its revival Oklahoma. He has also published two books on mandolin pedagogy, “read only by the coolest people with plenty to do at the weekend but who choose to play the mandolin”.

On June 7, 9 Horses released their 4th album, Strom, which he said can be described as “cinematic”. “We all have both jazz and classical and we play a lot of different types of music and it’s all there.”

Tell us how you started playing the mandolin.

I started on the violin because I saw Itzhak Perlman on TV. There were always stringed instruments like guitars and domras and balalaikas and other things because they come from a big Russian family. So I was always playing a lot of other stuff and studying the violin when I was young. Then, in my teens, I really decided that guitar and mandolin were closer to my real voice, and eventually it became mandolin as my main thing.

Explain your educational background and path to becoming a professional musician.

I first went to DePauw University to study composition because I really wanted to be a composer. And I was studying there with a teacher I really liked. But I wasn’t the most focused student, so after three semesters there, I was invited not to return. Let’s just say I had a bit of a substance abuse problem back then too. So I went to Georgia and played in a band there for a year, which didn’t help with the substance abuse, but it gave me something to do for a while. And then I said, “Okay, this is it. I have to clean myself up.” And I went back and finished my degree at Berklee College in Boston in ’99.

When did you move to New York?

I was living in the city in ’99. I had done some gigs at the end of college where I had songwriting credits for some really big songs, so I was able to get a really nice apartment when I was really young on Cedar Street right across from the South Tower on the Mall . So I was only there for a little while and then on 9/11, I had to move. Only that place no longer existed. I was going to Rutgers for my master’s at the time, I didn’t finish, because I had already done a lot of work on Broadway shows and stuff.

The masters I got were in jazz history and I really enjoyed it, but I just couldn’t put all my energy into it because I was working so much. So I went to Italy for a little bit and studied with a teacher named Carlo Aonzo, who is an incredible virtuoso mandolin player. And I was there off and on for a few years and came back and been in New York ever since, except for a few years when I lived in Beacon.

When did you make your Broadway debut?

Well, I could give two different answers to that. One was many, many years ago. There was a Broadway version of the movie Urban Cowboy, and I was the substitute for the violin book (chair). And the show came out and got really terrible reviews, so the lead violinist just left the show, he had some work to do in Europe, I think. And that essentially became my show by the end of the run.

You founded the band 9 Horses. Who else is in the group?

At the center of it is myself on mandolin and then also guitar, violin, piano and many other things. And then violinist Sara Caswell, whose full name is actually Grammy nominee Sara Caswell. She was the first woman ever to be nominated for the Grammy category for Best Improvisational Solo, which had been around for 60 years. And then bassist Andrew Ryan. Andrew and I are with the Grammys, we’re not nominated for the Grammys.

We collaborate with a lot of people, so on the album that’s coming out right now, there are 25 other guest musicians. The one we did a few years ago, there’s something like 40. But when we go on tour, it’s usually just the three of us doing stripped down versions of all the songs.

Explain the state of the music industry.

Back in the day, when I was a kid, when you sold a record, a certain percentage of it went to the artist or a songwriter, a certain percentage went to the record company, and a certain percentage went to the distributor. This was a system that worked for quite some time.

I don’t think people realize that Spotify only pays a third of a cent per stream. So you really have to do a lot of streaming to make any kind of money.

Apple Music is a little better than that, but the only way you’re going to make money from streaming is to get into playlists. And Apple won’t consider your music for playlists unless it’s mastered in Dolby Atmos (surround sound technology). But who has a 15-speaker setup at home to record and master in Dolby Atmos?

Everything that’s happened in my lifetime has been very bad for artists and the reason it’s gotten that way is because we’re not organized like other genres are. If you look at the actors and writers, they went on strike last year and got a lot of what they wanted. The guy playing a corpse CIS he’s in the same union as George Clooney and Julia Roberts and shares nothing with Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift.

To learn more, visit www.josephbrent.com