Date Signed: January 2010
Type of Music: Post R&B
Band Members: Fredua Boakye, vocals; Sheel Dave’, drums; Salim Akram, guitar; Graham Masser, bass; Santiago Araujo, guitar.
Management: NA
Booking: [email protected]
Legal: Michael McKoy, [email protected]
Publicity: [email protected]
Web: http://badrabbits.com
A&R: NA
Feeling no love from record labels, Boston’s Bad Rabbits looked elsewhere and signed to The Agency Group for live bookings. Divulges guitarist Salim Akram, “We had to take an unorthodox route to get where we are.” Their latest indie release, American Love, came out on May 14th.
It was at Northeastern University where three of the band’s members first became friends with Megan Kessler, who later found herself em- ployed at The Agency Group. There she signed Irepress, the outfit of fu- ture Rabbits drummer Sheel Davé. Meanwhile, as group’s other members transformed the unwieldy 10-piece monstrosity, the Eclectic Collective,
“We had to take an unorthodox route to get where we are.”
into Bad Rabbits, Kessler moved under the stewardship of TAG's Justin Bridgewater.
As the backing band for rapper Slick Rick, the Rabbits invited their industry contacts to a show they played at B.B. King’s in New York. Goodie Mob headlined. It wasn’t until they’d thrown back some drinks and gabbed about sports with Bridgewater that they began talking shop. “If you go into business with somebody,” Akram attests, “you want to know who you’re working with.” The next day, the guys sent an email proposing the move forward. No lawyers were involved in crafting their handshake agreement.
Akram feels they wouldn’t have gotten where they are today without obsessively honing their live performance chops. “If you put out shitty music or you’re unfriendly, nobody’s going to want to work with you,” he warns. “Focus on your craft and write good songs. Being able to translate those songs live and making your show interesting will help you get on somebody’s radar.”
American Love debuted at No. 2 on the iTunes R&B Albums Chart.
