By 2013, 20-year-old Louisianian Aaron Carpenter had built an Instagram following of more than 200,000 (now nearly four million). That empowered him and several other social media megastars to book the nine-state MAGCON tour. Later, he recorded and uploaded cover songs, the first of which was Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours.” In 2016 he bounced for Los Angeles. A mere month after his arrival, he connected with a William Morris Endeavor (WME) agent and a meeting was arranged. It flowed flawlessly and led, ultimately, to a deal with Capitol Records. “I moved to LA without thinking,” Carpenter admits. “I was clueless about how to pursue music. I bought a piano and guitar and taught myself to play by watching YouTube videos. Then I met an agent from WME
“I want people to get to know me slowly.”
at a party and we set up a meeting. I told him that I wanted to make my own music rather than keep posting covers. I met a writer, we wrote a few songs and I sent them to my agent. He liked them and sent them out. That led to my signing with Lighthouse Management and we started to connect with writers, producers and labels.” Jacob Epstein, a member of Carpenter’s management team, happened to play poker with Jeremy Vuernick, Capitol’s Executive VP of A&R. Vuernick, who signed Halsey, incidentally, heard that Carpenter had taken meetings all around town and requested one himself. “It was an immediate click,” Carpenter recalls. “I wanted someone to step up to the plate and swing as hard as I was going to. We had a second meeting soon after that and I signed with them about five months later.” For now, Carpenter remains content to release singles. “I want people to understand me as an artist before I release a full record,” he explains. “I didn’t want to come out of the gate with everything. I want people to get to know me slowly and sit with a couple of songs before I move on to the full record.” His single “Attitude” dropped on March 22 and has already earned nearly 40,000 YouTube streams.
Date Signed: February 2018
Label: Capitol Records
Type of Music: Pop
Management: Jacob Epstein, Zack Morgenroth - Lighthouse Management & Media, [email protected], [email protected]
Booking: Ben Totis, Joe Izzi - WME, [email protected], [email protected]
Legal: Jeremy Mohr, Kevin Eskowitz - Mohr & Binder, [email protected], [email protected]
Publicity: Kristen Kanopka - Capitol Music Group, [email protected]
Web: aaroncarpentermusic.com
A&R: Jeremy Vuernick
