Date Signed: April 15, 2024
Label: North Street Records
Type of Music: Art-Pop, Baroque Pop
Management: Bill Clegg - The Clegg Agency
Booking: Demetri Papadimitropoulos - Penguin Random House
Publicity: Lisa Gottheil - Grandstand Media, [email protected]
A&R: Chris Howerton North Street Records
Web: scottguild.com
Throughout his 20s, Scott Guild sought fame with New Collisions, his new wave pop band. Although the act had oodles of success, opening for Blondie, Missing Persons and The B-52s, a label never took them on. Next level attention continued to elude them.
Guild subsequently chose to step back from music and feed his passion for writing. He enrolled in grad school and began toiling away on his debut novel titled Plastic, the apocalyptic tale which features plastic figurines that burst into song as the protagonists. The idea of turning those tunes into an actual album seemed natural. His publisher, Random House, loved the concept and recording began in earnest. Guild enlisted the help of fellow artists Cindertalk and Stranger Cat.
As recording was underway, the publishing giant sent out preview copies to interested parties, one being Chris Howerton, head of North Street Records. Howerton contacted Guild simply to express how much he enjoyed the book. The two bonded over writing, as the boutique label boss is also an author. Their friendship deepened when Guild allowed him a preview of the music he’d been working on.
Guild’s plan had been to release Plastic: The Album through DistroKid or a similar entity, but Howerton had a better idea: Why not put it out through North Street? “That seemed like a far smarter idea,” recognizes Guild, noting that having distribution through The Orchard would provide far greater reach. “Being able to work with someone where we could be in communication every day and really tailor the strategy made a lot of sense.”
Even without meeting in person, he had no hesitation in signing the agreement. “Everything is so digital,” the scribe goes on, pointing out how meeting face-to-face is usually an afterthought in today’s technology-drenched world. “You’re half-digital yourself,” he chuckles. “That’s part of what my book is about.”
