The OGs
Join us for a panel of tales from the past as we welcome metal label and industry veterans Mike Gitter (Roadrunner, Century Media), Michael Faley (Metal Blade), Michael Berberian (Season of Mist) and Munsey Ricci, (Skateboard Marketing). All four of these individuals have quite literally been there, done that and sold you the album. With careers spanning from the 1980s through the present they’ve watched the industry change through the decades and have some amazing stories and insights to share. Led by moderator Jim Saxton, who has spent the past 2 years working on a documentary about Roadrunner Records, the combined knowledge of these panelists will be something to behold.
Mod: Jim Saxton // Casus Belli Media (GB)
Host of the Temple of Bleh podcast, and director/producer of the upcoming History of Roadrunner Records documentary.
When being asked why Roadrunner Records is worthy of a filmed documentary, Saxton replied “The younger metalheads are starting to inherit the Mike Varney/Brian Slagel roles in this industry - how can they learn this craft? We ask the best that ever did it!”
Mike Gitter // Ex-Roadrunner, Century Media (US)
Mike Gitter has been trying to hurt your ears for years now. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Gitter is the Vice President of A&R at Century Media Records. This music industry veteran has been spreading the gospel of underground, the extreme and challenging the mainstream notions of metal, hardcore, and punk for the better part of four decades via platinum players Bad Religion and Killswitch Engage, contemporary paradigm-shifters Lorna Shore, Orbit Culture and Sanguisugabogg and legendary pacesetters including Body Count, Megadeth, Cradle of Filth and Opeth.
Growing up on the North Shore of Massachusetts, Gitter became embroiled in the burgeoning East Coast hardcore sect. On the strength of his influential xXx hardcore zine in the ‘80s, he became a sought-after music journalist, writing for everything from Thrasher to Rolling Stone, booking countless 1980’s all-ages shows in the Boston area featuring early appearances from the likes of the Descendents, Cro-Mags, Fugazi and Voivod. Following a move to New York at the dawn of the 1990’s. Gitter entered the major label fray as an A&R executive at Atlantic Records. Since then, he’s brought his talents to several other record labels including Roadrunner, Razor & Tie and Century Media. In 2017, Gitter saw the publication of his first book, xXx Fanzine 1983-1988: Hardcore and Punk in the Eighties, a music-in-motion travelogue of his self-publishing days, via Bridge Nine Records and Books.
Gitter’s career is one that spans the history of extreme sounds and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
Michael Fahley // Metal Blade (US)
«Music is Life!!! Metal is a Lifestyle. The fans are our community!»
If you are a metalhead, it is for life. The bands, the music, the concerts, the merchandise; he cut his teeth through the school of hard knocks. Faley's background includes College radio, road crew, lights, sound, tour manager, and artist management.
In January 1987, he joined Metal Bade Records. Metal Blade already had the respected reputation of releasing Slayer, Armored Saint, Metallica, and many others. Faley's function was to bring a management and touring aspect to the label and complement Brian Slagel and the Metal Blade artists. Throughout his 37 years at Metal Blade, he has been Label Manager, President and Head of A&R. He has signed Cannibal Corpse, Goo Goo Dolls, as i lay dying, Unearth, Whitechapel, and the Red Chord, among others. He says that his job as a “senior” metalhead is to develop and inspire the next generation of metal label executives, ensuring that the horns continue to be raised high for years to come.
Michael Berberian // Season of Mist (NL)
Michael Berberian just wanted to release good records and thought it was a good idea to create a record label in 1995 and that "it can't be that complicated".
Having signed Mayhem, Abbath, Carpathian Forest, Shining, Solstafir, and many other notoriously easygoing and reasonable bands is a testimony to how wrong he was.
Munsey Ricci // Skateboard Marketing ()
While Director of National Metal Radio Promotion at PolyGram Records from 1989
to 1991, Ricci created the first metal radio department for the label and all of its affiliates, including Mercury Records, Polydor Records, RooArt and London Records, where the artist roster included bands like Mortal Sin, Onslaught, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kiss, Doro Pesch, The Scorpions, Rush, Tony MacAlpine and Vinny Moore.
Ricci also previously worked for CMJ Media from 1986 to 1990 and Combat/In-Effect Records in 1987 and programmed radio for five years at WQCC & WCWP FM prior to his label stint.
He was also a writer for The Queens Angle, A local entertainment paper. Learning and working next to some of the most influential people in the radio promotion world and leading to the success of Skateboard Marketing Ltd.
Seeing a void for heavy music in the radio trades, Ricci launched Metal Contraband in 2016. Metal Contraband, in conjunction with Radio Contraband, fills that gap as a destination for labels, management and artists looking for accurate information, including a metal chart consisting of commercial, syndication as well as large college stations, a metal news section for up-to-date news on tours and festivals, ad dates and street dates. Also included is an overall release schedule for metal add dates at the radio. Metal Contraband has become the most reliable source to gauge the success of a record at radio