Initially launched as a soundtrack firm in 2001, Combustion Music has developed right into a full-scale … [+]
Combustion Music was based by GRAMMY-nominated producer, songwriter and writer Chris Farren in 2001 with the signings of Kings of Leon and Ashley Gorley the next yr. Initially launched as a soundtrack firm, Combustion has developed right into a full-scale publishing and artist improvement firm with each a label and masters division.
“We began fairly small, however we began sturdy,” Farren tells me of the impartial publishing firm. “I by no means wished to be too huge. I’ve all the time wished to maintain it sort of a boutique and hold it manageable and author intensive so there was a number of consideration given to the writers. I believe it provides us a uniqueness to be small and highly effective.”
And highly effective the staff is. Combustion’s workers of 5 manages 13 writers, together with Jameson Rodgers, Matthew West, Kolby Cooper and Corey Kent, who the corporate simply signed in partnership with Sony Music Nashville. Earlier this yr, Combustion celebrated its 100th No. 1 with Jordan Davis’ two-week nation chart topper “Purchase Filth” that includes Luke Bryan.
The staff hasn’t had a correct celebration simply but as a result of COVID-19. “We’re engaged on the subsequent 100,” VP Chris “Falcon” Van Belkom, who joined the corporate in 2004, says.
Combustion Music has come a good distance since its first No. 1 in 2006 with Carrie Underwood’s six-week Billboard Nation Airplay hit, “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” It was additionally the primary No. 1 for songwriter Gordie Sampson, who was signed to the corporate on the time. Within the subsequent years, Van Belkom and the staff seen a shift within the publishing world the place artists started writing their very own songs. So, the corporate’s technique shifted to aligning its writers with artists and signing singer-songwriters.
Combustion Music VP Chris “Falcon” Van Belkom
“As we discovered how you can grow to be a superb writer, we additionally seen a scarcity of true artist improvement alongside the way in which,” Van Belkom says.
Combustion quickly started growing artists like Rodgers, who signed with the corporate in 2014. 5 years later he garnered a recording contract with Sony Music Nashville. Rodgers has seen success as a each a songwriter and an artist. He co-wrote Chris Lane’s No. 1 hit “I Do not Know About You” and songs for Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean whereas his singles, “Some Ladies” and “Chilly Beer Calling My Title” that includes Luke Combs, each reached No. 1 on the nation charts.
Farren credit the corporate’s success and longevity to the staff’s imaginative and prescient and skill to take dangers to get in entrance of the trade’s tendencies. Combustion has since developed from a writer into an all-encompassing music firm. Farren says he sees Combustion as two corporations: a publishing enterprise and an impartial document label.
“We’re signing acts and we’re doing all of the issues that [labels] do so far as growing and funding,” he says. “At our core we’re nonetheless a publishing firm. We do not ever need that to get misplaced. That is what it was constructed on, that is what received us right here and now we’re a publishing firm with better imaginative and prescient and better scope.”
As Combustion expands its position inside the trade, the corporate has added to its staff. GM Keithan Melton joined earlier this yr whereas Senior Artistic Director, A&R Blake Duncan was employed in 2020. Kelly Lyons started as an intern in 2017 and rapidly rose to Director of Operations. The trio’s ardour for songwriters in addition to their loyalty to Combustion was evident throughout a current Zoom name. “The inspiration is the tune,” Duncan says of Combustion.
Combustion Music GM Keithan Melton
Provides Melton: “We’re always evolving, always doing what it’s important to do to remain aggressive. Our enterprise has modified from CD’s to unlawful downloading to now we’ve got the DSPs the place we’ve got an outlet, it simply would not pay like we hope it would someday. This firm is on the forefront, I believe, for impartial publishers on this city.”
Lyons credit Combustion’s philanthropic arm for additionally setting the corporate aside. Farren launched a charity music competition almost 9 years in the past in Hope City, Bahamas. “It’s now raised over $1 million for Hope City,” Lyons says.
Farren has had a house within the Bahamas for the previous 20 years and says he wished to be part of the tradition and neighborhood, so he and his youngsters started doing charity work there. It was by way of volunteering that he realized there was a better want.
“My daughter and I began taking part in these little fundraisers – a lot smaller than our competition – after which it actually introduced music to the island and other people beloved it, so it was straightforward to attach the dots,” he says.
The cash raised from the competition goes to a few native charities: Each Little one Counts, Associates of the Setting and Hope City Volunteer Fireplace and Rescue. Along with Farren giving again to the Hope City neighborhood, he provides again to his Combustion staff by making every colleague a revenue sharing proprietor of the corporate.
“I believe the fantastic thing about that’s it builds comradery, it builds loyalty, it builds vitality, and it builds all working in the direction of the identical objective,” he says. “If they do not win, I don’t win. I would like them to win, belief me.”
Provides Duncan: “He is making an attempt to incorporate us in all tasks. He needs all of us to win collectively.”
Farren himself doesn’t take a wage from the corporate. He makes cash from outdoors sources, like his manufacturing work and songwriting royalties. He and Van Belkom additionally personal East Nashville venue The Basement East, which acquired its first Academy of Nation Music Award for ACM Membership of the 12 months in Could. Farren says he’d quite reinvest his wage into the corporate in order that Combustion can flourish extra.
“Each few years we’ve got a capital occasion the place we promote some catalog after which I definitely get my payday then,” Farren says. “It has been actually useful for us to to not dig too deep of a gap for ourselves. … I believe any enterprise you run the place you possibly can reduce the capital outlay that is most likely good factor. We put the cash into the property.”
Combustion Music Founder and President Chris Farren
As 2022 ushers in a brand new period for Combustion Music, Farren praises his colleagues’ and writers’ loyalty whereas optimistically looking forward to the subsequent chapter of the corporate.
“What I’m most pleased with is the dedication,” he says. “We’re companions. We’re making an attempt to construct stuff that stays, whether or not it is the inventive workers or whether or not it is the creators. … We attempt to be conscious of the economics however utterly targeted on the creation.”
Combustion Music
