Artist: Jimmy Rhodes
Location: U.S.A.
Profession:
Label Manager

Links:
Jimmy on Facebook
www.fixtonline.com

Portfolio:

FiXT
General Manager
(2006 - Present)

Position Music
A&R Assistant / Management
(2005)

Celldweller Productions
Management / Promotions
(2003 - Present)

Hardware:
2GHz Core Duo Macbook, 2GHz Core Duo iMac, iPhone (1st Gen), 60GB Classic iPod, M-Audio Studio Pro 4's, Technics SA-DA10 Audio Receiver, JBL S38 Studio Speakers, Sony BDP-S350 Blu-Ray Player, HP Laser Jet P1006, Epson R200


Software:
Safari, Photoshop, Soundtrack Pro, iTunes, Mail, Word, Pages, iChat, Cyberduck, Filemaker Pro, Dreamweaver, A Better Finder Rename

Tag Cloud:
Jimmy, Rhodes, FiXT, Music Management, Marketing, Promotion

I'm 28 and married to my beautiful wife Becca and have a 2 1/2 year old daughter named Ava, and we live in Burlington, Iowa. Becca owns and operates a home bakery named Stargazer Bakery. Ava likes Wonder Pets, 3rd & Bird and Thomas The Tank Engine.

There's probably a fair amount of other info I could cover under 'bio' but I think for the sake of not totally losing you all to utter boredom, I'll keep it mainly focused around my musical/business related experiences from here on down. ;)

Left: Star-hair Center: Becca, merch-queen Right: Ava

First - a little history: I'm from the Midwest and grew up listening to oldies on the radio and southern gospel at church when I was little. Pop-radio and harmonies were the basis of what I learned at that age. Then as I got a little older I heard something totally foreign - synths & programming. The song that initiated this full discovery was "The Sign" by Ace of Base. I sat for hours listening to the programmed beats and synths and fell completely in love with it. Next in the equation of my musical tastes was rock/metal. I don't have as specific of a remembrance of what artists/songs got me hooked with heavy guitars, but it was the next factor that led me to where I am today... the hybridization of all my previous experience - pop hooks, harmonies and melodies, synths and rock guitars all combined into a cohesive experience. It was the album Disengage by Circle of Dust that really marked what I knew I was going to keep my ears attuned to for the rest of my life.

Celldweller studio meet-and-greet (2000)

The next big step in my venture was around 2000 when I heard that the Klayton, the artist formerly known as Circle of Dust, had relaunched his career under the moniker Celldweller and then offered a chance for 16 fans to come meet him in a studio in Detroit. I was 8+ hours away, but signed up immediately. I met Klayton and his manager Tyler Bacon and picked their brains with tons of fan questions then went right into street team mode, asking how I could help promote Celldweller further.

Over the next 3 years I became more and more active with online promotion, passing out promo flyers/stickers, and eventually starting buying copies of the Celldweller album at wholesale and reselling them to friends/family and peddling sales around town. Then when Klayton announced he was going to start a Celldweller tour, I booked a venue immediately with barely any clue what I was doing and figured out how to throw a show just to get them into my area. The show went off great and it was the 2nd ever booked date on the tour and we made enough to cover the guarantee and have some profit!

As Klayton continued touring in 2003 and into 2004 I went to as many shows as I could drive to, got to know him better along with the rest of the live band, built trust with him to the point where I was helping load/unload the gear , etc... and continuing to promote online. I started asking Klayton for more responsibility and in the fall of 2003 I starting getting more officially involved - managing news on the website, writing the newsletters, and eventually I took over the merchandise and online store - processing orders, shipping out packages, etc... I also started contacting magazines to get reviews/interviews and things really started falling into place. I had gotten so involved that I got a part time paycheck to keep doing everything.

I continued to step things up and by late Fall 2004, I got a call from Tyler Bacon at Position Music, whom I'd met back in 2000 at the studio visit. He was so impressed with all my activity, basically sitting in a cornfield in Iowa, that he thought it was time to offer me a job to move to L.A. and do it for real. On Jan 1st 2005, I was in a U-Haul heading cross-country to an apartment in Sherman Oaks, CA.

I spent all of 2005 at Position Music as one of the first few employees for Position Music, getting experience with management, film/tv licensing and general music business. As the year started to near an end however, I realized that living in the fast-paced city was exciting, but not what I wanted for every day life and it seemed feasible that I could still continue to stay involved remotely from Iowa, even if it meant working a side job to do so.

So by January 2006, Becca and I were back in our house in Iowa and we shortly got the surprise announcement that our daughter Avalon Imogen was on her way! About this same time, Klayton knew that I was back in Iowa and trying to figure out what to do to stay in the music biz and after weeks and weeks of phone conferences and planning, FiXT was born, although not quite as widely driven as it is now. Initially it was FiXT Clothing and we set out to create a number of original apparel designs through a collaboration with Melissa Nolan who had also designed for Illig.

Getting the whole family involved with packaging the Celldweller SVH CD release!

We fairly quickly realized the full depth of what producing clothing entailed and we decided that while we ultimately want to continue pursuing original apparel, we would come back to more of a focus on music and began the label division of FiXT, which fairly quickly grew to a roster that now includes Atlas Plug, Blue Stahli, Celldweller, lvl, Squarehead and Subkulture.

To fast forward things to the present, we ultimately realized we had enough systems in place to manage our own label, but could easily start handling distribution & promotion for dozens of other artists and we now have a FiXT Store Distribution program to carry other indie artists/labels and aggressively work to sell and account back growing revenue streams for them. We also continue to work with Position Music on a day to day basis creating original music for Film/TV licensing.

Left: Klayton, Rob of Pendulum & Jimmy. Right: Jimmy, Bret Stahli and Klayton.

It's been quite a journey - putting in countless volunteer hours as a die-hard fan, to ultimately managing an international record label, online store, remix community and brand that now reaches millions of viewers, listeners & fans from over 60+ countries around the globe.

What's next? Stick around and find out!

The FiXT crew: (left to right) Thomas Covert, Bret Stahli, DJ Lee, Klayton, Kem, Jimmy

Career Defining Moment:
Being nothing more than a fan helping out my favorite artist (Celldweller) and being given the chance to manage the street team and help indepently promote them - then getting a call from their Los Angeles management company (Position Music) to move to L.A. and take a job at the company b/c I was single handedly generating so much activity.

Musically inspired by:
I love hearing different genres/styles of music fused together in an aggressive way. There are no rules, and if you think there are, it's only so you can break them. I also want to hear something with a strong hook and melody. I want to wake up at 2 AM and have your song in my head. Production quality is also something that has become very critical to my ears. The days of a poor garage quality are over. Everyone has access to real audio tools now (gargeband, pro tools, etc...), either free or dirt cheap.

As for WHO inspires me - aggressive, self-promoting independent artists. It's not good enough to just have the songs anymore - you've got to be willing to promote it, to sell it, to blog about it, to interact with your fans.

Currently Listening To:
Celldweller - Wish Upon A Blackstar and Blue Stahli demos (I know you all hate me for that).

Aimee Allen, I Will Never Be The Same, InnerPartySystem, Methods of Mayhem, Demon Hunter, Course of Empire, Drumcorps, Family Force 5, IAMX, Imogen Heap, Kevin Rudolf, Porcelain and the Tramps, Britney Spears (yes, really. - I'm a sucker for lush female pop - so sue me), Serj Tankian, Shaka Ponk, The Knife, Timbaland, Trifonic, Damage Vault, Skynet, Drawbacks.

Collaboration Wish List:
I'm actively searching for new artists to sign to the label division of FiXT, as well as solid indie artists/labels to distribute in the FiXT Store. I've already begun initial negotiations with several larger digital aggregators to bring in some large catalogues to the store later in the year, or into 2010. If you know of exciting/talented electronic or industrial based labels/artists please send them my way - james@fixtonline.com.

Dream Project:
I'm still a fan-boy at heart and working alongside the same artist I cut my musical tastes on. With that in mind, I'd love to co-produce an EP/album of material with Klayton in the next few years and take all the moments that have inspired me and bring them back in a new way.

Final Word:
FiXT has a lot coming up in the next year - we're still young and have a lot planned. Keep checking the FiXT sites & blog(s) and leave us feedback as much as possible. We're looking to you to direct the course of the company over the coming years.

Available from FiXT:

FiXT Online - FiXT Artists Music and Apparel