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MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a collection by which we ask influential music trade figures in regards to the tracks which have – up to now – outlined their journey and their existence. This time, it’s the flip of Jérémy Erlich, World Head of Music at Spotify – and with it, one of the vital vital decision-makers within the fashionable enterprise. The Key Songs In The Life Of… collection is supported by Sony Music Publishing.
At first look, you may not assume that Jérémy Erlich is a musical mutineer.
Erlich is now comfortably established within the higher echelons of music biz company obligations – not solely at Spotify, but additionally in his earlier job, as CFO & EVP of Enterprise Improvement at Interscope Data.
He’s well-turned-out too, assembly MBW in Spotify’s Los Angeles places of work in a pointy blazer and crisp open-necked shirt.
He even – and this may get defined in a while on this interview – pronounces Serge Gainsbourg with delicate gallic aptitude, slightly than together with your creator’s leaden anglicized lumpiness.
Regardless of all of this, Erlich was, and to some extent nonetheless is, as he places it, “in love with the sound of offended protest”.
That is the enjoyment of MBW’s Key Songs… collection: it reveals the autobiographical realness on which main execs/entrepreneurs’ modern-day presentation is constructed.
Within the case of Erlich (whose staff is making ready for Spotify’s Stream On occasion later this week) that realness traverses the fury-infused sounds of Rage In opposition to The Machine and Ice Dice, by means of Elegant, The Grateful Useless, BLACKPINK, Bob Dylan, and the aforementioned Monsieur Gainsbourg.
But as Erlich explains under, his musical life, traditionally talking, begins in France, as a toddler, watching his dad spin Pink Floyd on the family turntable…
1) Pink Floyd, Want You Had been Right here (1975)
My musical style, my love for music, all began with my dad. And that is my first actual music reminiscence – my dad’s document assortment and, particularly, Pink Floyd’s Want You Had been Right here.
Want You Had been Right here triggered my love of music. That album and [its eponymous lead] track have all the time been with me.
I used to be born in France, then moved to the USA as a child, then moved again to France. Earlier than touchdown in France, each of my dad and mom have been born in Poland, earlier than making their separate methods to Paris.
My dad has all the time primarily listened to American music, British traditional rock, and jazz; my mother has solely actually ever beloved The Beatles.
My dad’s jazz assortment was by no means my factor as a child. However the traditional rock aspect [of his vinyl], from Deep Purple to Pink Floyd, resonated. The picture on the entrance of Want You Had been Right here, the person on fireplace, is ceaselessly ingrained in my thoughts.
I’d have been 9 once I pulled out that album for the primary time. I simply bear in mind considering, ‘What the F is that this?!’ And you then hearken to the lyrics – “two misplaced souls swimming in a fish bowl” – wow. I nonetheless hearken to that track a minimum of as soon as per week.
2) Ice Dice, It Was A Good Day (1992)
I used to be born in Paris, then moved to Austin, Texas once I was seven. In Austin, I went to American public faculty, and that’s the place I realized English as a French child… the exhausting means! After which, aged 11, I moved to San Francisco, then to Houston – I went to French faculties each occasions – and at 15, I moved again to France.
I used to be dwelling in San Francisco once I first heard Ice Dice. I’m unsure should you bear in mind this, however there was the Columbia Home CD factor – when you possibly can purchase 5 albums for a penny or no matter, then cancel [the subscription] instantly as a result of it was too costly.
Ice Dice’s The Predator was a type of albums. The remaining I’m not notably pleased with! However I’ve all the time been drawn to lyrics, and that album was very present, and really lyrical.
“I’m a fan of socially aware, type of offended, the-world-is-fucked-up music. Ice Dice actually opened my eyes to part of that world, as an 11-year-old child going to a French faculty in San Francisco.”
If somebody ever asks me to explain my favourite style of music, it’s protest music. I’m a fan of socially aware, type of offended, the-world-is-fucked-up music. Ice Dice actually opened my eyes to part of that world, as an 11-year-old child going to a French faculty in San Francisco.
This track began my love of hip-hop. From there I went to Dre, to NWA, to Tupac, and that type of led into everybody I like immediately, like Kendrick Lamar.
It Was A Good Day is protest music in a really completely different means than protest music from that traditional rock protest period; it’s a catchy, optimistic track, however the subject material is an actual perception right into a world which I used to be fully unfamiliar with.
It moved me and impressed me, as a child attempting to determine what the world means.
3) Elegant, Santeria (1996)
Once I was dwelling in North California [San Fran], I’d have been 13 or so, and this period of [mid-nineties] various rock grew to become massively influential in my life.
Santeria by Elegant sums all of it up. I can nonetheless sing each lyric of that track when it comes on the radio or on a playlist.
I began attempting to sneak into Grateful Useless reveals [in this era]; I bear in mind being out attempting to scout a ticket, after which Jerry Garcia died. That was essentially the most traumatic day of my life as a 14-year-old.
4) Rage In opposition to The Machine, Killing In The Identify (1992)
Rage In opposition to The Machine was the primary live performance I consciously went to with my very own cash. I completely beloved Rage, and I like them to at the present time.
Killing In The Identify is clearly pure protest music that opens your eyes to the plight of various folks on the planet.
Once I first heard this, I’m most likely in Houston, and I’m 15 or 16. You possibly can really feel the anger, the rebel, within the devices. I feel the Rage In opposition to The Machine album and Evil Empire are among the finest items of protest music which have ever been recorded.
“I stored the Rage T-shirt I purchased at that present for about 10 years too lengthy.”
They’re all geniuses in that band, however Zach’s lyrics, his efficiency on stage, “Fuck you I gained’t do what you inform me”… I imply, it’s not Shakespearean, however it’s among the finest lyrics that I’ve ever heard. His cadence too, for a ‘rock’ band, it was so completely different on the time.
I stored the Rage T-shirt I purchased at that present for about 10 years too lengthy. Each time I’ve heard a track like this in my life, it’s triggered a lot deeper concerns – and a need to study what these causes are.
5) Bob Dylan, Blowin’ In The Wind (1963) / Leonard Cohen, Hen On The Wire (1969)
I may have picked any track by these two artists.
I used to be in school in Chicago, my early 20s [studying Economics and International Relations at Northwestern], once I actually began appreciating Dylan and Leonard Cohen.
Bob Dylan is Godlike in my thoughts, and I feel Leonard Cohen’s an in depth second. Each of those songs, I want I had written. They’re lyrically excellent.
“It’s pure poetry, Nobel-worthy literature. It’s every part that I feel a track needs to be.”
Each of those artists are ‘distinct’ vocalists, and the melodies of those songs aren’t notably difficult, however it’s all in regards to the phrases. It’s pure poetry, Nobel-worthy literature. It’s every part that I feel a track needs to be.
Creating songs which can be lyrically timeless is such a tough factor to do. These two songs are perfection.
6) Serge Gainsbourg, Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais (1973)
Serge Gainsbourg deserves to be in the identical class because the Dylans and the Cohens. He’s a tremendous lyricist, and that is merely one of the best unhappy love track that’s ever been written.
It’s all about leaving somebody, however it’s simply such a fantastically written piece of music.
As a really proud Frenchman, I wanted a French track in right here as a result of French music general has had an enormous affect on and in my life. I toyed with this one: Do I put a Daft Punk track in? However they’re largely in English so it doesn’t actually matter! Gainsbourg to me is among the finest French lyricists there’s ever been.
“That is merely one of the best unhappy love track that’s ever been written.”
We spoke French at dwelling, I went to French faculties, there was sufficient French affect in my life [to expose Erlich to French music as a teenager]. However I’d additionally watch MTV, I’d attempt to sneak into Grateful Useless live shows, I’d go see Rage In opposition to The Machine – the tradition round me was very American.
Then once I moved again to France aged 15 or 16, dwelling within the suburbs of Paris, I dove into this music that I knew tangentially, however I’d by no means been immersed in.
That’s the place my deeper appreciation of French music emerged. I’ve by no means misplaced that cultural connection since.
7) DDU-DU DDU-DU, BLACKPINK (2018)
My buddy who I went to highschool with in London, JJ [Joojong “JJ” Joe], who labored at YG North America, would all the time ship me emails about Korean music. And sooner or later, whereas I used to be working at Interscope, he despatched me this track by BlackPink.
I watched the video and was like, ‘Holy shit, that is nice music’ – regardless of, clearly, not talking Korean. BTS was turning into one thing [in the US] at the moment, however Okay-pop wasn’t the place it was immediately, it was nonetheless within the early part.
“This was the primary track the place [as someone working in the music industry] I actually believed in an artist, and risked my very own status on saying, We’ve got to do one thing with them.”
I simply actually believed in [Blackpink] and the flexibility for these 4 girls to cross over. I ended up going to Korea a bunch, falling in love with Korean tradition, signing them to Interscope through the YG partnership, and I’ve been near the band ever since.
This was the primary track the place [as someone working in the music industry] I actually believed in an artist, and risked my very own status on saying, ‘We’ve got to do one thing with them. They’re glorious, and I’ll proceed to do no matter I can to assist them fulfill their full potential.’ As quickly as I heard it I assumed: ‘We don’t have something like this within the US.’
I’m nonetheless near all of the members: they’re improbable, such exhausting staff, and so gifted. However they’re additionally the proper group: they’re all very opinionated, they’re all very completely different, they’re very gifted in numerous methods – however convey them collectively and it simply clicks.
I really feel so privileged to have had a entrance seat to observe them develop to what they’re immediately. They’re wonderful.
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