MUSIC CONNECTION MAGAZINE (1982)

Pasha Music: Taking L.A. Acts Worldwide
By Mike Sinclair

"We're looking to develop real career artists, not just quick-shots," says Spencer Proffer. "I don't want to release 40 records in a year and hope that one or two stay. We are much more of a qualitative, long-term, musical career-building company."

Proffer, president of L.A.'s Pasha Music Organization, attempts to combine an open attitude with strong personal vision in running his company.

"I'm a strong believer in building talent out of this town," he says, "because I come from this town. So it's important that Pasha remains open to what's going on around here. But I am interested in music that has a much broader base than just a local one. I'm looking to get together with acts that can sell records in St. Louis, London and Sydney."

To hear him, you might think Pasha was a goliath organization, but it's actually an intimate, nine-person multimedia music company in Hollywood. Describing itself as a full-service, total-concept, independent entertainment company, Pasha houses "two state-of-the-art 24-track recording studios, a music production company with four staff producers, three publishing entities, an artist management division, video/media development, and Pasha Records, manufactured, marketed and distributed by CBS Records."

"This place is really a hotbed of activity," says Proffer, "and for the right reasons. It starts with the music, which then becomes business. Because if you look at the phrase 'music business,' there are two words, and 'music' is first.

A long-term veteran of the business at age 33, Proffer views Pasha as a way of life, a dream which took inception during his early songwriting days in L.A. Excited by the then flourishing "street entrepreneurial" labels like Atlantic, A&M and Motown, Proffer decided he would one day like to have a music company which he could fully be involved in and run. By the age of 20, he'd had 100 of his songs recorded. After graduating from law school, he was contracted as a writer, producer and artist at CBS, and he later became director of business affairs for Clive Davis in New York. At the age of 24, he landed the job of vice-president of A&R and production at United Artists. Still prolific in his approach to songwriting and producing, he was able to utilize his new opportunities to assimilate "a real international and professional view of the industry."

During his 18-month stint at U.A., Proffer produced 11 nationally charted records (three went gold), in addition to his scouting and business duties. In 1977, he decided it was time to do something for himself. With the plan of presenting artists as package deals to companies, he signed a few acts (including Allan Clarke of the Hollies) and gutted a building. Pasha was born.

That gutted building was rebuilt by Proffer and engineer Larry Brown into the now-existing Pasha offices and studios. Attempting to wed the business and music, he kept the facilities in one place but has kept the studio a separate entity from the label. Proffer says he himself must book time and pay studio fees through his "hard-nosed" administration director, and that all money taken in by the studio goes back into updating and improving the facilities.

Equipment includes two transformerless MCI 528B consoles with automation, an MCI 24-track and an MCI two-track, as well as custom Altec super red monitors. Additionally, there is wide-ranging outboard equipment, a full range of microphones and in-house instrumental equipment. The quality of maintenance can be shown in the fact that the studio has been down for only four hours in the last four years.

"We're not in competition with the big studios," says Proffer. "We are a full-line quality music company that happens to have a killer studio." Because it is a custom label, Pasha will mold itself to suit the needs of those artists it envelops. The Plimsouls recorded their "Million Miles Away" EP there. Eddie Money did some pre-production on his new album (on which a Proffer-penned composition appears). John McVie, John Entwistle, Willie Nelson, Firefall and a host of other major label artists have recorded there. Most recently, Ted Nugent recorded his new LP, "Top To Bottom," at Pasha, with Pasha's Larry Brown engineering. As Proffer explains, "Pasha has become a kind of haven for excellent rock guitarists. It was through a kind of family circle within the industry that a lot of these projects connect up. When Carmine Appice left Rod Stewart's band, the Nugent connection came about. Carmine was very instrumental in helping cement that relationship between Ted, the studio and myself."

Appice is one of Pasha's "family" of artists, and Proffer recently produced a rock-dance music EP by Rick Derringer and Appice for release on Pasha/CBS. Other artists include Randy Bishop & the Underdogs, Arlan Day, metal rockers Quiet Riot, platinum Canadian band Streetheart, English rockers Trapeze and Australian star Billy Thorpe.

Thorpe's "Children Of The Sun" and "21st Century Man," the first two parts of a Proffer and Thorpe-produced sci-fi rock trilogy augmented by the recently released "East Of Eden's Gate," were united with a specially produced Laserium show in 1980. Proffer's predilection for space themes and technologically oriented surrealistic rock music is evidenced by his musical preferences, which include Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, David Bowie, Alan Parson, Led Zeppelin and Roxy Music. He is not so much interested in style as he is in the underlying song, and he bases decisions on the quality of the song and the person with whom he's dealing.

Proffer, though, stresses that Pasha's doors are open to any artist. Interested in developing a musical community. He personally listens to many of the tapes submitted by artists. "Opportunities exist if one takes initiative, is honest, willing to work hard, and has talent. But the one thing everyone getting into the industry must realize is that the word 'no' is the most commonly used word."

Along the "open-door" policy line is a program established by Proffer and his studio staff, consisting of Larry Brown, Duane Baron, Michael Solomon, Csaba Petocz and Tim Clarke, and called the Engineering Apprentice Program. Apprentices are given the opportunity to learn engineering by experiencing studio sessions. Proffer, who teaches music business courses at the University of Southern California, says the program is open to qualified individuals, and students like ex-apprentice Pasha staffer Duane Baron, who now engineers all of Proffer's production projects, may go on to be hired by the company.

Proffer's immediate goal is to develop Pasha from its current "family" state to an internationally successful organization like A&M while continuing to personally produce and write with artists. Pasha has already expanded into the visual media, preparing work for a TV pilot and writing themes for two major studio films. Proffer himself is ultimately interested in directing movies and keeps "charging forward" in the vein of the surrealistic "Pasha Man" which heralds the company's logo, "Music For People With Imagination," which, Proffer explains, "is a man of blue steel moving into the future with a big red rose in the place of his heart. He connotes strength, sensitivity, and leadership."