Writing / Music
Greater New York City Area
- Current
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- United States Liason at All Tomorrow's Parties
- General Manager at Cantaloupe Music
- Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Brassland
- Journalist/Columnist (Self-employed)
- Past
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- Writer/Editor at Faith Popcorn's BrainReserve
- Adjunct Professor at New York University
- Producer at Funny Garbage
- Education
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- Yale University
- Connections
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175
connections
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Websites
Alec Bemis’s Summary
I like music and writing and am increasingly drawn to technology and design. For the most part I've found a space discovering, producing and promoting emerging creative talent.
In the early 00s, I established myself as a journalist -- publishing in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, LA Weekly, and the New Yorker. My articles have been included in the syllabus of a UC Berkley law school class on intellectual property, been selected for anthologies, and passed around by entertainment executives. Point being, my writing is both intellectually engaging and pragmatic.
Increasingly, I've left behind commentary. In 2001, I founded a record label built around a small community of musicians. With our support, these artists have won NEA Grants, toured three continents, and shown up on MTV and in major motion pictures. What's most impressive it me is that they've been admired by legends like Brian Eno and Bruce Springsteen and become peers to some of today's best younger musicians.
Alec Bemis’s Specialties:
Community building, artist relations, branding and identity, publication consulting, arts management.
Alec Bemis’s Experience
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United States Liason
All Tomorrow's Parties
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Entertainment industry)
January 2008 — Present (1 year)
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General Manager
Cantaloupe Music
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Entertainment industry)
September 2006 — Present (2 years 4 months)
I mange this eclectic record label founded by the curatorial group Bang on a Can to explore "music that falls between the cracks." To date, I have spent much time improving the label's infrastructure -- rebuilding the accounting system, building a new website, and creating systems to handle licensing requests, contracts, and other aspects of the business.
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Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Brassland
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Music industry)
March 2001 — Present (7 years 10 months)
I started this record label in 2001 around indie rock band The National and an eclectic classical quartet Clogs. Our small, inter-connected roster of artists has expanded to include everything from electronic pop (Baby Dayliner) to a solo cellist (Erik Friedlander) to one of Australia's finest up-and-coming rock bands (Devastations).
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Journalist/Columnist
Self-employed
(Self-Employed; Myself Only; Writing and Editing industry)
January 1999 — Present (10 years)
My essays, profiles, and interviews have appeared in venues like the New York Times, the New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Wired, Coolfer.com, Blender, Slate.com, and NPR's Morning Edition. I often write about music and the arts, but have published articles about other topics. From 2005-2007 I contributed a monthly column to LA Weekly called The Psychic Hipster. Now I blog for them at www.teenage-kicks.org. It's fun.
Sample subjects: William Shatner, backyard wrestling, Elliott Smith, video games, Kool Keith, flash mobs, Lightning Bolt, the state of the music business, George Saunders, and Richard Meltzer.
As of 2006, I have started to do more project work on non-musical, non-cultural projects. i.e. an identity system guide for a large New York City public park, a hedge fund compliance guide, various projects for the National Association of Realtors and AARP). The clients have varied. In each case, I expressed complex topics in clear, concise prose easily understood by laypeople. -
Writer/Editor
Faith Popcorn's BrainReserve
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
May 2005 — October 2005 (6 months)
I spent a brief, illuminating half year at this company owned by famed futurist and bestselling author Faith Popcorn. We did brand consulting and positioning work for Fortune 500 companies, touching on sectors such as consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, and banking/finance. I learned how to cram out PowerPoint decks, and connected with some of the smartest colleagues I've met in my career.
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Adjunct Professor
New York University
(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)
September 2003 — December 2003 (4 months)
I moved from LA to NYC in the fall of '03 to realize my collegiate professorial fantasies. I designed and taught a graduate-level journalism seminar in NYU's Cultural Reporting & Criticism Program. The subject was Youth Culture, a topic about which I was still an expert since I was only 28. You can see the syllabus here: http://www.brassland.org/ahb/syllabus_youthculture.html
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Producer
Funny Garbage
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Media Production industry)
March 2000 — August 2001 (1 year 6 months)
At the tail end of the Web 1.0 boom, I worked at this fantastically creative digital design firm in lower Manhattan. I produced an award-winning website for LEGO, helped conceive of an iTunes-like digital music jukebox, and -- for a few odd days -- coordinated a David Byrne photo shoot that took us to very bemused wedding photographer in Chinatown, and a Sears portrait studio in Northern New Jersey.
Alec Bemis’s Education
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Yale University
B.A. with Honors, History, September 1994 — May 1998
- Activities and Societies:
- The New Journal, Viola Question
Alec Bemis’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- expertise requests
- getting back in touch
