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Warner signs Kings Of Leon and Nutini producer as A&R
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 12 December 2011
Warner Music’s Atlantic Records has announced a deal with record producer Ethan Johns and his company Three Crows Music. Johns, perhaps best known for co-producing the first three Kings Of Leon records, will join Atlantic Records in the UK in an A&R role, with artists he signs to the major releasing their music jointly via Atlantic and Three Crows.
Look, here’s Atlantic Records UK boss Max Lousada saying things in Billboard: “Aesthetically there are few people who can really create a respectful backdrop to incredible voices and Ethan is one of those people. The backbone of Atlantic is about trying to find incredible voices and it felt like the logical next step to bring someone into the fold who was amazing with voices like that”.
Noting Atlantic’s work on Paolo Nutini’s album ‘Sunny Side Up’, which he also co-produced, Johns told reporters: “I was impressed by the way Atlantic Records gave Paolo the time, space and support to find his voice as an artist and make an uncompromised record. To then take that record and back it with such sustained commitment kind of blew me away. Max is an instinctive, passionate record guy with an amazing level of commitment. He’ll go down as one of the greats and I’m honoured Three Crows has this opportunity to work with him and the other guys at Atlantic”.
Elsewhere in Warner Music news, the major’s French division has announced it will relaunch the East West label next February, concentrating on urban and alternative releases. Once a key Warner division in various territories around the world, the East West name was slowly phased out in the early years of the last decade, including in the UK, though was resurrected in the US market in 2005 as an imprint of the major’s Independent Label Group.
