Spencer Wells is a music industry professional that manages our in-house record label, Denizen. Through his mentoring students have gone on to work at huge labels including Circus Records, DHP and Warner Records.
Spencer, could you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about how you started out?
‘I’m here at Confetti as music industry liaison advisor and also label manager for Denizen Records.
I’ve been in the music industry since I was around 16 years old. I started off in Liverpool, playing keyboards, co-writing and working with various bands. In the late 80s I signed a couple of record deals myself one with Warner Records, one with RCA, released some records, and then kind of fell into an A&R role with Polydor Records.
I worked at Polydor then Chrysalis Records before relocating to Los Angeles, to work in publishing.
I moved back after a year and found a young guy busking in Derby. I offered to help him and ended up becoming his manager, and he became the famous singer-songwriter – James Morrison. We did two world wide sell-out tours and, sold 5 million of his debut album ‘Undiscovered’.
I found a passion for working with ground level artists so I joined confetti about 13 years ago now. My role is to mentor, help, signpost and develop young musicians and help them navigate, the business of music.’
Can you tell us something no one would know about the music industry?
‘I think most people think it’s just about writing a few songs to put on an album, that the process is very different from that.
A particular artist I worked with wrote 67 songs for an album, and had to whittle that down to 10 tracks. It took over two years to record the album and during that period it was very, very difficult to remain focused. But we got there in the end! When you listen to an album I don’t think people always understand how much work has gone into that.’
Who have you worked with that have been the most memorable to you?
‘I’ve been lucky to work with some fantastic artists including David Gray, Blondie and Billy Idol.
I worked with a great songwriter called Rod Temperton, who worked with Michael Jackson on the ‘Thriller’ album. I was involved in the song ‘Billie Jean’.
Why are you passionate about Denizen?
‘Back in the old days, there was no help for musicians and artists. So a lot of people ended up making mistakes.
The reason I’m so passionate is to help young people not make the mistakes I did when I was first releasing music. I want to give them that kind of support through the business and through the industry side of things, so that they make all the right decisions and choose all the right choices going forward.’
How can students apply for roles at Denizen?
‘Denizen is for any student that is a Confetti or Nottingham Trent University student.
It’s a very simple, straightforward form. Your name, why you want to be part of Denizen, what you’d like to do. And send it to me.’
