Living the Music
Industry pro Sophia John talks about making it in the music biz
By Josh Bashara

“Sometimes I look around at people and see them going through the motions, but they’re not really there,” she says with obvious sincerity in her eyes. “They’re kind of like a rat in one of those wheels; they pay their bills, they clock in and out—but they look miserable.”

I’m sitting in Sophia John’s office at 89.7 The River, a popular college radio station outside of Council Bluffs, Iowa that began as a tiny hands-on tool for broadcasting majors at Iowa Western Community College. Today, the station boasts a 100,000-watt broadcasting tower reaching over 90,000 listeners per week. Although most other alternative radio stations in the Midwest have waxed and waned over the past decade, The River has increasingly solidified with each passing year.

The radio station recently brought in a little extra muscle to help reinforce that title. Sophia John— a forerunner in the Midwest music scene for some time now—was eagerly hired as the station’s new program director.

On a warm spring day, she’s talking—quite exuberantly—about how to make it in the music business. She’s talking about her days as manager for the insanely popular metal band Slipknot. She’s telling me how important it is to keep things fresh; to not limit yourself to one particular mindset…

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Every story has to start somewhere, and hers started in Lincoln after her parents—both immigrants from Greece—moved their family from Cleveland, Ohio, where she was born.

Initially, the transition wasn’t the smoothest. “I was the only person with a trench coat,” she says, laughing. John admits that she was a radio junkie, staying up all night listening to music and calling the station requesting songs. “I’d sit and wait all night for them to play, then fall asleep and never find out whether my song was played or not.”

Tongue-in-cheek, she tells me that the first music she ever remembers buying was a cassette of Eddy Grant’s “Romancing the Stone.” A little later, though, she bought a New Order album which led her to discover bands like The Cure, Depeche Mode and Joy Division. “Ultimately, I’ve always been into a pop element,” she says. “Whether it’s death metal or simple rock and roll, there’s a pop element to everything, and that’s what I fall in love with.”

John was only 30 hours shy of graduating from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln when she dropped out to pursue radio full-time, working overnights as a DJ on a jazz station. “I went to college and declared law, but within the first year I realized that it wasn’t me,” she says. “I decided to take a course in broadcasting because I loved listening to the radio and loved music.”

John loved it so much, in fact, that she admits she didn’t want to be plagued by the menacing “What if?” later in life for not jumping at the chance to pursue something that made her so happy. With no experience and no demo tapes, she went to the interview and to her surprise, got the job.

In 1994, John was DJ-ing in Lincoln at an alt-rock station called 104.1 The Planet when a businessman from Des Moines was passing though and heard her on the air. He immediately offered her a job at a new modern rock station that he was starting up. Reluctantly, she agreed and moved to Des Moines. Just short time later, this rock station in the middle of Iowa was number one in the country, with higher ratings per capita than KROQ (106.7 FM) in LA and NY WXRK (92.3 FM) in NY. “We were changing the face of music,” she says, beaming. “It was very exciting. We could have an idea and see it though, and make it happen.”

A little later, she discovered, developed, signed and managed an obscure metal band that ended up selling five million albums of their debut and proving the doubters wrong. As anyone who knows the story will tell you, Slipknot owes every ounce of success they’ve had to John. “When they didn’t believe in themselves, I believed in them,” she says matter-of-factly, but without a hint of haughtiness. “I knew what would happen a couple years before it did.”

A job offer from the now-defunct 93 K-Rock lured John to Omaha, Neb. where she was excited about the burgeoning music scene and eager to dig in. She spent her days at K-Rock as an on-air DJ, assistant programming director and a host of other positions before leaving to work for her friend Matt Markel, owner of the Brian Productions and the Ranch Bowl. During her run with Markel, Brian Productions brought in a multitude of artists that Omaha might never have seen otherwise.

Finally, John came to 89.7 The River after taking a break to help her family open a Greek restaurant in Lincoln. Bill Stewart, general manager for The River, offered John the job of programming director after she organized a triumphant concert in cooperation with the station.

So what advice does this headstrong music lady have for up-and-coming bands? Read on, ‘cause she’s only going to give out these little jewels of wisdom once…

Music Phone Book: If a four-piece rock band—fresh out of high school—came to you and said, “manage us,” what’s one of the first things that needs to be considered?

Sophia John: No matter what genre of music it is, they have to have simple song structures. They have to have good vocals, because contrary to what anybody wants to believe, vocals can make or break a band. It also comes down to the lyrics. When they write a song, they need to have a lyrical hook that’s repeated over and over again. The hook—preferably the name of the song—should be in the chorus. What really takes it over the top is that they have to be able to say something that [listeners] are thinking about every day, but can’t come up with the words to say it. When a band hits it, a listener will think, ‘I’ve wanted to say that for so long.’ That’s how they remember it. They go around telling everybody. That’s how you get a hit.

MPB: What else?

John: You need to have a polished, tight live show. There should be no down-time between songs. If somebody needs to tune, you better have it covered. Also, count how many times you say the word ‘fuck.’ I know that sounds stupid, but if you watch a live show, you’ll hear, ‘What the fuck, [insert city name here]! How ya fuckin’ feelin’ tonight?’ There’s no reason for you to be saying ‘fuck’ every other time you’re talking.

You have to market yourself as well. You can have all the talent in the world and never really get anywhere with it. You need to have publicity going and you need to have CDs in stores. And those CDs need to be registered with SoundScan. Unless you have [your album] registered with SoundScan, no record label is going to pay attention to you. There are a few here and there that get by, but 80 percent don’t get signed unless they have a SoundScan story—that is, how many units you’ve sold. If you say you sold 2000 units and it’s not registered with SoundScan then you just pissed away 2000 units. Get registered with SoundScan; it’s worth the money.

MPB: What’s the biggest problem that local bands face?

John: They don’t practice; it’s that simple. They think they’re really good but they don’t practice. If you don’t practice three or four times per week—if you cant turn the lights out and play your instrument without staring at your hands—you’ve got a problem.

If your vocalist can’t sing in tune and breathe from his diaphragm, you’ve got problems. Every instrument needs to be honed 100 percent before you can go full-blast. The only way you’re going to do that is by practicing.

MPB: Do up-and-coming bands really need a manager before they sign a record deal?

John: I really don’t think any local band needs a manager until they’re at a level where they’ve covered every other base. Two of the last things you need to cover are managers and lawyers. You never, ever—no matter what—want to sign paperwork with anyone. You try to avoid that at all costs. A manager is the last thing you need [to worry about]. All they’re going to do is give you direction—if they’re good.

MPB: If a band only has money for a studio record or regional touring, what should they go with?

John: A studio record all the way. What are you going to do; book a tour where you go out for two weeks and you don’t even have enough money to fill your gas tank? People that book tours like that do it so they can toot their own horns. You can hone your craft by practicing in the basement.

MPB: Is there a concurrent theme between bands that “make it” and bands that don’t?

John: There are some that get it simply based on networking, and they suck and they don’t deserve it. They were just in the right place at the right time. Then you have those that fight—tooth and nail, day and night—to build a network and a story on their own. They don’t wait for somebody else to do it, they do it themselves. And then, they’re in the right place at the right time.