Meet David Frankel and Pat Weston of Apartment 27 in Sherman Oaks

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Frankel and Pat Weston.

The roots of Apartment 27 goes back to when David Frankel and Pat Weston met doing improv at The Second City – Hollywood. We bonded over music and became fast friends.

After a few jam sessions with Pat on guitar and David on the drums, we showed each other our own music and decided we wanted to work together. We talked about some of the struggles that artists have in the music industry, and how difficult it can be to navigate this crazy industry.

This sparked an idea – Why don’t we just do this ourselves? We both had knowledge about the industry, both street smarts, and book smarts, and began to put together a plan to start a record label. The name of the label came from the location where all of the planning and work was happening.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Has it been a smooth road for us?

Pat: “No.”

David: To elaborate on Pat’s answer, no it has not been smooth. For all of the positives that we’ve had, there has been some struggle along the way. For example, we’ve both had to make personal sacrifices in our lives.

Taking on delivery and driving jobs with flexibility in the schedule but lower pay has allowed us the time to run our company but makes a living in such an expensive city rather difficult.

The struggle is real, but it keeps a fire lit under our butts, and our desire for the world to see and hear what we and our talented roster of artists have to offer keeps us motivated to keep moving forward.

Please tell us about Apartment 27.
There are plenty of record labels out there, and they all do business in just about the same way – sign artists of the same genre and catch on to what’s trending. Here at Apartment 27, we take pride in our commitment to music as an art and cultivating art and artists of various genres.

We care more about the quality and longevity of the music we are making than we do about finding an artist who makes trendy music, only to throw them by the wayside once that particular genre goes out of style. Our artists range in genre – Shaun Allen (rapper and hip-hop artist), Pat Weston (alternative rock and blues artist), J.Lynn (R&B and neo-soul singer), and David Frankel (indie pop and alternative artist).

We help our artists grow, and make music that truly means something. We also take pride in our DIY approach to this business. We grabbed the bull by the horns and started this company to control our own destiny with our music. Not every musician out there is doing that, and we’re happy to be doing that for ourselves, as well as other artists that we believe in.

Also, having the responsibility of being in charge of everything involved with Apartment 27 keeps us under constant pressure, and we do well under pressure. We are always growing as a company though, and we are happy and grateful to be able to work with other individuals who help ease some of our responsibilities and make Apartment 27 greater than it was before.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Not from when we were children, but when Apartment 27 was a child (or when the company was in its early stages), we would go to Santa Monica and grab Philz Coffee, look out at the ocean, and do a lot of planning for our company. We love a good ocean view, and especially love Philz Coffee (shoutout Philz!).

Contact Info:

• Website: apt27.com
• Email: apt27music@gmail.com
• Instagram: @apt27music
• Facebook: facebook.com/apt27

Image Credit:
David Frankel, Pat Weston, Derick Otto, Dwayne Ford

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.