Today we’d like to introduce you to Big Billy Clark.
Big Billy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started as an intern at Def Jam Records when I was 19 here in Los Angeles and worked my way up from intern to Sr. Dir. of A&R / West Coast Office Manager. Had the privilege of working with all of the amazing artists on the roster from LL Cool J, Montell Jordan, DMX, Method Man, Redman, Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Bon Jovi, Melissa Etheridge, Hoobastank, Christina Milian, Fefe Dobson, Kanye West, Musiq Souldchild and so many others. I learned so much in those years. Eventually moved to NY to work in the labels headquarter office. Left Def Jam after nine years to learn another facet of what artists deal with on the road and started tour managing for Hoobastank and Christina Milian during some amazing tours with Linkin Park, P.O.D., Usher, and Kanye West. In 2005 was brought into Atlantic Records as a Sr, A&R. worked on a young and extremely talented Keke Palmer for years before being offered a Sr. VP A&R post at Epic Records. Although I’m born and raised in LA, I lived bicoastal during these years at the major labels. I took a break from the major label system in 2009 and ran a company called Beats & Produce for Printz Board from the Black Eyed Peas. Then I ran a publishing company called The Writing Camp for some amazing friends of mine Evan Bogart, Erika Nuri and DQ Quinones which was through Sony ATV. I was management for incredible artists like Christina Milian, Leon Thomas and a handful of others.
In the last four years, I have been running an indie label called Hitmakers Entertaintment alongside mega producer Mark Feist. We are creating something special and it is incredible what we have done with our artist in the last few years. I also separately am a partner of an amazing music summer program called VOCALIZEU here is Los Angeles in which 300 singers, songwriters and producers fly in from all over the world to attend this ten day artist intensive. The talent is housed on a college campus in Brentwood Ca and take classes all day in everything from vocal technique, songwriting, stage presence, and they are taught from some of the music industries top players. We bring in grammy award winning and nominated producers and songwriters to mentor these aspiring talented artists as well as some of their favorite artists and the energy on campus is pretty magical.
I have worn so many different hats over the years in this business from artist manager, tour manager, publishing, A&R, and creative director and I am truly blessed to do what I love. Artist Development is my passion. Everything I have done in this business stems from artist development. Having the ability to find talent and see something special that sometimes the artist themselves doesn’t see yet is fun for me! On a crazy side note…. As much as I work for others in developing their careers and lives. I lost focus of myself over the years at record labels. I was traveling the world and enjoying life. I was focusing on others so much that I slowly over the years gained a lot of weight and eventually reached 430 pounds. Although I am 6’5 tall… 430 pounds was a horrible and unhealthy place for me to live. It took me years to change my habits but I did and successfully lost 150 pounds. In the last couple years, after dropping the weight, I was approached and signed by Wilhelmina Models as their first Big & Tall model. I never in a million years would have believed when I was heavy that I would be signed by the biggest model agency in the world. What an amazing roller coaster my life has been and I embrace It all! I still have so much more to accomplish. I am excited about 2020, The amazing artist I work with at Hitmakers, The educational music camp VocalizeU, and continuing to work on my fitness journey and book some cool jobs for Wilhelmina. Every morning when wake up I read this daily affirmation, “I am open to accepting all forms of abundance the universe has to offer me” then I start my day. Life is great!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There are so many layers to this one, but the music business is never a smooth road. Throughout my career, I’ve found amazing artists that I loved and believed in that the label would NOT allow me to sign because they either didn’t trust my ear or maybe didn’t believe in the artist and that is a hard wall to get over because you question yourself and start to second guess yourself. It took me years and years to trust in myself and my instincts, because I was usually right. Working in such a fast paced cut throat industry is hard but I always operated with integrity and honesty and that has gotten me the furthest. I have amazing relationships that have been built over years and life long friends that make all the trials and tribulations worth it.
On the weightless front, that was extremely hard cause I love food. FOODIE AT HEART. but its a matter of training yourself to be stronger than your habits. and I still struggle with that until this day. But I’m human.. Lets go get some pancakes! I’m kidding…..
We’d love to hear more about your work.
Hitmakers Ent is an independent record label based in Los Angeles. I am the Executive Vice President and we handle every aspect of an artist’s career. recording, marketing, branding, imaging, releases, shows, and everything else you can imagine, we are very hands on and only try to sign things we are passionate about. I think Mark Feist and I are the most passionate music people we know lol. We have an incredible young singer named Tash who is just so insanely talented and we also have a hip hop artist named Doje who is creating some incredible music and these artists you will all know of very very soon.
VocalizeU is a 10 day artist intensive for artists, singers, songwriters, and producers. Its been a successful program run by mega Vocal Coach Dave Stroud for over 20 years. Anyone who is interested in taking their craft seriously and learning from the best, I recommend checking out if the programs right for you. We only allow a couple hundred talented artists from all over the world. This camp feeds my artist development passion and I am able to help young talent and utilize my amazing resources to help mentor, guide and scout talent from the camp. Over the years we have incredible teachers as well as artists contribute to VocalizeU’s success. Next camp is July 2020. One of the best educational programs I have ever been involved with.
What were you like growing up?
I think I was a crazy kid. Always very polite and at an early age I loved music and dancing! I was always dancing no matter where I was. Even now when Im sitting anywhere I have music in my head. You can usually see me bobbin or doing some choreography in my mind like full out 200% choreography LOL! Also I am very silly, always have been. But thats me…
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @bigbillyclark @hitmakersentertainment @vocalizeu
- Twitter: @bigbillyclark
Image Credit:
Alex Stone – photographer (double shot USA sweater image)
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