Atlantic Launches Joint Venture With Cobra Starship Alum Gabe Saporta, TAG Music (EXCLUSIVE)

When Gabe Saporta aligned with Atlantic in 2007 via his band Cobra Starship’s deal with Fueled by Ramen/Decaydence, he’d already been through two other major-label systems and wasn’t overly optimistic things would be much different this time around. Much to his surprise, “Atlantic was unique in always letting us be our weird little selves,” helping the group score two multi-platinum top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 amid a third wave of emo and pop-punk upstarts such as labelmates Fall Out Boy and Paramore.

As such, it’s fitting Saporta is again back in business with Atlantic, even though he’s long since shifted from his lead singer role in Cobra Starship to one behind the scenes in management and artist development with his company TAG Music. (Note: Saporta’s company is not to be confused with a 1990s indie-centric Atlantic imprint also called TAG — for The Atlantic Group — that featured such artists as Jawbox and Fountains of Wayne.)

As part of a new joint venture partnership between Atlantic and TAG, the first signings are 18-year-old Los Angeles-based singer Sophie Powers (pictured at left), whose new single “Nosebleed” is out tomorrow (March 31), and 17-year-old Jules Is Dead (stylized as JULES IS DEAD), whose song “Red Is My Favorite Color” will arrive next month.

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With shades of My Chemical Romance or AFI, both acts share some DNA with artists Saporta befriended and performed alongside years ago (Powers has even covered Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box,” which came out 11 years before she was born). Saporta also sees kinship between the fact that, rather than an agent or lawyer, Jules Is Dead is the person who introduced him to Powers and how the Fueled by Ramen and Decaydence rosters used to feel like one big extended family.

“It was a really special moment in time,” he tells Variety of the labels’ formative days in the early- and mid-2000s. “All the other bands in the scene shared the same ethos and always tried to help each other instead of competing against each other. We definitely have Pete [Wentz] to thank for that — he went out of his way to put his friends on. Having come from the DIY punk scene, I think it was important for him, and all of us, to maintain a sense of community as we transcended into mainstream consciousness. The fact that Sophie and Jules are real-life friends from the same city makes me really excited and hopeful that we can recreate for a new generation what we were lucky enough to experience: doing cool shit with your friends.”

Saporta adds that he feels lucky to return to the company and executives such as Atlantic Records Group chairman/CEO Julie Greenwald, Atlantic Records chairman Craig Kallman and president of A&R Pete Ganbarg, who were particularly reassuring when he decided to stop being an artist and instead launch TAG in 2015. “I still remember Julie’s face when I told her — perplexed but supportive,” he says. “She always checked in on me during the years I was out on my own, and I’m really grateful to have gotten that call from Pete to do this JV. I think Atlantic has the best track record of breaking artists such as Lizzo, Paramore, Ava Max and Gayle the ‘old school’ way. There was no hype or momentum to leverage — just a deep belief in their talent, and the patience and resolve to allow their nonlinear road to unfold as it should.”

At a time when it feels like careers can be made or broken in real time, Saporta says he’s learned to guide his artists with the long view in mind and to illustrate the value of simply hitting pause sometimes. “I can’t tell you how many calls I get from artists in an unwarranted panic about having to move on something right now,” he says. “Artists go to a very vulnerable place to give birth to something that is honest and authentic, but unfortunately that often leads to operating from a place of fear. I found myself in that position many times. By learning to pause, you allow that fear to dissipate and another voice to enter your head — another idea, possibility, or solution.”

And although Saporta reunited with Midtown for its first shows since 2014 last year as the opening act on a My Chemical Romance tour, he insists he now gets “the same joy watching my artists succeed as I’ve gotten from my own success” after previously spending a decade on the road. “I still have nightmares about showing up to the venue and our gear is missing, or I forgot the words, or I lost my voice,” he says. “In terms of the itch to be creative, I’m lucky to have a relationship with my artists where they value my creative input, and building a label requires a lot of creativity too. So, I definitely have good outlets there.”

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Aldo Pusey

Update: 2024-09-18

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