Mom + Pop Music at 15: Michael Goldstone and Thaddeus Rudd on Longevity, Signing MGMT, and What’s Next
01.11.2023 - 13:23
/ variety.com
Jonathan Cohen By the time he launched Mom + Pop Music in 2008, Michael Goldstone knew a thing or two about artists. Operating more behind the scenes than some of his more flashy contemporary A&R types, the Long Island-born music obsessive signed Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine to Epic Records, and then went on to build DreamWorks’ A&R and marketing departments.
He followed with a five-year stint as president of Sire Records before founding Mom + Pop in 2008, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary in typically low-key fashion this year. Goldstone, co-owner Thaddeus Rudd (pictured above, left and right, respectively) and their 25-strong staff are primarily focused on breaking a new crop of pop-adjacent young acts such as Goth Babe, Magdalena Bay, Underscores and Del Water Gap, while also nurturing the music career of “Stranger Things” actress Maya Hawke.
Additionally, Mom + Pop recently won a multi-label sweepstakes to sign longtime Columbia Records act MGMT, whose first album for the label, “Laughing Out Loud,” will be released Feb. 23.
The label’s roster also features well-established acts including Courtney Barnett, Porter Robinson, FKJ, Tegan and Sara, Madeon, Caamp, Jai Wolf and Beach Bunny. “I’m still trying to identify artists that really can reach as large of an audience as possible, but it’s important to be able to sustain over time whatever that audience is,” Goldstone tells Variety.