Jeff Hanson (music executive)

Jeff Hanson is an artist and producer manager, A&R consultant and founder and chief of the Silent Majority Group label. He is the former manager of Creed, Paramore and Sevendust, and the current manager of YouTube star Blacklite District. In 2006 he set up the independent Orlando, Florida-based label Silent Majority Group, which is now home to Framing Hanley, Candlebox, Tantric, Brother Sundance, Veio, and Fire Fight.

Career

Hanson discovered Creed in December 1996 when they played live at Floyd's Music Store in Tallahassee, Florida.[1] At the time the band was unknown and their set-list contained mostly covers and two original songs. Jeff signed Creed to his artist management company, JHMP, soon after he asked friend John Kurzweg, to produce the band's first record and according to Jeff, in an interview with HitQuarters, the album cost only $6,000 to make and eventually sold around 6 million copies.[1] Creed went on to sell over 35 million records and millions of tickets worldwide. During this time, Jeff Hanson served as executive producer of both The Scorpion King and Scream 3 soundtracks. Jeff also served as A&R consultant for Island Def Jam during Lyor Cohen’s tenure in the early 2000s.[2] Shortly after forming JHMP Jeff also took on artists: Sevendust, Alterbridge, Virgos Merlot and Full Devil Jacket.

Jeff Hanson formed JHMP in 1996 and founded, developed and managed Creed on Wind Up records, Virgos Merlot on Atlantic records, Mile on Columbia records, and Full Devil Jacket on Island records. He then released his first independent label release in 2002 under his newly formed Silent Majority Group label with artist Storewide B in a partnership with Gotee / EMI and achieved multiple Christian Rock top 10 hits. As part of his SMG label venture he did A&R for Island / Def Jam and also did A&R for Wind Up records where he signed the bands Breaking Point and Dust For Life. In 2003, Jeff's JHMP management company was asked to manage the, then, 14-year-old Hayley Williams[3] Williams was then taken to Atlantic Records and signed to the label by Jason Flom.Jeff Hanson created the first new artist 360 deal together with entertainment lawyers Kent Marcus and Jim Zumwalt between Paramore and Atlantic Records. Paramore.[3] Paramore went on to sell over 5 million records worldwide. His next signings to the company were Mute Math and Family Force 5. He was joined by radio program director Rick Schmidt and fiancée Rebecca Foulke.[2] In 2007 Silent Majority Group entered into an exclusive promotion and distribution deal with Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group, being distributed by ADA.[2]Jeff Hanson negotiated a deal for Silent Majority Group to be distributed by ADA Global, a Warner Music Group company.Silent Majority Group's first signing there was Framing Hanley received a Platinum certification for their single "Lollipop". All three of Jeff Hanson's Silent Majority Group signings under the Warner Music Group deal, Tantric, Candlebox, and Framing Hanley went on to have great commercial success and reached sales of over 100,000 albums.

As part of Jeff's simultaneous continued association with the CCM sector of the business(Commercial Christian music business) Jeff curated the musical content for Jesus Daily Group, the most interactive Facebook page in the world www.facebook.com/Jesusdaily. At Jesus Daily he A&R'd two compilations for Jesus Daily Group... "an E-Pop Christmas" and "A Classic Christmas" that included numerous established and emerging Christian artists including Wintley Phipps, Charles Billingsley, Everlife, The Tractors, and Gary Chapman. Hanson also produced a two-hour concert special that aired on TBN's 'Praise The Lord" to support the compilations.

In 2012 Jeff and Paramore EP producer Peter Thornton opened "Plush" studios in Orlando where he recruited , recorded and developed future multi platinum artist Chris Daughtry. Chris went on to appear on American Idol where he placed 4th and went on to sign with RCA / 19 Records. Later that year Jeff Hanson signed active rock artist Farewell 2 Fear, and rock/pop solo artist Blacklite District to the SMG label and the JHMP management company. Both reached number one on Sirius / XM's "Octane" Channel. Blacklite District with "Take me to the grave","With me now". and Farewell 2 Fear with "Fire". Farewell 2 Fear gained popularity when their cover version of Rihanna's "Diamonds" was featured on the Howard Stern show. Blacklite District has gone on to stream over 100 million streams of different tracks mainly from their multiple associations with Asian Anime Youtube pages. JHMP then signed platinum-selling rock band, Saving Abel, and also helped the act to form their own label Tennessippi Whiskey Records. He next signed the Scranton, PA artist Death Valley Dreams. The first single "Words Like Fire"appeared on 25 major market alternative stations. The album "Lust In The Modern World" was selected to appear in numerous playlists on Apple Music and Spotify platforms and was listed as one of the top Rock / Alternative albums of 2016 by Apple Music.

In March of 2016 while appearing at the Florida Music Festival as a panelist Jeff Hanson found out that he had been diagnosed with "Stage 4/B" Metastatic Tonsil cancer that spread to numerous locations and lymph nodes. He spent the remainder of 2016 having radiation, chemo and multiple surgeries to remove the Cancer and lymph nodes and was forced to take an indefinite leave of absence . Shortly after his Cancer battle Jeff Hanson while pondering his future, an old friend Trevor Fletcher who manages Criteria Studios in Miami, sent him a demo from 17 year old Nashville alternative/pop artist and producer Brother Sundance. Jeff fell in love with the demos and due to his post cancer limitations recruited industry veteran and former Mc Gathy Promotions EVP and Island Def Jam rock promo head Mark Fisher to assist Rebecca Hanson in the management and promotion of the artist and Brother Sundance released his debut EP 'Honey',on August 11th, 2017 through Silent Majority Group. Within two months of the signing of Brother Sundance the artist was named Apple Music's "New Artist of the Week". In June 2018 Silent Majority Group LLC entered into a partnership with Warner Brothers Records to re-release the "Honey" EP and four subsequent records. The first single from the Warner Brother's partnership,"Monsters featuring Ella Boh" was released May 10, 2019

Silent Majority Group continues to be active with the recent signings of Veio from Portland, Fire Fight from Minneapolis and Pharmacose from Jacksonville, all of whom have Summer 2019 releases.

References
  1. "Interview With Jeff Hanson". HitQuarters. 13 Sep 2010. Retrieved 5 Oct 2010.
  2. "Silent Majority Group joined WMG's Independent Label Group,". Orlando Sentinel. 8 May 2007. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 5 Oct 2010.
  3. "Interview With Jeff Hanson (part two)". HitQuarters. 20 Sep 2010. Archived from the original on 3 November 2010. Retrieved 5 Oct 2010.
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