Liza Smith is the UK music scout for Rodney Bingenheimer, the most legendary DJ in the US, with his show on KROQ 106.7 in LA. She actually came from Southern California, and decided to move across the pond to the UK. She popped on back to LA for Rodney’s star on Hollywood Blvd, and had time for a chat.

Q: How did you get started being the international ‘ear to the ground’ for upcoming indie music?
A: I'm from LA originally. I interned at KROQ when I was in High School. I then moved to San Diego to go to SDSU and got a job as a promotions assistant at 91X fm doing givaways, concert promotions, etc. They were very impressed at 91X that I had experience at KROQ, so I had a lot of good promotions thrown my way. I was organizing meet and greets with the bands, in-store record signings, club night promotions, and concerts. 91X had a lot to do with the initial stages of the San Diego Street Scene at that time. During my three years there, a lot of British bands were touring the States. It was before Nirvana hit in the early 90s. While I was working with the British acts, I had every single one of their manager's offer me a job in the UK. I told them all that I had to finish school first. Raymond Coffer who was Smashing Pumpkins and Echo and the Bunnymen's manager said "when you finish call me." So I did, which is how I wound up in the UK. I've been in there since 1994, although I didn't end up working for Raymond. Instead, I was offered an A&R job with Discovery Records, Jac Holzman's label, where I signed Morcheeba. Then, Seymour Stein was such a huge fan of Morcheeba that he bought Discovery and merged it with Sire Records.

 
Q: How did you end up being Rodney’s “American Girl in London”?
A: I had already known Rodney via my KROQ internship and when I'd come back to visit LA, I'd see Rodney at the shows. I knew both the Cranberries and Suede so when they played the Avalon I'd see Rodney. I kept seeing him over and over from then on. Rodney had an English girl doing his show called "London Calling" but she didn't really know A) Rodney's playlist all that well and B) what the listeners would be interested in for the American market. She kept throwing in a bit of dance acts that weren't Rodney friendly. Rodney was thinking of replacing her. He thought I'd be perfect since I'm in the UK plus I worked for KROQ and 91X. I knew exactly what KROQ plays so we changed the show from "London Calling" to "the American in London."

I knew anyone who was significant in the British music scene at the time because of my work with them while at 91X. In England, these bands were Gods, but in the US, they were practically nobodies! I realized I had a huge advantage; all the bands wanted to "break American", so they needed KROQ to help them achieve that goal. So I would get invited to all the shows and parties, get their latest singles before they were released, get to interview bands that even the BBC couldn't get. It was GREAT fun!!!

Q. After over a decade in London, why no British accent?
A: All of my friends and family are always surprised that I haven't picked up the English accent every time I come back for a visit. Somehow, I've managed to keep the LA accent. I think the people who take on the British accent after being there for 10 minutes really don't have an identity of their own. I use some British expressions and words quite a bit, but that’s about it. I hadn't even noticed someone asked me "what's a lift?" (elevator in the UK). A good example is Madonna. She was England for five minutes before she started talking like the Queen. She's taken on a posh accent. It's bloody ridiculous!

Q: Compare and contrast, club scene in London and club scene in LA.
A: I can't really recommend any clubs for you to go to in London, since I spend most of my time going to gigs rather than clubs. Being in A&R, you don't have time to go to clubs. Even when I am visiting LA, I spend most nights going to gigs. In fact, I am at the Echo in Silverlake right now going to see a band called the Discovery Zone. They are a great young band from Hollywood. I do know, however, that Artrocker hosts a night at the Buffalo Bar across the street from where I used to live in Islington. Record Producer Arthur Baker, best known for his work with New Order runs a club night there too. So that would be a good place to go when you are in London.

Q. How did you hear about Artrocker and The Undergroundmine.com?
A: Rodney's always talked about Artrocker. When you hear someone talking about a magazine you think "was it just him or was it everybody?" I know everyone has their NME (GASP!!!!!!) and I also read Music Week Magazine.
 

Q. And now the big question…who REALLY played Coldplay first, Rodney Bingenheimer or Nic Harcourt? When I asked Nic in an interview, he still insisted it was him. I still say they need to settle it once and for all in a cricket game, but Nic said he’s terrible at cricket, so it looks like it’s up to you to clear this up!
A: I love Rodney and the fact that he's so open. He always listens to everything that I and everybody else sends him. Some bands Rodney immediately fancies and some bands take him a little while. But he doesn't always agree with the bands I like. He actually hated the first Coldplay demos I gave him and refused to play them. I gave Rodney their demos before they were signed and he felt it was to slow for his show, being that he is on so late at night. I kept telling him "If you don't Nic Harcourt will and he'll claim to be the first to play them." So he then agreed reluctantly. He said some listeners called and complained because they thought they were boring, but at least he can say he was the first.

I ran into Nic a couple of years back and thanked him for the role he had to play in all of this, but Nic insisted HE was the first to play Coldplay. Confused, I asked him what was the first song by them he played, and he said "Yellow." They hadn't even written, let alone recorded "Yellow" when Rodney played their demo "Bigger Stonger" off their "Safety EP", so that cleared that up. Rodney was the first, Nic was the second. Even Chris Martin was surprised when I told him at KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas that I still had those demos. Chris himself said he didn't even have that EP. He said "Do you know how much they're worth now?" … but I'll never sell them!




 

June Caldwell lives amidst drawers stuffed with an array of earplugs, clipped wristbands, and notes scrawled on ticket stubs… splitting her time between concert reviews, and doing radio airplay promotions for Indie bands at Bryan Farrish Radio Promotions. She covers the LA music scene for artrocker.com, the largest bi-weekly new music publication in the UK, and www.fly.co.uk with her shutterbug hubby Roger.

June’s always interested in Indie bands looking for promotion, and can be contacted at: junejer@gmail.com.