A Little New York Music In Sandy Hook

By Nancy K. Crevier

It might come as a surprise to find that Sandy Hook is home to a full-fledged record label with its own artists, producers and writers. But that is the beauty of today’s technology, said Deep Haven Music businessman Curtis Urbina. He is just as likely to be found at Panera Bread in Sand Hill Plaza or C.H. Booth Library listening to music sent his way via the Internet as he is to be found on his phone at home. And new technology means that the demo tapes he receives are more often than not master quality, so gone are the old days of recording artists needing to come into a big studio to record their music.

Mr Urbina moved to Sandy Hook in early August with his wife, Michelle, and four-year-old daughter, Lenie, from New York, bringing the record label formed in 2005 with his partner DJ ManX, with him.

“The way the music business is today,” said Mr Urbina, “all I need is a cell phone and a laptop. I can release a record digitally within days. That’s the speed of what the Internet has done for the business. This is a long way from when I used to press vinyl,” Mr Urbina said, who has spent more than 30 years in the music industry.

But while Deep Haven Music may not have a visible office front, Mr Urbina hopes to get his company involved in his new community.

“I had maintained an office in New York City for years, then 9/11 occurred. It was difficult to concentrate. There was a lot of pain going on and New York City changed,” he said this week. “I realized I didn’t really need a city office, so we moved to upstate New York, and we were also spending a lot of time with friends in Connecticut. Someone told us about Newtown and it just spoke to us.”

He wants to connect with local musicians and local organizations on a business and personal level, said Mr Urbina. “It’s important to be involved in the community.”

A native of Bronx, N.Y., Mr Urbina started his music career in the mailroom of a record company in New York City and worked his way up to owning his own record company and to a teaching position at NYU in the music department. He has worked for Electronic Materials, Inc and Atlantic Records along the way, but his career turning point, said Mr Urbina, was in the 1970s, shortly after he had started a record company, Quark Records, now the parent company of Deep Haven Music.

“I had just started Quark, and I needed an office, so I went back to the same building where I had worked in the mailroom and started knocking on doors. All I really needed was the address, and a desk and a phone,” Mr Urbina recalled. “Finally, one lovely gentleman offered me a desk in his office. Every day I would come in around 9:30 am and get started on my work. This gentleman, I noticed, came in between 12 and 12:30, would stay about an hour and leave. We were both in the record business. I was intrigued. I was getting the mail for the office. I would get bills, he would get checks.” It left Mr Urbina wondering what he was doing wrong.

“I got up the courage one day when he came in to ask him for a few minutes of his time. The man was Phil Medley. He wrote a little song called ‘Twist and Shout.’ And he owned the copyright. He taught me about the music publishing business. He taught me the value of owning a copyright, or partnering with songwriters wherever they are. I learned to look at music from the business end and how to expose an artist to the market.”

He went from pressing and promoting records to recognizing the many other revenues for income stream that an artist could produce. “There are films that need music, there are advertisers that need music. It’s not just about being a solo artist and making a CD and putting it in the drawer,” explained Mr Urbina.

He has built his reputation on his successes and connections in the record industry, and by helping artists learn to manage their expectations. Every artist who comes to Mr Urbina for direction may not become a solo recording star, but he or she will learn the many ways in which a song or music can be marketed and the different outlets that exist for music.

“Deep Haven Music is in the business of content acquisition. We work extensively with songwriters and producers and look for music we can partner up with them on, music in all genres,” Mr Urbina said. “We’re always looking for what’s next.”

The Essence Of The Business

The “we” of whom he speaks is his partner, DJ ManX. A Minnesota club DJ in the early 1980s, DJ ManX connected with Mr Urbina in New York during that time.

“I was having tremendous success with Quark then. He knocked on my door and I introduced him to people; then he disappeared for a while, to the West coast, to school. When he returned to New York City, he had been wildly successful on Wall Street and wanted to get back into music. He got in touch with me again and said he wanted to do a music company and he wanted to do it with me,” Mr Urbina said.

DJ ManX is known around the world for his DJ skills. He spins live for Cyberjamz Radio out of his studio in Miami Beach, the other “office” of Deep Haven Music.  “People give him new music wherever he travels; people ask him to remix old songs. He’s the in-house producer, the creative department of Deep Haven Music,” said Mr Urbina.

Both of the men listen to at least 75 new songs every week, said Mr Urbina, and once a week they FedEx the cream of the crop to each other for a second viewpoint.

“Part of the business is developing a relationship in which I can be honest with the artist,” said Mr Urbina, noting that it can take a quarter of a million dollars or more to take an artist to the national level. “We have to ask ourselves if this artist can find the desire and the fire to do this, do they have what it is going to take to go to that level? Deep Haven Music can take an artist beyond the local level if they have what it takes.”

How music is delivered in 2007 is vastly different from what happened 30 years ago, Mr Urbina said.

“We’re keeping up with technology. Anyone can get music out globally now with technology, but most folks don’t know how to do that. For those who want to put their music out there, I can create a roadmap for success with them, help them develop their own Star Power.”

Mr Urbina and DJ ManX are in the record label business because, he said, “We love music and we’re having fun — even though the music industry is going through a not very fun time right now. We know inherently that there is still value in owning music as long as you know what to do with it.”

By recognizing an artist’s talent, helping them find the right venues for their music, and developing a relationship that is valuable to his company and the artist, Deep Haven Music is able to provide new artists with the exposure and knowledge to be as successful as they wish. From CD compilations of up-and-coming artists and their songs to solo efforts and from pop, rock and country to folk, club music and classics, Deep Haven Music is willing to listen, guide, and direct artists new to the record industry.

“The essence of the music business is that we still need people to create. A good song transcends everything. Whenever you hear a good song and it stirs your soul, that’s what it’s about for us,” said Mr Urbina.  “At the end of the day, I’m still hoping to do this when I’m 80 or 90 years old, still hoping to be in the music industry.”

Mr Urbina welcomes musicians and songwriters to contact him at curtis@deephavenmusic.com or to send demo tapes to Deep Haven Music, PO Box 452, Newtown CT 06470.

“A song is a song is a song,” he said. But he aims to make it so much more.