Career
He is noted for "discovering" popular musical acts such as Hanson, Baha Men, Jonas Brothers, Joss Stone and AJR (band). In 2005-2006 he was President of Columbia Records, where he produced the debut album by Jonas Brothers. South-Curve"s roster/catalog includes Duran Duran, Andy Grammer, Tinted Windows, Fountains of Wayne, Nikki Jean, We The Kings, Joss Stone, Jessie Rose Trip, Betty Wright, Little Jackie, Tom Jones, Care Bears On Fire, David Broza, Night Business and Diane Birch.
He co-produced the debut album by Diane Birch, Bible Belt, with Betty Wright and Michael Mangini.
This marked the production troika"s only album together after Joss Stone"s "Soul Sessions" and "Mind Body And Soul" albums, the latter which received a Grammy nomination for "Best People’s Album" in 2005. He also co-produced with Wright and Mangini two tracks on Tom Jones"s 2008 album "24 Hours." He co-produced Care Bears On Fire"s single "Everybody Else" with South*A*M and Sluggo.
He did additional production on Andy Grammer"s debut platinum-certified single "Keep Your Head Up" and co-produced Grammer"s 2014 triple-platinum single "Honey I"m Good, which was one of the 10 biggest-selling singles of 2015, according to Soundscan." He was co-Executive Producer of "Betty Wright: The Movie" by Betty Wright and The Roots, which was nominated for a 2011 Grammy in the Best Traditional Rhythm & Blues Performance category. In 2012, he co-produced and executive produced Joss Stone"s II," the long-awaited sequel to her debut album.
In 2013, he produced several tracks on Diane Birch"s "Speak A Little Louder" album.
He also traveled to Jerusalem to co-produce, with Steve Earle, the album "East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem" by the Israeli singer David Broza, backed by a half-Israeli, half-Palestinian ensemble. That year, he also began managing the band AJR. He has co-written songs for Joss Stone, Jonas Brothers, Boyzone, Baha Men and others the Essential Otis Redding. He contributed the chapter on Sugarhill Records to the book "The Vibe Magazine History of Hip Hop" (1999) and the chapter on popular music in the 1980s to the collection "Living In the "80"s" (Gil Troy, ed), published by Oxford University Press (2009).
In the early 1980s, he was a DJ on the Voice of Peace radio station off the coast of Israel and was a news correspondent for Israel Radio, based in Tel Aviv.
He holds an Master of Arts in Applied Communication Research from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from American University. In 2014, he published his first book, called "How the Beatles Went Viral In "64", about the Beatles" rise to United States stardom.
The book was excerpted as a cover story in Billboard magazine in January, 2014.