Intro: Here is Never Ending Hate's interview with nice person with sincere

supports Kelli Malella from METAL BLADE Records. She does the publicity

stuff at MBR to support the bands. Lets find out more about her and Metal

Blade Records. Enjoy !

Hi! Please tell us about yourself and some short biography about yourself…

How did you join Metal Blade Records?

Well I knew someone that had interned at Metal Blade and had stayed in touch

with them once she had left. One day when I was at her house Jim (used to

work at MB doing retail and publicity) sent her an instant message asking

her if she knew anyone with experience in publicity. She told him that I had

once interned and worked part time for MSO (Mitch Schneider Organization

www.msopr.com) and that I might be interested. So EJ, the head publicist at

the time, got in touch with me and we "did lunch". After a few months of

going back and forth I started working at Metal Blade Records in January of

2001.

What do you do exactly in Metal Blade Records? What does publicity means

to you?

The publicist is the person that sets up interviews with magazines,

webzines, TV shows, tour interviews, etc. When ever you see one of your

favorite bands in a magazine a publicist had set up that interview. Artists

have too much to do to set up and keep track of their own

interviews/reviews.

What does publicity main jobs in Metal Blade ? Responsibilities?

Before a record first comes out I get an advance copy to listen to. I will

take it home with and listen to it as much as I can to really absorb the

material. I then write up a biography (bio) for the band if they have not

provided me with one. I then order group pictures of the band to send out

with the bio and cd. Once I have everything together my assistant will do

the mail out and service our contacts. Once people start to receive the

press kits I will then set up a day or two for interviews. After interviews

are done we log everything down to follow up on. There is no point in

setting up interviews if you don't know who has done them. Plus you need to

be able to track down all the interviews and reviews once the print/go up on

the Internet. Then we put together a press kit of all the press and organize

it according to size of publication. That is pretty much how we (publicists)

show that we actually did something. =o) Once the press kits are finalized,

which is tough because you are always adding more material, we send copies

to the bands and hold on to the originals to send out to try and get

endorsements, tours, bigger press pieces, etc...

Another big responsibility is to meet new people and constantly work on

adding more publications/websites to our database. The more people you can

get to the better off your bands will be.

Now on to tour press. Once a tour is booked we get in a schedule of dates

with all the venue information.  My assistant will put together a package

that includes bios, photos, and posters for our band that is on the tour. We

send those out to all the venues so they can properly prepare for the show.

After that we get in touch with all the local press and try to get them to

run a preview, which is a write up a band with all the show info. If they

cannot do a preview of the show we then ask them to do a review of the show,

which is when they send a writer and photographer to the show to do a write

up of the bands performance. Once again we keep logs of everything we set up

and once a tour is done we start to collect all the tour press that has been

done so we can add it to the bands press kit. The other side of tour press

is keeping all the shows updated so people are kept up to date on the shows.

We also send in all the guest lists and work with the tour managers to make

sure everything is going smoothly and to set up interviews.

When one of our bands makes a music video we service it similar to how we

would service an album. We then get in touch with all the local/national TV

shows and try to get them to play the videos.

On top of publicity I also help out with A&R, which means going through a

whole lot of demos and seeing who deserves to be passed on to Brian Slagel

(Owner & CEO) and Mike Faley (President).

Beside you, is there anyone else in Publicity dept.?

Yes. I have an assistant named Michelle Ferraro who kicks ass. With out her

I wouldn뭪 be able to get very much done. Behind every great publicist is an

amazing assistant. If you get stuck with an assistant that doesn뭪 do what

they are supposed to do or just doesn뭪 care you end up having to take care

of a lot of office and paper work that you really don뭪 have time for. That

could end up making you lose press for your bands because you are too busy

trying to fix what they might have done wrong or not done at all. A lot of

my time is spent talking with publications and artists trying to secure

stories and features for them. You don뭪 really have time to sit at the copy

machine for two hours making copies of press kits to send out.

What do you or Metal Blade do to support the bands? Do the bands receive the

same support ?

Almost everything we do here at the label is to try and support our bands

the best we can. We work to get them on tours, get their cd뭩 in stores, get

them press, radio play, and anything else we can do to help the band. I know

that I personally try my hardest for every band on the roster, as does most

of the staff at the label. Clearly when you have a band like Cannibal Corpse

you will get more cd뭩 to service out because it is a higher priority then

some other bands. All that means though is that we have to pick out whom we

will send certain cd뭩 to, to assure we get enough coverage for every band.

It is definitely a challenge but as long as you can figure out whom to send

what you and the band will be okay. This is why it is so very important to

talk to people and see who they like and want to work with out of all your

bands while at the same time try to figure out if they might like someone

they have never heard of before.

How did Metal Blade make decisions in signing a deal with its?bands? Is

there a special classifications or standards?

There is no one person in charge of A&R which means that everyone helps out.

If someone hears something they like and think would be good for Metal Blade

then we all take a listen and give our in put. Sometimes we will see an

opening band or be out with friends and see a local band. We also go through

piles of demos that get sent into the office every day. We also have people

come to us and say they have a friend that is in a band and they want us to

check it out. We have such a wide variety of musicians...we don뭪 say you

have to be metal or we aren뭪 going to listen. If it is good, it뭩 good.

Please tell us your favorite Metal Blade's bands and your favorite NON Metal

Blade bands? Why do you like em?

Well that would take me forever and I am sure I will end up forgetting

someone but let me give it a try. As for Metal Blade bands I like all our

musicians but there are some that really stick out to me and here they are.

Metal Blade bands:

Cannibal Corpse

Callenish Circle

Beyond The Embrace

Amon Amarth

40Grit

Cattle Decapitation

The Crown

God Dethroned

GWAR

Dave Brockie Experience

Lamb of God

Spock뭩 Beard

Vehemence

And Vader.

Non-Metal Blade Bands:

Acid Bath

Soilent Green

Goatwhore

Ministry

COC

Pantera

Coalesce

Rush

Dead to Fall

Oingo Boingo

Faith No More

And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead

Refused

Carcass

Agents of Oblivion

In Flames

Held Under (unsigned band)

Tears for Fears

December

Caliban

Bjork

Cat Stevens

Soilwork

Super Tramp

Simon & Garfunkel

Moody Blues

Doobie Brothers

DOWN

Eye Hate God

Donnie Darko - sound track

Hedwig and the Angry Inch ?sound track

Nine Inch Nails

FAR

Rosetta Stone

Dystopia

Dead Can Dance

At The Drive In

Mr. Bungle

Old U2

Led Zeppelin

White Zombie

Stevie Nicks

And a bunch more that I can뭪 think of at the moment. =o)

Since your working in a Metal records label, do you always listen to metal?

What do you listen to beside the heavy stuff?

I listen to everything. I just love music. Well except for Country Music and

most RAP, although some of it can be quite entertaining.

Please tell us your last 5 albums that you뭭e bought recently. Why did you

buy em?

Hmm. Thats tough... I bought a Trail of Dead 7?picture disc because the

band is amazing. Best of Tears for Fears because they rock. Donnie Darko

sound track because it was such a great movie and the score was just as good

+ there is a really good Tears for Fears cover. Oingo Boingo best of and

Boingo because Danny Elfman is a musical genius. Rush ?Chronicles because

it has most of my favorite songs.  All my metal cds are usually given to me

so I get to use that saved money to buy all the non-metal?stuff. =o)

These days, there are a lot of brutal death bands that have sadistic porn,

women exploitation, etc, written inside their lyrics. Does that offend you?

Not at all, I know it is made up most the time to appear tough. Even if it

is serious it doesn뭪 affect me. People are allowed to have their own

beliefs even if I don뭪 agree with them. ;o) As long as they are not

actually hurting anyone or anything it is their life and they can think and

say as they please.

What do you do in your leisure time? What are your hobbies or other

activities?

I try to relax and hang out with my friends, boyfriend, and cat. I love to

shop as lame and girly as it might be. I like to collect rare horror films

and other strange movies. I like going to horror movie and comic conventions

because that is where I get to meet a lot of cool horror movie actors and

get my stuff signed. I have developed a strange liking to the Sponge Bob

Square Pants cartoon. I like to play music and write and read. I also like

to travel but usually do not have the time or money.

What do you think about the Nu Metal trend nowadays? Do you into or not into

that stuff?

Trends are trends. I don’t really care either way. If the music is good then

I will like it but I have to say for the most part I have not heard any good

nu-metal bands. They may be big now but give it a few years and they will be

tossed aside when their album sales drop. And then these once huge bands

will be begging for a new record deal. That is why I like indie label bands

better...they are more lasting. I am sure in 10 years they will make all

these compilations of the nu-metal bands and it will be a joke. Like all

those cheesy 80뭩 metal hair band compilations that are out now. Sure I buy

them but I get them because it is so funny to listen to but I definitely do

not take any of the music seriously.

What are your near future plans?

I don't know. I would love to finish college although I really do not need

to. I guess it is more of a personal goal. I would like to do what I am

doing now as long as I can. They only way I will leave are if my goals

change from helping good bands out to just wanting money. The business can

be pretty lame and suck the life and love out of the music. As long as that

doesn뭪 happen to me I will be fine. But the second my priorities change I

will leave the business. I also love movies and am slowly working on my own

horror movie. So I guess if that is something that works out for me I will

do it. I would also like to write a few books and maybe travel around the

world. Too bad most of things require large sums of money that I do not have

possession of. ;o)

Anything else you'd like to say? Last words?

Thanks for the opportunity to speak my heart and show the hard work that

goes on behind the scenes. Stay metal!

Well, don't mentioned it, Kelli. Its always a pleasure interviewing such a nice & 

supportive person like you. All the best to you. Take care.