Worlds End Reaches Canada
New Opportunities For Producers Beckon As U.S./U.K. Firm Expands Operations
By LARRY LeBLANC June 08, 2002
Article courtesy of Billboard Magazine
Originally printed June 8th, 2002.

TORONTO - Worlds End, established from its U.S. and U.K. offices as the music industry's leading producer-management firm, is expanding its operations into Canada with the opening of an office here this month. Heading the Canadian operation is respected Canadian industry veteran Alex Andronache, manager for 20 years of the Metalworks Recording & Mastering Studios in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga.

"I figured it'd be good to have somebody in Canada continually in the faces of the A&R and management people there," Worlds End principal Sandy Roberton says. "Alex knows everybody." Andronache was also concert coordinator at Concert Productions International in the mid-'70s and road manager for Canadian rock trio Triumph (1977-1981). He then briefly operated Powerhouse Management, which handled Lee Aaron and Killer Dwarves.

EMI Music Canada director of talent acquisition and artist development Jody Mitchell says, "Alex will know right off the bat what acts are the right fit for what producers and engineers."

In the '60s, Roberton ran the Arc and Jewel Music publishing catalogs in England, which handled all of the Chess Records artists. In 1967, with brothers Mike and Richard Vernon, he co-founded the prestigious Blue Horizon label, which released titles by Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, Christine Perfect, and other blues-related acts.

In 1970, he formed September Productions and began producing acts for the Charisma, B&C, Mooncrest, and Pegasus labels; he subsequently operated his own Rockburgh Records label from 1978 to 1981. By the time he stopped working as a producer in 1982, Roberton had produced 55 albums for such acts as Steeleye Span (whom he managed for several years), Plainsong, Iain Matthews, and John Martyn.

Roberton set up Worlds End—named after an area near King's Road in Chelsea, London, where the company's office was first located—in 1979 and began handling several clients, including Phil Thornaley and Tim Palmer. He relocated to New York in 1987 and settled in Los Angeles in 1988.

Today, with offices in L.A., London, and New York, Worlds End has a roster of 60 producers, engineers, and mixers. Among those represented are Danny Kortchmar, Don Gehman, Malcolm Burn, Stephen Hague, Terry Manning, Hugh Padgham, Palmer, Daniel Rey, and Don Was. Joining the Worlds End roster are Canadian engineers and producers Nick Blagona, Taras (Alien T) Blyzniuk, Rich Chycki, Jared Kuemper, and Brad Nelson, as well as film composer/orchestrator Stan Fomin and engineer/mixers Graham Brewer and Ed Krautner.

While Andronache will seek to place Worlds End clients with projects within Canada, he will also seek to land international projects for his Canadian-based roster. He will find and book studios in Canada for projects involving Worlds End clients from outside Canada and help with travel arrangements. Paperwork will be done through Worlds End in L.A.

"It's going to be a symbiotic relationship," Andronache says. "I've got some good engineers who want to be producers or have some producer credentials; Sandy's got a lot of producers who don't engineer. Even though those producers often have their own engineers, the time will come when that producer will need somebody else. We will look within the roster for what is needed."

Universal Music Canada senior VP of A&R Allan Reid says, "There's some great Canadian producers who need this kind of representation. There is nobody in Canada with the international contacts Sandy has." Roberton suggests that the expansion reflects on the maturity of the Canadian music market: "Artists just keep coming out of Canada."

While there's certainly an abundance of producers in the country—and such Canadian producers as Daniel Lanois, Bob Rock, Pierre Marchand, Malcolm Burn, Michael Brook, Mike Fraser, Garth Richardson, Stuart Brawley, and Randy Staub work on an international basis—production management on this scale is unknown in Canada. Several Canadian-based artist-management firms also represent producers but on a limited basis. While Nettwerk Management, headquartered in Vancouver, represents many producers and mixers (as well as artists), its production management is based in its L.A. office. Nettwerk Management president Terry McBride says, "I don't know whether Sandy is going to gain a lot by coming to Canada. To me, the real marketplace is America. Canadian record companies don't really have the budgets."

But Canadian record companies have increasingly begun to look afield for production talent in recent years, as their rosters have broadened to embrace mainstream pop, hip-hop, and singer/songwriters. Andronache argues that Canada's battered currency has also encouraged Canadian A&R to record more at home. "More Canadian major productions are staying in Canada, and more American producers are coming to Canada to work with our acts here." Roberton predicts, "We will be bringing work up to Canada. With the low Canadian dollar, we can get really good rates in studios there."

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