BABY ROBOT MEDIA - Key Persons
Bio
Emotional Traffic, Tim McGraw's much anticipated studio album debuted January 31, 2012 on Billboard's Country Album chart at #1, featuring the songs "The One" and "Only Human," co-written by EMI singer/songwriter Angie Aparo. Mr. Aparo has had his compositions recorded by McGraw before as well as by Faith Hill and Miley Cyrus, among others, and has appeared on stage and recordings with Hill, Edwin McCain, Matchbox20 and The Zac Brown Band to name but a few.
In 1999, the Atlanta-based singer/songwriter released his first major label record The American produced by Grammy-winning producer Matt Serletic. The album included "Cry" a song that was later recorded as title track of a hit album by singer Faith Hill. Hill went on to win a Grammy for her performance of Cry. Hill's husband Tim McGraw then recorded Aparo's "Free Man" from The American for the soundtrack album for HBO's documentary about the election of Barack Obama.
Aparo first began playing the Southeast with his acoustic guitar in hand. He released his first solo album Out of the Everywhere in 1996, recorded at David Briggs Studio in Nashville, Tennessee with Jim Stabile as engineer and David Briggs at the piano. This was followed by The American, his label debut for Arista Records.
Running into problems with his label, Angie released Weapon of Mass Construction (2001) (later re-released under the title One With the Sun), a collection of cover songs taken from varying artists from Beastie Boys to Neil Young and Elton John, as well as two previously unreleased originals. In his own words, "I had been playing these cover songs "unplugged" in clubs and thought it would interesting to record those arrangements".
Following in 2003 was For Stars and Moon, an album heavily influenced by the Beatles. Angie then released the live album 9Live in 2004, a recording from a performance for Atlanta radio station 99X featuring many songs from The American.
Angie's music started moved in a new direction first apparent on El Primero Del Tres (Spanish for "The First of the Three") recorded with producer Dann Huff. He continued moving forward stylistically with his most recent release Praise Be.
Angie has a new solo album and book in the works, and a cartoon in development.
Job Titles:
- Senior Publicist
- Senior Publicist ( Pittsburgh, PA )
Avid music nerd and synth enthusiast, Bobby Cleveland, got his start in the music world performing with ex-Zappa members and Jon Anderson of Yes when he was just a kid. Now, as a grown ass man, he's actively seeking out great bands and getting their names out into the world as a publicist. He cut his teeth as a music journalist, writing for The Wild Honey Pie and Post-Trash, and through grueling, thankless internships at PR firms Baby Robot, Girlie Action and Beautiful Day. Ultimately, Baby Robot was the only agency left standing in the battle royale for Bobby's employment. Appropriately, his favorite band? Destroyer!
Job Titles:
- Senior Publicist
- Senior Publicist ( Brooklyn, NY )
John Graffo started his career in music publicity in 2010, acting as publicist, manager, booking agent, guitarist and vocalist for Atlanta garage/punk band Lowbanks, while he was pursuing a film/marketing degree at Georgia State University. Since joining the Baby Robot team in 2015 and relocating to Brooklyn, John ha s represented numerous artists, securing press coverage in outlets like The New York Times, The FADER, Stereogum, Consequence, American Songwriter, Paper Magazine, and many more. Find him biking around Crown Heights, working on screenplays, and continuing to make loud music when his neighbors aren't home.
"It was a pleasure working with Rachel. She's no bullshit and I love that, especially in a publicist. Rachel is also super supportive, standing behind music she believes in 100 percent. I can't imagine a better PR experience for my album campaign." - Kate Vargas
"Rachel Hurley knocked my campaign out of the park! I was a nobody from nowhere, with no following, with a killer album and she, along with the Baby Robot team, got Seneca in all the right hands. They gave me 110% and showed absolute dedication to me. Rachel and the team brought the credibility needed for the music to be heard and speak for itself. I recommend Rachel Hurley and Baby Robot Media with all of my heart!" - Charles Wesley Godwin
Job Titles:
- Owner / Director of Artist Relations
- Owner / Media Director ( Los Angeles
Steve A. has over 20 years experience in entertainment-industry promotions and content creation. He started in 1997 in his first year of film school in Chicago with his band Dr. Killbot and has had a finger on the music industry's pulse ever since. Working with Zoom Media, he's produced guerrilla marketing videos for clients such as Dr. Pepper, Jeep and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He has worked on over 50 films, with a focus on documentary, and hosted Burnaway.org‘s ArtSpeak, a fine arts radio show on Atlanta's AM 1690. His comic book, Ghost Spy, was picked up by Image Comics, the third largest publisher in the U.S., and sold over 10,000 copies internationally. He currently hosts the film nostalgia podcast Total Movie Recall, plays in several music projects and has fun with his Dungeons & Dragons meets hip hop project Epic Levels making music, writing books and hosting the Mad Dungeon podcast.