David Bason

Bason managed Thirty Seconds To Mars, James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins/A Perfect Circle), Flora Cash, Cerebral Ballzy, Beta Radio, Justin Tranter’s band Semi Precious Weapons, Zipper Club, Strand of Oaks, The Joy Formidable, Ryan Hadlock, Eli Thomson and Blondfire, as well as many Grammy-winning, platinum producer/engineers, including David Kahne (Lana Del Rey, Sublime), Dennis Herring (Elvis Costello, Counting Crows), Jon Kaplan (Cage the Elephant, Gavin DeGraw), David Bendeth (Paramore, Bring Me The Horizon), Elvis Baskette (Slash, Incubus) Chris Shaw (Public Enemy, Bob Dlyan), and Kenny Carkeet (Night Riots, Bear Hands).[3]

Bason began his career as tour manager of Treble Charger in 1997, where he met David Bendeth, a subsequent management client.[4] In 2001, after leading the charge at RCA Records to sign the band The Strokes, Bason began running the alternative arm of Roadrunner Records, where his first signing was The Dresden Dolls – whose lead singer Amanda Palmer went on to become a Kickstarter cover girl and New York Times Best-Selling author, as well as signing The Cult and The New York Dolls for their 2006 comeback album, One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This.[5]

In 2006, Bason founded the Universal Music-distributed Stay Gold Records where he signed punk rock bands and produced several dub reggae remixes.[6]

In 2009, after seven years at Roadrunner Records and A&R stints with Red Bull Records, Decca Records and Century Media records (where he signed Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba and an AFI side project), Bason was recruited to join the LA-based boutique firm The MGMT Company.[7] While there, Bason managed Thirty Seconds to Mars, the Atlanta-based group The Constellations (Virgin Records), guided the indie-pop band Blondfire to a bidding war deal with Warner Bros., and signed the infamous New York black punk band Cerebral Ballzy to Julian Casablancas’ Cult Records label.[8]

In 2014, Bason was asked by Phil McGraw to be president of Hundred Handed Records which released Coheed and Cambria's albums including The Color Before the Sun.[9]

In 2017, Bason became a partner at Wax Audio Group, a label releasing audio books on vinyl with the book publishers Harper Collins and Hachette. Releases include David Foster Wallace, Jerry Garcia, Amanda Palmer, Nelson Mandela and Joe Hill. Wax has also reissued the classic Bad Brains album Black Dots.[10]

Bason hosts a popular music management podcast, The Storytelling Show, in which he and Joe Sib, Matt Pinfield and The Mowgli's discuss managing and A&R in the music business.[11] In 2019, 7S Management enlisted Bason to run its West Coast operation.[12] Bason also sings and writes for the band Barfbag (with members of The Dresden Dolls and AWOLNATION), the band War Orphan (with a member of Sick Of It All), and the band Lords of The Drift (with members of Thirty Seconds to Mars, Black Mountain and Strand of Oaks).[13]

• David Bason on AllMusic