Photo: AFP

This story is a transcript of an interview that appeared in The Bob Lefsetz Podcast on 7 February 2018.

Jason Flom has been called ‘one of the most successful record men of the past 20 years’, and is known for his ‘specialty [in] delivering monsters’: signing musicians who end up being huge. One of those ‘monsters’ was Lorde, whom he signed to his label Lava Records in early 2013.

Flom has been Chairman and CEO of Atlantic Records, Virgin Records, and the Capitol Music Group. He's signed artists including Katy Perry, Twisted Sister, Skid Row, Stone Temple Pilots and Tori Amos.

Musicians on his Lava label have included Matchbox 20, Kid Rock, The Corrs, The Blue Man Group, Sugar Ray, and of course Lorde.

Bob Lefsetz – an American music commentator and critic, spoke to Flom earlier this month as part of his regular podcast series The Bob Lefsetz Podcast.

Listen to the conversation in full:

Flom on how he discovered Lorde

A woman called Natalia who worked at a jingle place – she was a music supervisor … she and I were friends … she sent me music from time to time … she sent me an email, which I now have framed and autographed and dedicated by Lorde.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The subject line was ‘hot shit’ and it just said, “Unsigned NZ female – Listen,” and [had] a Soundcloud link. [Natalia] said, “I’m not sure if this is your thing, but you should check it out,” so I put this f**king thing on and it was ‘Royals’ and ‘Love Club’ and I called [Natalia] up and I say, ‘What the f**k did I just listen to?! How do we find her?!

So I found her address on Facebook, I emailed Lorde and she wrote me back and pretty soon I’m on the phone with her parents and I said to her [mother], “I think your daughter is gonna win Grammys” and we did the deal. I got there just in time. I think she had 200 Soundcloud plays at the time.

So did you fly to New Zealand?

A little after that yeah. I went to her first gig that she’d ever done with original material and it was awesome. There were 70 people there but she was Lorde.

So the deal was made before you went to NZ?

Yeah the deal was made and it was funny too, ‘cause when I was in NZ I got an email from Sean Parker [Napster founder and later president of Facebook] who I have a long history with … he said, “Hey I just came across this girl Lorde and I think you guys should check her out,” and I wrote him back and said she’s sitting right next to me at a café in Auckland right now. It was a great moment.

I think [Lorde] sprang from the womb fully formed because she was on stage confident, just doing her thing, and of course – those songs. They say there’s three things that children can become geniuses at, which is music, maths and chess and she created a work of absolute genius when she was 14 years old.

It always amazed me about her because, it’s like, if she’s a young teenager in NZ there’s at least an argument that says she really couldn’t have experienced anything but yet it seemed like she knew everything and the explanation is that she read a thousand books by the time she was 12, but still, it’s a remarkable piece of work

Photo: RNZ

And then weren’t her parents reluctant – they wanted her to stay in school?

Yeah one of them was and was in favour of her becoming a lawyer and I said, “You know what, I come from a family of lawyers and I promise you there’s enough lawyers and your daughter has a chance to win Grammys,” and of course Joel Little [Lorde’s producer] did a beautiful album.

I remember when she called me up and told me that the title of the album was going to be Pure Heroine and I almost fell down. That title is batshit f**king crazy. I mean it’s so good right, and the black cover – It’s perfect. It’s like some Ziggy Stardust type of perfection … Heroine with an e and Lorde has an e on the end. Get the fuck outta here! What depths of your soul did that spring from, cos this is amazing.

Editor’s note: Universal NZ had Lorde signed to a development deal for a few years prior to Flom taking an interest, so credit should equally go to Adam Holt and Scott Maclachlan who discovered Lorde at age 13 and managed her rise to stardom before they split in 2015