Guerry and mentor Flip Frazier
The music industry sometimes attracts people you wouldn’t expect. Take, for instance, Atlanta Recording Connection student
Guerry Magidson, Jr., who eventually left a career in the white-collar sales world to pursue a career as a music producer.
“I used to be in sales, and it was too stressful,” he says.
“Medical sales, continuing medical education, I worked for a medical device company before that, everything from NASA, to health insurance. And before that I worked in audio visual production sales…[But] my heart has always been in music.”
Guerry first began to change his course about five years ago, when he was asked to manage a local rapper and some other artists.
“It kind of put me in the role as a producer, but at the same time, as an executive producer,” he says,
“because a lot of these artists I end up backing and putting my own money in and then making sure the final product was as is, and also helping out on the creative side. That’s what I really love.”
When Guerry made the decision to turn his passion for producing artists into a career, he knew he needed some more background in the studio.
“What I never wanted to be is an engineer,” he says.
“I made that clear to everybody. But I have to know how to speak to an engineer in the right jargon and terms, and not just say, ‘Oh, something doesn’t sound right here.’”
Guerry knew about the Recording Connection’s on-the-job approach from a friend who had gone through the program, so he decided to see if the program could be tailored to fit his needs.
“I called up the Recording Connection and told them what I was looking to do,” he says.
“I wanted to go into the music production program, and they put me in.”
Soon, Guerry found himself apprenticing with Recording Connection mentor Flip Frazier at
East Atlanta Records. As Flip became aware of Guerry’s passion for producing artists, he offered an interesting course of action. Guerry recalls the conversation:
“He told me, ‘Guerry, every time I speak with you are talking about not just school,’ Guerry relates.
‘You are talking about business, and you’ve always got some artist you are trying to pull in and bring in with us to record…I have more confidence in you and your abilities than you even probably know about yourself.’ And so he says, ‘Why don’t we just start now? You do need to do the school. At the same time, I will help you to bring these people in and I will help you record…We’ll start recording and bring them in. You can watch me and I will help you on the engineering side of things.’”
Serendipitously around that time, Guerry reestablished a connection he’d previously made with an artist known as Fre$h Boi, an up-and-coming rapper in the Atlanta scene who had recently parted ways with his label. Guerry saw this as his opportunity to jump in with both feet as a producer.
Guerry Magidson, Jr. with artist Fre$h Boi
he says,
“and I am going to build my company, which is G Mansion Music, and I am going to do my best to go ahead and get him signed and just do his whole project, his whole LP.”
As Guerry went forward with the project, Flip was as good as his word, playing a key role in engineering the project, along with Master’s program student Demitrius Milton, who also apprentices with Flip. On the business/distribution side, Guerry forged a key friendship with talent magnate and A&R expert Lawton “Agent” Bouhaire, who has facilitated successful placements with major artists and labels, and who helped Guerry’s label become an affiliate with Empire Distribution. As a result, the first single from Fre$h Boi’s new upcoming project was just released nationally on Labor Day weekend!
As for Guerry, he’s just getting started.
“I am almost up to seven artists that’ll be under G Mansion Music,” he says.
“Some of them will be directly from us and doing the distribution. We have some investors that are interested into taking us to a consultant’s people at Warner Brothers and Sony for big record deals. And then the rest of them, I am not backing financially, but we will go ahead and let them come in, and make new demos and we will shop them.”
Now well on the path to being a rising music mogul, Guerry credits his mentor and the Recording Connection for helping to guide him toward his passions.
“Flip is…the best mentor I could ever imagine,” he says.
“He said, ‘I see you being executive producer, so I am going to network you with them, and you just keep doing what you are doing because you’re doing one hell of a job.’…I see the big picture ahead of me, and it’s within reach right now. It’s never been more palpable than now to make that my career.”
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