Pat Magnarella bio
Throughout his 24-year-career in the music industry, Pat Magnarella has distinguished himself as a visionary manager with an enviable track record for spotting talent and nurturing chart-topping careers. His past and present client list is a who’s who of some of the best-selling and most beloved rock bands in the business, including the multiple Grammy Award and Diamond Award-winning Green Day; the multi-platinum Goo Goo Dolls, Weezer, and the Grammy Award-winning Wallflowers; the platinum All-American Rejects; and 2008 Grammy nominees Plain White T’s. In addition, Magnarella has served as an executive producer for both the 10 million-selling soundtrack to the film City of Angels and Green Day’s double-platinum live CD/DVD Bullet in a Bible.
Currently, Magnarella is head of Pat Magnarella Management and Pat’s Record Company, which is committed to developing new and exciting rock talent. His operation provides a broad range of services, including management, branding, marketing, publicity, publishing, production, recording, and touring, for established and emerging artists.
A full-service entertainment entity is an important strategic enterprise in today’s ever-evolving music business, which continues to boast astonishing growth in touring, merchandising, and publishing revenues. But it’s not surprising that Magnarella, who was named “Personal Manager of the Year” by concert trade bible Pollstar magazine in 2005, had the foresight to do it. Over the last two decades, Magnarella has been involved in nearly every aspect of the music business, which has given him a knowledge and experience that are nearly unparalleled among today’s top-tier music industry executives.
Magnarella got his start in the mailroom at premiere rock booking agency American Talent International in New York in 1984 before taking an assistant job in the Rock department at International Creative Management. The following year, he became a booking agent at Venture Bookings, where he represented an all-star roster of ground-breaking alternative artists, including The Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum, 10,000 Maniacs, Violent Femmes, and Nick Cave. In 1988, Magnarella moved to Los Angeles when Venture Bookings founder Frank Riley merged his company with Triad Artists. There, Magnarella handled bookings for such artists as Meat Puppets, Tommy Keane, and Joe Henry, further building his reputation for developing successful touring artists at a time when the alternative-music scene was flourishing.
In 1990, Magnarella was recruited into management by industry legend Bob Cavallo, who, after a three-decade career during which he managed the Lovin’ Spoonful, Earth Wind & Fire, Little Feat, and Prince, had formed Roven-Cavallo Entertainment. The new company put itself on the map by signing roots-rock band The BoDeans, followed by the Goo Goo Dolls, who would go on to sell 10 million albums worldwide and score a record-breaking 12 Top 10 Hot AC radio hits, including “Name” and “Iris.” In 1994, Magnarella signed Weezer and oversaw the release of the band’s self-titled debut (commonly referred to as the “Blue Album”), which went triple-platinum and endeared them to a legion of alt-rock fans. In 1994, Roven-Cavallo evolved into Atlas/Third Rail, which then merged with The Gold/Miller Company, whose film and television clients included Jim Carrey, Will Farrell, and writer-director Judd Apatow. The new company, Mosaic Media Group, was widely considered one of the industry’s most powerful management/production companies thanks to its music clientele and film properties Three Kings, 12 Monkeys, and City of Angels.
In 1996, Magnarella jumped at the chance to sign pop-punk godfathers Green Day, who were looking not only for new management, but also a new direction. The band reinvigorated its career, beginning with 1997’s Nimrod and culminating in 2004’s triumphant rock-opera American Idiot, which debuted at Number One on the Billboard chart, spawned three Number One Modern Rock hits, won Grammy Awards for “Best Rock Album” and “Record of the Year” (for the single “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”), and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.
In 2004, Magnarella left Mosaic Media Group and struck out on his own with Pat Magnarella Management and Pat’s Record Company. He also took over running Adeline Records, an independent label co-founded by Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. Adeline’s roster includes Australian band The Living End and Jesse Malin.
Magnarella’s vision for Pat’s Record Company, which is distributed by Universal Records, is to introduce fans to a new generation of artists by taking an organic approach to the development process. The company is currently working with two exciting new bands, The Wildbirds and Verona Grove. Ever mindful of the growth of digital album sales, the record company sells its artists’ albums digitally through online retailers to gauge demand before releasing a physical CD.
Magnarella’s other plans for 2008 include overseeing the recording of new albums by Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls, and All-American Rejects.
(February 2008)