Robert Schwartzman Talks Music Business Then and Now, Solo Album (Video)

When Robert Schwartzman’s band Rooney first got signed, he was a wide-eyed kid with major label dreams who was barely out of high school. A decade later, after touring the world several times over, producing and writing with other artists like Joe Jonas and viral video sensation Miles Fisher, and selling a few hundred thousand records, he’s come back around to being an independent artist, and he couldn’t be happier for it.

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“It used to be ‘Get signed, make a record,’” he tells the Hollywood Reporter. “Now it’s, ‘Make a record, get signed?’” Indeed, his own solo effort, titled Double Capricorn (out now), is about as far from a traditional release as you can get. As part of Schwartzman’s own California Dreaming Records, all revenues from album sales, licensing fees and touring draws will benefit the Tibetan Healing Fund, a not-for-profit humanitarian organization established to improve primary healthcare and education for rural Tibetan women and children. The album’s first single, “Second Chances,” pretty much says it all.

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Of course, Schwartzman (son of Francis Ford Coppola progeny Talia Shire) comes from a long line of accomplished artists, and this solo effort, like brother Jason’s Coconut Records, is yet another example of what must be hereditary if not God-given talent. Preview the songs on his website, robertschwartzman.com, look for Schwartzman as he heads out on a national tour, and check out his thoughts on the music business then and now in THR’s video interview.

Twitter: @shirleyhalperin