Fueled By Ramen’s John Janick – HuffPost 9.2.11

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists these days?

John Janick: Music is the foundation of everything, so having good music is most important. The other thing is not waiting for somebody else to come in–artists shouldn’t be just sitting around waiting to be signed. They should be making their music better, trying to make sure that they’re getting out to people and playing shows–just developing. What we do when we sign an artist is try to make sure we come up with an overall plan of how we’re going to take them from the point of no one knowing who they are to playing in hundred person clubs to five hundred to a thousand and beyond. There’s nothing greater than being able to see an artist grow from nothing into playing in front of thousands of people who are singing every word. So, I think that an artist needs to go out, and they need to play shows, and get in front of people, and make their live show great, and make sure that they’re getting their music recorded, and get out their and not rely on somebody else to just come in and do it for them.