listen: how love renaissance are guiding the music industry in a powerful new direction with sean famoso

For a very long time the music industry has been running on fight or flight, fulled by both high pressure and high reward. When you are at the top of your game touring the world, it’s a battle to see how much business you can fit in to twenty four hours each day and when you are on the come up, it’s no different. Before the pandemic, so many artists, managers, agents and people who work behind the scenes in music were finding it tough to strike a balance. With late night gigs, early morning flights and endless deadlines colliding with restless sleep patterns, the importance of eating healthily on the road and being aware of your physical and mental wellbeing. For a long time, the conversation around mental health and wellness in music has been spoken about not only on panels at conferences but in board rooms, friendship circles and beyond. Conversations only ever form part of making a change, it’s the solutions that are created from those discussions that really start to make a difference.

Meet Sean Famoso, one of the co-founders of LVRN Records, the home of 6lack, Summer Walker, DRAM and Boogie. Their self grown management company, record label and agency has sky rocketed over recent years, developing world class acts and gaining a well earned and respected space in the world of music. They are not only at the forefront of helping to guide artists careers and life long goals but in ensuring that their health and wellbeing is paramount. Having recently launched a specialist psychological wellness division to their business, they are guiding the music industry in a much needed and powerful new direction.

You’re breaking new ground setting up a division of LVRN focused on psychological wellness. Why did you decide to launch it?

In this post modern world as a society we spend so much time taking care of our bodies by working out and being active or being more nutritionally conscious that we totally neglect to maintain our mental health. In our industry it gets hit the most. Especially being of colour it is seldom seen as an accessible practice. We wanted to make sure that we gave it to all of our artists and staff.

Tell us about the structure of the division and how it helps support the artists you manage...

We have a licensed professional on the team that is readily available to the staff and artists. It’s still a growing process so we are finding the structure and building it more every day. We didn’t start this to be perfect we started it to be become better and healthier.

When it comes to mental health and wellbeing of musicians, what level of responsibility falls on to the teams that surround them? 

Responsibility is not deemed contractual in our case but with the culture and environment we breed at LVRN we make it a responsibility to take strides in keeping everyone as safe and healthy as possible. 

Over the last few years we have lost some extremely talented and respected musicians, what fundamental changes would you like to see within the wider music industry?

It should be standard to offer clear outlets to talent and to even pay for these outlets the same way we do. It is far too common that we lose these special artists and we should stop normalising it immediately. We need to start setting up artists from the beginning and stop waiting until it’s "too late".

How do you think that therapy and meditation on the road will help artists on tour? 

Everyone is different and I am not the professional but I will say this, it definitely will not hurt. The road is tough.

As a management company, you have always done things differently. What advice could you give to other businesses that are considering launching something similar? 

Don’t launch something following our blueprint, because we didn’t follow one. Everyone is different and their stories and successes and faliures will be too. Focus on what makes you great and run with it. 

You and the artists that you manage have been flying over the past twelve months. What is next from here?  

We actually have not been flying much :) I am not sure yet but music will be apart of it!

connect with sean & lvrn and find out more…

visit him on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanfamoso/

follow lvrn on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lvrngram