At first glance, Ian Rogers doesn’t look like the CEO of a cutting-edge music technology company. He has long blond hair and tattoos on his fingers, is an avid skateboarder, and loves hip-hop music. Rogers happens to be one of the music industry’s brightest visionaries and one of the most passionate people I’ve spoken to regarding the future of music and marketing.

He runs the Los Angeles based company Topspin Media, a direct-to-fan marketing and retail software company founded by Peter Gotcher and Shamal Ranasinghe in 2007. Rogers joined the company in 2008, the same year Topspin was named Indie Visionary of the Year by Billboard Magazine. Prior to working at Topspin, Rogers was the GM of Yahoo Music for five years. In the 90s he managed the Beastie Boys and eventually became the President of New Media for their label, Grand Royal.

Rogers practices what he preaches: the direct-to-fan CEO is also direct-to-critics. He is not afraid to defend his company on message boards, in person, and on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and blogs. He recently interrupted his family vacation in Hawaii to explain the company’s decision to shut down the San Francisco office.

I caught up with Rogers to discuss the Topspin platform and its popularity with over 4,000 artists, which includes diverse acts such as Odd Future, Drive-By Truckers, Paul McCartney, Blitzen Trapper, Neon Indian, Sigur Ros, Lil’ Wayne, and Gillian Welch, to name a few.

Music Supervisor Profile is a recurring feature on Rollo & Grady: we interview the top supervisors in the business to learn their secrets and get valuable advice on how to break into world of music supervision. Some of our previous interviews have been with such heavyweights as Thomas Golubic, Liza Richardson, Scott Vener, and Gary Calamar.

We recently interviewed the brilliant and insightful tastemaker Andrea von Foerster of Firestarter Music. Over the last decade, Andrea has handled music supervision responsibilities for both television and film. She was the music coordinator for hit television shows Grey’s Anatomy, The OC, Rescue Me, and Roswell. She is best known for supervising the Fox Searchlight film, 500 Days of Summer. The movie’s eclectic soundtrack included Black Lips, Doves, The Smiths, Feist, and Hall & Oates. During our conversation, she made a point to tell me that she feels blessed to have the best job in the world.

Music Supervisor Profile is a recurring feature on Rollo & Grady where we interview the top supervisors in the business to learn their secrets and get valuable advice on how to break into world of music supervision. Some of our previous interviews have been with such heavyweights as Thomas Golubic, Gary Calamar, and Scott Vener.

This month we interviewed the super talented Liza Richardson. Her resume boasts Hawaii Five-0 , Parenthood, and Friday Night Lights. Richardson selected over 600 songs in the 5-season run of Friday Night Lights. Some of the artists she included were Pearl Jam, Wilco, White Denim, Ryan Adams, TV On The Radio, Explosions In The Sky, Black Keys, and Bob Dylan. Her film work includes The Italian Job, Lords Of Dogtown, and Y Tu Mamá También, which was nominated for a Best Soundtrack Compilation Grammy.

In addition to her work in television and film, Richardson worked on an IPOD commercial. The Texas native has also DJ’d for Southern California radio station KCRW 89.9 FM since 1990 and she was tapped to be the first DJ to spin for the Academy Awards ceremony in 2007.

UNCLE BLAZER

Workaholics is one of the best comedies on television. The show revolves around three friends played by Blake Anderson, Adam DeVine, and Anders Holm, whose characters are roommates and recent college grads that work for a telemarketing company. They hatch elaborate schemes to fuck with one another, but ultimately, the show is about friends that don’t want to grow up and join the rat race. Blake plays the long-haired, pot-smoking, mushroom-eating, Renaissance Faire vet and loyal friend. Anderson is the funniest character on television since Charlie Day [Charlie Kelly] of Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Workaholics is one of those rare comedies every episode of which is hilarious from start to finish. Workaholics completed its first season in early June and was renewed for another ten episodes starting in late September.

Over the past year and a half, Arish A. Khan (a.k.a King “BlackSnake” Khan) has been to the depths of Hell and back. He was arrested twice while on tour, lost three of his best friends, parted ways with longtime collaborator and best friend, Mark “BBQ” Sultan, had a nervous breakdown, quit music, and considered becoming a Buddhist monk.

Naturally, Khan’s wife, family, and friends were worried about his well-being and encouraged him to check into a mental institution in Berlin. He agreed. At the hospital he was evaluated, prescribed “mind numbing” drugs, and monitored on an outpatient basis for a couple months.

When I caught up with Khan last month, he was no longer taking the meds and told me that this was the first month that he felt back in real life again. He is now channeling his spiritual awakening towards producing and recording on several projects: one is with Singer-songwriter Mary Ocher and another called KhanWood Clarke, which is his country music collaboration with Jeff Clarke from Demon’s Claws and Sean Wood from the Spits. He is also working on a new King Khan & The Shrines record.

HEART OF GOLD

Look up soul in any dictionary: it means “strong positive feeling, as of intense sensitivity and emotional fervor.” Charles Bradley is one of the best soul singers of our generation. His raspy vocals are reminiscent of the voices of Otis Redding, Al Green, and James Brown, whose music he was covering when he was discovered in Brooklyn by Daptone Records’ co-founder, Gabriel Roth. Roth took Bradley to meet Tommy Brenneck, who plays with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Budos Band, Menahan Street Band, and runs Dunham Records.

Tommy Brenneck

Bradley’s brother had just been shot and killed, and Brenneck encouraged Bradley to open up about his life and put it on tape. Bradley’s life gave him a lot to sing about: fatherless since day one, homeless since 14, cooking in kitchens, reuniting with his family only to get terminally ill, getting better only to lose his brother. “Heartaches and Pain” is the song he wrote about the murder of his brother, and its title describes the whole of Bradley’s debut album, “No Time for Dreaming”, a heartwrenching glimpse of how to get through hard feelings and hard times with only your voice between you and giving up. Again: it’s great soul, and it gives our generation a sense of the greatness of that genre as it was in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

We Are Trees is James Nee’s musical project, one that he started when he was sixteen in Virginia Beach. Nee’s voice is often compared to that of Grizzly Bear’s Dan Rossen; Nee doesn’t agree with this comparison, but the similarities are unmistakable. I would go as far as to say that a few of his tracks are superior to some of Rossen’s work with Grizzly Bear and Department of Eagles, but to overemphasize the comparison would be selling We Are Trees short; Nee certainly isn’t ripping anybody off. His music is layered and complex and at the same time very mellow with engaging vocals occasionally accompanied by string arrangements. In the past year, Nee has put out two EPs: Boyfriend in July 2010 and Girlfriend in March 2011. Both were well received by music blogs and by some traditional print outlets. Boyfriend caught the attention of Collective Crowd Records, who signed the singer last year.

Talking to Jared Swilley about Black Lips’ upcoming release, ‘Arabia Mountain’, I couldn’t help but feel proud: This band has matured a great deal in the past decade. Swilley says that the album is the band’s best to date and that its recording re-energized the group. And although Jared can’t promise vomiting, pissing, man-kissing, or any of the band’s usual on-stage debauchery, he can promise that this music is the best thing he and his bandmates have ever done. He is not one to bullshit about albums, he mentioned publicly that he wasn’t totally proud of their previous album, ‘200 Million Thousand’.

The Black Lips were just teenagers when they formed in Atlanta in 1999: Cole Alexander on guitar and vocals; Ben Eberbaugh on lead guitar; Jared Swilley on bass; and Joe Bradley on drums. These four cut their first album in 2002, just before Eberbaugh died in a head-on collision on a Georgia highway. The band carried on, believing that Eberbaugh would want them to continue. Ian Saint Pé, the bands current guitarist, joined the group in 2004.

Their music caught everyone’s attention, starting Atlanta’s “flower punk” movement, and mixing in the sounds of blues, country, garage, and the 80s. Their performances were out of control; they gave their audiences the whole package of punk, rock & roll and controversial on-stage antics.

They took their time recording ‘Arabia Mountain’, working for the first time with an outside producer: Mark Ronson. Ronson, who has worked with Nas, Adele, and Amy Winehouse, wouldn’t have been the first guy I would have thought of for the job, but it worked out really well for the band. Their friend, Lockett Pundt of Deerhunter produced two songs on the album, which was recorded and mixed in Brooklyn and Atlanta in 2010 and 2011.

‘Arabia Mountain’ will be released in June through Vice Records. Touring behind this album, they’ll play with the Vivian Girls on the East Coast and Cerebral Ballzy on the West.

STRAIGHT INTO A STORM

John McCauley is a rock star, plain and simple. He’s an extremely talented musician with no pretense who is accessible to his fans and loves to have a good time. Like the fictional character Russell Hammond played by Billy Crudup in Almost Famous, it’s easy to envision John taking a hit of acid after a show and heading out to a late night party with his fans. He’s the kind of guy that would jump off the roof into the pool without any encouragement and without proclaiming, “I’m A Golden God.” There would be no guilty feeling the next day; he would chalk it up as a life experience. That’s the way John is wired.

Deer Tick began as a solo project in December 2004 when John was only 18 years old in Providence, Rhode Island. During that time he taught himself to play drums, guitar, piano, and pedal steel. He went on to record his critically acclaimed debut album ‘War Elephant’ at age 19. John’s distinctive, howling voice and tales of love and loss put him on the map with critics around the world. The music press anointed McCauley as one of folk/country’s most promising young songwriters.

John didn’t envision Deer Tick as a solo effort, so he invited Andy Tobiassen (no longer in the band), Dennis Ryan, and Chris Ryan to join the Deer Tick for their sophomore album, ‘Born On Flag Day’. At the time, John commented on the newly formed band, saying, “I tend to limit myself as far as what I write about and how I deliver my lyrics, so collaboration has been a really healthy thing for me lately. I’m kind of realizing that singing songs about getting drunk and cheating isn’t going to sustain itself for much longer. I’m going to have to broaden my horizons.”

Deer Tick’s brand of music has been described as country, folk/rock, and alt-country, but that’s selling the band short. If you see them live, you will see elements of grunge, blues, punk rock, and country ballads, with a primary focus on straight up rock n’ roll. Their live performances and non-stop touring have earned the band a loyal following of devoted supporters and fans.

In addition to performing with Deer Tick, McCauley is currently touring with Middle Brother, which is a collaboration with Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and Matthew Vasquez of Delta Spirit. They are touring behind Middle Brother’s self-titled album, which was released last month.

HANNI EL KHATIB

2011 is going to be a big year for the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Hanni El Khatib. The San Francisco native generated industry buzz when local music blogs Passion of the Weiss and Aquarium Drunkard each presented him in shows last year. Soon after, his music was featured in the HBO series “Hung” and he landed a slot opening for Florence and The Machine.

Hanni’s music is straight up rock ‘n’ roll with a touch of soul and blues. Influences range from Johnny Cash to the Sonics, and his cover of “You Rascal You,” is a dead ringer for a Black Keys song. Still, his sound is his own, transporting a hybrid of the past and present. “Build. Destroy. Rebuild,” Khatib’s second single, sets the tone for his debut album Will The Guns Come Out, which will be released May 2011 on Innovated Leisure. When he is not touring, Hanni serves as creative director for HUF, a skateboard company founded by professional skater Keith Hufnagel.