ATO RECORDS: John Butler Trio

The Independence of ATO

What separates ATO from other independent labels, is their motivation to build career artists. They look for truly talented performers, songwriters and musicians who’s passion for their art is genuine and dedicated who’s music can be created in a natural environment where their music is not compromised by stressful contractual obligations that an artist might have with a major label. ATO is important culturally, and within the music industry because they are truly dedicated to supporting truly talented artists. The label comments, in reference to its mission statement that "There is no timeline, but there is a plan to build the label on the quality of the musicians we work with."

Label History

ATO Records was founded by singer/songwriter Dave Matthews, and is managed by Coran Capshaw, as well as Chris Tetzeli and Michael McDonald. This label was started in early 2000. They are a New York based label located on Wall Street in New York City. ATO's music is distributed through the company RED. RED is a sales and marketing division which is owned by Sony Music Entertainment that handles distribution and release for over fifty independent record labels. The label has represented a wide variety of artists since it was established. ATO looks for artists that can develop over time and be given enough attention to create true works of art.

The first major successful release out of ATO was David Gray's album titled "White Ladder." The album, which had been released in the UK in 1998 was discovered by Dave Matthews who decided to release the album in the US as his labels first major album released. This became a multi-platinum selling record. This established ATO as a solid label within the music business. After David Grays breakout they began signing a wide variety of artists that made a name for themselves as well as the label such as Gov't Mule, Crowded House, Liz Phair, The Fireman, and Amandla! Although these artists still work with ATO they have branched away from the label and are considered alumni.

ATO RECORDS

Thursday, May 6, 2010

John Butler Trio

The John Butler Trio is an Australian based band staring lead singer and guitarist John Butler, Bryon Luiters on bass, and Nick Bomba on drums. They have released five albums thus far, with their first release in 1998 with the self-titled John Butler album. This was released in Australia and was the breakout album for John Butler, who wrote, arranged and played all the music. The Second album titled Three was released in 2001 in Australia which won an ARIA award for 'best independent release', the highest award in the Australian music industry. It was released through ATO records in 2001 with additional tracks added since it was the first John Butler Trio album released in the US. Three had gone platinum in 2002, selling over 75,000 copies and has currently sold over 100, 000 copies. The third album released was in 2004 through Jarrah Records recorded in Woodstock studios. He recorded with a new band for this album titled Sunrise Over Sea, also with all the music and lyrics arranged by John Butler. In an interview with Rolling Stone Butler said that "Essentially what I learnt out of this process was, more so than ever, I'm the keeper of the music. I have the intuition and the foresight to pick the right players to my music. I've learned it's not always about having the same players for five, six or 10 years, it’s having the right chemistry for these songs at this time. Some of my favoritee Jimi Hendrix music is off-the-cuff stuff with Band of Gypsy's." This album also topped the Australian ARIA chart, and was a huge international success. In 2007 one of the most successful John Butler Trio albums was released titled Grand National. The album was said to be the bands most ambitious project and critically acclaimed as a globally successful release which contained a No. 1 US Triple A single, "Better Than." This album contained entire horn and string sections, more orchestration, percussion, and instrumentation than any of the previous albums. The album reached triple platinum status in 2008 selling over 210,000 copies. This was in the top 20 album charts in Australia for over nine months. The most recent album April Uprising was released in April of 2010 and produced entirely by John Butler in his own studio in Western Australia. He is back with ATO records and a new lineup for the album which has already hit No. 1 on Australian airplay charts with the single "One Way Road." April Uprising has already debuted at No. 36 on the American Billboard Albums Chart, which is the first top 100 selling album the John Butler Trio has released in the US.