The three musical entrepreneurs who created KEF ENTERTAINMENT are Steve Camhi, President, record executive, and music producer; John Lagana, Vice President, singer, performer, music manager, and music producer; and Joe Cardinale, second Vice President, guitarist, performer, and recording engineer.
It would take a stack of CD-ROMS to list all the gigs, play dates, club dates, TV and radio appearances, recorded performances, and the crisscrossing of the United States in groups, as singles, as managers, and as music producers they have collectively accumulated. They are seasoned music veterans and they are proud of it.
After meeting with them in their state-of-the-art recording studio in Brooklyn, New York, one comes to fully appreciate the cooperation and professional discipline that takes place between the partners at Kef. It's not just the usual joining together of one and one, but three multi-talented music producers joining together to create a symphony of beautiful music with their artists. It's not just where one starts a sentence and another finishes it. They do that all the time. But more significantly and strategically, where one will begin an operation or phase of an ongoing production, and the other two will automatically join in with their respective talents to get the job done. That's how it operates at Kef. As a family.
Our Management Team is
Committed to our Artists Success
And as a family, Steve, John, and Joe are closely involved with the music they produce. Unlike other executives in the music business the Kef partners don't just make managerial and financial decisions that are then passed on to assistants to carry out. They are "hands on" music producers. From concept, arrangement, rewrites, recording, publicity, advertising, distribution, and sales, the three Kef partners are deeply involved in every detail of the songs and albums they produce. And as critically, they are as deeply involved with the artists who record their songs and albums.
John Lagana says, "Know-how and knowledge of the music business, added to that magical gut feeling, are everything in setting up an environment in which talented composers and singers can do their best work." Steve Camhi adds, "Often a singer will come to us with a good idea for a song, but one needing a different melodic line or tempo." "In that case," Joe Cardinale says, "we bring in an arranger best suited to the singer and put them together. This not only creates a new song, but very often a new sound as well." "The bottom line," Lagana continues, "is in taking that song or sound that is going around in an artist's head, nurturing it into creative existence, and then following it through the many intricate steps so that that original sound or song goes onto a CD or album, to be heard by millions throughout the country and around the world.
At its inception KEF Entertainment was structured like the Hollywood studios once were; with all the departments -- executive, managerial, creative, technical, advertising, and sales -- all under one roof. Such an integrated operation assures a carefully laid out production schedule, operational continuity, and ongoing fiscal control beneficial to both KEF's investors and financial institutions. Consequently, KEF offers a sound and well constructed business operation when seeking capital for expansion, in not only offering a catalog of CD hits, but also a hot managerial team as well.
KEF Entertainment-
Evolving as the Industry Changes
While music is the mainstay of Kef Records, its parent, Kef Entertainment, has recently added four other departments to its corporate structure. Reaching into cyberspace they are now presenting iTunes. The emergence and success of Internet radio has created KEF's "Uncle Eddie's Ham Radio Live!" (www.hamradiolive.com). This is "unfiltered radio" in the tradition of Howard Stern. "Only better," Uncle Eddie says, "because we've put the FU back in funny." Kef Music Videos are now being marketed. Each new Kef CD will be coordinated and released with the Kef Video featuring that song.
Finally, completing its vertical corporate structure, Kef Entertainment will now also market KEF Motion Pictures. And like their own seasoned backgrounds in the music business, the Kef partners have reached out to a veteran filmmaker, Joe Masefield to head up their motion picture production and acquisitions department.
The atmosphere at Kef is one of enthusiasm and confidence. A winning combination bred of past success and know-how. The enthusiasm is both infectious and creatively productive. The three partners summarized our meeting with these final observations:
They've all been over the rainbow. Been there, done that. Now they've merged their skills and experience with a well structured business plan and a capital investment with which to create new beautiful entertainment rainbows for a mass audience across a wide demographic spectrum of Jazz, Pop, Rock, Adult/Contemporary, Dance Music, iTunes, Internet Ham Radio, and Motion Pictures. A formidable undertaking. But one their enthusiasm, lengthy experience, skilled business talents, plus their love and devotion to the entertainment they are creating, is a powerful incentive.
