As one half of David Allen Management Network (no relation to Dave Allen of OEBase/Gang of Four) and one-fifth of The Decemberists, Chris Funk is leading an exceptionally diverse musical life. His management company is responsible for, among others, The Coup, Lifesavas and Lyrics Born. His band, well, you know all about his band by now, right?

What most of us don’t know is what it’s like to work with some of the most active hip-hop groups this side of the Mississippi. Nor can your average Joe elaborate on the pains and pleasures of making a living from his music. Given his rare perspective, it was a treat to sit down with him at my favorite burrito joint and ask him some questions. He’s got a really solid idea of how a band goes about the business of getting noticed, not to mention an enviable optimism: “If you believe in your music and you take it on as, ‘I’m going to make my living through art,’ I think you can do it, if you have that confidence.”

Before managing, Chris was booking bands. He decided to take it a step further, so he called Boots from Berkley’s political booty-shaking hip-hop group The Coup, and asked if he could manage them. Boots said sure, and eventually the business took off. I asked him what his job is like:

CF:  With management you’re a part of the band. You make decisions musically with the group. You’re available 24-7 for whatever has to happen. And then you just become pretty much a part of the group, you’re sort of a big chip. And some groups don’t need it. Some groups will never have management because they’re careers aren’t that busy, but when people’s careers are busy and you have to coordinate publicists, booking agents, labels, their travel arrangements and business matters, you just take care of everything.

Anyway, right now I’m scaling back and concentrating on playing music. I work 16-hour days sometime, just holding things down, because this is people’s careers and their family’s lives. You’re in the mix and it’s straight business, that’s what management really is, unfortunately. Sometimes it feels like that, sometimes it doesn’t, because we have so much fun with it and because the music is so great. But it is a lot of organization and just sweat and time. I’ve had this company for four years and it’s been crazy. It’s been a lot of work.

MLP:  You once told me you were leaving, now you say that you’re scaling back.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I’m playing in this band right now, The Decemberists. I guess I never thought I would be able to make a living performing music, even though I played in some cheesy wedding bands back in the day. But the Decemberists are selling records. It sort of hit me one day, well it hit us all that, “Wow, we can make a go of it, and quit our day jobs.” Unfortunately my day job is something that I take a lot of pride in that I created and started with my business partner. So I was forced to make a decision and I thought maybe I have to leave entirely. I don’t really know what to do, but I’m definitely taking a lesser role in the day to day. We’re restaffing our office, just so I can go out and be on the road. The Decemberists are going to be on the road for the next five months. You take it as it comes. It’s an unusual situation. Not many people are in this indie rock band on Kill Rock Stars, but work with one of the world’s most political hip hop groups. It’s really weird, and I used to be kind of embarrassed about it. I really didn’t want to expose those two worlds together, because one was my recreation time and one was my job. Now they’re both starting to become my job. It’s ambiguous, you don’t have Shug Night out playing with Built to Spill. It’s two worlds colliding. It’s nonsensical in so many ways.

Is it really though? It seems like that’s happening culturally as well.

I have to say, the kind of artists that we work with are pretty much focused on the college market, with some crossover. The world my band performs in is the college market. As we released our last record here it charted at the same time as the Lifesavas, on the same chart. It was really weird. I guess we both play to the college music audience and those groups definitely have more of a cross over to some sort of mainstream, whatever that might mean. The audiences are pretty similar. You’re probably right, the more I think i about it.

It’s important for music to be that way; for music to have big ears, to try to combine itself. I sort of get tired of people targeting social groups around certain music, or people clicking off into certain groups. Even in Portland you see that kind of thing. It’s unfortunate because it’s such a small town.

Do you think the market for new music is expanding or contraction?

I think it’s expanding. With the internet, more people are becoming more widely exposed to music at a faster rate. It’s inspiring groups from all over. If you look at hip hop, which started in New York…now kids from Minneapolis, Minnesota, a group known as Atmosphere, was all over TV. That’s pretty amazing to. And it’s a young music, it’s only something like, what, 20 years old? It can reach out to all over the world. I went to Brazil last year with Lyrics Born and there’s just rap music everywhere. There’s all kinds of music, with people mimicking The Shins somewhere in the world right now. These groups are all over the place, so I think it’s growing. It’s a really exciting time for music. We tend to think of pop music as being so old, but it’s really not. It’s only 20-30 years that this stuff has been happening, and the industry has only been happening for 50 years. It’s a very young industry. Artistically there’s more music than ever. The industry is struggling to find it and therefore shrinking. They think they need to stay with steady artists. You’re not going to see another Sparklehorse sign with Capitol Records anytime soon. Maybe, but it seems like in the 80s and 90s there were all these amazing groups that were being signed by majors and now it’s just gone. They can’t afford to take those chances anymore. They have accountants to answer to and shareholders. It’s a wrap, for majors at least.

Which is just awesome because it expands it for everybody else. If the majors aren’t going to play in the college world anymore, great, that’s so much better for everybody else.

I think it’s exciting. More than ever you can see labels start up on their own, the hardest driven labels ever. The door for music is wide open. You look at Quannam Projects. It’s owned by DJ Shadow and Blackalicious and Lyrics Born and Lateef, they started it out of a dorm room. Kill Rock Stars started with Slim, this kid who found himself in Olympia, Washington, years ago. There’s still lots of labels that are starting up like that and going for it. Like Hush Records here in Portland, or Jealous Butcher, those people are really putting their all into it and having successes with it. I think it’s because of people reaching out and obsessive fans and it just seems really wide open to me now.

Two questions left, one has to do with Quannum. What does it mean for Portland to have a relationship with Quannam and the Lifesavas? The problem with the scene here is not a lack of talent but a lack of self-interest. The outlying areas specifically, have no clue how good the music in Portland is. The fact that The Decemberists and Dolorean can be on the cover of the New York Times Art section, but nobody in town has ever heard of you...

As far as the Decemberists, even though we’re here, I know we’ve sold more records in New York, LA, Seattle, San Francisco. Not that our shows aren’t attended here, we do really well, but Portland might be one of those funny towns that, if you’re from here and you have successes elsewhere, then people sort of turn their noses up a little bit. I sense that more in the rock community than I do in the hip hop community. As small as the hip hop community is, the Lifesavas have a ton of support here. I’m willing to say that between myself and the Lifesavas we know every rapper in town. They’re all very supportive at this point in time. As far as the Indie rock community, I’m not saying people are tagging us, or flashing symbols, or starting an indie rock war...I feel less support and some jealousy from time to time from people because of the success of the group.

Well it seems like the guys in the hip hop community probably know, because the way the community works, if your boy goes, then you’re going with him.

I think that’s true to a degree. It’s like an old crew mentality. And, honestly, The Decemberists, we try to take people on the road with us to build community. It’s all about building community. It’s really exciting because that’s how I’ve met every person in my life, through music. I think it’s great.

The initial question was, what does Lifesavas teaming up with Quannam mean for Portland, if anything.

Well, I think it means a lot. You have one of the most successful independent labels, genres down and that label is internationally known. They’re now affiliated with DJ Shadow who’s regular with everybody. So I think it means a lot for the community. It means a lot for the music scene here period, to have a band on a label like that. I think they’re very much out there promoting their hometown, so it’s going to draw some more attention, I think it already has drawn considerable more attention to Portland. I don’t think there’s going to be A&R flying into Portland all of a sudden, like there was in Seattle back in the grunge years. I don’t think Spin magazine is all of a sudden going to be saying, “What’s up with Portland? What’s in the water here?” For some reason I don’t see all that coming here, I don’t quite know why. There are so many great musicians here, people that tour, and have a name for themselves internationally. I guess the reality is because it’s not a big community. Versatile of the Lifesavas isn’t kicking it with Janet from Quasi, they’re not working on a side project. I’m not saying that’s good or bad, that’s just the reality of it. I guess there’s not really a scene here, which is kind of sad in a way. I don’t know if you think differently. I think there’s a scene in the sense that there’s a lot of bands doing something here, there’s not a lot of camaraderie.

Well, Corrina Repp is doing that project with Keith Schreiner. So there is that kind of stuff.

There is some of that stuff, but not as much as I would like to see. I’m actually starting a project with the DJ from the Lifesavas, it’s all instrumental music. Most of the idea is to bring in people that don’t work together, to have that idea.

Well, final question would be, How much promotion can a band do for itself and when does it need help.

That’s a good question, how much can a band do for itself.

And do posters even matter?

Do posters matter? I think so, like with the Decemberists, all of our artwork is driven by one woman, Carson Elles, and people comment all the time about how much they like the art work So, I think her posters totally helps. It’s an art form, and if you’re checking for that stuff, if you’re a fan of music and you’re checking for music, if some poster is beautiful or unusual is going to matter and I think eventually, that coupled with press and people hearing the cd eventually, that’s how you create a buzz. We existed before we were on Kill Rock Stars for like two records. Marketing is everything. What it comes down to again is how much money can you put out? How many people can you hire to walk you through the door of this magazine or this radio station? Promotion is really difficult. It starts with your friends. I think playing parties is a really good idea. I love still playing parties.

I think that’s how the Thermals really went after it initially, they played parties and created a buzz and people started going to their shows. I wouldn’t call it their promotional technique. I don’t think they sat down and said okay, “We’re going to play parties and get signed to Subpop records.” They just did it. If the music is good people will find it, if you’re dumping a bunch of money into something and it’s no good, people are going to think you’re a faker. The music will always speak for itself, no matter how much money you throw at it.

We all see flash in the pan, one hit wonders that have all this money behind them and have all this campaigning behind them and don’t go anywhere. People are left scratching their heads why and it’s like, shit, it’s just the music. The bottom line is the music. How good is the song? How good is the song writing? Even if there is a big story behind the group, like someone has a big drug addiction, I don’t think that stuff matters. If you want longevity you have good songs and good writing and focused artists. For a group starting off that believes in themselves I’d say go for broke. Meet the local press. Pass out your cds. Don’t be afraid to get rid of your music and get it out there. Don’t be afraid to have people start burning your music and I know lots and lots of people who have come to Decemberists shows and say, I checked out your MP3. And thank God they did. Those people are coming to the shows now. I think just being visible and not burning out is important too. Make all your shows events. Don’t make it like, we’re playing for the 15th time this month. Don’t take every show that comes along. Really focus in and get all your friends out. It starts with your friends. It starts with your community. If the music if good, people will come. It sounds really simple, but there’s also some luck in there to.

www.decemberists.com