Seth England caught up with Billboard's Lyndsey Havens at Country Power Players 2024.
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00:00 We're here with our Executive of the Year, Seth England.
00:02 Congratulations.
00:03 How are you doing?
00:04 Thank you very much.
00:05 I'm doing good.
00:06 I'm not used to being on this side of the activities
00:09 of the evening, but all things are going good so far.
00:12 Good.
00:12 How does one react to being named Executive of the Year?
00:15 Honestly, I've been really overwhelmed by it.
00:17 I'll kind of speak on it a little bit tonight,
00:19 but I kind of feel like we're just
00:21 getting started in many ways.
00:22 But I had to stop and realize our label's
00:23 been open nine years, and we've been really
00:25 head down on our mission.
00:26 And so I'm still in my late 30s, so I
00:29 feel like for some reason I thought it was maybe
00:31 a bit of an older award.
00:33 But the music business is a young place,
00:35 and it makes me proud that our team of young, hungry kids
00:39 can kind of put this together.
00:40 Yeah, I love that.
00:41 That really came through in your story, too.
00:43 I really think there's this youthful energy.
00:44 I love the anecdote about you pulling the weeds,
00:46 and I feel like you've never lost that.
00:49 Absolutely.
00:49 I feel like if you lose that, then I can speak on that.
00:52 If you lose that edge, you probably
00:54 need to pass a baton to somebody else.
00:56 And there's actually a couple of ladies coming in here tonight,
00:59 Stacey and Candice, that were on the Big Loud list as well.
01:01 Their edge is as strong as ever.
01:04 I see my wife waving over my shoulder,
01:06 so I bet that's them coming in the door.
01:07 Yeah, it's kind of iron sharpens iron.
01:09 All the execs that still work together, especially
01:11 the ones from day one, we're very much reminding each other
01:14 that we're still going.
01:16 Yeah, so I need to ask.
01:17 You said you're not usually on this side of the camera.
01:19 In your photo shoot, you had Hardy and Ernest show up
01:21 for you.
01:22 How does it feel to know the artists that you've supported
01:24 and rallied behind are showing up for you too?
01:27 Well, you know, and the funny thing
01:28 was is you could imagine Morgan was supposed
01:29 to be in that photo shoot.
01:31 And his schedule changed the very last second.
01:33 We all understood.
01:35 And he actually kind of had said to me
01:36 a little bit after seeing the pictures, man, I'm really
01:38 bummed it didn't work out.
01:40 That being said, the relationship with myself
01:43 and Michael and Ernest is a little bit unique
01:45 in and of itself.
01:46 And the fact that it ended up being the three of us,
01:48 I kind of thought told a slightly different story.
01:51 Both Ernest and Hardy are artist developers and music
01:54 publishers themselves.
01:55 Not that Morgan isn't those things,
01:56 and we talk about that a lot.
01:57 But Michael and Ernest have gone on to establish their own
02:00 companies.
02:01 I think Michael's publishing company has 13 or 14 clients.
02:04 Ernest has five, some of which are want to be artists.
02:06 So that's, to me, what that picture now says.
02:09 And I hate that we didn't have Morgan in the pic,
02:11 but it kind of told a different story that's kind of perfect
02:14 for this article.
02:15 Yeah, I loved it.
02:16 You brought up Morgan.
02:17 I am obsessed with the Morgan and Post collaboration.
02:20 How did you feel the first time that you
02:22 got that finish cut?
02:24 Incredible.
02:24 Actually, we didn't get the final mix, truly,
02:26 until a few weeks ago.
02:28 Yeah, Post's camp, they have their own way of doing things.
02:31 They work a little bit later in delivery.
02:33 But also, that's kind of how he keeps the mystery.
02:35 I think there's a little bit of beauty in that sometimes,
02:37 where he doesn't always overexpose.
02:39 That being said, this song did end up having a big set up.
02:42 After Post finally put the right mix on his socials,
02:44 it finally got going as we all thought it would.
02:47 And it's incredible.
02:48 I was truly messaging to Morgan just five minutes ago.
02:50 And he said, you think it's going
02:51 to be the biggest song of my career?
02:53 And I said, that's kind of a tough comment
02:55 just after last night.
02:56 But buddy, over the first few days, I got to tell you,
02:58 this is really out of control.
02:59 So we're just very thankful to be a part of that song.
03:03 Morgan and Post wrote it, so it's so honest and natural.
03:06 And just getting to hear the stories from that writing
03:08 session are very cool.
03:09 Yeah, and bringing those two fan bases together, too,
03:11 I mean, that alone is massive.
03:13 I'm excited to see where it goes.
03:15 Incredible.
03:15 I think country music is expanding on its own
03:19 globally to new markets.
03:20 But collaborations like that, especially when they work,
03:23 couldn't supercharge one career.
03:25 That's the other thing I said to him.
03:26 I said, your international growth
03:28 is leaping and bounding right now.
03:30 And that's a really, really cool thing.
03:32 We need our leaders in the genres
03:33 to keep pushing that genre out there so the fan base wants
03:36 to hear what else is from our genre.
03:38 All right, well, I will let you get in there.
03:40 Congratulations again.
03:41 Thank you so much.
03:42 Yeah, have fun tonight.
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