Alexzworld Interview With Stephen Stohn (Full)
So from what I understand you were a lawyer before you became a producer. You went from protecting peoples rights in a court room, to giving teens something to watch on friday nights. What made you switch careers?
To make a short story long, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life at 4:30pm on September 7, 1964. It is a story worth telling. I went to my very first ever music concert of any sort that day. Had no idea what it would be like. It was at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, a big barn of a building, and it was packed. In those days there wasn’t the elaborate staging there is now, so they used to have a whole series of local bands who would come up and play a couple of songs, then take their equipment down and another local band would come up and so on. The house lights would stay on about half-lit during all these opening acts. The last opening band (Sounds Incorporated) played a couple of songs but left their equipment up, so we figured they’d be back to do a couple more (they were the best known of all the opening acts).. but as the minutes went by and they didn’t come back, the crowd started to get restless and wonder what was going on, chanting for something to happen. Suddenly, every light in the building went out, except for a single piercing spotlight on the Sounds Incorporated drum kit.. The crowd screamed in total surprise, and then a roadie raced across the stage, ripped off the front of the Sounds Incorporated drum kit to reveal underneath “The Beatles” and at the same time the four lads from Liverpool raced out from behind the curtain and starting singing She Was Just Seventeen.. but no-one in the place could hear almost anything for the next ninety minutes because it was total pandemonium. That day I knew I was going to be a promoter, producer, or whatever it took to create music and entertainment for fans around the world..
I was actually a producer before becoming a lawyer, producing a couple of low-budget feature films (Me and The Clown Murders) and also writing with my close friend Christopher Ward several Top 10 songs (Top 10 in Canada anyway!)… so when I became a lawyer, it was always to be an entertainment lawyer, to help make it all happen, whether it was music or television or film… so really in many ways I’ve been following the same career path for my whole like, starting on that day in September of 1964!
What does an executive producer do exactly?
That’s a great question because when you see an executive producer credit on a show it can mean many different things. When you see it on a feature film, it quite often means someone who invested money in the film. In the opening credits of a television show it quite often means a writer (when you watch some of the primetime comedies you can sometimes see a dozen executive producer or co-executive producer credits, almost all of them are writers on the show). When it’s in the freeze or against black right at the very end of a television show before any other credits begin, that usually means the person(s) who were in overall charge of all the major creative and financial decisions and the hiring of the entire cast and crew and negotiating all the arrangements with broadcasters and distributors. In the case of Degrassi and Instant Star, the head of our writing department (this year and last the amazing Brendon Yorke) receives an executive producer credit at the head of the show, Linda and I receive the executive producer credits on the freeze at the very end.
Do you plan on working on a new show soon?
We have two new shows in development, I can’t really talk about them… but there is some major news about Degrassi this year which will take a lot more of my time.. and also I am very excited by what will be happening in the music world. Orange Lounge Recordings that I’ve been a part owner of for a while (Orange created the Instant Star soundtracks, but also do the Live @ Orange Lounge web concerts that you can see at inmusic.ca/concerts/orange/ ). Anyway, there is a major change happening there as we rebrand, and launch a big new music web portal and record label, and the first major push will be an artist you are very familiar with!
How did Instant Star come about? What’s your favorite episode and song from the series?
Linda and I were at a taping in the first year of Canadian Idol as I was the lawyer for all the competitors, and she turned to me and said, do they know what will really happen to their life if they win this thing? And then we both said almost together: that would make a great tv series!
I have so many favourite moments on Instant Star, but my favourite episode was the one where we paid homage to the Sgt. Pepper album cover as Alexz (Jude) sings the song Perfect. A close second would be that amazing episode which culminates with Alexz as Jude giving a rooftop concert, singing Where Does It Hurt.
What is your favorite song from Alexz’s album?
Voodoo. For me the music, the production, the lyrics and Alexz’s vocal in Voodoo all join together perfectly to capture that great tension between being empowered and independent, and at the some time under the spell of that mysterious force we call love..
How did you get involved on Degrassi? Did you ever think Degrassi would run as long as it has in the beginning?
I had just gotten out of law school, and Linda Schuyler came to me as a new client—she had a small book she wanted to buy the rights in to make a small film, and because I’d been involved in film and music before going to law school and so had some experience, but at the same time was starting out and so wasn’t charging large fees (!), she was recommended to me. That first little film she made turned out to be the first episode of what was then called The Kids of Degrassi Street. Neither of us had the slightest clue that in 2010 we’d be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Degrassi on the air!!!
You’ve always been connected with fans online, do you think its important to stay connected with fanbases? What impact do you think it has in your shows?
I like to say that there are three keys to making it in the entertainment world: the fans, the fans, and the fans. I don’t just mean having a lot of fans for a particular artist or show, but really trying your best to truly share the experience with them. Hearing from the fans and connecting with them is vital. They are the reason I wake up in the morning!!!
Seeing how you have so much on your plate. How do you kick the stress? What do you do to relax?
This may sound weird and overly personal, but for me I have to spend at least an hour a day doing yoga, and meditating. It somehow helps keeps me calm when everything else is swirling around at warp speed (ps don’t get me wrong, I’m human, and capable of getting as stressed out as anyone, but spending that hour each day really does help keep me centered).
It seems like you get to travel a lot, where’s your favorite spot in the world?
You are right that I’ve travelled a lot, and you might think I’d mention Vancouver in Canada, or New York or Santa Monica in the U.S., or Paris or London or Cannes, France (I spend a LOT of time there) or romantic destinations like Venice or Barcelona or Istanbul—and I love all of those and have fantastic life-changing memories from each of them–but there is a place about 150 miles north of Toronto called Pointe-au-Baril, where there are thousands of small islands of rocks and pine trees and you can only get around by boat, and can only be there in the summer time… when the west wind is blowing and the sun is setting over the water and everything is perfectly quiet except for the water lapping and the seagulls, I think of that as my favourite memory of all.
Who’s your favorite musician (besides Alexz)? Favorite song?
You’ve already heard what an influence The Beatles have been in my life. Outside The Beatles, my hero is Brian Wilson, who of course was the genius behind The Beach Boys, I think his melodies and harmonies are totally amazing. As a lawyer I was privileged to work closely with a number of Canadian artists early in their careers—on my wall at home are gold, platinum and diamond records from Alannah Myles (of Black Velvet fame), The Cowboy Junkies featuring Margo Timmins, and k.d. lang—they are all completely amazing artists with completely different approaches to their music, with the common thread that somehow the soul of the universe speaks through their music—and that is exactly what drew me to Alexz and her music . These types of artist don’t come around very often.
What’s one thing that you cannot leave home without?
My Blackberry.
As a business man, Blackberry or iPhone?
I guess you know now!
