Sixteen-year music industry veteran Victoria Villalobos has joined jsm/music as executive producer. Villalobos was most recently a sales rep at New York-based music house Crushing Enterprises.
"This position is perfect for me because I’ve always been totally jazzed about running around and talking to creatives, and I love music," said Villalobos.
Previously, jsm managing partner/creative director Joel Simon and head of sales Steve Mendel jointly handled the executive producer duties. Now, Villalobos will primarily be a liaison between agency creatives and jsm.
Villalobos has been involved with music since she started singing in San Salvador when she was seven years old. Splitting her formative years between Central America, South America and Washington D.C., where her father worked for the government, she found her multicultural upbringing a source of musical inspiration.
After graduating from high school in Bogota, Colombia, Villalobos came to live in Washington where she joined the world-beat dance pop band Big Bang Theory (now defunct) as the lead singer. After eight years of touring with the band, which was signed with MCA Records, Villalobos left to team up with Washington-based record label Groove Town USA to co-produce, perform and arrange the music for the musical Black Hole Buddha. After the musical ran in Washington and a CD was cut, Villalobos headed to New York City to check out the jingle industry.
While singing at a wedding, Villalobos met Crushing president Joey Levine. She later joined Crushing as a receptionist, and after a month, began taking care of much of the com-pany’s administrative duties, including bookkeeping, payroll and contracting. She also wrote and performed vocals on numerous spots, including Chevrolet’s "Chevy Snapshots" via Campbell Mithun Esty, Minneapolis, JC Penney’s "I Like Your Style" through Temerlin McClain, Dallas, and Fashion Bug’s "We’re Every Woman" via Doner, Baltimore. "I was there as a singer, but I didn’t know that I was going to get involved with the production side of things," explained Villalobos, who became mildly obsessed with the commercial world (she used to call up creatives and congratulate them when she saw a spot she liked).
Recognizing Villalobos’ interest in the agency side, Levine commissioned her to start repping for Crushing while continuing to sing on spots. As a rep, Villalobos met jsm/music president/composer Jon Silbermann, who persuaded her to come work with jsm’s composers. "Once I came over [to jsm] and met everyone and saw their reel, that was the deciding factor," said Villalobos. "It’s a wonderful opportunity for me to jump on as a producer and really get my hands dirty and learn as much as I possibly can."
Jsm/music’s roster of composers includes Silbermann, Bobby Alessi, Andy Bloch, Josh Kirsch, Ray Loewy, Greg Mangiafico, Chris Palmero, Nile Rodgers and Gareth Williams. The company is repped in the South by Alyson Griffith of Dallas-based Texas Story. All other representation is handled in-house at jsm.
