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He Gets PAID to Hang with PINK

by Rachel Kash

Joe Mama-Nitzberg is the Senior Vice President of Creative for Arista Records. He oversees the design of CD covers for Pink, Avril, Santana and Whitney Houston.

When you were a teen, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Back then, if I’d known this job existed, this is what I would have wanted to do. Which is really hard for me to accept (laughs), because then my dream is sort of realized. I was fascinated by pop culture, and the arts and music and fashion and subcultures, and I wanted to be a part of it. But I never thought, ‘Oh, I want to work at a record company.’ That never occurred to me.

What did you listen to when you were young?
Well, let’s just say the summer I was 8, my best friend and I spent eight hours a day listening to Top 40 radio. When I was 8, 9, 10 (years old), I was obsessed with having a certain amount of things that were in the Top 10. Probably like 13 is when I went new wave. I liked Blondie, and I liked Cheap Trick—but then it got a little more true to punk rock.

What was your major in college?
My undergraduate degree is in film studies, which is like, “I can watch movies professionally.” THAT’S a great degree to have. And my master’s degree in fine art is just as, like, useful, in the business world. I’m an artist and work in, you know, the corporate world. (Laughs)

What’s the most successful chance you’ve ever taken professionally?
I’d say there’s three. One, getting an MFA at Art Center. It ended up being the best thing ever because it just gave me the confidence to take risks and put myself in situations where I had to represent myself in hostile situations. Two was taking my first job out of graduate school. And then three was moving to New York for this job. But basically, graduate school set it all into motion. It informs everything I do.

You deal directly with Arista artists like Avril and Pink. What’s that like?
This is going to sound so corny, but doing their photography and art SHOULD be fun. So it’s a pretty loose, kooky environment. I feel like half of my job is to not make it stressed out. There’s a lot of money at stake, so I really just try to keep it light. We play fun music and we dance and we laugh and we eat. That’s the way it should be.

What would your dream project be?
That’s tough. But what makes me the most excited is a young, new artist who’s really excited about what they’re doing and really open to collaboration. Basically, when I can help form what they do and make it even better than they thought it could be. That’s what I love to do.

Do you still get starstruck?
Yes. Absolutely. But for very odd people. For example, I stay at a hotel in LA where all the American Idol people stay, and THAT’S why I stay there. (Laughs.) I mean it, I’ve worked with Eminem, Sting, Whitney Houston…but when I’m with the Idols, I’m starstruck.

You were in a band when you were 15, right? What was that like?
It was called Yawn Moan Sigh. It was more of a joke band. None of us REALLY played instruments. It was very conceptual. A rehearsal consisted of deciding who was going to play which instrument on which song, and then we would argue. And then we were like, ‘All right, see ya at the show.’ And then the show was very much about the performance of us fighting in between songs: ‘No, I’M playing guitar on that song!’ And then we would just make noise and sing the song.

What’s the coolest music industry party you ever went to and why?
I guess it was more fun to go to parties before I was in the industry, because now they’re like “work parties,” which is sort of an oxymoron! But trust me, I’m NOT complaining—they are still GREAT. I’d have to say the best party was the Reading Festival in England in 1994, because I was with my really close friends and there were a lot of great artists performing, like Radiohead and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Also, because I had a video camera, everyone was hamming it up for me!

What do you do in your free time, artistically?
Not enough. I read, which I actually consider to be an artistic endeavor, because it gets me thinking in more creative ways. And I’m so visual in my job, so it’s nice to just remove myself from sound and image. It’s just lovely to have a quiet book that you can hold in your hands.

What’s your favorite color?
Blue, because my mother told me it looks best on me.

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