We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ken Onstad. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ken below.

Ken, appreciate you joining us today. Do you have any key partners or vendors – if so, how’d you find them and start working with them?

I have managed a smaller record company called New Folk Records along with my business partner Bob McMenoman for the past 15 plus years. Our goal is to help creative musicians find a larger audience. One thing that I have learned over those years is that most of the musicians we work wth are talented musically but are far too often unaware or unprepared for all the operational aspects of the business and how they are needed to help them move their careers forward. Whether you are a local artist or Taylor Swift, you first need to understand all the spokes in the wheel of the music industry and you need people who can help you reach each of those spokes and make sure they are strong enough to support the wheel that is your career.
Once we have selected an artist or band to work with, we then engage a support team to help us reach the largest possible audience. That includes, a PR team, a Radio team, a social media team, a manufacturing company and a physical and digital distribution company. We have selected those with years of work-related experience and the results of projects they have done with other clients/artists in the past.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been very fortunate to have been in the music business, one way or another, now for over 60 years. Like so many people my age, I started playing in garage bands in the 60’s after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. I quickly learned that I loved the money and the fun of performing but I hated to practice and that those around me were way more talented. I also realized that I simply loved sharing music; introducing people to new music that might just inspire them. While at college I opened my own record store and discovered that by sharing music, over the counter, was just as satisfying as playing on stage. I moved to Salt Lake City and met my soon to be wife. I figure I’d better get a real job once we were married. I went to work as a full-time salesman for a record store chain, called Musicland, and loved it. As the company grew and added stores, my supportive, growing family agreed to take promotions and relocate around the country. My role with the company grew and we moved from Salt Lake to Vancouver WA to Seattle, to New Jersey where, as a district manager, I was put in charge of the largest volume store in the company in downtown New York City, across the street from Radio City Music Hall. In the four years I was responsible for that store, we did over 50 in-store appearances and was lucky enough to meet a number of those musicians who inspired me including Elvis Costello, Tony Bennett, Prince, and Elton John. There were many challenges learning how best to manage store managers in New York versus those in the Pacific Northwest. They had a much different approach to customers and their supervisors. It was also a challenge to help them manage so the sales volume that averaged more than three times that of my average store out west.
My next assignment was a promotion to Reginal Director in Minneapolis covering over 100 stores from Detroit to Denver and as far south as Brownsville Texas. I was now managing district managers and the support of their stores. I needed to determine their strengths and weakness and help them manage their individual group of store managers. I was based in the corporate offices which offered me the opportunity to observe the inner workings of what was then the largest music store chain in the world. After 3 successful years, I was promoted to President of European Operations and we all moved to England to help grow our company internationally. Here I was presented with a remarkable challenge of not only managing retail outlets, learning the buying habits of their customers as well as managing the whole headquarters staff all in a foreign country. It was the challenging and rewarding experience of my retail career. We had so many amazing and dedicated employees that were willing to work hard and learn that every day was a gift. I was also, unbelievably, fortunate to meet an amazing number of my music hero’s personally including Rod Stewart, Phil Collins and Paul McCartney. When that assigned ended, we moved back to Minnesota to work in the company’s headquarters as the VP of strategic planning. A exciting new role that gave me the chance to work directly with the CEO of the company as well as all of the directors. The company was, however, sold to Best Buy and I realized then that I wanted to work more directly with musicians and try to help them develop their skills. After starting and running my own record company, I was introduced to Bob McMenoman and together we purchased a growing local company (New Folk Records) which was in need of operational support. Over the past 15 plus years we have helped dozens of artists in Minnesota and around the states, as well as artists from Spain, the UK, and Ireland. Each finished and released record brings a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment knowing that we have helped the artist document their creativity for eternity. Recently, we have started to create albums for veterans’ charities that are a collection of artists who have donated their music to help veteran’s needs. These have been very gratifying projects that I have ever been a part of. To reach out to some of the finest musicians in the world and secure their help and support for our veterans is beyond rewarding. Our most current project is benefiting Purple Heart Homes, and it has been a humbling experience to be able to help them in a small way with all the good that they do.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

There are very few things in life, that when given, can shape one’s life forever. I believe one is love, one is faith, and one is music.
Having the opportunity to bring music that will forever stay a part of someone’s life is an amazing gift and responsibility not to be taken lightly. When we are fortunate enough to work with someone who has the real gift of music creation, we take our role seriously knowing clearly that we have to do everything in our power to make sure that their music has the potential to last forever, influencing and comforting the listener.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, it’s being introduced to an artist who is gifted musically, helping them document that creativity through the making of their album and then watching the artist see the audience’s positive reaction to their music. Knowing now, that their music, their song will forever be a part of that listener’s life. Each album we help an artist creative bring amazing gratification knowing we helped even in a small way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.newfolk-records.com

Image Credits

Photo with Doyle Dykes, Ken Onstad and Mike Huckabee – Credit April Onstad
Photo of Joshua Ray Hudson performing for the Television show, Military Makeover – Credit John Spingola
Alison Sounds album cover – Credit April Onstad