Fifth Column was founded by Ray Flowers in 1999 in Cleveland, Ohio, and quickly moved to Austin, TX in 2001. Originally Fifth Column was strictly an independent marketing company, but over the past few years it's focus has turned from established bands to helping developing artists.
As an Alternative Artist Development Representative for Polygram Group Distribution (Island Records, A&M Records, Hollywood, Mammoth, Def Jam, and London - to name a few of the associated labels), Ray witnessed first hand the minefields that new artists have to cross to become successful. And he thought he saw an opening for a company to help guide them and to bring major label-level artist development to up and coming artists - marketing support when artists need it most, and can afford it least. And most importantly, Fifth Column would be artist affiliated.
Once, artists had to rely on their record label to provide whatever marketing went behind their records, and to decide on when the record was "over". Our job is to put that power back in the hands of the people who make the art in the first place.
After working a number of national-level projects in Cleveland as an independent marketing company, Fifth Column began working with some of the local talent in Cleveland and providing regular marketing services to promoters like Belkin Productions and Promowest.
In 2001, looking for more fertile proving grounds, and being a regular at Austin's storied SXSW music festival, Ray moved the company to Austin, Texas.
In 2002 Fifth Column got its' first project with Affordable Sound's Ear Candy compilation. The project was a great success (the CD Release Party drew over 800 people to The Ritz) and Fifth Column was off and running.
Soon Fifth Column had a diverse roster, including The Action Is, Kacy Crowley, Manatee and Slowtrain, as well as doing one-off projects with Trish Murphy and Kevin McKinney (Soulhat). Fifth Column was honored to be hired by the Austin Music Foundation to head up the marketing and project management efforts for two of their Incubator artists, Overlord and Tucker Livingston, as well as handling marketing for a number of their special events, including 2004's Spotlight Series.
As our roster has grown so has our sphere of influence, and Fifth Column and our affiliated artists now reach into all the major Texas markets (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio), and even as far afield as Wichita, Kansas and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and we continue to develop new markets as needed.
In 2005 Fifth Column welcomed Tucker Livingston and Friends of Lizzy to the artist development roster, is working the new Pushmonkey release "Year of the Monkey", and is working closely with Electric Factory Records and their new band, The Addictions.
About Ray Flowers: Before starting Fifth Column, Ray worked as the Alternative Artist Development representative for the Midwest with Polygram Group Distribution, working with labels like A & M, Mercury, Island, Hollywood, and Mammoth. He has also served as the independent label buyer and advertising coordinator for the Handleman Company, and off-and-on managed a variety of independent record stores. And once, a long time ago, he was the head cook at Weiner King.