About
Music Sumo is me, John Brown. Currently, I live in Los Angeles, CA and work full-time as Backstage Coordinator for John Mayer as we travel the world on solo tours and with members of the Grateful Dead, known as Dead & Company.
I have a degree from Berklee College of Music in Music Business / Entrepreneurship. While in school I was an intern at Heavy Rotation Records where I gained experience in many aspects of the music industry including artist management, marketing, promotion, publishing, and web design / maintenance.
After returning home to the San Francisco Bay Area I decided to try and develop a way for local independent artists and Berklee Alumni to be heard by larger audiences so I founded a record company called Recast Records which had an online music store, news, and promotion destination – MusicSumo.com. Music Sumo had many avenues of promotion including one of the first podcasts available in the Apple iTunes music store in 2005 with about 80,000 listeners in 15 countries.
While running Recast Records and Music Sumo I also worked for local Bay Area promoters like Bill Graham Presents, Live Nation, AEG, Goldenvoice, Another Planet, Taylor Street Production, and more putting on concerts and events at every major Bay Area venue including The Fillmore, Shoreline Ampitheatre, Concord Pavilion, SAP Center, Saratoga Mountain Winery, UC Theatre, Terrapin Crossroads, Tamalpais Research Institute, etc. It was through this local network that I met the members of the Grateful Dead and started touring with them from 2013 to the present as Phil Lesh & Friends, Furthur, Ratdog, Fare Thee Well, etc.
During our 2017 Dead & Company tour I was introduced to the John Mayer crew and have been working with them full-time in Los Angeles ever since. If you’re in Los Angeles give me a shout, or visit my Shows page to see where I’ll be next.
Music Sumo 