Seymour Stein slowly enters the One Movement Festival media room at the Parmelia Hilton. At 67 he’s not moving so nimbly these days. He’s dressed casually and wearing joggers, the kind of outfit I’d picture Bill Murray in, but not the head of a major record label. I’m nervous about speaking with him. This is the man who co-founded Sire Records with Richard Gottehrer and is now Vice President of Warner US. The man signed The Ramones, gave Madonna her first break and has been orchestrating world musical trends for more than three decades. I’m a student journalist in the most isolated city in the world, who went to Europe for a month once. I can’t fathom a life in this man’s joggers. I’m intimidated, but not for long.

I stand up to greet him and he takes a seat next to me. One of the first things I learnt studying journalism is we should sit next to our interviewees rather than across from them, to promote an informal atmosphere. Stein does this without me prompting him and instantly makes himself seem more like a wise and friendly New Yorker, than a recording industry mogul. He has been informed about the questions I have planned for him and warns me about his lack of knowledge on internet technology.

“Go easy on me with the internet stuff… I use the internet to check out bands and stuff (but) you couldn’t be speaking to someone more ignorant. Warners want me to do a blog and I’ll do it but I’m gonna need help.” he says.

I can’t believe Seymour Stein, colossal industry force, has just asked me to go easy on him. It becomes obvious his feet are planted firmly on the ground despite the enormity of his profile. I know I am going to enjoy this interview.

“I love Perth, I was here once before. I know Peter Holmes a Court, I came here to see him. I took the boat down to that little fishing village… it’s even older than Perth.” he says.

“Fremantle?” I ask.

“Yeah Fremantle, it was a good 10 or 12 years ago, more probably.” he says.

He gets distracted by other people in the room and asks if I mind we go somewhere quieter. He asks PR manager Rina if we can be moved to a private room. Rina seems frustrated and says this isn’t possible, but sends us to another media room which is empty for now.

“She thinks I’m being a prima donna, but it’s distracting with other people in the room. I don’t wanna be rude and tell them to shut up.” he says.

While this is a rare visit to Perth for Stein, he is no stranger to Australia. This is his third trip to our shores this year. He says he comes down here during our winter to escape the summer in the northern hemisphere.

“I don’t like the hot weather. I’m a New Yorker.” he says.

But it’s almost certainly the music rather than the weather he comes here for. Music is his life and Australian music has been serving him well since he thrust The Saints and Radio Birdman into the American market in the late 70s. More recently he’s had success with The Veronicas.

“They’re (The Veronicas) doing extremely well all over the world. It took some time but we stuck with it and now they’re happening. I have always believed in Australia.” he says.

“I’m gonna go see Dappled Cities (later today) I saw them about 18 months ago in Byron Bay. I love Temper Trap. I was a little late getting it together I wish I’d signed them. I think they’re going to be tremendous, great band, that singer has such a unique voice.”

He is quick to point out he doesn’t believe in nationalising music though, in fact he doesn’t believe in categorising music at all. He is often quoted as saying there are only two types of music in the world: good and bad. He says the same to me:

“I believe in good and bad. I don’t believe in national barriers… I’ve had success with records from just about all over the world. South Africa, Israel, all of Scandavania, Germany , France and Canada with KD Lang and Barenaked Ladies.”

“I don’t say there’s this – œAustralian’ band Temper Trap. Temper Trap that’s enough. Why put any stigma or potential stigma on something by labeling it?”

It becomes evident this is a philosophy he strictly lives by after I question him on The Ramones’ pioneering place in punk history. Stein was responsible for bringing the four-piece’s intimidating sound to the world stage and any music history book will argue punk was born out of these guys. It will tell you that before The Pistols and before The Clash, there was The Ramones. However Stein doesn’t even remotely consider them a punk band.

“I saw nothing punk in The Ramones. I saw a great band. To me they were a bit influenced by ABBA and Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. Sure they were quite unique… they wanna be called punk that’s fine, but they were a great band.”

He acknowledges they were the driving force behind the sound everyone else considers punk though and says discovering them was one of his finest hours. He talks of how the Sex Pistols were only a semi-professional band, working day jobs when he first toured The Ramones with the Flaming Groovies in the UK in 1976. History tells us they quit their day jobs and conquered Britain with God Save the Queen in – œ77 after The Ramones popularised the sound there.

Stein’s Sire Records has continued its love affair with punk and today has Against Me, signed by Craig Aaronson and Michael Goldstone, as one of their premier acts. Stein sees Against Me the way he saw The Ramones.

“I don’t think of them as punk, I think of them as a great band… they haven’t even shown the tip of the iceberg of their potential. I think they are going to be gynormous. He’s (Tom Gabel) a star.” he says.

While the world was getting used to – œpunk’ music in the late 70s, Stein was already looking for a different sound. It came in the form of Talking Heads. He sent them to the UK with The Ramones and what we now know as – œnew wave’ was born. Ironically it was anti-labellist Stein who started the term – œnew wave’ after saying he had a new wave of artists coming through. Depeche Mode and Echo and the Bunnymen were amongst these.

It’s easy to forget as Stein was driving a Ramones-lead punk movement and a Talking Heads-led post-punk movement, that he also found time to unveil an act who would lead a sex-pop movement. An act who would become one of the biggest pop culture icons in history- Madonna. There has been much written about the Madonna story so I don’t quiz him on her, but I ask him how he turned such a diverse range of acts into defining artists of a generation.

“At the end of the day, those artists and others that were so far afield like Ice-T, KD Lang, The Undertones, The Pretenders (all Stein signed artists); they were all great, that’s what they had in common.” he says.

“I believed in them and Sire Records helped them. I believe most of them would have been signed by other companies eventually but I always took chances early on. I don’t think I ever made a star out of any act that wasn’t destined to do that anyway because they had the gift, they had the musical talent. I don’t deserve too much credit.”

Stein’s place in the history of contemporary music astounds me the more he tells me about it. His musical intuition is incredible and he says picking a hit artist is mostly an instant thing for him, but not always.

“Sometimes it takes a bit longer, but usually it is love at first sight. Depeche Mode, when I saw them it was one or two songs. The Ramones, I started talking to them as soon as their little set was over and same with Talking Heads. Most of the time it’s immediate, very much so.”

He says it’s much more difficult picking a hit song from a live performance than off the radio.

“I always thought I was great at picking hits (growing up listening to the radio), but picking hits off the radio, is not the same as picking a hit act when you’re seeing them because they have to reach somewhere to get on the radio at first.”

The music world has been thanking him ever since he honed that skill of picking a ball-tearing track from a little-known band’s live show. In 2005 he was awarded the highest honour in the American music industry- induction into the rock’n’roll hall of fame. Stein refers to this moment when I ask him who his most satisfying discovery has been. He tells me he was torn when he had to choose one of his artists to induct him.

“I didn’t wanna pick one of my artists to induct me. I was pressured to pick Madonna- not that I didn’t want her to, I’m sure she would have done it but she was living in England at the time. I went to an artist I worked with as a kid- James Brown and asked him to induct me, but he couldn’t do it because he was sick” he says.

“Ice-T did it eventually and he did a wonderful job. But I have no favourites, as people I’m there to serve them- they’re the talent.”

Stein was inducted into the hall of fame with an Ice-T stamp of approval:

“I am very proud and honoured to induct, my mother-fucking nigga, Seymour Stein!”

Ice T’s speech touched on the fact Stein pulled him from the street, gave him the artistic freedom to rap about whatever and believed in his craft. It was a bold move to sign a West Coast gangsta rapper to a major label- none had done it before Stein, but he is all about bold moves. He talks of how he got death threats when he first signed The Ramones and how most people hated them.

“The Ramones were a kind of band that you either love or hate and I think that’s still the way it is. But when I signed them the majority of people hated them and it was a small bunch of aficionados that really loved them and got behind them and saw what they saw in themselves and what I saw in them.” he says.

“They were probably the most controversial; they shouldn’t have been. To me it was obvious, I don’t look at what people are wearing, I listen to the music, and their music was commercial from day one.”

*Part 2 of FL’s chat with Seymour Stein is in the mix, where he talks of signing an interracial African band during apartheid, his childhood and the most damaging thing that’s happened to the music industry.*