It’s All About The Journey – Meet Marketing Guru & Music Executive Pierre Balian
I had the chance to sit down with prominent music executive & marketing guru Pierre Balian this week. From Olympic figure skating to fashion design, this man’s journey to full-time A&R and Music Management work is nothing less then inspiring. Here’s a glimpse into the steps he took to bring him where he is today.
You have such an interesting story to tell. Let’s start with the early days. You said you were introduced to Motown at a young age? Who were some of the artist’s who influenced you the most and do they still influence your music today?
Literally, as a baby, maybe a year n half old, I would sit and dance to anything Jackson 5. Michael Jackson!!! Anytime MJ came on, I was told my eyes lit up and I’d start bobbing side to side. Of course the older I got the more diverse my taste in music became. My dad is a huge fan of Jazz music and my mom was a violinist, so even classical music came into my life. Growing up, The Supremes were huge in my household and my dad had vinyls for days from all the Jazz greats like Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Mangione, Sammy Davis Jr, even put me on to The Godfather of Soul, James Brown. The list goes on, but you get it.
You also traveled the globe as a competitive figure skater. How do you feel skating has prepared you for what you do now and do you feel like you can apply anything you learned from your skating days to how you navigate the music industry?
Isn’t it wild? I was a figure skater! Almost everything I learned from my career as a figure skater cause that shit was hard. Discipline and confidence were key in this sport. I was allowed to leave school early everyday to make training cause the school knew how good I was becoming when I started winning competitions out the gate. I trained with some Olympic, World, and National champions all my career like Johnny Weir, Timothy Goebel, Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen, Evgeni Plushenko, Oksana Baiul, Brian Boitano, and so many legendary skaters. I had seen how their team worked for them and eventually had one of my own. I had managers, agents, sponsors, and endorsements. I was in magazines and shit. I swear nobody ever believes me, so I always have to pull out the one video I have up there cause we didn’t have Youtube back in the day and we most certainly didn’t have social networks yet. Not even MySpace. All my competition recordings are on VHS. Now you can gauge my age. Haha. So needless to say, I saw and experienced all of what I’m doing now, then. It’s almost like I got a glimpse of my future, but I didn’t know it yet cause I was still competing. Retired in 2010 due to injury at the Olympics and that’s that.
After your skating days, you enrolled as a Fashion Designer at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merch. What drew you to fashion and are you still involved with it today?
My family has been in the fashion industry for over 80 years. My father started his company Balian Design, Haute Couture in Beverly Hills in 1974. Hes got quite the resume himself that man. He designed for Joan Collins (Dynasty: original), Charles Aznavour (French Singer/Actor) and still to this day is designing for some of Hollywood’s most elite, but you’d never know it cause he’s so low key with his business. I recently took over operations at the company (@BalianCouture) and plan to rebrand and launch a collection during fashion week sometime in 2022.
Can you tell us some cool or interesting stories about some of the artist’s you worked with while navigating the fashion world? Everyone likes a juicy story!
So right after graduating from FIDM, I somehow found myself in music studios providing wardrobe for some friends. I happen to land a gig as a stylist on Game’s “All That” music video. I had to style Jeremih actually. It featured him, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, and Big Sean.(https://youtu.be/38m0ppb
What initially drew you to the music industry? Can you tell us about the early days of your transition into music?
A lot of people don’t know this about me but I was actually the lead singer of my band! Haha, no but for real, I was the man in elementary school cause I sang my heart out in the the school choir. (I went to a private Christian Armenian school with a church on campus.) My mom being a musician and myself being surrounded by music during and after my skating career, I just loved being in music studios and seeing how music was created. In 2007, I met Sky Blue and Red Foo aka L.M.F.A.O. at a Paris Hilton party. My best friend at the time was her assistant, so I was always the +1. It’s where I met most of my friends today who I guess most would call celebrities, but they’re just regular old them to me. Having a Rolodex as large as mine, having the knowledge I had, and learning the business from people who were really doing big things at the time, I just positioned myself to be able to do what they were doing, but better. I don’t work for a major label, never have. But I have placements with majors domestically and internationally. I literally taught myself by watching others do it in real life.
You launched your company For The Culture Couture in 2017 which focuses on both music and marketing. Can you tell us a little more about your company?
For The Culture Couture was launched after my clothing line which was called “For The Culture Couture” derailed. I moved to Germany, partnered with this dude who has ZERO business sense, but had the machinery I needed to create my designs. Long story short, I was left with a ton of inventory that I couldn’t sell, so I flipped the company for less cash, and launched the company. In its first year, it was quiet cause I was building. But in 2018/2019 I was managing a Brazilian pop star, so those South American paychecks were keeping the lights on, So far this year, we’ve expanded into PR and are killing the social media marketing game to be hones.
You’ve explored so many avenues. What is your primary focus right now? Fashion, Marketing, Music, etc?
Music is the primary focus. Always has been. Marketing comes with that. Fashion is just in my blood. It’s my dads dream to see his legacy continue, so I’m trying my best to do all I can in the fashion side while keeping my focus on music. About two months ago I learned how to actually navigate music producing programs which was the only thing I lacked in my bag is tricks. So that’s been keeping me busy lately. I’ve been working with a few talented people in the last 2 years, one being a new comer (@Bigfloss7) who is out of North Carolina and another force out of NC (@YungCyfa), who is really making some noise with his latest single release.
What’s next for you? Do you have any projects in the cue that you’re really excited about??
I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I have a few projects, more than a few actually, in the works with artists I’m developing. I have two major joints set to release sometime this year featuring Wiz Khalifa, SK8, Maffio, and Nacho which is a global super smash. So I’m really excited about that one. I’m also looking forward to a project I have with Warner Music Group, Brazil providing American and Latin collaborations for an compilation album. That projects release is TBD.
How can fans follow you on social media. Give us your links!
Tiktok: @PierreBalian
Instagram: (@Pierre)
Related Posts
D. Watkins on What He Loves About Single “Slow Wine” →
Pop Sensation devoNNickoles Discusses Single “Gold Star” →
Pop-Rockers Porter Block: “If You See Eulene” is Classic and They Weigh In →
