NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ Noshpit Entertainment) - Nine months ago, when former Rosenbergs' front-man,
David Fagin, got a call from CBS Television saying they wanted to use his song Birds of a Feather as the temporary theme for a pilot that wasn't even guaranteed to air, he said "Sure," and shrugged it off, thinking nothing of it.
"I'd been in that situation countless times before; you're told something great might happen, and, for one reason or another, it never happens. So, I just said, 'Go ahead,' and forgot about it."
Then, in August, nearly seven months later, when Fagin got a call from Jack Rudy, the music supervisor of Accidentally on Purpose, the new CBS comedy starring Jenna Elfman (Dharma and Greg), along with Grant Show (Melrose Place), and Ashley Jensen (HBO's Extras), asking him to quote a fee for his song, he had no idea what the guy was talking about. "It took me a minute to remember but once I did I was like, 'Oh, ShNo *t!'"
Even for the most established artists, landing the theme to a prime-time network sitcom is quite a coup, but for an independent artist it's the Holy Grail. So, how did it happen?
Back in 2004, when The Rosenbergs released their third CD, Department Store Girl, they sent a copy to the Oxygen Network. At the time, Rudy was the music supe of the short-lived show, Good Girls Don't. A few year later, Girls' creator, Claudia Lonow, ended up creating AOP, and she brought Rudy, and all his indie CD's, with her to CBS. "Aside from a few minor placements here and there, up until Jack's call, the song had basically been sitting around collecting dust for about five years," Fagin says. "I want to have his baby."
It's quite a validation for Fagin, who's spent more than a decade speaking out on behalf of artists' rights, and, up until a few weeks ago, it looked like his fifteen minutes was just about over. "After spending tens of thousands of my own dough going to radio with my '08 solo release, For Promotional Use Only, and realizing it wasn't nearly enough, I dropped myself from my label and thought, 'That's that then.'"
When asked what kind of message or inspiration other independent artists can derive from his experience, Fagin replied, "Life is like Lotto. Ya never know."
Accidentally on Purpose premieres tonight at 8:30pm, following How I Met Your Mother on CBS.
