He shared the stage this summer with Good Charlotte, Maroon 5 and Gym Class Heroes. He played Warped Tour in Dallas. He’s had millions of hits on his MySpace and two songs licensed; one played on “The Bachelorette” and the other on “Dancing with the Stars.”
And he did it all without the backing of a major record label.
Freddy Wexler, a 21-year-old student at the University of Pennsylvania, has already played the role of “next big thing” under a major contract. He signed to a label two years ago and headed to L.A. to bring his rockstar dreams to life.
He was dropped two months later through a voicemail message.
Now Wexler is fighting the system and pursuing a lofty goal: become the first pop star to have a hit without being signed.
His goal to “break out” without a record label is unprecedented and his approach is one-of-a-kind. The recording of Wexler’s album is a grass roots effort with fans contributing to all aspects of his career. Fans pitch song ideas, choose lyrics, direct videos, design album covers and ultimately act as managers of his career path. According to Wexler, it’s the perfect way to find out what fans really want.
“It’s a pretty cool and organic thing that we didn’t sit here and say, ‘How do we get people to buy records?'” Wexler explains. “We just said, ‘Hey, it would be really cool to get fans involved.'”
Wexler is not resurrecting his career alone. He has the support of Dallas radio DJ Kidd Kraddick of The Kidd Kraddick in the Morning show. Kraddick found Wexler earlier this year through MySpace and featured him on the “Music that Makes You Cooler” segment of the show. Kidd Kraddick in the Morning is nationally syndicated and plays in more than 70 cities across the country.
Listeners responded positively to Wexler’s music. Kraddick offered Wexler time on his radio show and a studio for a live performance if he could make it from Philadelphia to Dallas in five days. That challenge gave birth to the ultimate road trip. Wexler would drive from Philadelphia and play shows in Kidd Kraddick in the Morning affiliate cities to earn money for gas along the way.
Wexler was loaned both a truck and piano, and a film director volunteered to chronicle the trip. The five-day adventure was a radio success, and after his final show in Dallas. Wexler asked Kraddick and the morning show if they would help him record his album. The morning show let the listeners decide. More than 50,000 listeners cast their votes in an Internet poll and 94 percent voted “yes” to helping Wexler.
“Thus far, it’s been about the fans deciding if I deserve a second chance or not. And fortunately, thank God, they thought that I did,” Wexler said.
Throughout the summer, Wexler flew back and forth to work with his band (which he assembled at the beginning of the summer) and various producers, like the Australian team “The Wizards of Oz,” on his debut record. His single “Defying Gravity” played on Sirius Hits Radio, and in addition to his Warped Tour gig and opening Good Charlotte’s Dallas House of Blues performance, Wexler and his band headlined the July 4th celebration at Pizza Hut Park.
Most recently, Wexler released “We’re Not Going Down,” a song he wrote as a call to action for his generation, asking them to educate themselves on current affairs and contribute to the upcoming election.
As of now, Wexler has not released his debut album. He returned to UPenn for his senior year and will wait until after he graduates to refocus on his music career. Despite being content with producing music he loves, Wexler says tangible success to him means putting his record out.
So he’ll keep marching down the unconventional path he’s paved-the path where artists have more creative control and fans are more involved– until he releases the record he’s spent years (and one intense summer) putting together.
“I don’t want to be the 28-year-old guy who is still playing on the corner of some random street hoping that I’m going to get discovered,” Wexler explains. “But I’m 21 and I got to just give this a shot.”
