Q&A w/ The Viper Room’s Nathan Levinson & The Other Berko

The Viper Room is one of the most recognizable and famous nightclubs in Tinseltown. Actor Johnny Depp was among one of the owners of the club when it opened, and the venue quickly became a celebrity hangout. It received worldwide attention when actor River Phoenix died outside the club on Halloween night in 1993. Throughout the years, the venue has seen many transitions in L.A.’s live music scene, while a host of the biggest names in music got their start on the Viper Room stage. And for many years it has been an industry hotspot to check out new talent.

While the music business has changed dramatically in recent years, the club has transitioned as well with new faces and a changing atmosphere, particularly when restaurateur Harry Morton purchased the venue in 2008. An effort to return the venue to its prominence and influence during the club’s heyday seems underway. Current Viper Room players Nathan Levinson and Sarah Berkowitz, who handle marketing and promotion, stopped by RM 64 headquarters to share what’s in the works.

RM64: Tell us what it is you do at The Viper Room and how you came to be there?

NL: I came to The Viper Room last February. Before that I was a senior ad executive at the alternative news weekly in Salt Lake for 3 years…Salt Lake City Weekly is just like the L.A. Weekly here.

I needed to get out of Salt Lake and came here in pursuit of a screenwriting dream but needed a job. I saw an opportunity for a marketing position at the Viper Room and started doing a bunch of research, for instance how Harry Morton had purchased the company the year prior.

I had a lot of experience in nightlife marketing because I ran all the club stuff in Salt Lake for the news weekly and did a lot of club relations on the advertising side as well. I’m pretty savvy in the digital world in my own efforts and they were looking for someone to launch a heavy digital campaign. In terms of online or digital at the time, there wasn’t much going on here. Sarah was completely overworked and that was part of what she was trying to launch, but the manpower just wasn’t there. Around the same time, they were changing out a lot of the staff, particularly to try and have a friendlier atmosphere. There was a presence starting to be built there, but it wasn’t what it could be and that’s when I came in and started working closely with Sarah.

SB: I started working at the Viper Room as an intern and was hired on when I graduated. I started as an all around assistant to special events, talent buyers, operations managers and basically did a little bit of everything. When Nate came onboard, the duties were able to shift and he focused more heavily on the marketing and I was able to move more into event coordination.

NL: About a month after I had been at the Viper setting up the digital landscape, Casey our national talent buyer came on. He is extremely digitally savvy as well so it was a great match. He brought in Chelsea our local buyer a month later, which completed our team.

RM64: Where does the Viper Room see itself going as a venue? World-class club and smaller destination for larger bands wanting an intimate show, or is it a neighborhood bar that happens to have a history?

NL: I would say it’s both. It’s clearly a destination club because of the brand and the name, so there’s always the tourist element – those who want to go there to say they’ve been there. Internally we care about the quality and experience of the music, and also the building of the community vibe. We want not only music regulars to love it, but also the locals who want to come hangout at a great scene, and it helps that we’re blessed with an amazing staff. A lot of them are in bands or television shows, and it’s really a talented and dynamic group of people all with wonderful personalities.

SB: At the same time, the music quality is absolutely our focus.

RM64: Tell us about Viper Room’s Friends and Family list that you guys recently started.

SB: We have live bands every night of the week. There is a lot of industry that come out to see bands every night. Instead of constant guest list requests, we wanted to open it up. Provided that it’s not a benefit show, an outside promoted night or it’s sold out, you can come in free plus one. It’s free entry and drink specials.

NL: The Friends and Family list was a big turning point for us in order to get the industry back in the room and saying good things.

RM64: Is that list now closed?

SB: For the moment it is.

NL: We did a good job with saturating the industry really quickly.

RM64: What are some of the things you’re doing in terms of being more artists friendly? It seems like a place more people want to play now.

SB: For starters our production staff is amazing. Our production manager wants every band to have the best time and gives them everything they need. He has instilled that in the rest of the production staff too. So everyone works really hard and we constantly get emails back saying, ‘we had a great time. Your entire staff is amazing.’ That’s the first part, because bands talk to other bands and if they have a great experience at a venue, they’ll tell other bands and the other bands are going to want to play. The other part is the marketing.

RM64: Take us through the steps once a show is booked. What are you doing differently to promote shows and help your artists do the same?

NL: Once I receive the confirmation of a booking, I immediately I send out a marketing advance. Our marketing advance essentially provides as many tools as possible to the artist themselves to help promote themselves and the show. It also helps them align their marketing efforts to our specific digital network. Beyond that, the tools we provide can be applied way beyond the Viper Room to shows they play in the future, I guess you could say it’s an open source mentality. In addition, we provide all the artists with a media list that is broken up into local influencers like music bloggers, major media, etc.

An important part of all this is tying the artist’s efforts into our own digital push that we have built up to be very strong and far reaching at this point. We try to create conversation about the Viper Room and our artists at all times. Conversation nowadays is how virally we spread information very fast and effectively. It’s word of mouth on steroids these days. So if you can stir conversation, it’s very influential.

RM64: Are there any bands locally that you can point to in the last 6 months that really learned how to promote and draw fans well?

NL: Bands like Purple Melon and Saint Motel are two absolute models for what bands should be doing these days. A big factor in that is they’re producing video content. As a band online you can’t just be talking all the time, you have to provide some kind of content. Not only are they making sure links and info are out there, but they’re also putting out promo videos with performance footage and the dates, the club and a list of all the other artists on the lineup. Then they give me a tool like that, and I give it to every other band for that night. Everyone is promoting it with this same great content. It works.

RM64: It seems like you guys are very friendly with the other clubs on the Sunset Strip, particularly the Roxy.

NL: Definitely, and even places like the Comedy Store too. We’ve formed alliances with other businesses that are working just as hard online and a lot of things fell into place. It also speaks to the multiple types of community building efforts that we’re making. We have a community with the artists, our locals, industry, tastemakers and also surrounding businesses. The strip is an amazing place and has a lot to offer.

RM64: Do you think the recent closure of some of Hollywood’s well-known music venues has had any effect on the Viper?

NL: I don’t think it’s going to hurt, but I don’t think it’s going to help us either. They had their own scenes and I’m not sure there’s that much crossover other than geographically. Situations like that are unfortunate; you never want to see a venue in the community close.

RM64: During your time at the Viper Room, what are some of the most significant changes you’ve seen in the L.A.’s live music scene, for good or bad?

NL: When I came to LA, I was taken aback by the divisive nature of the local music scene – the whole eastside vs. westside thing. When I first got here it was very much eastside domination in terms of popularity for live music, but I think it’s transitioning back to the westside as well. And I think a lot of that has to do with the social networking and community building online that we, and places like the Roxy have been doing.

SB: The economy has obviously been a huge factor in the live music scene. It’s hard for someone who goes out to see music multiple times a week, to pay a cover, parking, drinks, etc. We’re combating that by creating a community of locals and industry.

NL: You have to have economic sensitive offers, but without hurting your bottom line. Part of it goes back to building loyalty. People are going to continue going out, but just less often. So you want to make sure you have one of the places they visit.

RM64: Thanks for chatting with us. Next show, drinks are on the house?

SB: Absolutely.