Matthew "King" Kaufman (born May 19, 1946) is an American record producer who was the owner of leading independent label

Beserkley Records Beserkley Records was an American independent record label based in Berkeley, California, from 1973 to 1984. Beserkley is usually regarded as a power pop and rock and roll label. During the 1970s, the label released albums by Earth Quake, Greg ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, successfully producing records by

Jonathan Richman Jonathan Michael Richman (born May 16, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970, he founded the Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key acoustic a ...

Greg Kihn Gregory Stanley Kihn (born July 10, 1949) is an American rock musician, radio personality, and novelist. He founded and led The Greg Kihn Band, which scored hit songs in the 1980s, and has written several horror novels. History Kihn was born ...

and others.

Biography

Born and raised in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, Kaufman graduated from law school but never took the bar. Instead, convinced they were to be the next Beatles, Kaufman went to California to co-manage the San Francisco rock band Earth Quake. He helped the band get a two-record deal with

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

in 1970, and picked up production tips from

Lou Adler Lester Louis Adler (born December 13, 1933) is an American record and film producer and the co-owner of the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California. Adler has produced and developed a number of iconic musical artists, including The Grass Ro ...

and

Glyn Johns Glyn Thomas Johns (born 15 February 1942) is an English musician, recording engineer and record producer. Biography Early history Johns was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. He had three siblings, two older sisters and a younger brother, Andy ...

. Also while at A&M, Kaufman helped organize the series of demos recorded by

The Modern Lovers The Modern Lovers were an American rock band led by Jonathan Richman in the 1970s and 1980s. The original band existed from 1970 to 1974 but their recordings were not released until 1976 or later. It featured Richman and bassist Ernie Brooks w ...

. These recordings were unreleased at the time, but would later form the basis of their acclaimed debut album.

The Beserkley Years (1973-1984)

After becoming frustrated with A&M, Kaufman decided to set up his own label in 1973. Beserkley Records (headquartered at John Doukas' house at 1199 Spruce St. in Berkeley, California). The first releases from the label, ignored in the United States, were embraced in the U.K. with

Roadrunner The roadrunners (genus ''Geococcyx''), also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks, are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests. They are found in the southwestern and south-central United States and Mexico, us ...

reaching #11 on the UK singles chart. The follow-up single Egyptian Reggae reached #5 in the UK singles chart in 1977. By 1975, the label had an artist roster consisting of Earth Quake, Jonathan Richman (with and without

the Modern Lovers The Modern Lovers were an American rock band led by Jonathan Richman in the 1970s and 1980s. The original band existed from 1970 to 1974 but their recordings were not released until 1976 or later. It featured Richman and bassist Ernie Brooks w ...

The Rubinoos The Rubinoos are an American power pop band that formed in 1970 in Berkeley, California. They are perhaps best known for their singles "I Think We're Alone Now" (1977, a cover of the hit by Tommy James & the Shondells), "I Wanna Be Your Boyfrien ...

and

. Kaufman co-produced album releases by all these artists, as well as acquiring the rights to the 1972 A&M Modern Lovers recordings, which were issued as an album in 1976. Beserkley also released singles and compilation tracks by a handful of other artists. Buoyed by these successes, Kaufman opened a short-lived UK office of Beserkley, headquartered in

Kingston-upon-Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

. They signed The Tyla Gang who released two albums in the US and the UK for the label, as well as

The Smirks The Smirks were an English new wave band from Manchester who played from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Although they failed to meet with commercial success, they built a small but loyal base of fans. They are remembered mostly for a quirk ...

, who released two singles on Beserkley in the UK. In addition to his duties as label owner and producer, Kaufman occasionally co-wrote songs with various Beserkley acts under the pseudonym "Rose Bimler". Kaufman was also an occasional recording artist for Beserkley, releasing singles under the names "Son of Pete" and "Count Slowly and the Four Twenties". By the end of 1980, the only artist on Beserkley was Greg Kihn, who between 1981 and 1983 released three US top 40 albums and two US top 40 singles: "

The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em) "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)" is a song written by Greg Kihn and Steve Wright and recorded by the American rock band The Greg Kihn Band. It is the first single from the band's sixth studio album, '' RocKihnRoll'' (1981). The song's m ...

" (#15, 1981), and "

Jeopardy ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

" (#2, 1983). All were produced by Kaufman. However, after a long run of success, Kihn's 1984 album '' Kihntagious'' was a comparative flop, and Kaufman essentially shut down Beserkley. He blamed the label's demise on "corporate rock": "When marketing costs surpassed production budgets, it stopped being fun," he later said in an interview for a 2004 Beserkley label compilation.

Later career (1985-present)

Kaufman followed Kihn to

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

, where he remained Kihn's producer for his two EMI albums. He licensed some of the Beserkley Records catalogue to

Rhino Records A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

in 1986. He also continued to act as an occasional talent scout/producer, discovering

Ed Haynes Ed, ed or ED may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ed'' (film), a 1996 film starring Matt LeBlanc * Ed (''Fullmetal Alchemist'') or Edward Elric, a character in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' media * ''Ed'' (TV series), a TV series that ran fro ...

and producing his 1989 debut ''Ed Haynes Sings Ed Haynes'' for Apache Records. In 1991, Kaufman co-founded Eastern Light Productions, producing a series of award winning Russian historical documentaries in collaboration with the Soviet Filmmakers' Society, Kinocenter. In 1996, he launched the Son Of Beserkley label. In 2008, Kaufman launched a new label, Fun Fun Fun Recordings. Their first release was a compilation called "MP3 Jackpot Winners" which features songs discovered via the MP3 Jackpot website. Other 2008 Fun Fun Fun releases include "Skankin' Foolz Unite!" by Berkeley ska band,

the Uptones The Uptones are an American ska band, based in Northern California. Formed in 1981 by a group of high school students in Berkeley, California, The Uptones were influenced by the English 2 Tone sound, as well as the British mod scene, punk rock, ...

, and "Repulsa" by metal goth act Repulsa. In 2009, Fun Fun Fun released CDs by Sex 4 Moderns, Hobo, and Stiff Richards, all produced by Kaufman. In 2009, Kaufman commissioned the construction of a Ska Shrine devoted to skanking. Musashi "Moose" Lethridge and Eric Din of the Uptones built the shrine which now resides virtually at th
Ska4u website
The shrine traveled with The Uptones for four dates in June, 2010, for

The Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touring ...

and is available to the public for dancing.Vans Warped Tour 2010

References

External links

Ska 4U , Ska ShrineFun Fun Fun Recordings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaufman, Matthew King Living people 1946 births American music industry executives Record producers from California Record producers from Maryland Businesspeople from Baltimore Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area