Meet Mike Boccuzzi, Director, Pop Promotion
What was the first record you fell in love with?
Blink-182 “Dammit” because it’s what got me to want to start playing the guitar. And I didn’t know it then, but that’s what started me on the path to a career in the music industry.
What is the most important thing about your work at RCA?
In radio promotion, we can literally change the lives of our artists. Radio can take an established artist with a solid fanbase, and catapult them to selling out arenas with 1 song. That’s pretty incredible.
What was a critical moment in music history for you?
The death of Kurt Cobain. I was 9 years old, and I had no idea how influential music was at the time, but I will never forget Kurt Loder’s face when delivering the news, or the footage of people gathering in Seattle to mourn together. It was my first time experiencing the importance of music in our culture.
Name a record that has had a significant impact on you.
Thrice ‘Identity Crisis’ is the album that REALLY got me into music and made me want to pursue it as a career. I even got to interview the singer when I was in high school for an essay. The assignment was to interview somebody in the field you wanted to be in, and a girl in my science class happened to be friends with his sister, so she set it up. We met an In-N-Out and he spent about an hour with me. It was definitely a highlight of my adolescence.
What live performance will you never forget?
When Khalid performed on the Santa Monica pier. The pier holds about 5,000 people, but 60,000 showed up, and the city of Santa Monica was not prepared. People were jumping over barricades and blitzing security to get in. You couldn’t even see the beach on either side because there were so many people on it. It was insane!
