Atlantic Launches Joint Venture With Cobra Starship Alum Gabe Saporta, TAG Music (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Jonathan Cohen When Gabe Saporta aligned with Atlantic in 2007 via his band Cobra Starship’s deal with Fueled by Ramen/Decaydence, he’d already been through two other major-label systems and wasn’t overly optimistic things would be much different this time around.

Much to his surprise, “Atlantic was unique in always letting us be our weird little selves,” helping the group score two multi-platinum top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 amid a third wave of emo and pop-punk upstarts such as labelmates Fall Out Boy and Paramore.

As such, it’s fitting Saporta is again back in business with Atlantic, even though he’s long since shifted from his lead singer role in Cobra Starship to one behind the scenes in management and artist development with his company TAG Music. (Note: Saporta’s company is not to be confused with a 1990s indie-centric Atlantic imprint also called TAG — for The Atlantic Group — that featured such artists as Jawbox and Fountains of Wayne.) As part of a new joint venture partnership between Atlantic and TAG, the first signings are 18-year-old Los Angeles-based singer Sophie Powers (pictured at left), whose new single “Nosebleed” is out tomorrow (March 31), and 17-year-old Jules Is Dead (stylized as JULES IS DEAD), whose song “Favorite Color Is Red” will arrive next month.

With shades of My Chemical Romance or AFI, both acts share some DNA with artists Saporta befriended and performed alongside years ago (Powers has even covered Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box,” which came out 11 years before she was born).