HISTORY
In 1986, Ric left Saint Germaine to follow the dream he had had all along, which was his wish to probe into the deeper aspects of his writing and production talent.
It was at this point the project ARRIVAL was born, co-founded by Ric and his new collaborative partner, Charlie McCormick. ARRIVAL’s highly developed recordings, received immediate attention and notoriety from the record companies in Los Angeles. The label with the most zeal courting ARRIVAL during this time was Capital. However, Capital, like almost all the other labels interested in the band, was unwilling to offer a secured contract. Simply stated, the record companies wanted to acquire total ownership of the songs or intellectual property, without any guarantee for the artist. Unfortunately, this is a very common practice in the record business and it almost always becomes a “lose-lose” proposition for the artist and songwriters. Ric’s goal was to secure a guaranteed contract for ARRIVAL, so they continued to record and submit their material in the hope of finding a suitable deal.
As ARRIVAL continued to endure the trials of record company negotiations, they decided to push their unreleased songs to local Denver radio stations. In 1987, “One Mile High” became a popular rock anthem and had so many requests that this song was placed in Heavy Rotation on several stations in the metro area.
The popularity of this song generated live ARRIVAL performances sponsored by radio stations in the Denver area, which proved successful at increasing their public following. It was this powerful public response, combined with all the years of experience in the music business and record negotiations, which led Ric to a greater vision beyond that of a performing artist.
By this time Ric was convinced that the key to true success in the music business was not specifically as a performing artist. He knew it was really the songs that he had been creating and co-creating. This realization brought Ric to the decision that he needed to have three distinct sectors in his business: Performance, Production and Songwriting. It was this insight that led to the formation of As Is-No Warranty Music, Incorporated in 1991. The company now had the charter and title of exclusive creator, producer, publisher, marketer and administrator of musical compositions for all ARRIVAL material and co-creation material associated by contract. In simple terms, Ric separated the band performance away from the songwriting talent so they could be built and marketed separately.
While Ric maintained the vision to separate songwriting and production from performance, the next several years in the company were still focused on creating a specific ARRIVAL product. As the overall complexion of the music business took on many changes during the 1990’s, ARRIVAL continued to record and submit material to various record labels in L.A. and Nashville. During this time As Is-No Warranty Music began creating inroads to retail product distribution and national radio airplay.
In 1997, the production and distribution subsidiary of As Is-No Warranty Music was formed. It is known as the Pendulum Recording Group.
ARRIVAL 'DELAYED'
In 1999, Pendulum proudly announced the public release of its first full length ARRIVAL album entitled “Delayed”. This album was completed six weeks earlier than initially proposed and cost a mere $50,000 to record. To this day many industry veterans believe this album cost between $100,000-$150,000 to create. Once again, this was positive proof that Ric and his highly skilled production team could deliver a higher-than-average quality product at a less-than-average cost.
To further support the release of “Delayed,” As-Is No Warranty collaborated with Grim Productions and LSI Studios in Denver to create its first music video. Filmed in 16mm and shot on legendary Stage One at LSI, the “Déjà vu” video was completed at a cost of only $10,000, a marketable product delivered on schedule and at a highly reduced cost as compared to those found in the industry today. It should be noted that the average cost of a five-minute feature music video filmed in 16mm, budgets out at $75,000.
From this point marketing of “Delayed” was commenced. The plan was to first penetrate the still-fledgling internet market. The record began to catch fire when Christian Pirate Radio began programming “Some Déjà vu” and “Stand Up Now”. In April of 2000, CPR reported that “Some Déjà vu” had received an overwhelming 30,000 play requests in only ninety days! By the summer of 2000, a retail distribution deal was reached with USAOnestop and “Delayed” CDs began to appear on record store shelves throughout the Rocky Mountain region.
During this time, As Is-No Warranty Music was approached by Bleu Sky Entertainment and Charthouse Media offering to promote the record for radio airplay. A deal was reached and, with very limited financial support, the “Delayed” record was test marketed in 59 cities around the U. S. and programmed in eight.
In 2001, WITR-FM in Rochester, NY included “Stand Up Now” in its program schedule, and over the course of the next 22 weeks the song became one the most requested independently released songs of the year on that station.
In 2001 and 2002, ARRIVAL performances and music sold internationally and received glowing reviews as well as high marks in well-respected columns and magazines found in the U. S. and Europe. Ric and his team were, in fact, accomplishing exactly what they had set out to do, which was to gain notoriety and association with a particular type of talent so their songs could be platformed to the music industry executives.
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