PUNCHMOUTH

Ruben R. Lozano - Founder & Senior Partner

Ruben has been working in the world of music and new media for over a decade. In 1999 he founded loudENERGY.com, an online and offline Music Company. loudENERGY.com introduced a groundbreaking online music store and commerce model that enabled signed artists to generate revenue directly through retail sales. In launching the online music store and commerce model, Ruben structured and executed deals with multi-platinum artists including No Doubt, Outkast, Sugar Ray, Bad Religion, Alanis Morissette, Brian Wilson, Sublime and Offspring. The program was also taken advantage of by over 6,000 independent artists.

loudENERGY.com also introduced the first online artist development community and website. To create this community, Ruben structured and executed deals with over 40 record producers that critiqued music from unsigned bands and took active roles in producing and developing talent in partnership with loudENERGY. Included in the “Producers Forum” were legends like Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden), and Eddie Kramer (Led Zeppelin, Jim Hendrix, Kiss). With the help of producer Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt) loudENERGY.com became the first online music company to take a band, Indiana based Transmatic, from cyberspace to a major label recording deal with Immortal Records. In 2001 Ruben and loudENERGY.com signed a production deal with Warner Bros. Records to find and develop new artists.

In 2004 Ruben founded Subset Records to research and develop digital-entertainment business models. In 2006 he was invited to bring his efforts in-house as the Vice President of New Media for Union Entertainment Group (UEG); a management firm and entertainment company (Nickelback, Default, Saliva…). Shortly thereafter he spun off the New Media Division into Subset M, a company focused on new media and marketing strategies and solutions that has served companies including CBS Records, EMI, and a variety of independents. While acting as Senior Partner for Subset M, Ruben founded Digital Trellis to continue developing and incubating music and new media focused businesses.

Ruben has been featured in publications including, Billboard Magazine, Spin, The Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Hollywood Reporter, New York Times, Variety and Chicago Tribune among others. Ruben has also spoken on panels dealing with music, new media and marketing including Internet World, Digital Hollywood, and CMJ and has been featured on television shows including CNN FN and CBSMarketWatch.

Ben Brannen - Partner

Ben started his music career as the guitar player and songwriter of a Seattle based band in the mid-90s. After 2 independent album releases and four years with the band, he headed to Los Angeles to accept a financial analyst position with the Walt Disney Company.

Ben worked as an analyst with Disney’s Corporate Operations and Real Estate team, responsible for multiple lines of business’ financial reporting and analysis, annual operating budgets, and five year plans. From Disney, Ben transitioned into a creative role at BMG Music Publishing. At BMG, Ben quickly moved from an assistant to Manager of A&R proving his talent for artist discovery and copyright exploitation. He was an integral part in building BMG’s Rock roster, developing new talent, and placing songs with recording artists; one of which received a Grammy award nomination. Ben successfully provided the guidance and insight that led 3 unknown acts to major label record deals. Passionate about artists’ careers and noticing a void in their development, Ben left BMG in 2004 to form Brannen Creative Management and Ares Records. BCM/Ares was built as an artist development company that invests in, manages, distributes, and markets artists and their content by combining both management and record label resources and responsibilities.

While growing BCM/Ares Ben worked intimately with companies like RCA Records, Island Records, Universal Publishing, SONGS, SONY/ATV, Trustkill Records, Revelation Records & Distribution, and Epitaph Records, among other. He negotiated favorable merchandise deals, secured national tours and sponsorships, coordinated independent publicity and radio campaigns, and created sustainable business models for independent artists.

Ben took his operation on the road while managing tours throughout the US, Canada, Europe, UK, and Japan. His bands participated on tours both large and small including Social Distortion, Flogging Molly, Stone Sour, Avenged Sevenfold, Family Values Tour, Warped Tour, and many more.

At the start of 2008 Ben founded IndieBandAdvice.com, an online source of industry related information and a means for artists to engage him in Q&A sessions focused on music business fundamentals. With a steadily increasing readership, Indie Band Advice has become a trusted source of honest information and feedback.

Ben joined Digital Trellis as Partner & COO in late 2008 and is responsible for the management of company operations and business development. He oversees all daily activities, strategic partnerships, product design and manufacturing, execution of new business models and marketing plans, and the implementation of technology enhancements and website development.

Chris Hansen - Design

Chris Hansen began his music industry career in 2003 as an intern for Fearless Records. Proving himself as a reliable asset to the company, he was soon hired as one of the early employees at SmartPunk.com, Fearless Records’ online merchandise and record store. It was at SmartPunk where he began to develop relationships with the top independent record labels in the industry including Trustkill, Ferret, Victory, Tooth & Nail, and Revelation Records. These relationships put Chris in touch with many new artists offering the opportunity to exercise his creative talent and begin his freelance design work.

After SmartPunk, Chris continued to expand his industry experience holding positions at indie record stores and Revelation Records/Distribution. During these next few years, his freelance design work grew to include a robust list of both indie bands and record labels. From this, Chris founded No Sleep Studios, a full service design firm.

Drawing attention with his design style and creativity, Trustkill Records offered Chris the position of Label Art Director in 2006 and brought his talent in house. At Trustkill, Chris was responsible for overall creative direction, album layouts, advertisements, web designs, logos, and more. He created the identities for the label’s sister companies KillerTours.com, Bullet Tooth Publishing, and Mobile Threat while also coordinating creative needs for each artist on the roster. Chris quickly accumulated the lessons learned from witnessing the inner workings of record labels and decided to expand the No Sleep brand to include No Sleep Records. Now in it’s third year, No Sleep Records continues to grow with releases from artists including The Wonder Years, La Dispute, Touche Amore, Monument To Thieves, and more.With an expanding No Sleep brand, Chris left Trustkill in 2008 and moved back to Orange County, CA to continue its growth. His design clientele includes bands such as Anti-Flag, Bleeding Through, Bullet For My Valentine, Eighteen Visions, Hawthorne Heights, Walls of Jericho, and many more. Companies including Century Media, Eulogy Recordings, Trustkill Records, and RevHQ, among others, are also No Sleep clients.

While still managing No Sleep, Chris joined Digital Trellis in 2009 as Partner and Lead Designer. He is responsible for the execution of all art direction and design needs including branding, products, websites, advertisements, logos, and more.