Deston Songs Off To Strong Start

Less than a year after its launch, boutique publisher Deston Songs is enjoying massive international chart success while continuing to expand its U.S. operations.

The New York-based company—which was founded Jan. 1 by songwriter Desmond Child; his longtime manager, Winston Simone; and former PolyGram Music Publishing president David Simoné (who had signed Child there)—is currently scoring with Ricky Martin's worldwide chart-topping hit "She Bangs." It was co-written by Child, who also co-wrote and produced Martin's breakthrough smash, "Livin' La Vida Loca."

The Baha Men's "Who Let The Dogs Out," another global hit, was written by soca artist Anslem Douglas, who is also signed to Deston Songs, along with the Baha Men.

Deston tallies more than 30 cuts by its songwriters, five of which account for eight of the tracks on Martin's forthcoming album. Besides Child and Douglas, the roster has Victoria Shaw, Hunter Davis, Randy Cantor, Peter Amato, Robbie Seidman, Julia Sierra, Manny Lopez, Antonio Munoz, and Kevin Bowe.

The edel music-financed publisher, meanwhile, is readying a Los Angeles office for next year, to follow the recent openings of its Miami and Nashville outposts. So it's now fully primed, as Simone notes, to target the Latin and country genres, as well as pop.

"The thing I love about publishing," Simone says, "is that anything can happen. It's like 'Almost Famous': Here's a soca artist [Douglas] from Trinidad with a song he wrote in 1996 for Carnival. The Mets adopted it, so we took him to the World Series, and people were even chanting it in the men's room."

But having a huge hit record isn't the only objective of Deston Songs.

"Desmond's a songwriter through and through who loves and respects the tradition of the 'songwriter,' in quotes," says Simone. "But he feels like songwriters are treated like second-class citizens. So we try to treat them as stars: We only plan on 12 to 18 writers, and we'll give each of them phenomenal attention as their song-pluggers—with no recording and release commitment. We're the ones who have to deliver for the writer."

Simone likens Deston Songs to the publishing companies of "the last turn of the century." He says, "Music publishing was always the center of the music business, but the song got lost. We're very serious about bringing it back."

Child, of course, is most pleased by the direction of the company and its initial successes.

"It's like Hair Club for Men: I'm the president and the client," he says. "For years I've been signed to big publishers—Cotillion, which became part of Warner Bros.; then CBS Songs, which became SBK; then EMI and PolyGram—and there was always the same frustration of not having control over what happened to my music and feeling like the publishers were overwhelmed by the vast catalogs they owned and the hundreds of writers and artists that were part of their families."