The UK based Rough Trade Publishing will be merged with House of Hassle, with the post-merger entity continuing worldwide operations under the name Rough Trade Publishing

Bank Robber Music founder Lyle Hysen appointed President of new RTP

Legendary Rough Trade executives Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee named Senior Directors of UK A&R


(New York, NY) Bank Robber Industries (BRI), the parent of New York based indie licensing powerhouse Bank Robber Music, has announced its acquisition of UK publishing company Rough Trade Publishing (RTP).

BRI has attained 50% of RTP’s stock, with an option to purchase the remaining 50% in two years. RTP and House of Hassle Publishing, the publishing arm of BRI, will be merging operations and going forward worldwide under the name Rough Trade Publishing. The new RTP will be positioned within BRI, with operations run out of BRI’s New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, and London offices, and will assume House of Hassle’s former role as BRI’s publishing arm.

Bank Robber Music founder/House of Hassle co-founder Lyle Hysen has been appointed President of the new RTP and will oversee global operations. Hysen will work alongside newly appointed RTP Chief Strategic Officer/Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs Gandhar Savur and Chief Financial Officer/Senior Vice President of Operations Douglas Smith. Original RTP cofounder Cathi Gibson will stay on as Managing Director and will head the UK operation. Also remaining will be RTP Deputy Director of UK A&R and Creative Services Matt Harris.

Creative Services for the new RTP will be led in the US by newly appointed Head of US A&R AJ Tobey and Head of West Coast Creative Sarah Smith.

In addition, legendary Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis and longtime business partner/current Rough Trade Records codirector Jeannette Lee will be joining the new venture as Senior Directors of UK A&R, overseeing RTP’s A&R efforts for the UK. Travis and Lee’s involvement in the new RTP reunites the independent industry icons with Gibson a quarter century after she departed her post as Rough Trade Music General Manager to start RTP following the break-up of the original Rough Trade Group. 

“Jeannette and I are happy to join forces with good people whom share the same philosophy of creativity, humanity and fair business practices as music publishers.” says Travis. “We hope to help Rough Trade Publishing become the destination home for the best songwriters.”   

Cathi Gibson adds: “I am delighted to be working with Geoff and Jeanette once again in this coming together of the two disparate Rough Trade publishing companies. We have a great deal in common with Bank Robber and have been dealing with them happily for several years already, so this move is a natural progression.”

“I have been involved in underground or alternative music since I was 14 years old,” says Lyle Hysen. “Since starting Bank Robber, it’s been my privilege to work with such pioneers as Mac MacCaughan and Laura Balance of Merge Records, Thrill Jockey’s Bettina Richards, and Ian Mackaye of Dischord Records, each of whom achieved extraordinary creative and popular success on their own terms. Entering into this new partnership with Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee marks a landmark moment for me on that same path which I set out on so many years ago. The impact that Geoff and Jeannette have made on music will last forever. I look forward to working together with them and Rough Trade Publishing to continue that incredible legacy.”

“We thought our vision here at House of Hassle was unique,” says Gandhar Savur, “but we soon realized Cathi Gibson and Rough Trade Publishing were doing something remarkably similar in the UK to what we had set out to accomplish in the US. Cathi was essentially our UK counterpart and had been actively furthering similar goals in the UK for decades. She and I began speaking regularly, discussing our shared ideals, our distaste for the current state of music publishing, and our ideas for how a global publishing company should be run in the 21st century. Our views were so obviously aligned, the decision to join forces and unite our two companies was inevitable.” 

ABOUT BANK ROBBER INDUSTRIES  

Bank Robber Industries is a New York City-based family of music companies with common ownership and staff, comprised of Bank Robber Music, Bank Robber Europe, House of Hassle, Rough Trade Publishing, and Big Hassle Media. Bank Robber Industries was built around Bank Robber Music, widely regarded as the industry leader in independent TV/film music licensing. Founded by Lyle Hysen in 2004, Bank Robber Music exclusively represents over 20 top indie labels, including Mute, Merge, Barsuk, Polyvinyl, Mexican Summer, DFA, Temporary Residence, Numero Group and Drag City.  Laura Ballance, President of indie label Merge Records, says “We have known Lyle since we were all quite young, and have partnered with Bank Robber since the early days of the company.  Bank Robber has consistently created amazing opportunities for our bands, and has had a real impact on their careers.”

House of Hassle Publishing was formed in 2007, as the publishing arm of the Bank Robber operation. The privately owned New York LLC was founded by Hysen alongside Big Hassle Media cofounder/President Ken Weinstein and entertainment attorney Gandhar Savur, founder of New York City-based entertainment law firm Savur Threadgold LLP. HoH quickly proved a national powerhouse, establishing satellite offices in Nashville and Los Angeles while earning a reputation as a forward thinking, writer-friendly alternative to the corporate behemoths that dominate the publishing landscape. With its fixed focus on the cutting edge, HoH has signed more than 250 of the most important artists, songwriters, and bands in contemporary music, among them The War On Drugs, Future Islands, Grizzly Bear, Mark Kozelek / Sun Kil Moon, Matthew Caws (of Nada Surf), Craig Finn (of The Hold Steady), Paul Banks (of Interpol), Chelsea Wolfe, Ra Ra Riot, The Tallest Man On Earth, Rogue Wave, Generationals, Telekinesis, Destroyer, Galaxie 500, Minor Threat, Juliana Hatfield, The Black Lips, Superchunk, Alvvays, Tortoise, Fugazi and The Magnetic Fields.

"I've believed in Lyle, Gandhar, Douglas and their entire team of creative, smart, driven people for a long time now," says Ami Kay Spishock, manager of artists on House Of Hassle including The War On Drugs and Grizzly Bear.  "They've done absolutely incredible things for my artists, worldwide.  My artists have never been lost in the shuffle, including the smaller ones on my roster. All have had incredible success working with House of Hassle. I'm thrilled about this next step."             

ABOUT ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING 

Cathi Gibson and the late Peter Walmsley, both executives in the publishing division of the original Rough Trade Group, founded Rough Trade Publishing in 1991. Over the past 25 years, RTP has been home to such influential artists and bands as the Animal Collective, The National, Violent Femmes, Black Mountain, Bill Callahan, Slint, Akron/Family, Crass, David Grubbs, Panda Bear, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Trans Am, Hooded Fang, Owen Pallett, Haiku Salut, A Silver Mount Zion, The Sea and Cake, Tortoise, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Le Tigre, The Wrens, and Sunn O))).  

ABOUT ROUGH TRADE

Geoff Travis opened the first Rough Trade shop in London’s Ladbroke Grove in 1975, spawning Rough Trade Records in 1978. Travis and eventual label partner Jeanette Lee proved visionary A&R executives, influencing the course of independent music history via historic signings spanning Stiff Little Fingers, Scritti Politti, and The Smiths to The Strokes, The Libertines, Arcade Fire, and Belle & Sebastian. Four decades on, Rough Trade is among the best-known and most beloved brands in independent music, with label, publishing company, distribution wing, management firm, and Rough Trade shops around the globe.