Chris Walker at L.A. Weekly takes a look at Daddy Kev, a co-founder of Los Angeles’ popular Low End Theory. The party is a weekly that served a proving ground for acts like Flying Lotus, who’s signed to Kev’s Alpha Pup Records:
In a way, Low End is as much talent incubator as performance space. It has paid big dividends for Alpha Pup, whose roster includes noisemakers (literal and figurative) Nosaj Thing, Free the Robots, Dibiase, and Jonwayne.
[snip]
…Kev himself is 40, and his "Daddy" nickname is fitting considering his reputation as a mentor, drawing upon his decades of experience navigating the industry. That has included a corporate stint at Sony, as well as running late 1990’s indie label Celestial. He admits he made some rookie mistakes. "On our first record advance, we blew through a cool ten grand at Guitar Center in a day, and then spent the rest on rent, weed, Pizza Hut, and a lot of beer. We had a keg going for about six months straight…which was awesome, but I learned from that."