Jon de Mello
CEO of Mountain Apple Company
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While participating in his father's business by designing album cover art and assisting with research and development, Jon continued to observe and learn by frequenting the company's studios and conference rooms. He purchased a small mixing deck and began writing and producing music. He brought a new group that he managed, The Brothers Cazimero, to his father's company, where they recorded their first three albums.
In 1974 he started The Mountain Apple Company to express his own creativity in the studio and to help new groups get started in the recording business. In 1978 he incorporated as The Mountain Apple Company, and signed The Brothers Cazimero as the company's first act.
Jon was instrumental in getting The Brothers Cazimero a headlining position at the prestigious Monarch Room in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikïkï, the only Hawaiian show at a major venue in Waikïkï during this time. The show ran successfully for 12 years. Today, close to 30 years later, The Mountain Apple Company still manages this perennially popular group - a long-term relationship almost unheard of in the music industry. Jon's personal touch - innovative, high-concept set designs and production have become trademarks for the group's live performances.
When his father retired, Jon merged Music of Polynesia with The Mountain Apple Company, becoming the owner of the most extensive library of Hawaiian and Polynesian music in the world. The Mountain Apple Company's focus, however, remained on creating and producing contemporary music, helping young musicians and groups record their songs, market them and deal with the problems and opportunities of marking their living as performing artists.
Over the years, Jon developed a business style that the artists who signed with The Mountain Apple Company came to appreciate greatly: he would involve them only as much as they wanted to be in the total creation and marketing of their music. Some artists eagerly became involved in the design, production and business aspects. Others preferred to focus solely on songwriting and performing, leaving their career interests to Jon's management.
Today, Jon is more of a Renaissance artist/business person than ever, thanks to progress in technology and his own relentless pursuit of creative excellence. On a number of separate computer workstations and in a state-of-the-art recording studio, he composes original music for television shows and motion pictures, mixes and arranges recordings of his company's artists, designs album covers and point-of-purchase display material, edits music videos, explores the worldwide web, and generally engages in any form of multi-media art that captures his fancy. He also served as an entertainment consultant to Sheraton Hotels' Pacific Division, Westin Hotels, and the SS Monterey Luxury Liner. Jon accomplishes all of this in addition to serving as chief executive officer and inspirational mentor of The Mountain Apple Company, which has evolved from a local record company into an international producer, distributor and marketer of music from Hawai'i.
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