EDGE OF GLORY

Like any good record company chairman/CEO, Peter Edge will sing the praises of each and every act signed to his label. But during the course of an hourlong conversation at The RCA Studio in Culver City, when he says that SZA’s sprawling SOS (TDE/RCA) is one of his favorite records of the past decade, he does so with a passion that goes beyond the album’s sizeable contribution to his company’s bottom line.

Throughout his decades in the business, from DJing in London to an A&R gig at Chrysalis to a stateside appointment at Warner Bros. to Clive Davis’ right-hand man at Arista and J and finally to RCA, where then-Sony Music boss Doug Morris named him CEO in 2011, Edge, much like SZA, has pushed back against the constraints of genre. Back in London, he says, “there was never a problem with me being into punk rock and new wave and also being a complete fanatic about soul, R&B, disco and, later, hip-hop,” and that forward-thinking “shuffle” mentality has helped earn him a reputation as one of the great A&R execs, and subsequently label chiefs, of the era.

The very incomplete list of artists Edge has worked with includes Alicia Keys, P!nk, Justin Timberlake, Jungle Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Sia, Dido, Me’Shell Ndegeocello, Mark Ronson, Jazmine Sullivan, Victoria Monét, A$AP Rocky, D’Angelo, H.E.R., Foo Fighters, Steve Lacy and Childish Gambino. Meanwhile, Nipper’s notable 2025 successes—SZA, K-pop and White Lotus superstar LISA, athletic pop dynamo Tate McRae and mysterious masked metal band Sleep Token, whose Even in Arcadia debuted at #1 with 128k—hardly seem like they belong on the same planet, no less the same label.

We hardly belong on the same planet as many of the accomplished people we interview, but we managed to slip past security once again.

What's the state of RCA right now?
We’re in a really good place. We've had a great year so far. We successfully launched Tate McRae’s first #1 album. We re-launched SZA at the top of this year with the LANA deluxe version of SOS, which has been unbelievably successful. It’s one of my favorite albums over the last 10 years. We’ve been on an incredible journey with SZA and Top and Punch, our partners at TDE.

SOS’s staying power is wild. It surpassed Michael Jackson's Thriller for the longest-running Top 10 album by a Black artist and Adele’s 21 for the most weeks in the Top 10 by a female artist. What do you attribute that to?
SZA defies genre. Her audience is very varied. It’s also a testament to the times that we're in, in that the genre-specific thing is not quite as powerful as it once was. Obviously, much of that was governed by the music business.

There were strictures for a quote-unquote R&B artist.
Yes. And SZA has worked very hard to take a stance against that. She loves R&B music, she loves alternative music. She's got songs on SOS with alternative artists like Phoebe Bridgers and songs with Travis Scott. The influences are wide. “Kill Bill” sounds like a French chanson, like an old Serge Gainsbourg record or something. I know she's very influenced by Joni Mitchell.

That’s interesting you mention Joni, because SZA’s phrasing is so distinct.
Exactly. SZA once told me that Joni's phrasing was an inspiration for her. Not that she's trying to sound like Joni Mitchell.

Of course. But SZA makes really idiosyncratic decisions with her vocals.
Exactly. I also think her lyrics are so incisive, saying things that people don't know quite how to say but in a very disarming way. That's one of the great gifts she has.

Let’s go back to breaking Tate.
We’ve worked with her since she was 16. She was doing two separate YouTube channels. She was a competitive dancer from early in her life, so she had this dance channel, and then she had a separate channel where she was performing her own songs. We saw this and thought there's something here that nobody else is quite doing. She’s able to write songs that resonate with a lot of young women in particular, and at the same time she has this incredible dance ability. “Revolving Door,” the most recent video, is the best example of that. She's really a spectacular dancer.

People still care about dancing in music videos?
They do in her case. “Revolving Door” has been one of her biggest videos, if not her biggest video.

What's the next step for Tate?
Still to be invented. But I feel like there are other places she can go. Look at an artist like Janet Jackson, who was able to keep expanding on what she could do musically and with her choreography. I look forward to seeing what Tate can do. She's so gifted.

And then there’s Sleep Token, which is…

Total madness! How did you come to work with Sleep Token?
Daniel Schultz and Dan Chertoff, two of our great A&R people, found the band around a year-and-a-half ago. They've had some independent albums, and the last one started to make some noise. And that's when we made a deal with them. The band worked on a plan for this album, the intricacies of which I haven't seen in my career. The world they build is insane. The details! There is a YouTuber who posted this 10-minute introduction to how this particular project got launched. You have to see it. I can't describe it.

And Vessel is the masked man behind it all, yes?
Vessel is a character and a representation of a physical embodiment of a follower for the deity known as Sleep. Truly, dig in online… It’s a fascinating world.

What do you hear when you hear their songs?
Some of the British press describe them as an alternative metal band, but they refuse to be put into a genre. Personally, I hear a lot of R&B and British hip-hop in the music. I hear Pink Floyd. People talk about Metallica. They're exciting because there's nothing like it. And the songs are really good.

Were you at all surprised by the streaming success of the first two singles, “Emergence” and “Caramel?”
Well, we've long been planning this album release. But clearly it's bigger than we thought it was going to be. You never know when things like this are going to happen, really.

Will there be trade photos of the band and you in your very own Sleep Token mask?
No, we won't be doing that. But it's very exciting. The launch of Even in Arcadia was spectacular. Have you had a chance to look at some of the material around the band?

I've dipped into it.
It's fun to dig into the world they’re building and at the commentary around it. Sleep Token are leading their fans through a very intelligent set of creative points.

What else do you have coming out in the next few months?
I’m really excited about Tyler Childers' new album, which is produced by Rick Rubin. He defies expectations, and this new album goes even further. The great thing about Tyler is that he does it the way he wants to do it. He's playing giant venues, and he's making the music he wants to make.

I’m excited about Wolf Alice, who we've been working with courtesy of Dan Chertoff. Their new record, which they did with Greg Kurstin, is going to be the defining album of their career. Doja Cat is gearing up for her new era on Instagram. You should check out some of her lives, they are hilarious. I also just met with Steve Lacy. He is one of the most honest and forward-thinking artists I know. He goes to some really unexpected places with his new music, and it’s so good.

Alex G has a great record coming this year and is launching a massive tour. It’s exciting that such a diehard indie artist agreed to partner with us. I think it shows we have this creative spirit, and that people who are concerned about their creative output trust us. We're seeing a lot of indie or alternative artists becoming mainstream: The Neighbourhood, The Marías, Mitski. I think Alex G is going to be next.

Is that mainly the result of streaming superseding traditional gatekeepers?
It’s audience and fans first. Audience rules everything. Interesting, creative music gets fans excited. And social media is where that story is told. When those things come together, that's a very powerful mix.

That’s certainly true of LISA.
We started working with her about a year ago. It's been an interesting journey. The whole K-pop thing is a parallel universe. Their level of fandom is just insanely high and the time and energy they devote is remarkable.

LISA is obviously super famous, as both a member of BLACKPINK and now as an actor from The White Lotus. What's the challenge in advancing her solo music career beyond where she is?
We feel we’ve already made a huge amount of progress on her solo career. She's had tremendous video views, especially on “ROCKSTAR.” We know that there's a journey to cross from K-pop world into mainstream pop world. Because the two live side by side. And I think everybody's been figuring this out. I would say the same is true for the other members of BLACKPINK. But LISA has a certain something, both on stage and on screen. We just saw her wow with a star-turn performance at Coachella. She lights up a stage in a truly special way.

I know you’re a CEO with varied responsibilities, but people we spoke to particularly praised your A&R skill and acumen. Broadly, how would you define the era of A&R we’re in now?
We talk about this all the time. One of the fundamentals of this era is that artists now arrive with their own idea of who they are and who they intend to become. So we're going, "Okay, how can we help you make what you're doing even more impactful globally? Can we help you with producers, maybe? Can we help you with visual creative? Or can we help build on what you've already begun?"

This used to exist, too. But things started from scratch at labels back in another era. Today, the label is often enhancing what has already begun, which obviously is a different thing.

When you're pitching RCA to an artist, what are you telling them? What's your point of difference from other labels?
We definitely talk about the art. Everything here—like the studio you just saw, for example—is evidence that music is the premier thing at RCA. We also talk about artists who came from independent labels or self-release situations and started working with us, and how things have worked really well. We have lots of examples of that: Childish Gambino, SZA, Steve Lacy, now Alex G.

Can you tell us about some new artists you’re really excited about?
We recently signed U.K. R&B artist kwn, she’s an incredible talent and a definite artist to watch. She knows how to captivate an audience and stir up a conversation through her provocative music and her visuals. The Kehlani remix of her song “worst behaviour” alone got people talking. We’re also working with singer-songwriter Debbii Dawson, who has a voice unlike anyone else at the moment. She’s melds Dolly Parton-esque melodies with ABBA’s pop sensibilities, all with a modern twist. She recently just wrapped touring with Role Model and is currently working on new music.

I know you don't like to talk genre. However. Do you think Sleep Token is emblematic of a resurgence in rock music?
We're seeing a lot of new rock bands doing well. Older ones, too, like The Deftones. I think whenever something goes away for a long enough time, there's a younger generation that doesn’t see it the way older fans might. And today, everything is available for a music fan. They can go and listen to Nirvana and The Deftones and Paramore and Arctic Monkeys.

What’s the biggest challenge facing the major labels today?
The thing that's been hard is the distro of it all, people self-releasing and doing independent distro. Independent distributors provide a very competitive alternative lane for artists. While I think that's been challenging for major labels, I would say that we're seeing a lot of people returning to understanding that having a global team gets you to the next level or gets you on a path to a bigger career.

Also, I don't know if we've ever had as much diversity of music on RCA as we do now. Music's coming from everywhere. We've had great success with Tems, Wizkid and Davido from Nigeria. Becky G in conjunction with Sony Latin. Country music and Americana with Tyler Childers and The Red Clay Strays. We've talked about alternative metal, we've talked about K-pop. When we do our weekly meetings and we look at what's bubbling up, it's coming from anywhere and everywhere.

How do you think you've evolved as a CEO in the past few years?
I think it dovetails into the last point. You have to be nimble, and you have to keep looking at reinvention. Fortunately, I always like to look at what's next. One of the great things about growing up in the U.K. is you hear lots of different music, because it was never quite as genre-bound as the U.S.

In the course of your career, is there an artist or record that really sticks out as something that you knew was great and just loved so much but, for whatever reason, it just didn't happen?
I learned that sometimes it’s all about timing. Earlier in my career, I worked on artists who I loved but they were ahead of their time. Now I can look back and go, well, I was really on to something. I remember, when I started working for Clive Davis in the late ‘90s, he was very pragmatic about this. And Clive had his methodology, books' worth of it frankly. But one of his key beliefs was that you have to make sure things work in the middle, in the mainstream. He would always head there. I learned a lot from him at Arista and J.

So where's the middle now in popular music?
I'd like to think it's where we are.

But you have huge hits without catering to the quote-unquote middle.
Honestly, on second thought, we're not the middle. Or, to put it another way, we often work with brilliant artists like Doja Cat or SZA who start in one place and then end up helping to define the middle.

Beyond Clive, who else do you consider to be mentors?
Personally, I’ve worked with Phyllis Cohen, a brilliant psychologist who has helped me strategize and grow throughout my career. I can’t overstate enough the importance of mental health in the workplace.

I started out at Chrysalis, and Doug D'Arcy, who was one of the people running Chrysalis at the time, was a great mentor to me and has been a lifelong friend. He took a chance on me and allowed me to use my taste. Chrysalis had a lot of cool music in the late ‘80s and early ’90s, but it didn't know about hip-hop or house music or all these things that were coming into the world. Doug let me follow my instincts.

I worked with Benny Medina when he was at Warner Bros. in the ’90s. I admired his confidence and learned that when you have confidence in yourself you can make things happen.

And then there is Doug Morris. He gave me an opportunity. I knew I was ready, but he saw my leadership potential when he gave me the position of chairman.

Since then, you’ve assembled quite a team.
Absolutely. Our COO, John Fleckenstein, is amazing. Operationally, marketing, ideas… He is such a key part of this company. Sometimes he says, "I keep the trains moving," but he does so much more than that. He's able to understand not just how people think and work together, but also how to bring ideas to fruition.

Mark Pitts is our president, and somebody who's had a phenomenal career in terms of being around amazing artists, particularly some of the hip-hop and R&B legends that we work with. And he's been super helpful in bringing us more into hip-hop, with Latto, Flo Milli and Young Nudy among others.

And of course, last but not least, there’s my boss, Rob Stringer. What I really love about Rob is that he's a music guy. We talk about music all the time. He understands how artists think and he just gets music. When we were talking about what's going on with Sleep Token, he got so excited about the story, the potential, how different it was, how dynamic it was.

Has the move to L.A. changed the DNA of RCA?
It's made a big difference, actually, to be in closer proximity to many of the artists and record makers who live here. Plus, we have our studio, we've got great art on the walls courtesy of our partnership with Stefan Simchowitz and we've got a great energy here. We had a good space in New York, but this is a very different thing. It's a new era for RCA.