M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

Jeff Simpson-Mastermind behind the Pearl Awards
by Maurine Jensen Proctor

He works to raise the bar for LDS entertainment.

A volunteer works through lunch, rubbing the rust off a donated stage piece. The clank of a hammer echoes through the empty David O. McKay arena at Utah Valley State College. In a few days this hollow shell of a building will be transformed as if by magic to become a black light theater where the glamorous Pearl Awards will be held, a sort of LDS version of the Grammys, complete with thank you speeches, television cameras, and spotlights.

There will be elaborate staging, flowing fabric backdrops, and top-notch entertainers booming out at mikes. Right now, though, this arena looks starkly utilitarian-and what it will be is only a vision in Jeff Simpson's head.

LDS entertainment is something like this arena. It is coming into its own because of a core of people like Jeff who have the vision and grit to make it happen. Nobody is paying the musicians and artists of the Church big dollars to polish their skills or sing out with their distinctive voices and world view. Not many are yet clamoring for what they have to offer. Yet, a handful of visionaries with true grit-Jeff Simpson being one of the foremost-believe in a cause they are willing to pay and fight for-that Latter-day Saints have something important to contribute toward the sensibilities of this earth, and the time has come to sing.

It means the artists sometimes live up to the stereotype of "starving," they hang on with a sense of stewardship even when it would be easier to give it all up, and like Jeff, they see possibilities, and then they sweat to make them happen.

"Sometimes you just have to will things into existence," Jeff grins in his work clothes, looking more like a stagehand than the CEO of Excel Entertainment Group which produces and distributes music CD's, videos and recently the theatrical film, God's Army. His company has produced the likes of Kenneth Cope's Greater Than Us All and Julie de Azevedo's Pray for Rain. Entertainment is not just lights and applause for musicians who have burst the barriers of mediocrity. It is hard, grimy work behind the scenes, hoping the seats will fill, and working with passion yet another day if they don't.

The Pearl Awards, held July 27 this year and sponsored by the Faith Centered Music Association (FMCA), is a chance to spotlight those musicians who have achieved excellence in the past year and continue to raise the bar for LDS musicians and entertainers. Though it was originally the brainchild of Jeff Simpson, from the beginning it entailed the combined efforts of LDS musicians who perform for many labels.

Jeff Simpson is that unique combination of creative flair and dedication to excellence who will not let LDS entertainment just be "karaoke with houselights." As the director of the Pearl Awards evening for three years, he has brought a sense of professionalism to the ceremony, and the concerts sponsored by his company that is marked.

Why does it matter that LDS entertainment exist and flourish anyway? Jeff says, "I love a lot of popular culture and films, but, like most Latter-day Saints, I feel that when I see it I have to ingest another point of view along with my own. Rarely do I feel like yes, that is how I feel about life and the universe. Whenever I saw something in our own culture that felt like it had the worldview, it seemed it didn't have the entertainment or production value that we were capable of. At the same time, I sense that we have incredibly talented people, but we are only beginning to do incredible stuff. If art is supposed to be a reflection of the culture, then we have to have accurate mirrors of ourselves. In the past as I looked around, I felt like I didn't see many accurate mirrors of what it meant to be a Latter-day Saint. Some sacred things were very beautiful, but the popular culture has not always been excellent."

The most basic question, Jeff says, is what is LDS entertainment or art anyway? Is it art created by a Latter-day Saint? Or art created for a Latter-day Saint? Is it art that specifically is designed to teach the benefits and features of baptism? Is it art or entertainment that seems culturally significant to an LDS person? "When people ask me if we just do LDS entertainment, I say no, if it means any of these," says Jeff. "All of these seem limited in scope to me. Would you ask Steven Spielberg if he just did Jewish films? After all, he made Schindler's List, and there is this Nazi authority element in a lot of his films.

"The fact is art and entertainment are a divine gift to humanity. It is a human expression of who you are, and you can't separate it from what you feel or believe or see. If you are LDS and have certain feelings about God, it is in your work. LDS entertainment or music does not have to be songs about the features and benefits of the gospel. It does have to be about how you feel about your walk and your journey, and then I understand you because of it. If you write a song about a burden, and I get to share that with you, you are helping me keep my baptismal covenant of taking upon myself your burdens. You can write a song about the four steps of repentance which is good and has its place, but I am probably more interested in your writing a story about someone who is in the midst of the repentance process.

"Jews wear their yarmulkes, and they can't escape them. That is who they are. I think LDS artists must wear their own yarmulkes because you cannot escape yourself or your journey. We have this tendency as members of the Church. We either write God out of our work and go to write for the world, or we write God into our work to teach a principle," Jeff said.

"Our manuals can teach us what we know about God. The restoration brought back the beautiful, eternal truths. Out of manuals and lessons and seminary, we can learn about God's attributes and things we ought to know about God. But when you talk about expression and art, then we talk about what we feel about God and about our journey. I always know better when I do the wrong thing, but sometimes I don't feel like doing better.

"What shall I write about? The articles of faith or my life, my wife, my children, my process in understanding eternal things. That doesn't mean there isn't a place for the teaching, but teaching and art are not always the same thing.

"My friend, Marvin Payne said the most powerful circle you can draw for an audience is 3/4 of a circle and let them complete the other quarter. Ask them a question, and let them answer it. You can't have the same power manufacturing for me what I can complete on my own part. Maybe as artists, we should hold back more and let people discover some things for themselves. It is so different each time. You can't just say, here's a rule because each story, each expression is unique.

"Art does two vital things for any culture. It helps us understand more clearly who we are as we process our journey, but also it mirrors to the world a clearer picture of our culture and ourselves. People come to know us as a people through our artistic expressions.""

Getting Started
Jeff Simpson started out in entertainment at Walt Disney Motion Pictures and Television, coming straight from BYU with only one seminary film project under his belt and a few other projects. He did a sort of Steven Spielberg kind of thing to get started-he went to the studio and volunteered to work for free.

"I knew what that meant," he said. "I knew I'd get asked to make breakfast and get made fun of because I didn't get the right kind of bagels and I didn't know what lox were. I asked friends how to make coffee, because I knew they'd ask me. I'd have to say I got a job there mainly on my ability to make breakfast."

Because Jeff is a natural showman, however, it wasn't long until he graduated from breakfast to being a production coordinator which meant he worked every day with executive vice-president Marty Katz, head of worldwide production who reported directly to Jeffrey Katzenberg. Jeff suddenly found himself working on television specials and TV movies of the week, shepherding several productions a year. Every year he got a promotion, a little more authority and increase in pay, yet at some point he began to have some thoughts.

"It's really an ego boost to work for Disney," he said. "It's like having a trampoline when you are a kid an everybody wants to be your friend. I knew when I was traveling on a plane that somebody was going to hold up a card with my name and meet me, and everybody was going to be impressed because of the Disney label. Yet I used to think, they are giving me credit for what Roy or Walt or Michael Eisner built.

"I'm not sure why I left Disney," Jeff admits. "I just felt I needed to add value somewhere." Jeff was at a "nice jumping off point" in his career, headed for Hollywood's fast track, but it was not what he wanted.

About that time an opportunity came to acquire Embryo records. Jeff and some partners formed Excel Entertainment Group, a name chosen because they wanted to tackle the whole broad spectrum of entertainment, and they wanted to work as a team. Sometimes people said, "How could you leave Disney to go start something new?" His answer? "Sometimes you have to go with what you are feeling inside."

Dividing the Categories
Early on Jeff began to see that all types of LDS entertainment were lumped together from sacred music to jazz to children's songs. At Excel, they began to divide the labels. All LDS entertainment was not the same, nor appealed to the same audience. In fact, lumping everything together suggested that LDS art was only for one purpose rather than the expression of Latter-day Saint artists. Embryo became the label for sacred. Highway Records was for contemporary music and JoyStream for inspirational.

In today's music industry, every aspect is handled by specialists-one company does public relations, another distribution and so forth. "Because we were small, we had to be like the Motown of the '50's," said Jeff, "and do it all in-house. We had to start with new order forms, a more professional way to pack our boxes and create our booths for trade fares. We had to create an expectation that this was professional-not just ward talent night on steriods. It was worth it to us because we believe that LDS artists have a unique worldview to share with the world."

Building an Audience
Jeff believes that to build LDS entertainment we have to ask more of ourselves. "There are two numbers which should never be equal," he said, "production budget and production value." Everything has to be lifted to a level of excellence that is worthy of our beliefs. It demands people with a lot of gumption, but also asks for an audience to be supportive.

"If we don't attract enough people to a concert or to buy a CD, that determines the extent to which we can do something the next time."

Yet, Jeff says that working within the confines of a smaller box than you might wish can also be a breeding ground for genius. "I"m sure Michelangelo did not want to be on his back painting the Sistine Chapel. He might have preferred a canvas, but you do what you have to do. Art and entertainment doesn't have to be perfect; it just has to be magic-or at least magic enough that you don't see the marionette strings. That's easy to say and very, very hard to do. That is why it is not done more often."

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