Innova Staff

Director: Philip Blackburn

Philip is innova Director at the American Composers Forum where he runs the innova recordings CD label. He studied composition at Cambridge and Iowa and lectures on Harry Partch, Vietnamese/Belizean/Cuban music, and sound in public art. He is a guerilla sound sculptor, creating occasions for listening where the public least expects them. For that, he was made a 2003 Bush Foundation Artist Fellow. He wrote the soundtrack for Wild Music: Sounds and Songs of Life that may be touring a science museum near you, and often works on sound installations, sonic playgrounds, and acoustic paraphernalia to help us all tune into those all-important, mysterious vibrations. Signal to Noise Magazine called him a "startlingly original composer." More.

Operations Manager: Chris Campbell

“Christopher Campbell not only makes his own extremely unique music but he also helps make music by lots of other composers happen." —NewMusicBox

In addition to serving as Operations Manager for innova Recordings, Chris Campbell is a composer and musician. Born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, his first exposure to music was through the organ at the Lutheran church. He soon graduated to a Casio MT-52 before moving on to play bass in hardcore bands in high school. While attending Sarah Lawrence in New York, he studied classical music with George Tsontakis and David Del Tredici.
 
From sit-down concerts to all-night festivals, his music has been performed and heard from New Zealand to Montserrat to the United Kingdom to the United States and been described as “oscillating between the comforting and the exotic, with occasional creepy moments” by Time Out Chicago. For him, making music is a way to both communicate and listen better.

Campbell enjoys nature, living in the Twin Cities, collaborating with friends and colleagues, cooking, following boxing, roughhousing with his pug, Gozer, and—most importantly—being with family and friends.

Publicist: Steve McPherson

Steve McPherson is a musician and writer who’s lived in the Twin Cities since 2004, where he’s performed with bands and artists including Big Trouble, Brutal Becomings, Crossing Guards, Jessy Greene, and Heiruspecs. His work as a critic and journalist has appeared in Pulse of the Twin Cities (where he was the Music/Film/Theater Editor from 2005–2007), City Pages, The Onion’s A.V. Club, the Star Tribune, Skyscraper Magazine, and Reveille Magazine, an online music magazine he founded in 2007. His interviews with artists include Aimee Mann, Grizzly Bear, Ben Gibbard, Feist, M.I.A., Sunny Day Real Estate, Tarentel, Wolf Parade, Menomena, David King, The Hold Steady, and many others.

He is currently finishing his MFA in Creative Writing at Hamline University, where he recently received the W. Quay Grigg Award for Excellence in Literary Study. In addition to his duties as publicist for Innova Recordings, he is an adjunct faculty member at McNally Smith College of Music in the Liberal Arts department. His poetry appears in rock, paper, scissors, his fiction appears in a forthcoming collection from Green Lantern Press and he will be the Assistant Fiction Editor for literary annual Water~Stone Review’s 14th edition.

Assistants sine qua non: YOUR NAME HERE; WE LOVE AND NEED INTERNS

Minister of Finance: Paul Hanson 

ACF Presidente: John Nuechterlein

innova Plenipotentiary: Ben Fletcher. 

Ben Fletcher graduated from Kenyon-Wanamingo high school and is currently a senior studying Music Business at Augsburg College. He has participated in multiple ensembles such as concert band, jazz band, all-conference band, percussion ensembles, as well as a few different punk rock bands with friends.  He rotates playing drums, lead guitar, and bass guitar.  He also has experience staging live shows at classic rock festivals such as Moondance Jam in Walker, MN.  Ben lives in St. Paul, MN and also enjoys cooking, spending time outside, and hanging out with friends.