Episode 109: Michael League is the founder of Snarky Puppy, the GroundUP Music label, and the GroundUP Music Festival, and he's one of the most independent minds working in music today. He sat down with us for a deep conversation about how he built the whole thing. This isn't an interview about bass tone or gear. It's about how the entire machine actually works: how a bandleader turns a college project into a five-time Grammy-winning institution, an artist-first record label, and an international festival, all on his own terms, and all without a major label calling the shots.
We trace the whole arc. League started Snarky Puppy in 2004 at the University of North Texas because he wasn't getting to play, so he built his own band. It transformed when he immersed himself in the Dallas gospel and R&B scene, absorbing the mentorship of the late Bernard Wright, the "North Star" who reshaped its feel. Out of that came the Snarky Puppy sound and the rotating cast fans call "the Fam," nearly 40 players who launched solo careers like Cory Henry's ("Lingus" is one of the most-watched instrumental performances online), Bill Laurance, Mark Lettieri, Larnell Lewis, Robert "Sput" Searight, and more.
Michael pulls back the curtain: how he leads and pays this rotating collective, schedules a year out so everyone gets bandstand time, and sees himself, borrowing from Béla Fleck, as "a leader among equals." We get into why he founded GroundUP Music after growing disenchanted with the label system, how it works as an artist-friendly alternative to majors, and how the GroundUP Festival became a no-headliner gathering that's crossed the Atlantic.
We also cover his life as collaborator: his partnership with David Crosby, whose late-career renaissance he helped spark; Lalah Hathaway entering the Snarky orbit; Family Dinner coming together; discovering Jacob Collier early; his band Elipsis with Antonio Sanchez and Pedrito Martinez; his love of the oud; and running it all from a 500-person Roman-era village in Spain. We talk making a living in music, sustainable careers for musicians, mentors and friends he's lost, and AI's effect on the industry.
This is for musicians, bandleaders, producers, and label-builders and anyone who's wondered how to build something lasting without compromising the art. If you love Snarky Puppy, jazz fusion, and the real workings of the industry, this one's for you. Subscribe and hit the bell. Lets go!
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