Water Crosses a Key Bridge With Its MCA Records Deal

Water, a rock band from Orange County, will be celebrating a recently struck deal with MCA Records when it headlines tonight at Bogart’s in Long Beach.

Ron Oberman, senior vice president of artists and repertoire at MCA, signed Water after hearing the young quartet at Bogart’s two months ago.

“Their songs are really strong, and their live performance connects in a very sincere, earnest, real sort of way,” said Oberman, who signed Toad the Wet Sprocket, the Bangles and Warrant in his previous position as a scout for Columbia Records. “And as people, they seemed extremely focused about what they want to do. I think it was Dean (Bradley, the band’s lead singer) who said, in a very sincere way, ‘I want you to know that we’re dreamers.’ I like their confidence, that the band is made of dreamers (who believe) they will make it.”

Rock ‘n’ roll success has been an elusive dream for MCA in recent years. The label’s country and R&B; divisions have turned out a steady stream of hits, but MCA has had trouble selling rock albums by anyone not named Tom Petty or Elton John.

Water’s manager, Steve Levesque, says background will make the label especially keen on succeeding with Water, the first band signed by Oberman since MCA hired him three months ago. “It’s a real good deal (because there is) a mandate at MCA to break a rock act,” Levesque said. “They really wooed the band.”

After tonight’s concert, Water will play one more show, July 1 at the Whisky in West Hollywood, before turning its energies toward work on a debut album to be released next year.

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While Water enjoys its honeymoon with a communications conglomerate, D.D. Wood is smarting in the aftermath of a sudden and unexpected divorce from her label, Hollywood Records, a Disney subsidiary.

Wood, a winsome singer-songwriter from Long Beach, was dropped by the label without warning, barely two months after the release of “Tuesdays Are Forever,” her strong, well-reviewed debut album. Rock, pop and country strains merged on the record with Wood’s deeply personal songwriting approach and knack for melodic hooks.

“I got caught in a political cross-fire” between Hollywood executives with conflicting ideas about how to run the company, Wood said. “My manager said, ‘It will be a better thing for your career in the long run not to be involved with this company.’ But I think it’s a bummer to have (the album) lost in the shuffle.”

Wood’s Nashville-based manager, Cameron Randle, said that in his eight years of working with such acts as Dwight Yoakam, the Texas Tornadoes, Holly Dunn and the Desert Rose Band, he had never seen such a sudden turnabout by a record company. “I’m surprised and a little confused,” Randle said.

He said he had submitted a written proposal of plans and estimated costs for a promotional campaign that would include shooting a video for the album’s title track and a national tour. He said a high-ranking Hollywood executive, “someone who had the unquestioned authority to authorize all these things,” approved the plan and promised that the label “would invest whatever was needed to make all these things happen.” The next day, Randle said, he was told Wood was being dropped.

“I truly think it was a real mistake to (drop) her at that stage of the game,” Randle said. “I think she’s a bright talent. She really didn’t get up to bat at all.”

A Hollywood Records spokeswoman said the company would have no comment.

On the positive side, Randle said, the clean break was much better for Wood than the fate that befalls some acts: being contractually tied to a label that has lost its enthusiasm for their work. Wood is working on new songs and demo recordings that her manager plans to shop in search of a new record deal.