From Hollywood to the Heartland: How Three Brothers Music Is a New Approach to Running a Record Label
In partnership with Viral Spike Marketing
By Matt Emma
Blake Phillips didn’t retreat from Los Angeles—he strategically repositioned. Now, from Wichita, Kansas, he’s proving that geography is no longer destiny in the music industry.
When the pandemic forced Blake Phillips to shutter his North Hollywood production studio and café in 2020, the entertainment veteran faced a choice: rebuild in an increasingly restrictive California market or take everything he’d learned from a decade in Hollywood and plant it somewhere unexpected. He chose the latter, and the result is Three Brothers Music, a multi-faceted label that’s already making waves by signing emerging talent.
The Hollywood Foundation
Phillips’ journey to launching Three Brothers Music reads like an example of persistence in the entertainment industry. At nineteen, he landed in Los Angeles with ambition and little else, grinding through internships at production companies and absorbing everything he could about the film and music industries. His breakthrough came through friendships.
That connection opened doors that would define Phillips’ career. His production studio, Prefect Films Studio, became a hub where artists would create. By his mid-twenties, Phillips had established himself as someone who could navigate both film and music with equal fluency.
His publishing and record deal work expanded his network even further. Working alongside industry veteran Brian Shafton (RBC, BMG, Compound Interest)—who secured Phillips’ first distribution deal back in 2012—he collaborated with everyone from YG, Bizness Boi, Reyli Barba, LaRussell, Jelly Roll, Macy Gray to J. Boyd, from Berner to CJ Green, Westside Boogie and more. The resume is extensive, but Phillips keeps his philosophy simple: “I work with people who like to work with me. It’s not complicated. If we vibe then business generally gets done.”
The Kansas Pivot
COVID-19’s impact on California’s entertainment infrastructure wasn’t just an inconvenience for Phillips—it was an awakening. Years of building businesses evaporated overnight due to lockdown restrictions. Rather than view it as defeat, he saw opportunity. “I have zero regrets,” Phillips says about leaving California. “In the modern music industry, location matters less than relationships, infrastructure, and execution.”
Phillips returned to Kansas with a plan and two key partners: Jack M. Warner, who specializes in building infrastructure, and Nick Canova, who handles HR and artist onboarding. Warner immediately began developing Action Approved Studio in Wichita—a fully functional music studio that serves as the label’s home base. The facility offers everything a major label provides: artist development, consulting, licensing, packaging, and distribution through Virgin Music Group, plus playlisting connections across all major DSPs with marketing resources through partnerships like Lost Boy Atlanta and Audiosocket.
Three Brothers Music operates coast-to-coast with a roster of established producers. The message is clear: you don’t need to be in Los Angeles or New York to compete at the highest level anymore.
The First Major Move: T.R.U.B.
When it came time to make their first major artist signing, Three Brothers Music didn’t hedge their bets. They went after T.R.U.B., an emerging artist out of Memphis with the pedigree and work ethic to match.
Phillips first connected with T.R.U.B. through a collaboration on his previous album, Idiomatic Motifs, where they locked in a track called “Real” featuring Project Pat. The chemistry was immediate, and Phillips began his due diligence. “I started doing a deep dive and all signs pointed to him being the next hot artist out of Memphis,” he explains.
T.R.U.B.’s debut major label album, Compliments of the Chef, is now rolling out with singles featuring an impressive roster: Kurupt, Swamp Izzo, Bone Crusher, and Project Pat. It’s the kind of debut that announces a label’s arrival, not just an artist’s.
“He’s the truth,” Phillips says plainly. “An amazing artist.” The work ethic, the talent, the connections—it all aligned. For a label’s first major signing, it’s a statement of intent.
Image credit: Three Brothers Music
What’s Next
Three Brothers Music isn’t just betting on T.R.U.B.—they’re building an ecosystem. Action Approved Studio gives them a physical presence and a creative hub. Their Virgin Music Group partnership provides major label distribution muscle. Their coast-to-coast operation means they can scout and develop talent anywhere. And their founder brings a decade of Hollywood relationships and credibility.
The traditional music industry model assumed you needed to be in specific cities to access specific resources. Phillips and his partners are proving that assumption outdated. With the right infrastructure, partnerships, and vision, a Kansas-based label can sign Memphis talent, work with Los Angeles producers, and distribute through major label channels.
Phillips spent his twenties building relationships and learning the business from the inside. Now he’s spending his thirties applying those lessons on his own terms, in his own market, with his own artists. The location changed, but the fundamentals didn’t: talent, relationships, and execution.
For artists, producers, or industry professionals interested in connecting with Three Brothers Music or Action Approved Studio, the team is active on social media and responsive to professional inquiries. As Phillips demonstrated in Los Angeles, and as he’s now proving in Kansas, sometimes the best move isn’t climbing the ladder where everyone else is standing—it’s building your own ladder somewhere unexpected.
Three Brothers Music is currently rolling out singles from T.R.U.B.’s debut album “Compliments of the Chef” through Virgin Music Group. For more information, follow @ActionApprovedStudio and @ThreeBrothersMusic on Instagram.