When they're not writing and producing records, Linda Perry and Kerry Brown are helping to program multimillion-dollar charity events, like the recent Nirvana reunion.
Like many a Los Angeles origin story, We Are Hear's starts with Courtney Love. In the early 2000s, Love was working on songs for a never-released album with songwriter-producers Linda Perry and Kerry Brown — who didn't realize they were working on the same project until their respective wives introduced them over dinner. Perry and Brown hit it off, and in 2017, they decided to go into business together as We Are Hear, a record label, management company and publishing house whose clients include Natasha Bedingfield, Imogen Heap and Pete Molinari.
In 2018, when wildfires ripped through central California, Perry and Brown realized that their creative talents — and industry connections — could also serve a higher purpose. Friends of Perry's who own a ranch in Malibu, Calif., asked for her help organizing a benefit concert for Woolsey Fire victims. In less than two weeks, Perry and Brown booked a veritable music festival's worth of talent: Katy Perry, Joe Walsh, Gwen Stefani, Alanis Morissette, Rita Ora, Rick Springfield and Incubus all performed at the One Love Ranch concert. Instead of buying a customary charity-dinner table, attendees could purchase a trailer replete with food, drinks and chairs to take in the show for $100,000. Perry and Brown sold every last one.
"Normal galas, as beautiful as they are, are sit-down dinners [with] rubber chicken," says Perry. "We're not going to do that."