Like most people in the music industry, Cheryl Pawelski took a risk. Twelve years ago, she moved from Milwaukee to L.A. without a job or a place to live, but with a strong love for music and the desire to work in the field.

Eventually, Pawelski found work as a temporary employee at EMI Records, and by the time of her departure in May 2002, had climbed her way to Senior Director in the major label's marketing department. Over the years, she has produced hundreds of albums for bands ranging from The Beach Boys to The Band.

Today, the Marquette graduate owns her own business, Filthy Mouth Music, and represents independent artists in television, radio and advertising, including, Martha Davis from the Motels and Jim Babjak and Dennis Dieken of The Smithereens.

"I go out on the artist's behalf, because they might not have the time, connections, know-how, etc. and try to make deals for them to further their careers," says Pawelski, who is also a consultant for Rhino Records' Handmade imprint.

Pawelski has lived in L.A. for more than a decade, but remains connected to the Midwest. Still following the Packers and Milwaukee bands, Pawelski keeps one eye on the city where, it seems, her heart resides as well.

OMC: Were you born in Milwaukee? Go to high school here? College?

CP: Yes. I went to Pius XI high school and graduated in '84. I went to UWM for two years and then transferred to Marquette where I graduated in '89.

OMC: When and why did you leave Milwaukee?

CP: I think it was 1990 when I left Milwaukee. I interviewed at Narada, and they wouldn't have me, so I figured I needed to go where the music business was concentrated. The choices were London, New York and Los Angeles. We (my friend and I) figured that Los Angeles was probably the easiest to be poor in and we had a few friends already living there. So, even though we had no money and no jobs, we had a roof over our heads.

OMC: Why did you go into the music industry?

CP: I went into the music industry because I had to. I was compelled to do anything with, in and around music that I could -- much the way musicians and artists have no choice really. Unless one wants to live a half-satisfying life, one must do what one loves right? I never want to have to ask myself the question, "what if?" So, so far, I haven't.

OMC: Were you always a musician, or a music supporter who later became a musician?

CP: I was sort of a music junkie from the word go. My dad's a musician and my mom was always dancing around the house to something, so music was always there. Early on though, I did have a bizarre addiction to the actual physical documents of music -- I loved and still love 45s and LPs. My house is teeming with every kind of recorded music you can find. The first thing I ever did with money of my own (well, it was my grandma's kind offer to buy something) was buy records. I used to waitress at Mr. Steak on Layton and after every Friday and Saturday night (good tip nights), I'd go off the next day and blow it all on music. My mom thought I was nuts. I like to remind her of that now.

I've played guitar since I was very young. My dad used to teach music lessons at Lincoln Music House so naturally, I got walked straight over there with my first cruddy guitar. At some point it occurred to me that "if so and so can write a song, well, so can I." So I started writing. The abridged version of my recording career is I had a pretty bad band back in Milwaukee, when we moved to L.A. we developed a second band which made some records (one released in Europe) and once we disbanded we started recording children's records which we still do to this day. So far there have been around nine or 10 of them. I lost count.

OMC: What was the first album you purchased?

CP: I think I bought a bunch of albums at once. I can tell you exactly the first two 45s that I bought with my grandma's money (this was under the guise that they belonged to her and I would keep them for her), they were Anne Murray's "Snowbird" and "Put Your Hand In The Hand" and Sammy Davis, Jr.'s, "The Candy Man" and "I Want To Be Happy" on the MGM label with the lion -- for some reason I was fascinated by that. So there you have it. Go ahead, laugh if you must.

OMC: Considering my first album was one of Shaun Cassidy's, I'm going to refrain from laughing. So what was the last record you bought?

CP: Sheeesh, I guess the last record I bought was yesterday and that was the Jeff Buckley/Gary Lucas collaboration that happened before Jeff signed to Columbia and made the "Grace" album. It's demo-y but a nice window into his earlier material.

OMC: What exactly does it mean to "represent" an artist?

CP: I operate as a conduit between artists that may not have exposure to people in the industry and those people in the industry. I'm making available to other industry people an artists' repertoire, on the artists' behalf.

OMC: Given the chance, who would you like to represent?

CP: Now that's a question. I hate to not include any juicy names of people that I'd like to represent, but I'm really happy with the artists that I have and the ones that I'll pursue. I've gotten the opportunity over the past 10 years to work with so many great artists -- Richard Thompson, Robbie Robertson, Brian Wilson, Nils Lofgren, Dave lvin, Martha Davis/The Motels, The Smithereens -- and many have become my friends. Some I do represent, while others have really got their own organization of people. Let's see, I guess I can't adequately answer this one because it all happens in some mysterious way and I'm open to whatever comes next. Sorry.