Where are you based?
London, UK.
Where do you work? What do you do?
I’m currently Head of Ticketing and Campaigns at Music Glue. Music Glue is an e-commerce platform tailored for the music industry. Bands and their management companies, as well as record labels, merch companies, promoters, venues etc. can sell physical and digital music, merchandise, and tickets in their own marketplace, in multiple currencies and languages, direct to their fans.
My daily tasks involve overseeing our ticketing network and setting up tour presale with tickets, along with the booking agents and promoters. I also manage album pre-order campaigns, which involves dealing with different parties (management companies, record labels, merch companies etc.). I also do a lot of account management and help our various clients to make the most of their Music Glue account and store.
What are you listening to?
Lately I’ve been going through my Last FM account (mostly active between 2005 and 2011) and rediscovered all those bands that I was listening to back then, which was quite a fun thing to do. I’ve also put some playlists together so everything is in one place. Favourites included Blur, Art Brut, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Pulp, Mansun, Manic Street Preachers, the Strokes etc. I still love those bands!
Also been listening to a lot of My Bloody Valentine now that their back catalogue is back on streaming services (also received their first album on vinyl!). Very exciting.
Otherwise, I’d say my tastes are quite eclectic; I’m not going to list any specific genres here, but I’d say my favourites are synth-fuelled and 80s sounding.
How do you discover new music?
From a few different ways I guess, main one being streaming links sent by my friends and/or some of my family members. We all have similar music tastes so I can trust them. Live music is also pretty important (don’t miss the support band!). Recommendations from streaming services are good too (although they’ve been a bit repetitive lately). I also like reading about new music on webzines and the playlists they put together are very handy too.
“Live music is also pretty important (don’t miss the support band!)”
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services? Why?
Streaming services so either full albums or playlists. As for physical, I do love records and my collection has really expanded lately (I’m very partial to limited coloured vinyls).
I used to collect CDs when I was younger and listen to digital downloads on my iPod (RIP), I do neither of these things anymore so I guess the equivalent now is streaming services and vinyl. The sound on vinyls is great and better listened to at a very loud voIume. I like the idea of owning all those albums I love on vinyl. It also makes the artwork stand out, which we tend to forget a bit when listening to digital music. The most exciting thing is also when you stumble across a record (rare or not) that you’ve been looking for for a while.
Where do you do most of your music listening?
I work from home currently so music is always on, whether I’m working or not. I used to love listening to music whilst commuting too; my commute was the perfect duration to listen to an album in full.
At home, I have my speakers just by my record player and collection in the living room. I tend to listen to music on streaming services whilst I’m working though so I don’t need to stand up to flip the sides!
How do you find and listen to pre-release music?
I often get sent pre-released music links by the artists I work with which is very lucky and exciting.
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?
It’s awesome to be able to listen to music digitally on any devices whenever and wherever we want. I’ve discovered so many new artists and genres since starting using it. However, I do think that you need a good sound set up/speakers to make the most of it. I also find it frustrating that I always get the same artists/songs recommended to me or nothing too different to what I usually listen to.
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?
I usually create new playlists and save albums or favourite tracks. Always fun to go back to those after you haven’t thought about them in a while. I also have a record wishlist which I keep updated. Otherwise, I’d say I’m lucky to have a good memory, so there’s always stuff I remember straight away.
Do you tip other people off to new music? How?
Yes all the time! We’ve started a listening session on streaming services with my friends on Fridays during lockdown which is a lot of fun. You basically add anything you’d like to share in the queue and it gets played on each of our speakers at home. I also like to create new themed playlists, for example based on a specific music genre or end of year round up.
Anything you want to “promote”?
I’d recommend checking out the band Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (what a name) who should become your new favourite riffy killer band (for Black Sabbath fans!). Their website is powered by Music Glue and you can get some vinyls and sweet merch from there.
I’ve been listening to the brilliant Gang of Four compilation (featuring Gary Numan, IDLES, La Roux, Helmet and many more) that came out a couple of weeks ago. I love all those Gang Of Four songs and it’s really interesting to hear these artists’ reinterpretations! My favourites are the covers of Natural’s Not In It by Tom Morello and Serj Tankian, and Forever Starts Now (Killing Joke Dub) by Killing Joke x Gang of Four. The artwork by Damien Hirst is also great.
Vinyls, CDs, cassettes and merch here
Otherwise, lately I’ve been very fond of Drab Majesty who are for me making the best 80s sounding music at the moment. They call themselves “tragic wave” which I think is a great concept.
I also love Jorge Elbrecht and his career as a solo artist or in the past with his bands Violens or Lansing-Dreiden. His last album “Presentable Corpse – 002” on O Genesis Records, a mix between psychedelic and sunny alternative pop, is excellent and I highly recommend it.
