I work from home, in a village near Godalming, Surrey. Hardly the rock’n’roll capital of the world. It is within easy striking distance of London and the South Coast so it works fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I set up Kick Arts UK<\/a> when I left West End Centre. I get up to a whole range of things – I do one-to-one consultancies for musicians and other creatives. There I manage 4 music artists, I am a booking agent and I run venue consultancies. In addition to that, I also lecture in Music Business at UCA. Plus was South East Co-ordinator for Music Venue Trust for the first 6 months of the pandemic too, helping to save over 90 venues. I couldn\u2019t do any of it without my friend and colleague Lorna. She deals with a lot of the financials and detail. In terms of the work I do, it seems to be fairly split between people with a rock background (eg Matro Rancho and Sick Joy) and people with a folk background (Chris Wood, Hannah James and Rowan Rheingans). There are a few unusual projects alongside like void_null and Platform 4. I think what grabs me is people who are trying to express what is inside them and who care about the art of it more than anything else. Does that make sense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right now I\u2019ve been listening mostly to album mixes from artists I work with, to be honest. Other than that I am listening to some old and some new, like most of us I guess. Recently old stuff has included Motorhead, Radiohead\u2019s OK Computer, Freddy King\u2019s first album, Tracy Chapman, lots of The Beatles and a hefty chunk of Earthtone 9. In terms of the newer stuff, I\u2019m enjoying Squid, Black Country New Road, Bob Holroyd, Martha Hill, Bossk, Chubby and the Gang, and a bit of Little Simz for good measure. But all my artists know more about music than I do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wish I knew! It\u2019s mostly osmosis I think. Friends tell me, I hear something on 6Music, via festival finds, shares from people I trust, and gig listings from grassroots venues. Sometimes, though, it\u2019s just the Spotify algorithm I suspect! My friend James who runs 2000 Trees<\/a> festival did a top 10 of recent heavy music and almost all were new to me and fantastic. I love it when that happens. I also love gigs, and I love stumbling across new bands I\u2019ve never heard of. I\u2019ve missed live music. My wife and kids also turn me on to a lot of stuff (my \u201ckids\u201d are all in their 20s now but they\u2019ve done it for years!) A lot of it comes from the artists I work with too. I only work with people I think are great, so their taste often hits the spot for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am a glutton for Spotify with a side order of 6 Music. CDs are something I still listen to and really enjoy the full album experience. I also have a ton of cassettes I can\u2019t bear to part with but never play. Though I recognise vinyl is best of all – my record player, sadly, has a pile of stuff on it most of the time. Spotify is just so easy, isn\u2019t it? I know there are issues with streaming, but as a consumer, it has opened up a lot of things to us that we wouldn\u2019t have tried before. I don\u2019t listen to music if I am out walking though, I like the freedom of simply being outdoors and relaxing in nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I know there are issues with streaming, but as a consumer it has opened up a lot of things to us that we wouldn\u2019t have tried before.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I listen to music as I work and as I cook, and then in the evening when I get the chance as well. Recently I bought a Denon thing from Richer Sounds and that has been a game changer sonically, but you can quite often catch me just listening on my phone. I am an audiophile\u2019s worst nightmare. It must be particularly hard for Chris Wood as sound is a huge thing for him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I ran West End Centre in Aldershot I heard a fair bit I guess – from agents, labels etc. I was sent a lot when I managed Reuben too. Also a lot of pre-signed music! It was cool. Radio still reaches me – people like Cerys Matthews, Steve Lamacq, Tom Robinson and others at 6 still care about new music. When I send pre-release music I\u2019ll generally send a private SoundCloud<\/a> link, but I rarely browse there to find new stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I flit between things pretty fast as I work across lots of projects. Digital is mostly a boon for me but I guess my frustration with digital is that I sometimes leave things buried in my emails or poorly filed in dropbox and then have to rummage through and find them again! In general, though it\u2019s great for me and the things I REALLY need are where I want them. Being able to listen anywhere is great, and Google, Spotify etc make things easy to find again once they\u2019ve been released!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In general, I don\u2019t worry too much about that. The ones that stick are the ones that stick. I got quite fatalistic about that in my 30 years as a promoter. There is just too much music to keep tabs on, especially now! That said, I have forgotten a few bands I absolutely loved, so\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat are you listening to?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do you discover new music?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services? Why?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Where do you do most of your music listening?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do you find and listen to pre-release music?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n