MXD Spotlight @ SPOT Festival 2016 – part four

Asbjørn Hæstrup 30. april 2016

MXD Spotlight is back! This weekend, we’re showing you the faces of some of the many Danish and international music industry professionals attending SPOT Festival 2016. Stay tuned on Facebook and Twitter for more updates.

Paul Tao, IAMSOUND

Hi Paul, what do you do at IAMSOUND? We’re an LA-based indie label, and I am one of the owners. We do ‘left-of-centre pop’ like Charlie XCX, Salem and Banks. Our only Scandinavian act is Kate Boy from Sweden.

What shows have you watched so far? I watched Liss and Den Sorte Skole, which was really good. Tonight, I’m going to go to Smerz and Eera.

Gunnar Siewert, Promojukebox

What do you guys do at Promojukebox? We do watermarked music promotion, which is basically meant to prevent leaks of unreleased music, by watermarking the individual soundfiles, making it easier to see where the leaks come from and therefore preventing them altogether. We had about 5 million sendouts last year. Most labels we work with tell us that their leaks has went down to almost zero after they started using our product.

What sort of new clients are you looking for here at SPOT? Most of our clients are larger labels, so we’re looking to work with more of the smaller indie labels. The Nordic territories are a new market for us, so we’re excited to get to work with some of your labels.

Frank Lenggenhager, Lautstark

Hi Frank, what brings you to SPOT this year? It’s my fifth or sixth time here. I always come back because it’s such a nice festival, and I have many friends and business partners here – we’ve worked with The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Go Go Berlin, Lydmor & Bon Homme and Under Byen in the past. SPOT Festival works really well in conjunction with The Danish Night at Reeperbahn, since I can get to see my Danish and Scandinavian friends with half-year intervals.

Did you watch any shows you liked yesterday? Yeah, I saw The Awesome Welles and Kentaur, both if which I really liked. Tonight, I’ll definitely be going to Konni Kass.

Laurits Bejder Klausen, The Bank

What’s The Bank? We do music publishing and work with bands like Thanks, Eloq and AV AV AV. We also do songwritingsessions.

Did you watch any good shows yesterday? Yeah, I watched all of the Karrierekanonen shows. So unfortunately, I had to miss Alex Vargas, which I really wanted to see. Tonight, I’ll be going to Saveus.

Dan Koplowitz, Friendly Fire Licensing

What’s your business here at SPOT? I’m here to meet with some of the many Danish labels I already work with, like Crunchy Frog, Antiphonics, disco:wax and Tambourhinoceros. I’m actually planning on moving to Denmark in the near future, since I have so much business here.

Which shows have you watched so far? Kill J and AyOwA, I watched yesterday. Today I’d like to check out Shy Shy Shy, Palace Winter, Masasolo, Emilie Ramirez and Kelvin.

Thomas Bredahl, Heartbeat Management

What brings you to SPOT this year? We have many of our bands playing and besides that, I’m mostly here to tend to our business connections.

Did you watch any good shows so far? The Awesome Welles, Northern Assembly, The Naked Sessions, 11th Street Kids and IAMJJ. For tonight, I plan to go to Go Go Berlin and Xolo Island.

Jaime Neely, BMG

What do you do at BMG? I’m the Senior Director of Creative for BMG in L.A. I work with bands like Twin Shadow, The Strokes and Death Cab for Cutie.

What shows have you watched so far? Dagny, Chinah, Guns, Den Sorte Skole (whom I really liked) and Liss. Tonight, I’m not sure what to see, but I might check out Irah.

Nikolaj Gøeg Bygholm, Lydtaet/PHQ Music

What do you do at Lydtaet and PHQ? Lydtaet is a music collective from Aalborg and PHQ is a booking and management agency. We work with artists like Farveblind, which is Berlin-style electro and This Is You, which is indie rock.

Did you watch any good shows so far? I saw Chinah and Kill J yesterday and tonight I’ll probably go to Unge Ferrari and Exec.