Shain Shapiro, How’d You Get That Awesome Gig?!

Occupation: UK and EU representative for the Canadian Independent Music Association.

Location: London, UK. I live in East London.

First Job: Sam the Record Man; Bayview Village, Toronto and The Comfort Zone, Toronto (I was a marketing assistant). I was 16.

Best Job: Probably this one. I used to do press at FatCat and One Little Indian Records. That was interesting.

Greatest Professional Challenge: Maintaining and developing the Canadian Blast brand to benefit our artists and companies in Europe with ever changing budgets, requirements and public initiatives. That and final reports and accounting. I was never great at math. And I’m still crap at it.

So, how did you get this awesome gig anyways? When I was working at FatCat/OLI in the UK (I have been living here for a while) I worked for a Canadian band. Through that I met the trade commissioner at the time, Jeffrey Crossman. I expressed interest in starting some form of an export office, because other countries do it and we don’t. He introduced me to Duncan McKie, then President of CIMA. I offered to travel to Berlin and use up some holiday and volunteer at PopKomm 2008. This led to me working on MIDEM 2009 and The Great Escape 2009. Over that time I worked on a business plan and job description for myself. On July 9 2009 (I remember that because we had two FatCat bands, The Twilight Sad and We Were Promised Jetpacks play) I quit and began freelancing for CIMA. At that time we did three showcasing festivals in Europe. Now we do around 40, so it is this development that has somehow created the role it is now.

What do you like best about your job? I love interacting with the bands and seeing my hard work provide results for them. I’m judged by the deals I do for and with artists and companies. A deal could be anything from getting an agent to landing a big festival, getting a publicist, sync, structuring a release etc… We’ve done over 300 since I started. It’s a good feeling to have some tiny part to play in an artist’s career development. It keeps me going through the days when budgets and reporting are all that matters.

Any special skills required? Not really. Be nice. Be organized. Answer and respond to emails. Be reliable. Never miss a plane. You have to be able to work anywhere… I mean anywhere. I travel a lot so I can work absolutely anywhere. Oh, and be able to admit your mistakes and work on them. I try not to make the same mistake twice. Oh, and dream big. Really this job is what I make of it… Every opportunity is on the table.

Favourite experience on the job. There’s loads. One of the most satisfying was the The Great Escape this year. We packed out the the Komedia, the most important ‘tastemaking’ venue in Brighton. We had 600 people crammed into a room to watch Hey Rosetta, Braids, Young Empires, Said the Whale and Woodhands. It was the largest Canadian Blast we’ve ever done and to be honest, watching so many people enjoying something you’ve created and fostered is worth its weight in gold to me. That made it all worthwhile, at least for that day.

Advice for people who want your awesome gig. Um… I sort of created the role so it’s odd to offer advice. I guess I would say dream big, be entrepreneurial and be organized. You can really do what you want as long as you’re prepared to work your ass off it. This business is hard and not for everyone. Oh, and write things down.

Favourite CDN Music Venue: Not sure.. I haven’t lived in Canada in a long time. I guess if I had to pick one it’d be the Danforth Music Hall. It’s gorgeous.

Favourite Record of the Moment: Definitely the new Hey Rosetta and the new James Vincent McMorrow. Both phenomenal.