After a forty-minute lunch, there was a rapid turnaround. The keynote speaker for the day was Darcus Beese, President of Island Records. His ascent from making the tea (an “internship”, as he calls it) to head of the label has been a gripping story particularly due to his struggle as a black man growing up in London.
Before that we had three more panels discussing bands’ starting points to launch themselves, the current status of Irish trad, and tips on how to “make it”, respectively.
Some major players discussed the first of these including Rob Stevenson, Executive Vice-President of Republic/Casablanca; Annette Donnelly, Managing Director of Sony Music Ireland; and Rebecca Allen, Managing Director of Decca Records. Rob gave to us some of the nice lexicon in the record-label industry including brand new jargon and positions in the sector that didn’t exist, say, a year ago, such as a “finisher”. A finisher is when a mixer is hired specifically to “finish” a mix when an artist acts as a producer themselves and has only gone 80% of the way. This didn’t exist 12 to 16 months ago, according to Rob. The panel also stressed to have your next release ready as soon as possible particularly if your first release gets attention. This is to facilitate the changing nature of the industry.
Manager Tom Sherlock, publisher with Bardis Peter Bardon, member of Beoga Eamon Murray, and the returning Sarah Casey spoke of traditional Irish music’s role in Irish society and how Ed Sheeran’s “Galway Girl” grew a more contemporary and worldwide fan base.
Mike Smith, Managing Director of Warner/Chappell UK and Martin Toher, Co-founder of B-Unique Records were among the cadre musing of the “making it” aspect for artists. Mike mentioned that Spotify “can[not] be controlled” but sees it as a distinct advantage for everyone. Mike and Martin mentioned how much money goes into attempting to launch a new artist, “You pay to get into bed with the artist”, said Smith, when it comes to promoting them, a lot different to the publishing game.
Let’s begin talking about the keynote speaker, Darcus Beese. Beese is the President of Island Records going from tea-maker to head of one of the world’s largest record labels. Interviewed by Hot Press’ very own Niall Stokes, Beese arrived on stage with the cheeky-chappy aesthetic that got him his place at the top, sprawling himself across the couch and posing with a “paint-me-like-one-of-your-French-girls” poise. When back to a more orthodox position, he spoke from the heart of growing up a black man in London and his late father’s—Darcus Howe—activist work for the black community. Mr Howe passed away last month at the beginning of April at the age of 74 and campaigned for men to have prostate checks after being diagnosed with prostate cancer himself in 2007. The books, and most prominently for Beese, the records his parents divulged in moulded him. Reggae, soul, and calypso were the main ingredients to the formation of the man. He left school at 16 and worked at a hair salon before being “Executive Caffeine Concocter” at Island. By 2013, he was the stand-alone president. His tales of discovering the original Amy Winehouse “jazz singer” to her morph into working-class orator illustrated his skills of discovery. But what most hit home was Winehouse’s death and Beese’s contemplative look back at “doing more” for her. Though no way at fault, he felt for the star and misses her every day. On a more light-hearted note, he remembers a terrible Florence gig but knew there was something there before signing Welch and a battle-of-the-bands-type event, held by Island, where a certain Ed Sheeran hailed victorious but refused the deal for a single and went ended up elsewhere. You make gut calls—sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don’t. To a warm final applause, Darcus Beese concluded and exuded a man passionate about working your way up the ladder by sticking your neck out and just listening. It’s served him well so far. And if we take heed, it may work for us some day, too.