ForMusic

 

These encounters are the basic pillars of everything. At least to me. Also, because of these encounters I used have in time, I chose this occupation. As we all know, such encounters may change the course of your life events. And no, I am not speaking about any success, or how such encounters may lead us to such. It’s about something greater – it’s about finding your own path. Also, you’ll be able to get reflections from others.

For some, it may be a needed addition to one’s self-reliance. To the other, an advise given at the right moment. Often times, it’s a combination of both. It is also how we take these encounters. I have number of personal examples of what can happen in such a situation. How far-reaching effects they may involve. The advice, related experience or some guideline you have got – its meaning may not be found until years later.

In fact, I eagerly wanted to become a contract lawyer when I was a manager for Jorma Lillbacka‘s son in the 90’s. He agreed with me, but still put me in their company’s payroll computation as a summer help. I received a single contract assignment for the summer – to draw up employment contracts to their Northern Cross yacht. I had to leave that draft to their lawyer for a review at the end of the summer. Otherwise, I would check out the travel bills. Surprisingly, well done a contract draft when repairing is not much found. Afterwards, even though I received a valuable exercise for the preparation of contracts, supported by their lawyers, I learned even more when checking out those travel bills. It was a vantage point to see how the international company works. It’s been a lot of help since then as an artist manager – especially in terms of logistics. Without that experience, I wouldn’t have discovered the things I had.

Another similar encounter occurred with Juhani Merimaa twenty years ago. We were spending time with my friends at Restaurant Ilves. He sat with us and noticed the book I had written on the table. It followed almost three-hour discussion about the music business and the agreements there. Such moment inspired me a lot – to be able to discuss with a legend like him. The tips I received from that conversation I have used many times.

Such encounters are still part of my everyday life. However, their purpose is somewhat different. There’s a great opportunity to get exposed in the serendipity and do it together. What we have developed during these conversations, it is not worth taking here. My intention was to show a few examples. An existence of such opportunities is available for anyone willing to visit them. Embrace them, you might find something meaningful. Here are a few pictures from the past year.

 

 

 

 

 

Here I am with Mandy Aubry from Songtrust and Anthony Churchman from MusicAlly. We were talking about  the music business management education.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the round circle with Nando Machado and Maira Watanabe from ForMusic/Wikimetal and Vin Valentino, the leader of Delta Enigma. We were trying to find a better ways to introduce Finnish alternative rock band to the South America’s markets.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a lecture shot from Leonidas Chantzaras‘s guest lecture at Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, I as a host. He was talking about the things to consider when approaching labels.

 

 

 

 

 

And again Vin, with Corina Avalos from Up In the Mix. We were talking about the US market and its special features.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, but not least, Heidi Holm from Kingart Music Management. We were talking about potential collaboration on the live scene. Reciprocal venues with the bands we both represent.

There would be more of these pictures. However, I needed to narrow the space so that the idea of this short article would come out in the way intended. Keep having these conversations, you will learn a lot from them!