Contact me at [wesley at liberatedmatter dot com] and Follow me on twitter. Oh and you can see my photography on Flickr and my videos on Vimeo.
The Short Story: I help artists create a musical vision, and then translate that into an executable strategy and a lasting brand.
Currently Mainly:
- Owner @ Family Records (management, artist development, record label)
- Curator @ Cross-Pollination (weekly nyc concert series)
- Producer (Discography)
Previously:
- Head of A&R/Strategy @ Engine Room Recordings
- Sr. Coordinator of Copyrights @ Columbia Records (Sony/BMG)
- Assistant to Director of A&R @ Verve (Universal Music)
- Songwriter/Performer @ The Undisputed Heavyweights
- Teaching several BA/MA level business classes @ Maastricht University
The Long Story (or…How Did I End Up Here?)
I
Other than ‘getting away from the ‘corporate/finance world’, I didn’t have much of a plan when I moved to NYC late 2003 from The Old Country (#). There was a vague idea of working in a music/arts related field, and so upon arrival I started an unpaid internship at Verve/Universal Music. Lets just say wasn’t the path most traveled among my fellow MBA Graduates (Maastricht University, ’03, where I also taught for 4 years.), nor what my parents had been hoping for, but it seems to have worked out and even the parental unit approves now.
II
Based on a 6 day trip in the middle of the worst snow storm in a decade, New York seemed like a place I could call home. A year and a half later, and three weeks after deciding to switch directions, I packed a green plastic suitcase up with some clothes and moved to the fabled Big Apple.(^)
III
I met Jay at an open mic during my second week as a New Yorker. After getting over being slightly annoyed with his insistent confusion of my identity, I suggested we’d start a company together. Ah youthful enthusiasm. This became Liberated Matter, a concert organizer/promoter with subsequent sidesteps into artist management, event management, and some other stuff including the long-running weekly concert series Cross-Pollination. Around the same time I met Casey and Jeff, and we started a band, The Undisputed Heavyweights(~).
IV
After working at Verve/Universal for about a year I moved to Sony BMG where I focused mostly on Columbia Records and Epic Records projects. A year later I was hired to help start up Engine Room Recordings for its owners and took on the General Manager role.
V
In the mean time, Liberated Matter started a new division, Family Records, a boutique record label focusing specifically on artist development. I had also starting writing for music blog BrooklynVegan.com, focusing mostly on Hip Hop, which came to an end after roughly a year as I continued writing about Hip Hop at SitDownStandUp.com(&) and occasionally about indie rock for a few other publications including Gothamist.com. With a few indie rock blogger friends I co-founded the charitable After The Jump Blog Coalition.
VI
Currently I am focus on producing albums and singles, managing a handful of artists under the Family Records banner, crafting the release and A&R strategy for Engine Room Recordings, my photography (*), curating Cross-Pollination and a few secret projects that are in the works…
VII : Update
As of November 23rd, 2009 I have left my position at Engine Room Recordings, and am now focusing on Family Records and a bunch of associated projects and albums for 2010. I will also continue curating Cross-Pollination.
Footnotes:
#) The Netherlands.
^) Well, technically the first 3 weeks were spent in Bayonne, NJ due to an unfortunate craiglist miscommunication.
~) We retired The Undisputed Heavyweights 3 years later after headlining and selling out places like Bowery Ballroom and Joe’s Pub, getting love from MTV News, the New Yorker, NY Post and having a song featured on CW show One Tree Hill. More here.
&) SitDownStandUp.com has been featured in Entertainment Weekly’s Popwatch, VH1′s Best Week Ever, MTV News, RollingStone.com, USA Today, New York Magazine’s ‘Vulture’, Vibe.com, XXLMag.com, Q Magazine, Blender.com, AOLMusic, CMJ, The Guardian, Sirius Radio, AM New York and countless others, and my quotes have appeared, for some bizarro reason, in Pitchfork Media, NME, Harp, Paste, Spin, Filter, Gothamist, and more. It was retired in late 2008.
*) My photography has appeared on BrooklynVegan, Gothamist, XXL Magazine, CMJ Magazine and others.
Public Speaking/Opinions
I have been a panel member and/or moderator in the past, including for CMJ, and am available for discussions and/or interviews on the music industry. Just e-mail me. I have been interviewed/quoted/profiled by CMJ Magazine, Spin, Gothamist, New York Times, NME, Filter, AM New York and others.