Here it is. Part three of our interview with Carlos Correal (Part 1 and Part 2 are here). In this part of the interview Carlos takes us through his boredom with DJing and decision to move in festival creation and management, film, general brand event management and eventually managing the Winter Music Conference. How he got there? You’ll just have to read on the find out.
PRODUCING FESTIVALS
Carlos: So the record label ended up with my partner going a little bit crazy on me; it was a woman situation. I’ve been with that beautiful, amazing person for 8 years now. The last 3 of which we’ve been married – unfortunately it created stupidly the separation of me and my ex-music partner. But I kept doing events. You have to understand that – in 1998 or 1999- I started a festival because I was getting a bit tired of all the DJing – as a performance I was getting fed up. It was boring. So I decided to start a digital arts festival by the name of Elektra. Elektra is the biggest digital arts festival in the North America. The festival is dedicated to robotics and digital imagery. It has a worldwide recognition. Elektra is not a DJ-driven festival at all. It is more of an “immersive” or audio and visual experience.
Where we would bring guys like Granular Synthesis from Austria. They have a 12-screen set up which is a circular setup, it fits 200 people inside and it has an ampliphonic sound system for a 50 minute show – it is a complete immersive experience. Like going to the Imax theater where you have this great audio/visual experience. I mean, you have to experience it. You have to go on the website elektrafestival.ca. It will give you a good idea of the types of performances we were delivering. They just did the 10th anniversary this year.
Baris: Are you still involved in this?
Carlos: No, I am not. Since I moved to Miami, I sold my shares. I started a company called produkt.ca. I started that about 7 years ago when a cigarette company called Rothmans, Benson, and Hedges approached me to produce all of their events throughout the country. My first partner was Steve Henry who was a set designer for films. Oliver Teen came from the film industry to do all the productions for the events like decor, concept and so on. And one thing led to another. We started to do the Christmas party for Ubisoft – which is one of the major video game producer companies. We also started doing movie launches for Lion’s Gate, Warner Bros, corporate events for pharmaceutical companies and so on.
Baris: Did you say you started with a cigarette company?
Carlos: I started the company because that cigarette company was a main sponsor of my festival Elektra. And when they saw the quality of the production at the festival, they wanted my team to produce all the shows throughout the country which averaged 250 shows a year. So our mandate was to do the production, the booking of celebrities and DJs, and to do the marketing of it. We became a small advertising agency for our clients.
Baris: So initially, they acted as a captive client to help you get started….
MIAMI vs MONTREAL
Carlos: Yes. Then the reason why I moved to Miami was very simple. About 5 years ago, I made a deal with Mona Rennalls in WMC to oversee exclusive booking of Bob Sinclar for North America. We were not a booking agency, far from it, but we knew the business. We knew how to market events and everything and the ultimate goal of overseeing Bob Sinclar’s booking in North America was to plant seeds in the US and make new contacts to be able to start working in the US. That was the ultimate goal. And every time we booked Bob Sinclar in Miami, he would play at Mansion. So the main owner of the company Roman Jones and I had a “love at first sight” thing. One thing led to another, he started asking me to do other bookings and overseeing marketing, artwork, posters, flyers, you name it. And then in 2007, they asked me as an emergency to help him out oversee the entire WMC programming. By early February , they flew me down during the Super Bowl, the programming was not even done yet so they needed massive help. For 7 weeks, I did not sleep. I was doing everything from Montreal and then flying down with my ex-partner to coordinate shows for WMC. And by April, they called me to ask me whatever I do in Canada, if I’d be interested in doing the same in Miami for them.
When I got this offer from Opium Group, they did not ask my company to move here. They asked me to move here. It was a personal decision. You have to understand that after moving to Montreal after Spain, I could never really bear the cold weather, it is just unbearable. So it really was a personal decision to leave my own company to build this revolution here in Miami.
Baris: As far as I can tell, listening to your story, you are a very entrepreneurial person. How did you manage that transition from your own company, how small it may be, to a large group? Did you have any concerns, in the sense that you may be becoming a part of a mechanism on which you have less control?
Carlos: No, as long as they give me the green light to fulfill what I have to do. That was the most important this to me. And they’ve been giving me the green light since day one and they are trusting me. I’ve been bringing the results that they expect. You also have to understand that in Montreal the clients don’t have the kind of money they have here in the US – far from it. So it was always a fight for budget, no money, and so on. And in Quebec your income tax is like in France, it is more than 50%. Tax on products and services is 15%. Of course they have the health care and tons of social services in Canada. But in the end, it is just that the income tax is horrible the weather is horrible. So it is a choice that you have to make.
On top, you don’t get paid a lot. And you have all these taxes. So what do you do? You do organized crime and sell drugs. Or live a legit life and stay poor all your life – with free health care…
Baris: What are the differences between promoting in US and Canada? Is there such a difference?
THE IRON LAWS OF PROMOTION
Carlos: It all starts with what is your product and does it fit your market. And do you have enough of a market to promote your product? I am not going to promote reggae music and invest the same kind of money in marketing when I know here in this market reggae kind of music does not work. I am not going to promote underground hip hop when I know it won’t work here. The promotion laws are the same. The same rules, except you have to customize your product to the market.
Baris: So you got to understand your market obviously. How about the artist selection? You may think that this particular artist is going to dominate the whole world but your audience may not know him or dig him…So you get excited, make this huge promotion, bring this guy over and it flops. How do you make sure that does not happen?
Carlos: Miami, and Montreal as well, are surprisingly more educated about house music than I thought. I have always closely followed what’s happening in Europe. Obviously, the top 100 DJs, I never really cared about or promoted that fact for that reason.. You know, he is number 20 in Top 100 or whatever. It is the cheesiest form of promoting.
In the end you need to be able to educate your people, if they don’t know the producer or the artist you’re bringing, you can say “you may not know his name, but he is the guy who did blah blah balh…OMG, he is the one who did that track?” You have to educate them with the music. Like DJ Chuckie, who is the next future superstar – I know that – for multiple reasons. He is the next kid we will have here who will blow up. He worked with Lil Jon, Jermaine Dupri, now there is a big, big, big trend going on between hip hop artists and EDM producers. They all love each other. We just had Benny Benassi in mansion and Lil’ Jon was there. Out of the blue, backstage. He took the mike and performed with Benny all night. It was historical. I see that tendency going on. And on top of that, Miami is one of the world capitals of the cheesiest hip-hop. From DJ Colette, Fat Jon and all these guys, but you know its the hip hop that works. I don’t like it. But I have to face the reality. If it was up to me, I’d bring big, heavy technoheads to Miami. But it is not gonna work here. Except guys like Richie Hawtin. Richie Hawtin is one of the elite in techno and he’d work. Dubfire works too. Every time we do shows with them, they are the biggest underground shows. We were able to make underground huge in Miami. It is taking time, and the way we do it is by bringing the top artist. Right now, it is Dubfire. There are not that many…
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Tags: Benny Benassi, bob sinclar, Brand Event Management, DJ Chuckie, Elektra, Festival Management, Mansion, Mona Rennalls, Opium Group, Produkt, Winter Music Conference, WMC