Today's international by:Larm-profile
Sybille Koller, INK Music, Berlin, Germany:
INK MUSIC is a music agency based in Vienna and last September we opened our office in Berlin. INK MUSIC does booking, not only in Austria & Germany but we also represent some of our artists for Europe, we do promotion for Austria, furthermore we run a label called Schoenwetter Schallplatten and a sync company called Swimming Pool. … because we are your friends is so much more than a slogan, for me that is it, totally. I love my job, I love my bands, it might sound trite but I’m doing this job with my heart and I couldn’t do it any other way.
How many times have you been to by:Larm, and what did you think about it?
Last year was my first visit to by:Larm and Oslo and what can I say? I fell in love with the city and its people and I came back twice since then and there are lots of more visits planned for this year, yay!
You seem to have picked up a few Norwegian acts after visiting by:Larm – which acts do you represent, how did you discover them and what made you want to go on and work with them?
My dear colleague & friend Andrea of the great booking agency Headquarter took me to Einar Stray’s show last year because she thought I might like it. Obviously she was right, Einar and his band totally blew me away and Andrea introduced me to Simen Herning of Spoon Train, his manager. That’s pretty much how it started. I then met Endre Harnes of Spoon Train and we will start to work together with the fantastic Cold Mailman. Before by:Larm I’ve been working with Made Management and Chris Wareing and we could put it like this that Chris is my fave Non-Norwegian Norwegian, haha. I’m representing The New Wine and Lemaître for Made. And a few weeks ago I got the chance to work with 120 Days and Mark Vaughan, so it’s not going to stop, this Norwegian thing for me but this is no complaint. Not at all.
What has happened so far with your Norwegian acts?
So far I’ve booked some club shows for The New Wine & Lemaître and there is a lot more to come as soon as they have finished their records. For Einar Stray I’m doing co-management besides booking now. His debut record has just been released in GSA via the amazing label Sinnbus and we have booked a tour through Germany in January which sold out 9 out of 15 concerts and the press adored Chiaroscuro and we got fantastic live reviews. We are now working on new dates, confirming some really great festivals and start to take him to the rest of the world. It has been an absolute overwhelming start and it’s gonna be an exciting year for all of us. Later this year we will start to bring Cold Mailman over and guess what – I’m so looking forward to this.
How is the market for Nordic music in the GAS at the moment?
It’s no secret that people here are really into Nordic music and I personally think that the Norwegian music scene is the most interesting of all the Nordic countries. We actually have a little battle within our company between Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland and yes, I agree, all great countries and great musicians but Norway has the best, haha. Music Export Norway does a great job and gives many artists the chance to tour a lot which is best way to reach people. The most important is to find a good team – a great record label and a good agent and a good promo agency . Great music combined with a great team and the support of the Export office – there is not much that can go wrong.
What makes you want to come to by:larm this year again, and have you already plans for what you want to check out?
by:Larm has been one of the best organized and nicest showcase festivals I’ve been to and as I said in the beginning I really fell in love with Oslo, so I will always come back. We will have a little Spoon Train / INK MUSIC night on 17th at Skuret with Cold Mailman and Einar Stray (+ more) playing, then I will of course go and see Lemaître, my friends of Casiokids & Team Me, I’m going to check out Bendik for sure. But hey, you are very welcome to send me recommendations!
