May 2014
12
May
2014
Keynote speaker Rob McDermott, panel ‘Rock Your Style!’ and Heavy Chats added to conference programme Buma ROCKS!
With keynote speaker Rob McDermott, Buma ROCKS! added an authority in artist management and talent development to its conference programme on the 30th of May – the Friday before metal festival FortaRock – in Doornroosje in Nijmegen. Today Buma ROCKS! also announces the panel ‘Rock Your Style!’, about image building, as well as the ‘Heavy Chats’, round table discussions between the performing bands and six experts from the industry.
Between 2000 and 2009, Rob McDermott was the manager of Linkin Park and besides that he has worked with dozens of world famous heavy music acts. Nowadays he focuses on talent development and he is advising a variety of artists on career choices. Also he is working on the on-line revitalization of two classic US hard rock and metal magazines. Buma Cultuur’s CEO Frank Helmink, founder of Buma ROCKS!, will talk with McDermott at the opening of the conference.
There are some pretty interesting panelists joining in for Rock Your Style!, a panel about image building: Ingeborg Steenhorst, costume designer and stylist (a.o. Epica, ReVamp, Lacuna Coil and Ayreon), Bertus of Schorem, barbershop in Rotterdam, Thomas Bredahl, former guitarist for Danish rockers Volbeat, now artist manager, and Philippus Zandstra, journalist and metal aficionado with a sharp eye for trends.
Also in the afternoon: Heavy Chats. The showcase festival bands will discuss their careers so far, their possible choices and all other things imaginable with the experienced pros at the tables featuring Rob McDermott, booking agents Jörg Düsedau and Volkmar Udri, live music business all-rounder Jamie Cavanagh (Anathema), singer and songwriter Anneke van Giersbergen and marketing and new business manager Jasper Schuurmans.
Buma ROCKS! will round up the afternoon with a networking BBQ. A many-faceted selection of heavy Dutch acts will perform during the showcase festival in the evening: Herder, Purest Of Pain, Wasted Bullet, Paceshifters and Aborted. The aftershow will be played by Danish ‘Depressive Nordic Metal’ act Redwood Hill, who impressed during showcase festival When Copenhell Freezes Over in Copenhagen earlier this year.
