This started life as an appreciation of a musician I like and follow, but turned into a business blog, so while it is posted here, it’s true home is my Linkedin platform.
Back in 2001 I read and occasionally contributed to an email newsletter called The Armada, basically about the band Asia but drifting into other related artists. I commented on a then new album called Ceremony of Innocence by Radioactive. A few days later I got an email from the album’s creator Tommy Denander thanking me for my comments and after a brief exchange of emails that was it. Or so I thought…
Having seen his name appear on albums regularly I did make an effort to look out for him, as he seemed to be a stamp of quality on a rock album. The recently re-released Rainmaker album is a good place to start. In a slightly surreal moment he also popped up on an album by Big Time Rush, a TV show boy band loved by my then 12 year old daughter and her friends.
Tommy is typical of the way the music industry works in the 21st Century. His Wikipedia entry, which I assume to be largely accurate, gives hundreds of albums he has played on, written, or produced. It’s an impressive list, and crosses all sorts of genres, which is what you need to do to make a living in music these days. However it’s clear his heart is in rock, projects with his own name on them, Radioactive and as an integral part of work by House Of Lords, Robin Beck, Houston and many others in the Hard Rock/AOR world. These names may not mean much to you but in the rest of Europe, particularly Scandanavia, this genre is huge, and Tommy is one of the leading lights.
The interesting part of looking at Tommy’s website and social media are the parallels between the way he manages his business, and it is a business with all the requirements to feed and house his family that the rest of us have, and the way pretty much any other business owner will operate. OK so we aren’t working with Deep Purple and Alice Cooper, but the networking required to secure that work, presumably through producer Bob Ezrin is the same process that I go through at an FSB or 4Networking meeting. Interestingly we are second connections on Linkedin as well, (happy to help you make a bit more of your Linkedin Tommy!). The basic rules of networking work in pretty much any arena, and as I am looking at new avenues for my own efforts it is a timely lesson. We all get a bit jaded by the formulaic approach of many business networks, but it works, at least it does for me and Tommy. So, get out there and talk to people, on Linkedin, in the queue at the bank, any venue that business people gather, you never know where the next opportunity is going to come from.
Recently he started a new line called Platinum Demo’s Worldwide, offering professional quality demo’s for €250. As, from reading his social media, he has a young daughter he clearly wants to work from home more, this is a cracking way of doing that, with potential to root out new talent that can be presented to his contacts in the biz, as well as making money on the actual demos themselves. Oddly as my venture in Marketing 4 Music gathers pace I could see myself using his service, in fact I have a client just now…
To learn more about Tommy Denander’s music start here
Radioactive – Ceremony Of Innocence and F4UR
Sayit – Again
Alice Cooper – Paranormal
Deep Purple – Infinite
Frederiksen/Denander – Baptism By Fire
