Exposed Vocals: Tell us your story, where did you grow up? What was your early life like?
James: I grew up in the Toronto suburbs, moving around quite a bit, and as far as I can tell, it was a great childhood; the average suburb experience.
Exposed Vocals: So, let’s talk about your company “Independent Music Promotions” how did you decide you wanted to be a music promoter, consultant?
James: It just happened naturally, from being in bands for years and years throughout my teens and twenties. I was always the guy who would sit at the computer for hours promoting…looking for the next strategy to implement. There were many occasions where I felt like I was the only one working, the only one who cared. I know a lot of musicians can relate to this.
For one of my albums, I hired a major PR firm. They ripped us off, only landing 3 reviews. I was so angry that I told myself I could do better. I turned around and landed over 70 for the same album. This gave me the idea that I could go into business with a guaranteed model and surpass these people. It worked. Negative influencers can be very, very powerful.
Exposed Vocals: How long have you been doing this for?
James: With I.M.P I’ve been doing this for 6 years, but I’ve been promoting music for 15 years or so.
Exposed Vocals: What successful placement can you talk about that can highlight the quality of work you do?
James: It’s hard to narrow it down to a single piece, but it makes me happy every time I land a feature in The Huffington Post or Guitar World for my artists.
Exposed Vocals: How many clients do you currently have on your roster? Anyone we may know?
James: 12 currently. Yes, you may know the members of electric blues supergroup Delta Deep (Phil Collen of Def Leppard, Rob Deleo of Stone Temple Pilots).
Exposed Vocals: How do you find artists to promote?
James: I used to find them, but now they find me. I.M.P is quite known at this point and we can easily be seen in the search engines, so artists come to me. This gives me the chance to be fussy with what I take on. I have to believe in it.
Exposed Vocals: What social media platforms work best for you?
James: I like Facebook because of its multiple forms of communication. Twitter is a bit limited for me, personally.
Exposed Vocals: What made you decide to write a book? Do you want to talk about your book a bit?
James: The book was filled with my findings from promoting bands for about 10 years at the time. I also found many of the music marketing books at the time to be quite limited. They were filled with too many case studies and stories; not enough meat. So I thought there was room in the market for more of an action guide; the type of book that you could “do” as you went along.
Exposed Vocals: Where can our readers pick up a copy?
James: Right here. http://www.independentmusicpromotions.com/music-marketing-book/
Exposed Vocals: Anything else you want to add before we wrap this up?
James: Thank you for having me!
