Industry Talk: P-C Rae

P-C Rae joined the staff at Slottsfjell for an ill-fated team bonding / paintball exercise on a very cold Saturday in October 2007. Since then he has worked on building the international profile of the festival and has been part of the booking team. P-C has produced the UK stage at SXSW every year since 2008, showcasing the linkes of Royal Blood, Jungle and The 1975 for the first time on U.S. soil. Last but by no means least, he has managed a number of acts over the years for Up Front Artists and subsequently Mandelbaum as well as producing an exclusive line of Vegard Waske themed merchandise.

What has been your focus lately?As I’m one of the bookers at Slottsfjell my focus has been a hillside with a castle on it in Tønsberg, at least for the last couple of months. This year we had an expanded group of international delegates with people from France and Germany attending. It was a great group this year, fantastic to welcome back some old faces and some lovely new friends.

We’re already started on Slottsfjell 2018 but in the meantime my day to day focus shifts back to my main management client – a singer-songwriter from the UK called Charlie Cunningham (who will tour with Siv Jakobsen at the end of the year).

The most important piece of advice you have ever received?Just because a deal offers the most money, it isn’t necessarily the best one for your artist. Time and engagement are extremely valuable commodities too…

Your best industry-tip?If you want to work internationally, be responsive. The rest of the world moves at a different speed to Norway. The American idea of a holiday is a three day weekend!

Whats your golden moment to share with the rest of us?I didn’t get into management by choice. I was tricked.

One day many years ago I was sitting down to lunch at the by:Larm office, just tucking into my favourite BIT sandwich, when Vegard Waske strolls in with a skinny indie type dude. This aforementioned skinny indie guy sits down opposite me and Vegard tells him “you should meet P-C, he’s your new day to day manager,” and then just turns round and walks out leaving me alone with this fella. To say I was a little taken by surprise is perhaps an understatement. But I really didn’t have any choice other than to just roll with it.

Why Norway, why now?I have a terrible habit of answering questions with questions and there is no point changing the habit of a lifetime: Outside of Scandinavia, how many non-english speaking countries consistently produce the same number of interesting, high quality, export ready acts who have a genuine chance of success in major international markets?

Who in the Norwegian music industry deserves a high five?One of the great things about doing Slottsfjell is all the awesome people you end up working with there. This year I enjoyed working with a several new folks that I hadn’t properly met before. Ida Bakke Kristiansen from Goldstar who stepped in last minute to be our production manager, Glenn Larsen from Indianer who came to help out Sarah Winona on the press and PR stuff, and Bergen hip-hop kingpin Girson Dias from NMG Huset who helped us put together an awesome replacement show in double quick time for a main stage act who’d cancelled.