Breaking into the music industry can be hard, but a Saratoga music venue is working with schools in Silicon Valley to help students get their foot in the door.
The Mountain Winery works with concert and music festival promoters Goldenvoice, a partner with live entertainment and sports company AEG Presents and promoters for well-known festivals like Coachella and Stagecoach. During its concert season from May to October, the Mountain Winery invited students from several South Bay schools to events. On Oct. 18, students from De Anza College in Cupertino, Santa Clara University and University of Silicon Valley in San Jose gathered in the winery’s lounge to hear from professionals in the live entertainment and movie industry, including representatives from AEG Presents and Goldenvoice and actor and musician Billy Bob Thornton.
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Mountain Winery general manager Ronan Daly said the event came together in around two weeks, adding that he felt he had an obligation to use the opportunity he was given to “create outlets” for the students to learn and grow. He acknowledged that all of his collaborators’ careers were driven by a shared love of music, but that the industry itself can be hard to enter.
“All of us have come from completely different backgrounds, but the thing that we all share is that at some point along the way, we found a love for music and we wanted to channel that into a career and a path, and this can be an incredibly competitive industry that’s hard to just access,” Daly told the students. “It’s something that matters to me, so if we can provide an outlet and an opportunity for you guys, that matters a lot.”
AEG Presents university relations manager April Barfield and talent acquisition coordinator Diana Rivera made a presentation about AEG’s internship program. Rivera said the program started four years ago through Barfield’s efforts.
While acknowledging that it can be difficult to get a leg up in the entertainment industry, Rivera said that AEG is opening and operating several venues throughout Southern and Northern California, so job opportunities are out there.
“From what I’ve seen is that if you’re interested and you have that drive, it might take some time, but it’s not impossible to break into the industry,” she added.
Barfield and Rivera gave students advice about their resume formatting, following up after interviews and networking. Third-year De Anza College student Zuleika Cruz said the resume and networking portions of the presentation helped her a lot, especially since students are told they should network but aren’t really told what that means. She said she is majoring in business and hopes to work in relation to the music industry.
“I want to learn more about the company, and from…the internship opportunities that were mentioned , I think it’s it’s just very good to get your name out there, to experience new things,” Cruz said. “I think it’s very important to just take the dive.”
The event also included a panel consisting of Daly and other Goldenvoice collaborators. The group answered questions about how they started in the music industry, what they do in their line of work and where they see the live entertainment and music industry heading. Daly emphasized that live music isn’t going away, even if the way things are being done, like marketing, are changing.
Charlie Gray, a communications major at Santa Clara University, has volunteered at local anime conventions and organized events. His experience made him interested in live entertainment, but he was unable to get interviews or callbacks from event producers in the industry, which led him to attend the event at the Mountain Winery. He said the most significant takeaway for him was being able to talk to industry professionals and learn more about their stories and form connections with them.
Students were also given a tour of the winery and had the opportunity to ask Thornton and his tour manager Tom Mayhue for advice on their careers. Thornton answered questions about his artistry in acting and music, spanning from the start of his career to his lack of formal acting training to his previous marriages. He talked briefly about his anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and dyslexia and advised students who may be dealing with those or other afflictions to “look at it as a gift.”
“Don’t ever let any insecurity in you or anything that happened to you in your life, any of this stuff, don’t ever let that affect you,” Thornton said. ” I was probably the last person they would guess in my high school when I was growing up that would ever make anything out myself, so always, always use what they say is against you. Let that be your power.”
Thornton advised the young audience to “not let humanity go out of things” by relying on technology like AI.
“Once your heart gets out of it, that’s not art anymore. So my advice would be, whatever creativity you have in you, use that; don’t rely on that stuff,” Thornton said.
The students were invited to see Thornton’s performance that evening and to watch their peers play preshow gigs. The Santa Clara University Jazz Club performed in Adele’s Garden, while the De Anza College Jazz Quartet played in front of the Chateau. Marcus Kowalsky from University of Silicon Valley also DJed in the Overlook Lounge.