[swervedriver]

Hi Jasper,

So I've understood you're part of Dev's management team at Northern Music. So, what sort of questions can we ask you in this section?

[JasperNMC]

Hey guys,

As the subheader already suggest My name is Jasper Schuurmans and I am part of Devin's management team working for a company called Northern Music Co which is based in Leeds, England. There's about 7 people working in that office but I am based in the Netherlands because, well, I didnt care much for moving to Leeds. For a foreigner the northern English accent requires a fair amount of focus to fully understand and that only gets worse when they've had a few drinks...

I started in this bizz b becoming a copy-boy at age 21 for Roadrunner Records which had it's HQ only a few miles from my house. I gradually worked my way up the ranks until some years later I became a senior International Product Manager which meant coordinating all promotion, marketing and production for Roadrunner release world wide (ex N America). Bands I took care of were Slipknot, Machine Head, Soulfly, Opeth and Porcupine Tree among many others (Nickel *cough* back). Great times, great company, great honour to do but after 9 years I jumped ship before Warner Music bought the label (and pretty much fully disintegrated it some months ago). I then spend some time travelling before I got a call from Opeth's manager asking if I wanted to work for his company which I glady said yes to. Thats been a little over three years ago by now.

Anyway, to make things really clear: I am NOT Devin's band manager. That honour is for my boss and owner of NMC; Mr Andy Farrow. My official role is marketing manager & new business development for the whole company but thats just a title and my main job is to assist Andy in the day to day management of a few bands that NMC has on its roster which for me are Devin (of course), Opeth, katatonia, Bloodbath and, since yesterday, also Satyricon. My colleagues in the UK deal with the other bands NMC has such as Paradise Lost, InMe, Dave McPherson among others. NMC also has a publishing company, a touring agency and we're part owners, together with member of Opeth, of Devin's official merch company, Omerch. The main thing i do is to coordinate all interview requests, the production of product, all tours, band websites etc. Way too many things to be writing down here. We pretty much do everything that involves the band except for writing and performing their music.

To get to the point; Devin and I spoke about me starting up this topic here because we see quite a few questions floating around on the forum that I can easily answer. You can ask me anything that has to do with Devin and the DTP except, of course, things that involve Devin's personal life. What I also won't do is give out information that we're purposely not making public (yet) but you can always try me I'll see if I can shed some light on your question.

Im a very busy guy and I probably wont have time to check for questions on a daily basis but I'll do my best to come back here as often as possible. Just dont be offended if it takes a while for me to get back at ya.

Cheers!
Jasper

I am based in the Netherlands because, well, I didnt care much for moving to Leeds. For a foreigner the northern English accent requires a fair amount of focus to fully understand and that only gets worse when they've had a few drinks...

I totally sympathise with you on that one, our accent is pretty horrific.

Welcome Jasper! Good to know Devin is still lurking around here - thought he abandoned us haha.

Thanks for sharing these details, it seems like a very stressful job. I'm wondering how many hours a day you work!?

[JasperNMC]

Welcome Jasper! Good to know Devin is still lurking around here - thought he abandoned us haha.

Thanks for sharing these details, it seems like a very stressful job. I'm wondering how many hours a day you work!?

Definitely stressful but very satisfying. As most other people in the music biz we put in a lot of hours (for shit money) and on average we work about 70 hours a week. Its a bit double though cus if I have to fly over to Rock am Ring or Download for the weekend would I be working or should I count my lucky stars? And it really is one of the few jobs where you do million dollar business meetings in a pub or backstage in some grimey venue while drinking beers and jeager shots. (I'm starting to get too old for that stuff!)

Sounds pretty cool is there a "light" option for that kind of job, too? I'd make that my profession instantly

Hey guys,

As the subheader already suggest My name is Jasper Schuurmans and I am part of Devin's management team working for a company called Northern Music Co which is based in Leeds, England. There's about 7 people working in that office but I am based in the Netherlands because, well, I didnt care much for moving to Leeds. For a foreigner the northern English accent requires a fair amount of focus to fully understand and that only gets worse when they've had a few drinks...

I live in Leeds too, moved here a couple of years ago. I'm English and still struggle with understanding people here so I can't blame you for having a hard time with the accent! I've never met so many people who talk about growing rhubarb than I have in Leeds... although that might just be the people I hang around with haha.

I've never met so many people who talk about growing rhubarb than I have in Leeds... although that might just be the people I hang around with haha.

Yup. Definitely sounds like Leeds.

"we'll geh dahn't t'allotment n'ave us some rhubarb, ah tells thee!"

[JasperNMC]

So funny! My boss Andy is real busy with his allotment as well. Let me check on the rhubarb. Would be hilarious if he grows some...

Hi Jasper!

I have enjoyed your posts for many years at different forums (Opeth etc) - very interesting insights. Keep up the good work!

Also, please make sure that Satyricon will re-release their albums on vinyl again, the auction ending prices for the first five albums are insane at ebay: http://www.popsike.com/php/quicksearch. ... on&x=0&y=0

[JasperNMC]

Thanks for the kind words and Satyricon re-isseus is exactly what we're working on right now. Expect a release some time next year.

[JasperNMC]

Oh and BTW; turns out Andy does indeed grow Rhubrab on his allotment while strangely enough he doesn't like eating it one bit. Hilarious.

Tell him rhubarb makes awesome wine! I tried to persuade the household to grow rhubarb for that very purpose but I was outvoted with radishes. Seriously now.

(You wouldn't remember J, but thanks to you and Andy for the info re: Opeth Nottingham tix back in June)

Hi Jasper! Thanks for this thread! Does Devin do any production work at all for projects not involving him? If so, what are the criterias for him doing it and how do you get his attention? Thank you!