The music industry is a proper cutthroat business, anyone can tell you that. It doesn’t help when you’re a new artist and none of these labels want to give you the time of day. Well that’s all about to change as Fiat have just launched the Evo Music Rooms which aims to showcase the best of Britain’s unsigned music acts on a national TV series. Jerry Gadiano caught up with Evo Music Rooms judge Jason Knight – who’s CV reads like a who’s who of music superstars, having done campaigns for Justin Timberlake, 50 Cent and Janet Jackson – to talk about the project and what makes a good music act…

Breakdown what Evo Music Rooms aims to do for these young artists?

What we’re trying to do is to help them evolve in talent, ability, in name and potential. We want to help them cross into an area where they can actually have a career and the way we want do to it is by giving them help to maximise what they are doing musically and increase their exposure.

How did you become involved in the project?

I used to run a management and production company and later I started a digital agency that worked with labels doing marketing for different people in the music industry. What I do now is try to work with companies who want to work in music but want to do it in a way that isn’t just about the usual sponsoring of people, they want to do stuff that’s about making a difference. I’ve been talking to Fiat about doing this for a while. Fiat want to drive new music forward and Evo Music Rooms does just that.

You’ve been in the music industry for a very long time, what can you take from the experiences you’ve had and how can you apply them to the artists and bands that are coming to Evo Music Rooms?

Well I think it’s about seeing the opportunities, you have to see them and take them. One of the things I always looked at is where I fitted in the industry and it’s the same if you’re an artist or in a band. This programme gives them a real opportunity to see where they fit and then actually make a bit of space for themselves once they find their place.

How does a show like this differ from a show such as X-Factor or Britain’s Got Talent?

Essentially what we didn’t want to do was a popularity contest, we didn’t want it to be like there was ‘one winner’ and they went off into the distance and became global superstars because that’s not reality. This isn’t a competition, this is a selection process, we’re looking to find people that we can help. They are not necessarily always the best because some bands and artists might be more musically accomplished than others, what we’re doing is giving people stuff that they can take for themselves. No one’s tied down, all the recordings that they make they actually keep, all the profile that they have from being on the television show they can build from, the connections that they make from the people who we bring them into contact with are theirs and once they’ve actually finished there’s plans to support these guys. But this is also about helping them to have a career on their own terms rather than some show that they win and everything is done for them and they have no control over their decisions or their ability to discover who they are as artists and what they do next.

As someone that deals in campaigns, marketing and promotions what does an unsigned artist have to do to stand in your eyes?

Make a good record. There’s a saying that good music sells and there’s truth in that, if it’s not a good record you can spend as much money as you want and you’re still not going to have much of an impact.

What will you be specifically looking for in the artists that you will be seeing on Evo Music Rooms?

Well I want to hear a good song, you can have a really rubbish singer with a really good track and you might get somewhere. You can have a good singer but if the song is rubbish – we’ve seen that time and time again in history – then they might not be as successful. So I want people that can play and actually go out there and you can identify them because there’s a point of difference.

Are there unsigned acts that you are looking forward to hearing? Any of them caught your attention yet?

Yeah there are, I mean the thing that’s quite encouraging is that there are very few that are absolute rubbish. There’s a lot of bands that are pretty good and there’s obviously a few that really cut the mustard and they stand out. I wouldn’t like to name them at this stage because that’ll be unfair but there is definitely a lot of music that I’m looking forward to hearing and seeing them perform in the flesh.

If you are an unsigned artist who’s looking to make it in the music industry make sure you visit the evomusicrooms.com.

Tags: Fiat, Interviews