Manny King John
Recently, we talked to Hammarica, America’s number one EDM DJ magazine based in Seattle, about their newest venture “657 Deejays”. Mark chats him up.
I get to create my own Dubstep name? Also there is a DJ “Meme” generator on the site? Awesome, where did you get the idea from to put these on the site?
Dubstep gained a lot of popularity [in] the last few years and I am always a fan of fun, little online gadgets. Something to entertain in a fast and simple way. Dubstep came with some new vocabular – A lot of DJ names sound different — than let’s say — house. So, therefore, I thought it would be cool to create a simple tool that automatically could create unique dubstep names. Some results have a novelty feel to them and others could very well be used as true DJ names.
When it comes to the DJ meme generator it was a bit of the same thing. I wanted to provide the new generation of Dance music lovers with a tool to caption pictures of their favorite (or least favorite) DJs. Some of the memes people came up with are quite clever.
Your site (Hammarica) primarily was the proper link from media to artist (DJ) in the fashion of press that involved PR Services, interviews and more. Why take on a new venture of the 657 DJ Agency and start booking DJ’s and making it this simple for promoters?
I’ve been a professional in the Dance scene for many years now. Since I made a lot of great connections, it makes sense to use these in different ways. I started Hammarica with PR because at the basic level, everything starts with promotion. Artists working with the new 657deejays.com agency can be assured to be promoted very well. Furthermore, as a PR person you need to have everything in order and can’t skip a beat (pun intented) since you constantly work with hundreds of people at the same time. This quality is exactly the same a booking agent should have. I have plans to extend the Hammarica brand in even more directions, but everything at its own time.
Is there an estimated duration of time that you hope a possible promoter would spend viewing bios and completing the booking form associated with those artist’s profiles? Hence you’d like for all information requests submitted be accurate and not arched carelessly.
The most important thing is that the right artist gets booked for the right party. As an agent, I need to know all the details about an event so I can make sure the promoter makes the right call related to an artist booking. Filling out the forms takes a few minutes, but it will take away hours of headache when done correctly. At the same time it’s important that the artist is well taken care of. Both financially and logistically. In the end, we all want an event to go in the books as another legendary night for all parties involved.
Is there a motivation to extend and build your network or DJ’s beyond EDM or are you content with who you represent now?
Hammarica is an EDM / Dance music brand and there are no plans at this moment to handle other genres. Dance music is what is in my blood; It’s second nature really. Yet, I do want to build the roster quickly. Adding more artists from more sub genres of EDM. I just added the legendary Dreamteam to the roster. The Dreamteam is a four man group that started 20 years ago. The members of The Dreamteam: DJ Dano, Buzz Fuzz, DJ Gizmo and MC Da Mouth Of Madness were pioneers of the hardcore genre and I’m very excited to bring that sound to The United States, Canada & Mexico.
There is no question Hammarica broadens the channel to connect promoter to artist, artist to promoter through the online site of 657 DJ Agency. How long has the idea of creating this avenue for promoters been persisting?
Hammarica has to be a broad Dance music brand not only focusing on one part of the industry. I started Hammarica bout a year ago, but I had always the plan to do it this way. When it comes to the States, there are only a handful well respected DJ agencies. Tons of artists all seem to want to get connected with these. Yet these agencies are already well occupied with their current rosters. I want to break the market open with artists that are deserving of a stage. These artists can be of the new generation, they can be superstars, or they can be legends. But the main mission is to provide the EDM scene with the very best performers available.
To check out the whole roster, simply click here. To stay up to date with everything Dance, join the community on Hammarica and Facebook.
