THREE MINUTES WITH: MELTING WAX PROMOTIONS

Melting Wax Promotions is set to put on an all-day event at Night People on the 9th of June. We sat down with the owner, Sam, to discuss how wanting to start promoting gigs suddenly spitballed into a huge 4PM - 4AM show.

Q: How did you start promoting?

This all dayer on June 9th will be the first ever Melting Wax show, it's very exciting, I've never put a show on before but it seemed like a good idea to start with something that would stick out aha. As soon as it's done I'll be organising the next one. There's already some bands sorted out for that.

Q: How does putting together an all-dayer like this go?

I'm mates with Chris the owner of Night People and it was just an idea that came up when we were drinking. I'm friends with loads of bands so it wasn't exactly hard to organise getting a line-up together. There's some really good bands around and they all have songs that are gonna blow people's minds so it's fun getting a load of them together on line-ups like this. They also get to play in front of each others fans which is valuable for bands and since it goes on all day the people there are more likely to become pals with each other.

Another part of planning is that you have to make sure you can afford to pay the bands regardless of how the night goes, and then there's the person doing sound and the posters and flyers so there's some adding up to do, but I feel like with this show everyone benefits including the people coming because £7/£9 otd is a great price for 7 really good bands. Then the poster was done by my mate Tom, who does gig posters and things with his girlfriend Bryony under the name Moody June.

Q: You've managed to secure some pretty hyped acts. How do you find new music?

Finding new music doesn't really have any secret formula, I think if you're just involved with those kind of groups and you're a music lover it's impossible not to come across it. I find things on the internet a lot as well. Going to watch bands live makes a difference too, for example I had skimmed over Mary Ocher's music before, but never knew her that well. Then when i went to see my friend support her I was blown away by her completely. The next day I even watched a documentary with her and the pornstar Sasha Grey aha.

In terms of securing the bands I just do what a lot of promoters forget to do which is offer them money they're happy with. There's some really good promoters in Manchester like Leanne at Astral Elevator etc. and then you get these ones that pop up in your messages saying how much they love your band and then when you ask for a fee they say they'll have to see how it goes on the night. Absolute dickheads aha. No bands at Melting Wax events will ever be asked to play for free, it's bollocks. I've even seen typed up social media rants from promoters aimed at bands who've asked for a fee. The kind of promoters that won't pay the band but will then spend £90 on a pair of old Fila trainers from a vintage shop haha.

Q: What is next for Melting Wax?

Just keep building it up and putting on amazing shows. One aim is for the shows to become more and more visual as well with really cool and new visual ideas. I don't want the shows to be too conservative or seem too familiar to people who come along so I'm looking to work with artists who can help to make the Melting Wax shows into something completely different. The school of art are having their art show in the days before the all dayer, so It'll be interesting to see what people are doing there.

I like working with venue owners who are trying to lift up the scene and help the bands get more well known. Chris is like that at Night People and Dom is like that at Aatma/Peer Hat as well so hopefully I'll do something there.

Q: What's your favourite type of wax?

Wax on, wax off.