BIGSOUND Speaker Profile: Adam Lewis

Business: Secret Garden Festival

Position/Title: Festival Programmer 

How did you first become involved in the music business? I was always a huge music geek and looked for ways to get involved. That's included hosting radio shows, throwing parties, writing, DJing, and now booking festivals and venues. In a way I kind of stumbled into doing this professionally, but participation has always been important to me.

What do you perceive to be your area of expertise and how did you gain experience in this field? I think it's in finding exciting music and bringing it into a context where people can immerse themselves in it and fall in love with it. I've always been a really enthusiastic music listener, sharing songs and mixtapes. And I learnt how to do it with venues and stages.

Popular culture tells us that the music industry is all about hedonism, drugs and partying - how true is this in your experience? It's mostly method acting and myth-making. There's amazing parties and some in the community are more hedonistic than others, but I reckon there's harder-partying professions out there.

In this time of technological change how do you see the dissemination of music changing in the future? Is there still a place for physical product? I think there always will be — but it's changing. Actual physical music products are now for either enthusiasts (downloads/streaming are still the worst quality product) or superfans who want to physically "own" their passion. Others prefer convenience. The two can co-exist.

Some pundits espouse that the future of music is electronic-based - in your opinion is rock'n'roll passé? Who's saying this? I don't think anyone credible is, and it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Electronic music has been around for years now. Rock even longer. They're both excellent and will continue to grow and cross-pollinate among the many other musical approaches out there.

Do you think it's a good or bad time to be starting out as a musician? It's never a bad time to make music. From a purely financial point of view it's complicated (it's never been so affordable to create, and income streams are both broadened and diminished), but who approaches it from a purely financial point of view?

What advice would you give young practitioners in your area starting out today? Be a part of your community and be an advocate for what you love. Listen to types of music that you don't identify with and learn from them. Soak up everything around you and make something personal and new. Don't be a dickhead.

What will you be primarily discussing during your appearance at the BIGSOUND conference? I'm representing Secret Garden Festival, a boutique festival that I've programmed for two years now. I'll be talking about our approach and what's important to me when I'm in the process of putting together our stages and line-ups.

What are you hoping that people will be able to learn from your panel/interview? To be creative with bookings, and to try to create unique experiences using excellent music.

What do you personally hope to take away from your time at BIGSOUND? I want to meet lots of great people, see lots of great bands and be exposed to different ways of thinking about programming music.