WAM Festival Speaker Profile: Garth Cawardine

Organisation: Spinning Top Records

It's been a huge year for Spinning Top and Tame Impala. Describe the roads it has taken you on? It has literally taken me around the world. Constantly learning and dealing with things I haven't known previously. Nothing can really prepare you for the workload as much as you try, you just get to work when it starts flying your way. Spinning Top becoming a label and taking on the management of that has also been a big learning curve for me. Everyday is pretty fun in the Spinning Top world.

The international rise of Tame Impala has really no precedent when it comes to born-and-bred WA bands. From indie Perth band to a bona fide international act - has it been challenging to keep pace with the band's constant upward trajectory? Of course, Spinning Top has had to keep up and grow at the same pace as Tame Impala and the rest of our roster. Challenges come along all the time, but with those challenges come new experiences and the knowledge to tackle it the next time something similar pops up.

What are the best lessons you've learnt about the music industry and in what circumstances did you usually learn them? That there's no straight forward way with anything in this industry. There's no guide book, every artist is different and each have their own way of getting to where they want to be. I've learnt this from working hands-on with a group of amazing and diverse artists, all at different levels in their career.

Do you feel that the sharing of experience and knowledge at events such as the WAM Conference helps to improve the industry in general? I think it helps others get a sense that anything can happen. You may not necessarily know when, you just need to be prepared to deal with whatever comes your way as best you can. Every artist has a starting point and where they end up is determined by so many factors - hopefully the insight from these conferences can prepare others a little for what could come their way.

What sort of things do you plan to touch upon in your appearance? I guess we'll see where the conversation goes, as much as you can try to plan, no one knows what could happen!