Rob Davies

Once I started my own company/record label, I became quite obsessed with how the music industry worked.

I was a little geek really (still am) – always reading up on music business books and researching articles online from publications such as Music Week, Billboard, and then started attending seminars via AIM, BPI and MMF, which were brilliant for networking and learning current affairs within the industry. After leaving Esher, and getting a scholarship at ACM (which was a two year degree), I decided that I definitely wanted to work in music. So I bugged and bugged the HR departments, and eventually ended up being interviewed with Adam Griffin at Sony Music. We had both been introduced to Sony, by the same person. But a few days after my interview, I still hadn’t heard from Adam but it wasn’t going to let that stop me. So I ended up just ringing him every few days to try and get an answer, he finally answered and said “You’re very persistent aren’t you, why don’t you come in Monday” – I can’t tell you how happy I was at that moment and still remember fist pumping the air!

After a small temping stint at Syco, and working on X Factor, I spent two years at Electronic Arts (EA Games), before Adam and I came together again and Perfect Havoc was born in 2014.

Joel sent us a demo back in 2018, which we ended up releasing called ‘Good As Gold (feat. Hayley May)’ swiftly followed by another ‘Fallen (feat. Hayley May). We managed to get decent air play across the UK from BBC R1 to KISS FM. Joel then played us his single ‘Sorry,’ which I got really excited about. I am a BIG fan of UK Garage, and we loved Joel’s remake of it.

We released Sorry on April 4 2019, but it wasn’t until July when it started to really bubble and climb the Official Charts where it ended up at No. 6. It also broke the record for the most Shazam’d song in one day and ended up going Platinum too. We ended up licensing to Asylum/Atlantic Records (part of Warner Music), which then followed with Joel’s next singles ‘Lonely’ and most recently ‘Head & Heart.’ Both singles also achieved platinum status in the UK with Head & Heart achieving the No. 1 spot for six consecutive weeks and over one million units sold in the UK now. It’s also gone Gold and Platinum outside of the UK across multiple countries. We have two more tracks left with Joel under our deal with Asylum/Atlantic Records and enjoy working closely with them and Joel’s fantastic management at Tileyard Music and of course Joel himself who is one of the most driven and hard working artists I have ever worked with.

Well, obviously the music is No.1. But equally positioned are the people within it! It’s an incredibly social industry with everyone having a common interest and the personalities are just fantastic and so much fun. Some of the best people I have met were via my work experience at Sony Music, some of which I still work with now. Working directly with talent is so rewarding too especially when you start at the beginning with an artist, and in my case that would be with Joel Corry.

Be patient. I have always been very passionate, driven and eager and I think one thing I have had to learn massively is patience, especially nowadays with the way the streaming market works as it can sometimes take 4-6 months for a record to break – it’s not like the old days.

Another is “Focus” – Be focused and have a plan. Don’t try and do everything at once. It’s important to keep focused on your main goal, no matter how frustrating that can sometimes feel or momentous.

Wow what a question! This sounds cheesy but what inspires me is just listening to music, new and old, it motivates me in a way I cannot explain when I hear an amazing song. It’s like a drug actually (in a good way).

In terms of how to stand out, my suggestion is just be as “creative” and “resourceful” as possible. Nowadays, we have so many amazing ways to create content, music and video just from our phones, technology nowadays is incredible and pretty much anyone can make something cool just from using a smartphone!