Mark Roberts

About Mark Roberts

Please note: I\'m currently pretty busy with freelancing and will be touring Europe in May, but come June, I\'d love to join a team at a forward-thinking music company. If you have an idea, let\'s talk. Hi, my name is Mark. I run Stars & Letters Records, produce and perform music as We Are Temporary, and am a freelance web- and graphic designer. Prior to that I spent a year with Riot Artists (formerly Eye For Talent) as a booking artists, label-managed Evergreene Music for 3+ years, stage-managed a 1200-capacity venue at SXSW\'15, and helped build the career of a world-renowned author and storyteller. I also interned with Terrorbird Media in Brooklyn (sync/licensing), Haydn Rawstron Limited in London (classical music artist agency), and The Metro in Chicago (street marketing); studied classical composition, audio production, and philosophy in the United States, Germany, and New Zealand. I grew up in Germany. My mother was a professional opera singer and my father ran a classical music agency for nearly 40 years. I\'ve played in bands all my life, toured extensively, and booked hundreds of shows for myself and the artists I’ve worked with all around the world. I\'m fully bi-lingual (German/English) and am a bit of an addict when it comes to online marketing, social media, design, web, and media technology. In addition to my professional life, I make jewelry, sew my own clothes, play tennis, and spend as much time as I can with my perfect wife and our darling flat-coated retriever puppy, Ash. Specialties: publicity; artist management; artist development; A&R; booking agent; tour booking; web & graphic design; social marketing & advertising; digital strategy; brand development; public speaking; content generation (video, audio, photography); music composition; audio production; sync & licensing; copy writing; music distribution; creative merchandising; Adobe Photoshop; Apple Logic; Wordpress; Final Cut; etc.

Experience

1. Owner and Founder

   Stars & Letters Records

   Feb 2012 — Present · Brooklyn, NY, US

   Stars & Letters is a Brooklyn record label with an international roster of innovative, vocal-driven, electronic artists. Our current roster includes Bad Blocks (AU), Black City Lights (NZ), GPSYMTH (US), Empathy Test (UK), Misfit Mod (NZ), Ruane Maurice (UK), Shocking Pinks (NZ), and We Are Temporary (US). Friends and partners include Sound Distribution Strategies, Carrot Top Distribution, Terrorbird Media, and Drunken Piano. Our artists have been covered by Pitchfork, SPIN, NPR, Stereogum, Nylon, Interview Magazine, and many more.Aside from bold and consistent A&R and curation, I\'m also quite savvy when it comes to online publicity (I\'ve personally sorted premieres in Pitchfork, Noisey, Dazed, and hundreds more), album campaigns, radio promo, guerilla marketing (online & street), advertisement and demographic targeting, graphic design, audio production, music distribution, social media, booking, sync/licensing, music contracts, stage managing, artist management & development, music video creation, and lots more.

Education

• Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand

  First Year, Audio Engineering and Music Production

  2007 — 2008

• Peter Cornelius Conservatory (Germany)

  University Preparatory Program (SVA), Classical Guitar, Piano, Music Theory, Ear Training

  1997 — 1999

• University of Canterbury

  Master of Arts - MA, Philosophy

• Northwestern University

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Music Composition and Philosophy

• Rheingauschule Geisenheim (Germany)

  Abitur, Leistingskurse in Music, English, Philosophy, Biology

  1989 — 1999