Joost Langeveld

Joost is co-director of Bigpop - a resourceful ‘umbrella’ company assisting creatives realise their artistic dreams and aspirations, and providing viable pathways to enable artists to share their art with the world. Bigpop’s activities include A&R, music publishing, label services, music production and operating music/sound recording studio facilities.

Artists affiliated with the Bigpop extended whānau include CHAII, Isla Noon, TîMMY the First, Neil Macleod, Jujulipps, Abraham Kunin, Carawei Gao and Kings amongst others.

Joost’s history is varied and encompasses most facets of the music industry. Whether as a musician, composer, producer, A&R, collaborator and/or music industry entrepreneur he has been (and still is) a partner to a wide range of local and global facing projects.

Chris Close

Chris is a talented drummer, tour promoter, and artist manager based in Ōtautahi who has developed a reputation for his exceptional ability to nurture and elevate fellow musicians. Initially starting out playing in local Christchurch bands, Chris quickly took on the dreaded admin roles of organising gigs andreleases for his bands. What started as a side-hustle has now turned into a considerable career.

As well as running his label Winegum Records alongside his wife Sarena (Mousey), Chris now provides management and tour booking services to other local artists such as Pickle Darling and Pretty Stooked, among others.

Chris is a passionate advocate for the Ōtautahi music scene, his unwavering work ethic and dedication to the Ōtautahi music scene make him a respected advocate and invaluable asset to the music industry and the artists he works with.

Chris can mentor on: Management / Touring / Branding / Record Labels / Publishing / Publicity / A&R / Production /Strategy / Merchandise / Radio / Digital / Other....

Joel Tashkoff

Joel is an entertainment lawyer at NZ’s leading entertainment law firm Dominion Law. His specialty lies in the music industry (with some modelling industry experience thrown in the mix), and his practice includes a strong focus on contractual issues surrounding music rights, publishing, licensing, producer deals, management agreements, and recording contracts. Joel’s clients include platinum selling artists and Grammy winners actively working abroad, local youngsters just starting out, and everything in between. Whether you’re a manager, artist, band, label, engineer or producer, Joel’s aim is to empower you to make the most informed decisions you can for your career through advice that is thorough, yet easy to understand and relatable.

When not advising clients, Joel (under the name ‘choicevaughan’) is an award-winning, self-managed artist/music producer and composer. Joel’s self-released albums boast millions of streams, and his recent work in both composing the score for the TVNZ series “The Panthers” and producing its associated soundtrack each culminated in multiple award nominations. Joel’s unique combination of experiences gives him a ground-level understanding and appreciation of the issues faced by artists, managers, and producers in today’s ever-changing music landscape.

Make sure to indicate whether you’d like your session to focus on general legal advice in Joel’s capacity as a lawyer, or if you’d rather Joel wear his producer/artist/composer hat for the session instead.

*Please note the below

• Mentoring sessions are 30 mins only

• The legal mentoring sessions are for the purposes of providing general guidance on legal issues applicable to the music industry.

• MMF members cannot ask the lawyer to look over and make comments or mark ups on contracts during the session, but are encouraged to separately engage the services of a legal professional prior to proceeding with any specific legal matters.

Yee Yang ‘Square’ Lee 李羽阳

Square has arts/artist management, creative producing, mentoring & development, technical, governance, research and commercial skills and experience gained from roles in diverse sectors including performing/multi-disciplinary arts, creative technology, audience development, festivals, intellectual property and philanthropy.

An experienced live touring and performing arts producer, Square has toured artists to festivals and theatres across Asia, UK, USA, Germany, Canada, Australia and Aotearoa NZ.  Artists Square has worked with include: Modern Māori Quartet, Troy Kingi, Tofiga Fepulea’i, Mazbou Q, Arjuna Oakes, James Roque, Barnie Duncan, EDY, Rutene Spooner and RESHMA among others. He is a founding member of Where The Asians At‽ (Aotearoa), ORYZA and the ASIAN(SOUND)SCAPES Festival and currently manages Chinese-Pākehā sibling indie-folk duo Ersha Island 二沙岛.

Square is Malaysian-Chinese 马来西亚华族 by heritage, specifically Hakka 客家 Chinese.  He grew up in Kuala Lumpur, read Law in Cardiff, specialised as a Chartered Secretary in Aotearoa, where he now calls Auckland home, with arts manager and creative producer Sums and their young family.

Square can mentor on creative producing, governance, networking, cultural competence, crossover (working across artforms/genres), pitching/negotiation, international touring, and generally, things that don’t fit neatly into boxes.

Riccardo Ball

Riccardo has worked in the radio industry as a host, producer and Music Director for 30 years, including time at Radio Hauraki, The Rock and Crescendo Trust. He's across the commercial radio realities of what it takes to get airplay and is also a working musician in his own right.

As the Director of Wrecking Ball Media Riccardo specialises as a consultant on music, radio plugging, producing, arrangement and PR.

Greg Haver

Greg Haver is an award-winning producer with a background in engineering, programming and drumming. He built his impressive reputation with artists including the Manic Street Preachers, Melanie C, INME, The Chills, Troy Kingi, Opshop, Devilskin, the Feelers, Kimbra, Catatonia, Super Furry Animals and Bullet For My Valentine. He is renowned for his diverse production skills and innovative arrangements. He’s the co-chair of the Music Producers Guild Aotearoa and has been involved with setting up several industry programmes including AMPS, SyncPosium, SongHubs and NZ On Air's New Music Development.

Greg can mentor on Music Production, Audio Engineering, Song Arranging, Recording Session Planning, Artist Development, General Music Industry Advice.