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.

Claudia Gunn

Claudia Gunn is a media allrounder, as a songwriter and performer herself across dance music (Substax), indie folk (Humming Birde) and children’s genres (Claudia Robin Gunn), and a professional background in sponsorship, television promos and video production.

She now specialises in assisting artists making music for kids and families with their release plans, artist admin and overall media approach. A specialised genre but one with a huge potential audience worldwide and the most endearing and enthusiastic listeners!

Having navigated the past few years on a deep learning curve as a self managed artist, Claudia highly values community building and knowledge sharing as a way for independent artists to empower themselves and share the journey. She aspires to help artists raise the profile of their music and help their incredible work reach the listeners they serve.

Mikee Carpinter

Mikee Carpinter is a musician, director and producer who has played an instrumental role in bringing some of New Zealand’s finest music-based visual content to life.

Mikee brings a passion for the New Zealand music industry with his 20+ years of experience. Much of that time has spent working on his own musical projects, while also managing acts including Alae, Georgia Lines, Hooks and Alex James.

Mikee specialises in guiding new acts into the industry and helping them lay out releases plans and goal setting.

This includes applying for funding, pitching to radio, building a local/international team, content creation and release strategies.

Mikee’s specialties are: MANAGEMENT, RADIO, RELEASE STRATEGIES, CONTENT CREATION, FUNDING

Manu Taylor

Manu has worked in the New Zealand music and media industries for well over 30 years.

After starting out in music retail, merchandising and indie record label ownership, in the 80s/early 90s he progressed into retail and promotions management with major labels WEA and Polygram Records.

After finishing up at Polygram in 1997, he was invited to join hip-hop/RnB radio station Mai FM as their Programme Director; at Mai FM between 1997 and 2008. Manu shifted roles to become Station Manager of Auckland’s 95bFM, finishing up at 95bFM early 2015.

He then moved into artist management, music production and music distribution. Currently managing Lontalius, Race Banyon, Dera Meelan, Church & AP, deadforest, Kedu Carlo, Maxwell Young, Kamahumble, Stupid Rich Kid, Tom Verberne, Disciple Pati and PollyHill.

Manu can mentor on Radio, Music Programming, Digital Media, Strategy and Getting your music out

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.

Paula Yeoman

Paula Yeoman is the co-owner and co-director of NicNak Media alongside Nicole Thomas.

NicNak specialises in artist management and entertainment publicity, and recently launched a new media initiative, Lil Sister, for emerging acts. NicNak also runs a boutique record label for a small roster of Aotearoa artists.

Before establishing NicNak Media, Paula worked as a journalist, with more than 20+ years’ experience in NZ and the UK. She now fronts the management arm of NicNak and is across the day-to-day management of Theia (and Theia’s te reo Māori project TE KAAHU), Paige, Nganeko and TOI. She also works closely with many other NZ artists as a mentor with MMF.

Paula and Nicole are two-time recipients of MMF awards – in 2017, they won the award for ‘Emerging Manager of the Year’ and in 2021, they won ‘Manager of the Year’.

Paula is involved in the day-to-day management of the artists on the NicNak roster and is able to assist in all areas relating to management including pairing artists with writers, producers, engineers, photographers, videographers; helping with funding applications; budgeting; strategy and planning for new releases; touring; branding, developing assets (bios, press shots); social media and creating content.

Dorothy Power

Dorothy first cut her teeth within the NZ music industry working in label management (local and international), publicity and promotions for Flying Nun, Warner Music, and Festival Mushroom Record companies. After a successful start to her music career, she took her skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm over to Europe 17 or so years ago and is predominantly now based in London. Since landing in the northern hemisphere she crossed over into the live production side of the business and has worked on some of the world’s most well-known music festivals across the UK and Europe. Working alongside the AEG Global Partnership team, amongst others, she has been part of production teams that deliver large scale festivals and events at multiple venues including The O2 and Hyde Park. Additionally, she helped set up and produced a boutique music, arts, and literature festival.

Splitting her time between UK/ EU and New Zealand Dorothy has also worked on various festivals on NZ soil including camp operations management for Rhythm and Vines, event producer for the inaugural Auckland Craft Beer and Food Festival for Live Nation and OUSA at Auckland’s Spark Arena, Rhythm and Alps, Snowboxx in Wanaka (sadly cancelled due to covid).

Alongside music festivals Dorothy is a skilled producer of brand-led award-winning events for global drinks brands, and is accomplished in delivering experiential, consumer-driven activations, whilst executing all on-site operations, including sponsorship engagement across the UK and Europe.

Throughout her career she has worked with many local NZ artists and a huge selection of touring internationals, as well as major global partners on sponsorship activations and delivery including Hendrick’s Gin (and the full William Grant Portfolio), Bacardi, Ray Ban, Playstation, Lululemon, Peroni, Birra Moretti, Veuve Cliquot, and Hunter, to name but a few.

Dorothy can mentor on Sponsorship, Budgets, Major (and not so Major) Events.

Dan Chisholm

Dan is a specialist music lawyer, acting for prominent musicians, managers and music entities in New Zealand and Australia. Prior to his legal career, Dan resided in Australia and played music professionally for the band BONJAH, touring with artists such as The Who, Counting Crows and The Cranberries.  Since returning to New Zealand, Dan has continued to play music and is currently part of the Christchurch musical group, Volts. 

Dan is qualified to practice in both New Zealand and Australia and advises on a range of music related agreements, including songwriter, recording, management, producer, publishing, synchronisation, distribution and licensing agreements. 

Dan’s objective is to provide his clients with expert knowledge and advice so that they can make the right choices with their creative material.  Dan writes regular legal articles for NZ Musician magazine, and has undertaken guest lectures at Otago University and CPIT.

*Please note the below

• Legal 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. We recommend you engage the services of a legal professional prior to proceeding with any specific legal matters.

• MMF members cannot ask the lawyer to look over and make comments or mark ups on contracts

• All contact with the lawyer is to be done via the MMF. No unsolicited emails are allowed