Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Thibaut Charmolue. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Thibaut, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
During the exhausting and frustrating period of the pandemic, working in the music industry has been quite the task to say the least.
No PR agencies were hiring and everything was on stop, I decided to take advantage of this time and do something that I’ve always had in my mind : directing music documentaries and interviewing individuals that I respected and whom I truly admired their work.
Two subjects stood out : Music Videos and Artists.
The subject of Music Videos and their Directors has always been a super fascinating subject for myself. The music video explosion in the early 1980s with MTV and the channel constantly airing music videos on the air 24/7 is what made viewers interested in artists and bands (there was no Youtube back then and the only way to watch those music videos was either watching Music TV channels or if an artist had the clever idea of releasing his videography on VHS or on DVD such as The Work of Directors series).
If an artist had a big popular song on the radio it was definitely an important lesson to have a music video that would be memorable and stand out from other music videos. The music video was not only used as a promotionnal tool for the artist but it could also be used for the director as a gateway entrance into the world of filmmaking.
The approach of making a music documentary was straight and clear to me from the start.
Coming up and brainstorming ideas for those documentaries, I decided to take on a different and alternative approach opposed to a typical and simple music interview with basic questions.
The archival material (researching and compiling a huge amount of archives with old school pictures and footage of music videos). By adding the archival material, I really wanted it to be as 100% accurate and the point of view from the interviewee.
For each documentary, I spent at least 8-9 months on them doing the research, finding interesting questions that haven’t been asked before, focusing on particular subjects, the archival gathering, the editing : all that is an important amount of work.
The names of the documentaries are as below :
– Being a Music Video Director and The Art of Music Videos with director Cousin Mike and Evil Jared from the Bloodhound Gang
– Being in Home Grown and the Californian Punk Scene in Orange County documentary with Ian “Slur” Cone (Original Guitarist of Home Grown)
– The Art and Aesthetic of Music Videos documentary with Mark Kohr
Such a blast working on those 3 documentaries!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
sk8 PR is an independent Music PR agency based in France targeting and focused on music publicity campaigns across different medias such as magazines, blogs, webzines, print, digital and podcasts.
Founded by Thibaut Charmolue who has multiple experiences in music publicity as a Music Publicist : former music publicist/ music licensor at KROD Records (independent record label in Germany) promoting their artists from the label for movie soundtracks, TV shows and video games and worked in different music PR agencies.
With a Bachelor of Arts degree (Hons) in Music Business and Innovation and also with multiple experiences in the Music PR industry.
My passion for music definitely grew further after my trip to the United States (precisely in Berkeley, California) when I walked past the Fantasy Studios. My trip to the United States in March 2010 changed my life.
Walking past the Fantasy Studios is what made me want to pursue a career in the music industry and then eventually directed me to the music PR side of the business.
Fantasy Studios was a music recording studio in Berkely, California. Here are some notable records that were recorded there :
– Green Day “Dookie” (1994)
– Primus “Sailing the Seas of Cheese” (1991)
– Rancid “Let Go” (1994)
– Rancid “… And Out Come The Wolves” (1995)
– Jawbreaker “Dear You” (1995)
– Santana “Supernatural” (1999)
– Chris Isaak “Heart Shaped World” (1989)
– Too Short “Life is … Too Short” (1989)
The importance of being a music publicist doesn’t stop only at just music : it’s about always thinking outside of the box and being creative but also being unique. I have in-depth experience in the video game industry and also interacting with music supervisors (who are doing such unique work and curating soundtracks). My agency stands out because I pitch to music supervisors opposed to other music PR agencies.
I definitely think that soundtracks are an amazing opportunity for artists to get their music heard : I have an important amount of respect towards music supervisors as it’s quite a tricky task to say the least to curate a soundtrack for a Movie or a TV show.
Being passionate, professional, dedicated and highly effective are very important notions in my Music Publicist work at sk8 PR. Flexibility, self-sufficiency, kindness and being considerate are what defines best sk8 PR.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
As a Music Publicist, seeing an young artist grow and reach out a new audience in terms of media is essential and rewarding.
For example, I worked as a Music Publicist for the band Hightower from Paris.
In terms of approaching the the Publicity campaign, different songs from their second album “Club Dragon” would be an amazing fit in term of the Extreme Sports industry.
I reached out to Enjen Games ( a small independent developer in Copenhagen, Denmark) pitching them the band and their new record and if they needed music for video games.
And at the end, the single “The Party” from that record was added on the soundtrack of the game, in the gameplay video and the official promo video of BMX FE3D 2.
Two other bands Cold Reading and Tiny Rascals were also added on the gameplay videos of Skating FE3D 2 and Scooter FE3D 2.
Seeing Youtube comments on people discovering the tracks and bands via the music placement is also super interesting because it shows that the audience listens and that the soundtrack definitely matters and is important!
A quote from “A Band’s Life Podcast” from me :
“The main thing is not necessarily targeting the big playlists on Spotify : a majority of time we target the smaller Spotify playlists. If we’re submitting a punk rock band for example (we always check the punk rock related playlists on Spotify but also the playlists that are linked in some way to punk rock music like the pop/punk playlists/ skateboarding/extreme sports playlists. The main thing is to do a research on smaller playlists and if the music is really good, you will probably have some kind of response/feedback. »
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
– How To Ruin a Record Label by Larry Livermore.
– Access All Areas: A Backstage Pass Through 50 Years of Music and Culture by Barbara Charone
– Lunch With The Wild Frontiers: A History of Britpop and Excess in 13-1/2 Chapters by Jane Savidge
– I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution” by Rob Tannenbaum and Craig Marks
– Hell of a Hat: The Rise of ’90s Ska and Swing by Kenneth Partridge
– Real Wild Child by Narelle Gee
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hellosk8pr.wixsite.com/mysite
- Instagram: @sk8p.r
- Twitter: @thibaut_ch
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thibaut7329
Image Credits
sk8 PR Website
A Band’s Life Podcast
The Yearbook by PLNKWIFI for the Tea from the PR Pros Interview!