Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Santiago Duque. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Santiago, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I think that pursuing a creative career has become easier in the past years, specially coming from Colombia, the music industry is very tough on new people and profiles. I started my music journey at the age of 5 when I started playing guitar and I always knew my life revolved around music. I was part of my school’s music group, and ultimately at the time of choosing a career a went for a Music Major with emphasis in Music Production.

I got to a point where even though I was learning and developing my musical and production skills, I lacked the knowledge on how to monetize and, ultimately, live out of making music. I ended up doing a second Major in Business to compliment but still there was little to no knowledge in Colombia about the Music Industry unless you were part of it. I had friends who mocked at me because of my mix of Music and Business since in the Latino environment you’re either a lawyer, a doctor or an engineer, period.

I chose my first internship based on pure heart, since they payed me nothing, it was 2.5 hours away from where I lived (traffic in Bogotá is just crazy), and the music division I was going to take part on wasn’t developed and didn’t have funding. On the other side, I was accepted at the same time to do an internship at Novartis (Pharmaceutical company) that payed me significantly for being an intern, 15mins from where I lived and it was the most desired internship at my University. I turned it down and went for the 2.5hour drive each day.

After that it led to start my career at a Marketing company that had little to nothing to do in the music industry. Lost and hopeless I doom-scrolled linkedin trying to find a lead for a job in the Music Industry but as we all know this is a relationship-based business where these jobs are usually taken by people within the industry. So finding something entry-level was almost impossible in 2014. Until one day a close friend of mine told me a college friend we had was leaving her job at Sony Music Andes as Label Manager – my opportunity to finally get what I was looking for.

I sent my CV but I was warned by my friend that they were only looking to hire very experienced people from the music-industry, which clearly wasn’t my profile. With high hopes I waited, stalked Sony’s HR person on LinkedIn and the same day I found her on LinkedIn I got a call from her asking for an in-person interview. I just couldn’t believe this was happening. Since then I knew I had to get that job. And I did.

I was able to get Sony Andes’ most important project (Andrés Cepeda) on the roster I led, being the youngest of the Label Managers. Also, I led the South America campaign for Michael Jackson’s Diamond Celebration who had to get approved by MJ’s state (the campaign coming from my office was the only one accepted by MJ’s state). Also, we won the Latin Grammy with Andres for his album TRECE, and 4xPlatinum certifications.

After being able to squeeze possibilities as much as possible in Colombia and the Andean region, I aspired for bigger challenges. Randomly a new friend came to my life who was responsible for giving us the opportunity to work at one of the top Latin independent companies: Rimas Entertainment. Rimas has been able to develop one of the all-time biggest latin global Superstars that our generations have been able to see, Bad Bunny. They not only managed to create a superstar almost from scratch, but they have become a powerhouse for Latin music supporting local talent and reading the market like no other. The knowledge I was able to see was something that wasn’t least of life-changing. But, every step has been a decision that involved risks, leaving family and friends behind, my habits, my city. Pursuing a life that is driven by dreams requires balancing situations constantly between your comfort zone and the unknown.

Since then, I’ve learned that the real joy is in the process and that if you are true about what you really want in life, things will come to you. It’s only a matter of timing. Now, I am leading the Artist Strategy department at HYBE Latin America, developing new artists (which has been a new experience that makes you appreciate every accomplishment even more), bringing the Latin culture to new heights, connecting with new markets, all through the creativity that has led my work since day one. I am here because of the music more than the business, and I believe that’s what has opened doors for me constantly.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, musician since the age of 5 when I picked up guitar as my long-time companion. Studied a double major at the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia (Music & Business Management) and started working in the Music Industry when I was 15 organizing parties during the Colombian boom of Tropipop where Fonseca, Carlos Vives and others where experimenting Tropical music with Pop.

Started my career at Gemalto, a Mobile-Marketing company, then I was Sr. Label Manager at Sony Music for almost 5 years where I led all the US/UK roster for the andean region, and developed artists like Andres Cepeda (Latin-Grammy Award winner), Vicente Garcia (Latin-Grammy Award Winner), amongst other incredible projects. After this, I transitioned to Rimas Entertainment as Manager where I helped drive the careers of artists like Lyanno, Mora, etc. Then, Jeremy Norkin called me to start the Management/Label division at a new independent music company called Exile Music, part of Exile Content (Candle Media/Blackstone) where we worked as a boutique label with artists like Chicocurlyhead and Quevedo on the touring front.

Now, Exile got acquired by HYBE Korea to become their latin arm, and I’m currently leading one of the sub-labels called Zarpazo, Miami-based, and the artist strategy department. At HYBE my role has been to help build cultural bridges between Korea, US and LatAm.

I am a guitarist, DJ & producer that loves Jamie XX, DJ Koze, Stevie Ray Vaughn and BB King. I am here for the music more than the business so I’ve tried to develop that intuition to make every problem get solved creatively. I am extremely passionate about the art of collaborating and getting people heard. Getting the chance to help artist build their career has been a new challenge that is the one I enjoy the most. Usually with established artists you lose that sense of “i am making my dreams come true”, while with upcoming, emerging artists, each struggle, each little win feels incredible.

Some cool accomplishments I’ve had so far can be the Latin-Grammy award for Andres Cepeda’s album TRECE. I’ve been a long-time admired of Andres, and having been able to lead that project for one of my personal favorite artists is an experience I will never forget. But getting Chicocurlyhead on the LAMC in NYC to perform, giving him his first NYC TImes Square Billboard with YouTube, and making him perform at Austin City Limits, Coca Cola Flow Fest and Tecate Pa’l Norte on the same year has been incredible. MAGNA is other project I cherish incredibly. His drive has taught me so much about life and pursuing dreams that I am eternally grateful for him. We have a beautiful Colombia-based team that is also one of the biggest accomplishments I’ve had since they are all happy and fulfilling their dreams with their job. That’s everything to me.

At the end of the day, I think what has distinguished me, surprisingly, is being a good person. The entertainment business is filled with people that only care about economical purposes with no ethical analysis on the repercussions of things. We spend such a little time on this rock we call home/earth that not trying to make people have an easier time with all the problems there are, is a failure to me. So when someone tells you “that’s just how this industry is” don’t settle for that. Make a change by being a good person and if somehow your ethical values are being compromised, don’t just let that happen. Make a change.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

It’s pretty simple: sometimes the wrong train takes you to the right station. I’ve had times where my mind and intuition aren’t necessarily aligned but ultimately the intuition gets polished through rationality, and rationality learns from the intuition until you end up trusting the process and your decisions.

Moving from Rimas Entertainment. being the absolute powerhouse for Latin Music in this moment and having top-tier artists like Bad Bunny and Karol G, to an independent company with a blank canvas as roster, was a difficult decision to take. Still to this day I imagine how my life would have been if I didn’t take the decision to embark on the indie path, but all that I’ve been able to learn and experience had convinced me that that choice was the correct one.

Changing from Rimas to Exile Music to start the Management and Record Label required new skills that I knew i didn’t have at the time but, one thing that has remained all my life is the trust I have in myself for doing new and hard things, so I accepted the challenge. This mindset has led me to push boundaries of things I think I wanted to things I only dreamt of. And making this abrupt change led me to a place where I am able to creatively envision a label, leading it’s creative efforts and trying – creatively – to design processes, all thanks to the experience to get involved in many aspects of the business that happened because of my time at Exile Music (Indie Company).

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I think one thing I’m trying to communicate with my work and creative work is to treat us a little bit better. Working on getting a more balanced, empathetic notion of reality comes through collaboration that is achieved only when putting the self on a side. When I’m producing or working on an artist’s release schedule, collaboration is a key part of the process.

Getting to value each person’s point-of-view and craft something out of nothing as a team will always have an amazing result. And this comes through the understanding that each and every one of us should be treated with respect. This also allows a more fluid creativity process where you take ideas and details from different people.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sduquelopez/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sduque20/
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/suntea-539666270

Image Credits

Ighor Cardozo