Staff Spotlight - Rupert Hine

Songwriter/Producer/Creative Master-mind
http://www.ruperthine.com
Biggest Contribution to KMF: Bringing seasoned and in-depth perspectives coupled with fresh and innovative sensibilities to new or aspiring songwriters - built on 50 years of understanding how to find and reach an audience with an art-form as essentially abstract as music. 
Recent Projects: 

• Developing his own publishing company, Auditorius, with partners (BMG).
• Recording and producing videos with new artists Jameson and Ed Prosek, available later this year.
• Co-founded REBOOT with Alan Graham: the world's first UGC (user-generated content) licensing system. http://rebootit.squarespace.com/

Rupert Hine has seen it all, and he's still constantly looking for more! He has been involved with writing and/or producing for Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks, Bob Geldof, Kate Bush, Suzanne Vega, Howard Jones, The Fixx, Rush, Chris de Burgh, The Thomson Twins, Underworld, and many more! He also masterminded "One World One Voice" with Kevin Godley and the "Art of Peace" project for the Dalai Lama. See his website (above) for the full list of accomplishments.

Rupert said he feels lucky to have spent a lifetime doing what he loves. He made his first album when he was just 16 years old, and hasn't stopped since! The biggest challenge he comes across working in music today, he said, is "trying to clear out the destructive influence that the TV-talent show virus has had on young writers and artists around the world." 

Aside from the great climate, scenery, atmosphere, and people on Kaua'i (and the coconut shrimp at Shrimp Station!) he said this year he is looking forward to seeing and hearing completely new and fresh 'unsigned' artists and their ideas. The coolest thing he's done since we last saw him, he said, was becoming one of two patrons of the United Kingdom's "Songwriting Charity" which works to introduce "the power and fulfillment of communication through music to children who are, by either circumstance or disability, less fortunate than ourselves."

Rupert's advice for artists:

• For a start - don't think of it as 'an industry!' We are a global village of individuals and groups.
• Remember that the world of music is as wide as this planet and is as many millennia old. Music is constantly developing and unfolding. My job is to monitor when new creators start getting it right, not by any existing rules but by reaching out and touching the very essence of us - the always-willing and always musically-hungry audience. 

Source: Rupert Hine and REBOOT

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