For Andrew Gould '00, creative director at EMI records, it is the passion for the music—for the melodies, the industry and the business behind it—that has long been a driving force.
While at Bowdoin, although Gould did not major in music, he spent a great deal of time pursuing his own musical interests in the piano as well as developing his burgeoning interest in the entertainment industry.
Gould explained that the seeds for this interest were planted even prior to Bowdoin. While in high school in Massachusetts, Gould paid close attention to the bands playing at Holy Cross College.
"I was drawn to one band in particular that opened for a lot of the headliners," Gould said. "That opener was a group of freshman from Tufts University. A band named Guster."
Gould explained that he founded a relationship with Guster during his high school year, including doing a lot of basic street publicity for them, which sparked his even greater interest in the industry.
Building upon this formative experience, Gould joined and quickly became a prominent member of the Student Union Committee (S.U.C.) at Bowdoin, working on the concerts committee that helped to plan and bring concerts to campus.
"I invested a lot of my time into working for S.U.C.," Gould said, pointing especially to the relationship he leveraged with Guster and his efforts to bring them to the College. "At the time though, I'm not sure I necessarily thought of it as work. In terms of retrospectively focusing on a campus activity that really translated into what I'm now pursuing with my work, S.U.C. would be it. Although at the time, I'm not sure it was that linear."
Coinciding with Gould's involvement with S.U.C were his academic interests in Economics and German, the fields in which he double majored. Upon graduation, although Gould continued to foster a passion for music and the music industry, he turned to these academic interests as he began to search for a job.
"While abroad in Germany my junior year I visited a relative, a Bowdoin graduate actually, who gave me some very influential advice," Gould said. "I told him my musical interests and I asked what he suggested I look for in terms of a career. What he suggested was that I go to Wall Street."
"I was taken aback at first, but he explained that there are skills you develop working for a large company," he added, "Skills like how to deal with money, how to communicate ideas, how to manage people and relationships. These are such important skills for any job setting —they really translate."
Gould took this advice very much to heart and, upon graduation, took a job at a small, private real estate investment firm in New York City.
"It was just me and five other guys," Gould said of the firm. "And working that job was helpful in many of the ways that my family friend had set forth. I definitely got a very real understanding of money...and there's a tremendous amount of value in that. Working in that intense environment you also inherit this type of professionalism that you wouldn't get just jumping into another job, especially into the music industry."
Although working in an area seemingly dislocated from his musical passions, Gould explained that while living in New York he consistently took advantage of the city's live music scene. Thus, when his job at the real estate firm concluded, Gould turned to the music industry in considering new employment.
"I took an unpaid internship at Epic Records," Gould explained, "which turned out to be this completely amazing experience. It was basically like getting my masters degree in the music industry."
Gould worked at Epic Records for four years, eventually becoming Manager of Arts & Repertoire.
"It was amazing, the position I was in, even at the beginning just running errands and making calls," he said. "You know, there I was talking to Macy Gray's people and Shakira's people. I was dealing with the people who really are the tastemakers. Through that job I was really able to build up contacts and learn exactly how it was that albums get made and artists get signed. I learned all of the ins and outs of the industry."
It was then that, as Gould said, "The EMI (Electronic and Musical Industries) Group came knocking ,wondering how I felt about working at their publishing company. It was an opportunity I couldn't turn down."
In 2007, Gould took a job as the creative director at EMI.
"Here we're still out there looking for new talent and finding new talent, it's just that now it's on the publishing side as opposed to the record label side," he said. "Here we make money by having our intellectual label on songs that are going out onto albums or onto Guitar Hero or onto television shows like Grey's Anatomy."
Gould explained that what is especially engrossing about his work at EMI is the conflation of the business and the production of creativity.
"I'm constantly pursuing those qualities in a person that make you think, 'They're just going to be this big hit.' Maybe there's this one song that makes me really want to pay attention to this person, something really compelling, something special," he said.
"Its what makes me love coming to work everyday—this idea that I'm having this role in the development and nurturing of these people," he added. "To have this ability to work with people that are so interesting and unique and creative and that really like to push the boundaries."
Gould's path and current work highlight the necessary relationship between business and creativity that exists, often forgotten, within the art world. His recent decision to earn an advanced degree in business while working at EMI is especially illustrative of this connection.
"It's incredibly creative, what I do, but its still very much a business," Gould said. "There is a diversified skill set that business school will provide that can only help with the work I do. Because even in its creativity, my work is still transaction based. It's still the act of signing a talent—I'm staking my career in that, I'm investing heavily in that person, and at the end of the day an education in business will help to provide a better contextual understanding of the creative work that I am taking part in."