Claire Bogle’s South Austin office is everything you would expect from someone deeply rooted in the music industry. Concert posters coat the walls, and on the floor sits a note that says “these are from Wiz” — Wiz Khalifa that is — and the latest news from the industry is laid out, including a copy of FADER featuring DJ Kindness on the cover. Bogle is a tall, smiley blond and co-founder of Scoremore, a music promotional company that organizes events in the hip-hop and dance music sphere here in Austin.
Bogle and her company have supported many artists from their early days, including big-names like Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore and Wiz Khalifa. They curate talent, book shows and run events — the most famous is their annual festival JMBLYA. In a city where live music takes precedent over all other entertainment, ORANGE chatted with Bogle to see how the business side of the industry lives.
By Sarah Montgomery
ORANGE: What is your role in Scoremore? What are some of your day-to-day tasks?
CLAIRE BOGLE: My role or roles in Scoremore are multifaceted, I am the talent buyer for the club shows, I am a curator and I am a manager of the company – or the mom if you will.
Day to day consists of a lot of creating, refining and submitting offers, negotiating, phone calls, emails and conversations. I’m constantly lurking about on the Internet, seeing what and whom people are talking about and gratefully, my day consists of a lot of listening – listening to new music, listening to my team, my friends, the community, you guys, the college community. Trying to stay on top of what’s going on in music and how we can best serve our demographic.
O: What motivated you to get involved in the music industry?
CB: I feel like I didn’t have much of a choice to be honest. I am very much a believer in destiny or right place right time and through a series of inspired events it just happened and happily I haven’t looked back.
O: What steps did you take to get involved in making your way in the Austin music scene?
CB: A ton of grind and hustle. Sascha* was actually really brilliant in the way he spearheaded our break-in. He was offered a job as the talent buyer of a club downtown, now called Recess but back then was called Aces, his job was to fill the calendar with great shows and we did just that.
O: What obstacles did you face going into your career? Do you feel like you faced hardships being a woman in the music industry?
CB: I faced a ton of obstacles, some related to my sex but most related to the nature of the business. Promoting is very much gambling so with that comes many obstacles but we hedged our bets on ourselves and I think it turned pretty great but there were/are definite hardships due to me being a woman, but at the end of the day I’m about my business and I do good business so that doesn’t leave much room for arguments, you know?
I am also gratefully sober, so therein lay its own struggle in this business and trying to walk the line of spiritual and successful. Not saying you can’t be spiritual and successful because that is not the case but we book rap and dance shows some of the content and activities associated with that is not exactly spiritually fit, but we do it with honesty and integrity and genuine motives.
O: Who are you keeping up with right now/what are you listening to?
CB: Oh man, so much. I’m listening to Tory Lanez, Kali Uchis, DCtheKid, Dornik, Jay Prince, from London, and Daniel Ceasar, just to name a few. Oh, and Drake, I’m always listening to Drake if you attended JMBLYA ’14 and purchased a VIP package, you are very familiar with our offices love of Drake.
O: Outside of music, what do you do in your free time? What do you do to keep yourself fresh, creative, and prevent yourself from getting burnt out?
CB: I do a ton of yoga, which is life-changer. This industry is very fast pace and yoga makes me stop, breathe and appreciate everything for what it truly is in this moment and time.
Sascha and I launched a small clothing line in 2011 called, VintagefortheVain and I am working on some new stuff for that. Also managing an artist, which has proved very exciting.
I hang out with my dogs and friends just laugh, happiness is personally my greatest source of creativity because when you are happy, anything is possible.
O: What is the best part of your work?
CB: The best part of my work is sharing the joy of music with people, and facilitating the experience of connecting fans with their favorite artist and artist with their fans in a safe space where people can unwind and be themselves. Music changed my life – it was very much an outlet for emotions and soundtrack of memories and we are privileged to create that space.
O: What are some events Scoremore is getting ready for or projects that you are excited about?
CB: We are planning and expanding JMBLYA in ‘15. We are also looking to launch two new festivals next year so stay tuned for those announcements.
We just created a philanthropy division of our company and so far we have been able to partner with artists and donate tickets to people that do community service or younger kids that make good grades and volunteer. Giving back to the Texas community has been amazingly fulfilling and this is just the tip of the iceberg so I’m very excited to see where that goes.
O: Who is your inspiration? Where do you get inspiration?
CB: I get inspiration from the music itself, honestly. Take JMBLYA for example, that was inspired by the new wave of “internet music” and now it’s a successful brand that lives and thrives on its own.
Getting our start in the live music capitol of the world was very challenging but we had some amazing people to look up to. C3 as a company is very inspiring they are always creating and expanding brands, curating cool events and all around just producing amazing experiences. Amy Corbin who books all of ACL among a million other things is a true boss, and I really look up to her.
O: What is your advice for someone trying to get into the industry?
CB: Advice to someone getting in the music industry is intern somewhere credible and just say “yes” to whatever someone throws at you even if you have no clue how to do it or what they are talking about, figure it out and see where that takes you. You’ll be amazed by the journey and excited about where you end up.
*Sascha Stone is the other founder of Scoremore
