Lunch hour has emptied the warehouse as Aaron Soriero, Founder and Lead Production Designer of Music Matters Productions (MMP) walks us through the latest location of his company. The quietude belies the rush of activity that will soon occur as numerous shows load up and out in the next three weeks. The 40,000 sq. ft. warehouse boasting 12 loading docks has strains of jam band music wafting from the lighting shop as a tech at a grandMA console rings out the lighting system hanging in the building, prepping for one of three upcoming Shaky Knees festival stages. Yet another lighting tech is unboxing and QC’ing the Elation Rayzor 760’s MMP recently purchased. Over in the audio department an FOH engineer is putting the finishing touches on a customized rack that will be heading to another show.
It’s hard to imagine this business was once housed in a small brick storefront office in upscale Alpharetta GA, catering to middle school children learning to play violin, piano, guitar, and horns. That was 20 years ago. When asked if he ever envisioned the company coming this far, Soriero recalls a line from the Phish movie Bittersweet Motel. “Mike Gordon, the bassist for the band, says every milestone in their growth, felt like the biggest step,” recites Soriero. “That’s how I feel about our growth. Our first gig was at a frat house, so to go to a postage stamp size stage in an actual small venue was a major deal. And that feeling keeps repeating as we continue to achieve our own milestones.” Soriero won his actual first festival, a small one admittedly, with a $500 bid, just for stage lighting. “It was a loss for sure, I mean I had 13 crew on it, but it was a valuable learning experience and got our name out there, and we met a lot of TM’s, PM’s, and LD’s.”
Old relationships on the seemingly tiniest of gigs have blossomed and borne fruit as well. Providing full production at the Shaky Knees Festival is a direct result of bringing gear to the small but well-worn Masquerade Club, in Atlanta. “Tim Sweetwood, the talent buyer for the club would hire me to provide six up lights or similar packages like that at first. As he grew, so did we. When he created Shaky Knees, he told me he remembered how I always showed up and delivered what he needed even at the times when it maybe it wasn’t worth my while. He appreciated that type of loyalty and commitment, as do I,” says Soriero. His first shot at the festival was providing site lighting and sponsor activation. “It was a small piece of the festival, but I would walk around, and I would take note of all of the elements required to handle the stages. I decided then that I wanted to grow the company in ways to be able to win that business.”
Building the Business
Through the evolution of Music Matters Productions, the warehouse space has seen a succession of empty retail spaces near the music stores about 1,200 – 4,000 sq. ft. from 2008 to 2013, then into an actual warehouse with two docks in 2014.Within three years they upgraded to a 10,000 sq. ft. space only to add an additional 10,000 sq. ft. adjacent a year later. In 2020 Soriero moved into their present location. “And we are already outgrowing this one!” laughs Marketing Director Lindsay Schwartz.
During these years, MMP has continued to embed itself as the go-to full production company for local music venues and installations. The company provides front of house spotlights for Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park, a venerable and classic outdoor venue nestled near the moneyed echelon of old Atlanta. It features concerts of all musical genres and is the summer home for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. MMP also brings in lighting, LED walls, and audio for their season residence.
The Eastern, a recently opened state-of- the art venue in Atlanta, has become a nationally noted premiere concert facility. Zero Mile Presents and AEG turned to MMP to handle the integration and design of all the lighting and audio installation. “I knew the guys that opened the Eastern in Atlanta when they owned the Georgia Theatre in Athens and Terminal West in Atlanta,” says Soriero. “They now have multiple venues in several states and have partnered with AEG.”
C3, now the arm of Live Nation that handles festival events, is comprised of a set of early associates Soriero made by answering that call for a small rental and delivering on time every time. One of those early associates is the owner of CLLD and EventPM, Chris Lisle. Lisle, who has over 30 years in the industry, has worked as a Production Designer, Lighting Designer, Production Manager, and Show Producer. He is now Lighting Designer for Live Nation on a number of their festivals. Lisle has worked with Music Matters numerous times over the years and knows well when he says “Music Matters delivers a fantastic product time after time. From their paperwork to their prep to how things are managed on site, it’s all top notch. I know that when we are working with them on a show that it will be smooth sailing.”
Entering and succeeding in the festival market as a full production provider was kickstarted by a combination of acquiring a large inventory and the right people to make things happen. “I realized that the number of cabinets needed to cover 15,000 people at a festival is only a few boxes more than what is needed to handle a 5,000-seat hall. The invoice though is much larger!” Soriero grins. He came to understand too that, “L-Acoustics and d&b really are the only two P.A. options, from the riders we were seeing. This was a big move for us to get the festivals business. People like to make that one phone call and I realized I’m not gonna get that call without the right audio gear. Riders for audio are very specific, whereas with a wash or a spot in lighting, brands are interchangeable, as long as the quality is comparable.” LED video walls, floors, 30K Panasonic laser projectors along with Barco 4K and HD projectors are available with switching and control for all. A full, turn-key rigging department, with over 150 chain hoists complement the lighting, video, and audio offerings. Camera packages are available inventory at MMP as well.
A meeting of the minds between Music Matters Productions and Special Event Services (SES) led to a festival-centric partnership that has been mutually beneficial for both organizations. “In the summer of 2020 we created 360 Festivals to umbrella what Special Event Services and Music Matters Productions can offer collectively to the festival market, which is pretty much everything. Well, except catering,” smiles Schwartz. SES has all the infrastructure, from ground cover to mobile roof stages and everything in between including barricades and ground transportation. “And my guys,” she continues, “really thrive in the festival environment. They are incredibly efficient and definitely prefer the outdoor, fast-paced environment to 10-hour days in a ballroom. It’s been a really incredible partnership for our clients and for our respective businesses.”
“The idea is that one phone call does it all,” states Jim Brammer, CEO of SES. “Aside from our personal relationship, we got together with Aaron because Music Matters Productions is really well known for the quality of their work and has a great reputation in the festival production market… especially in Atlanta.”
The Team
Of course, a production house is only as good as the people performing the work. MMP’s full-time staff numbers over 40 currently with a wealth of permalancers and independent freelancers answering calls frequently. A core group of people have been with Soriero for years. David “Purdy” Puryear has been with Soriero since the beginning. “We pulled the gear, drove the truck, set it up, ran it, and took it back,” says Puryear. “I did whatever was needed.” Over the years he has done everything from wiring the stage to creating video content. Officially the Warehouse Manager, “I’m more like an air traffic controller than anything else,” he laughs.
Tom Nguyen joined Soriero in 2016 as MMP’s in house lighting designer. As with all things within Music Matters, his position and contributions have grown and evolved. “I met Aaron in 2014 when my small production company was producing raves around Atlanta,” says Nguyen. “He threw me on my first tour as Lighting Crew Chief for DJ Mimosa which is where I met Michael (Smalley). Both Michael and Aaron hired me for more touring jobs, until I was offered a full-time job with the company.” Along with lighting and video design, Nguyen now manages the very busy lighting department.
Soriero emphatically states that meeting Michael Smalley—an original founder in the business along with Soriero—was a critical moment in the growth trajectory of Music Matters. “He helped set us on the path to success and taught me a lot! As his stature and status as a production designer has grown, he continues to be a mentor and advocate.”
As for getting staff to carry his vision into the field, “I look for people who understand its hard work, but the hard work is very rewarding,” says Soriero. “Counting hours or days in this industry does not compute.” Such a person is Drew Alley, who plays a critical role in the lighting department and is currently rolling into a project manager role on show sites. He met Soriero when he was just 21. “I was volunteering at a festival he was doing production on,” says Alley. “I knew absolutely nothing! Aaron gave me a shot, opened the door, and allowed me to grow with his company. Every day is different. I love this place.”
The Biz of Business
MMP remains an independently owned company, “I’ve attracted investors which has been a far better business model than going through the glacier-like pace of solidifying loans from banks and then having to meet this huge note every month over a long period of time.” The investment sees a good return and Soriero remains in control of how he wants to shape his company.
A bit of financial help came from his family at the start, but along the way, Soriero considers himself very fortunate to have met folks who were interested in the company and the work. “I can call our current investor, who has been with me the last five years and say we’re bidding on this job, but I need to buy a particular piece of gear to seal the deal. He is very aware of what our company is capable of, and I can get a yes immediately to purchase allowing us to capture that business. A bank’s process would be far too tedious and glacial to be able to react in the manner this industry demands. I’d much rather prefer to conduct my financial ventures on an agreement and a handshake. Yes, there are contracts that need to be signed but I’m of the mindset that, if we ever have to look at that legal sheet of paper, we’ve failed,” shrugs Soriero.
As this interview unfolds in the comfortable surroundings of the war room in MMP’s front offices and listening to the easy exchange of ideas and philosophies between Soriero and Schwartz, it is easy to see the melding of art, technology, and business acumen that sustains MMP. “I’m almost glad I didn’t take any business classes,” says Soriero. “Then I would have been burdened with ‘well here is THE WAY to do this.’ I believe that our success has been a result of us doing things differently. It’s what sets us apart, makes us unique, and defines us. Hard work, determination, sacrifice, dedication mixed with commonsense decision making.”
In February 2020, shortly after MMP moved into their new warehouse space in Peachtree Corners, GA, Soriero interviewed Schwartz. “It wasn’t really an interview,” she recalls. “I felt like it was more of any easy-going conversation; we just clicked.” A native of Augusta, her degree in marketing from UGA launched her career with creative agencies planning events and festivals for that city. “I like to help companies tell their stories, and I like working for people who are genuine and are actually good at what they do,” says Schwartz. “It’s really easy for me to do my job here because everyone is so good at that. All around, it is a really good fit.”
Adds Soriero “I learned a lot about how valuable marketing is. My mindset at first was I’m going to spend this money, but I don’t really know what the return is or what it’s about.” In a very short time, Soriero realized just how valuable marketing is. “It just makes all the sense in the world.” Admittedly a bit of an introvert, Soriero says he’s “not the kind of guy to be screaming about how good the company is.” Schwartz concurs, “These guys are very, very humble and I see them work so hard and pull together these amazing events, so I’m asking, ‘Why aren’t you talking about this?’ I’m the first one to say, ‘Hey that is really cool… why aren’t we screaming about this?’”
Then, as we all know, the world stopped March of 2020. This was the greatest challenge Soriero faced in the 20 years of building his company. “Everything was on a huge roll, the new warehouse, and then came the pain of having to shutter it all personnel-wise. That hurt. During Covid everyone was laid off, as was Lindsay, but she kept our Instagram account going letting people know we were still here, what we were working on and what we were planning,” says Soriero. “We got a lot of positive response from those efforts across the industry, and I see that even as the sales grow, I know how important it is to enhance that growth with Lindsay and her marketing staff. I simply do not see a time when I could say, ‘Oh we’re good, we don’t need marketing anymore.’ It is integral to the company’s welfare.”
Moving Forward
As for himself, Soriero expanded his Extended Reality (XR) learning curve to create a virtual studio during the pandemic. “The intersection of science and art is what always interested me, even as a kid. And this was a deep dive into something that practically nobody could tell me about. The XR experiment was the ultimate culmination of that.” They partnered with a company named Reveal at an offsite location. Once the pandemic receded, Soriero’s second biggest challenge took place. “Business went from 0 to 100 in seconds,” says Soriero. “Everybody was jumping on tour; people were calling us three weeks out from a festival opening day yelling ‘Help!’ We were incredibly busy. Supply chains were still seriously impaired or nonexistent. And labor was a huge issue, but I said yes to everything.”
He handed the reins of the XR studio over to Reveal but continues to support a long-term rental of the space. “More and more companies are creating content in-house,” remarks Schwartz, “so we are keeping our fingers on the pulse of this expansion and supporting those companies in designing and building their new creation studios.”
The last two years have seen MMP expand north along the East Coast, and westward as well. Says Schwartz, “We are coast to coast now. We’ve seen a lot of growth particularly in the corporate space.” With the volume of shows, Salt Lake City, UT became a logical spot for a depot to service events going into venues in the Midwest, Texas, Nevada, and California. “The gear stays so busy that it made sense to leave it,” Soriero notes. Schwartz adds, “We have two sister companies we hold hands with; a big corporate producer, Directions AV in Chicago, and Big Picture in San Francisco, a high-end video production company moving into live events. During the pandemic they hit a pretty sweet spot with virtual events and figured it out pretty quickly.” Over the last five years, MMP has also dipped their toes into the waters of themed cruise ship events.
“Though I built this company by never saying no,” says Soriero, “sometimes I simply have to, because we just don’t have…” “Extras… People or Gear,” chimes in Schwartz. “But at Aaron’s core and why everyone respects him so much—and part of what makes this company so unique—is that he is really in it every single day. He’s not just sitting in his corner office directing. He will still answer a call on a Sunday from someone from out of town desperate for something that they have to have for a show.” Soriero picks up again, agreeing, “Yeah, I will get off the couch to take care of them, because I have been in that situation. Who knows? This may be the next little guy that remembers what I did when he gets bigger, just like all those friends and business associates I’ve grown with over the past 20 years.”
Says Schwartz, “I’ve attended, planned, and seen a lot of events over the years. I really think my guys are the best at what they do, and I want everyone to know that. I’ve got the best team there is from top to bottom. Building brand recognition, seeing the MM logo all over the place, and getting feedback through social media, from local hands, LDs, and tour managers… there’s no better feeling. Sharing all that positive feedback with our team so that they know what they do every single day matters, that it is directly affecting people and enhancing the business… letting them know that is more valuable than any award,” says Schwartz. “But make no mistake,” smiles Soriero, “We are very proud of the Hometown Hero Audio Award from the Parnelli’s this year. Next year, we are going after the Lighting Hometown Hero.”
Learn more about all that Music Matters Productions offers at www.musicmattersproductions.com
