[MXD Networking @ SPOT] Meet INGrooves / UOK?

Once again this year, MXD are inviting several key international industry professionals to attend SPOT Festival. All of them will be joining us at the MXD Superball @ RADAR as part of the SPOT+ programme, but until the festival kicks off on May 4th, we will be bringing you brief introductions to them, including where they come from, what companies they work for, what bands they want to check out at Spot, and much more. We’re looking forward to seeing Tim Dunham of INgrooves / U OK?

Name: Tim Dunham

Company: INgrooves/ U OK?

Title: Nordic Manager (Ingrooves)/ Co-owner (U OK?)

Based in: Oslo, Norway

Can you tell us a bit about your companies’ history and roster?
U OK? started last year when Kristine and I left a label we were working at for some new opportunities. We set it up to manage and release material by Gundelach and got involved with Nils Bech by a wonderful turn of the universe that feels like fate now. It’s just me and Kristine with Nils and Gundelach right now.

INgrooves is an international distribution company that offers a wide range of solutions and services for independent labels and artists. Kristine and I manage operations for the Nordics and I do the day-to-day work with digital services and store fronts.

– and a bit about the acts you personally work with at this moment?
Nils Bech, who is playing SPOT this year and Gundelach, who played last year, are both very talented and unique artists in my opinion. Nils is a true artist, who puts all of himself into his performances and is someone you shouldn’t miss at SPOT.

When was the moment you decided you wanted to work with music?
One summer I dislocated my knee 4 times playing sports. Baseball, American football, Soccer, then floor hockey. Grand Slam. My knee was just shredded. I was on like 5 sports teams and spent all my time doing something sports related until I got hurt and decided instead of rehabbing my knee that I would just do something else. I started hanging out with my friends who were forming a band and then started putting on shows and eventually started a label. Putting on shows for $5 and driving around to other towns and meeting other kids with their own DIY scenes was really cool, there was a feeling of creating something, trying to make sense of the world and connecting with people. It was a kind of freedom that I didn’t get anywhere else.

What are your favorite Danish acts, or alternatively, who are you looking forward to seeing at Spot Festival this year?
My all time favourite Danish acts off the top of my head would probably be Iceage and the Raveonettes. This year, I am looking forward to Blondage, First Hate, Marching Church and School of X.

Best live show of your life, hands down?
When I was in high school, at one of the first non-Christian music festivals I went to (don’t even ask about being 13 at a Christian music festival and desperately clinging to anything that sounded remotely punk). A Canadian band called Sloan did a one day festival on Toronto Island at this really great moment in Canadian indie rock and they had just about every band that I loved at the time before they were huge. Arcade Fire and Death from Above 1979 were two of the opening slots and bands like Broken Social Scene and the Constantines were also on the bill. I got to talk to the guys from Sloan while taking a piss in the bathroom and got to hang out with all these artists I loved, who were just walking around. As a 15-year-old that was a pretty impactful experience.