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10 Questions with ... Reza Sarrafieh
July 5, 2022
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1. Would you share your career path story?
While waiting on tables, I was lucky enough to cross paths with Garnett March, then SVP of Promo at IGA. I dropped out of UCLA and started as his assistant, then took over the Ohio Valley as a regional, brought back to head the Interscope staff in 2007. After the 2008 recession, I moved to Chicago as National when we laid off staffs and merged IGA back together again. I left IGA in 2017, started my own promo company (Pars Promotion) and helped the Soundcloud guys gain a footing at radio, beginning with Lil Pump, then Tekashi 69, Lil Xan and Trippie Redd-- and eventually transitioning to help the Afro Beats movement come to the USA with Afro B and eventually emPawa Africa. I joined the famous Roc Nation in 2019 to do radio promo and here we are.
2. What surprised you the most about the music industry?
How little structure there is and how much room for growth and advancement available. Coming from a corporate setting, it’s very different to be in a system where you can leapfrog people with your hard work and sometimes even luck!
3. What are some of the successful projects you’ve worked in your career?
Kendrick Lamar and all of TDE, G Unit, Mary J Blige, Keyshia Cole, Robin Thicke, Rae Sremmurd, Afro B, and Lil Nas X.
4. When you were a kid growing up, what did you want to be?
When I was a kid growing up, I wanted to be a lifeguard, then a painter, and eventually a lawyer. I had no idea I would end up in entertainment and music, but I’m so happy I did.
5. Who have been some of your influencers and mentors?
Garnett March gave me a chance and taught me this business. Greg Johnson and Lester Pace taught me how to grow myself and my own business. My mother and father taught me how to love people and treat them well so I could be successful in all that I do. Along the way there have been way too many others to mention, but these are the main influences in my life that have led me here.
6. What are you most proud of?
I am most proud of leaving Interscope in 2017 and establishing myself and my company (Pars Promo) as a major player in the game and growing my own brand beyond IGA. Also, proud of the fact that a lot of my old employee’s and interns are now in major positions and doing amazing things in the business.
7. How do you see your future?
Growing into a more analytical role and doing more remote work with less travel, more important tentpole events that we must be at. I want to keep the old school method of face to face alive though and get in front of people and spend time in each market and tailor promotions to them still. It’s definitely going to be more digital involved in the work though, and much more experiential with the artists in each market too.
8. Would you share one of your more memorable moments in your career?
Watching this year’s Super Bowl halftime at SoFi. It was a very full circle moment. Spent years of my life promoting and breaking the artists that performed, all of them, at Interscope and now I work at the company/label responsible for putting them on the biggest stage in the world. Very fulfilling moment for me.
9. How do you balance between digital and radio decision makers when it comes to promoting artists?
It’s a matter of timing and amounts. First you lead with a lot of digital, then you transfer that to radio, but then you get more targeted and specific as you engage radio and work in tandem. They complement each other very well and I think when done correctly and in order you really win that way.
10. And the best advice you’ve ever been given?
CLOSED MOUTHS DON’T GET FED. This translates into every aspect of my life. It can be translated to “you shoot 100% of the shots you don’t take”
Bonus Questions
What is your passion?
Golf is my passion. It brings people of all walks of life together in the pursuit of perfection in a hard activity. It also allows me to enjoy my family which is obviously my main passion. I love my wife and daughters very much.
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