For many people, university is something that they need so they can get to know their desired career and head in the right direction and for other’s it can be something that they didn’t think would happen for them.
That is what happened to Music Management graduate, Brogan Turner, who didn’t even plan on going to university. His girlfriend at the time was enrolled and after a one-hour conversation with someone involved with the courses he was preparing for his first set of lectures.
This just goes to show that not everything can be planned, even throughout his studies he was playing with his band, Arid Wave, who are constantly touring throughout the south coast, as well as working in two of Southampton’s largest capacity venues, The Brook and The O2 Guildhall as well as DJing for numerous clubs and pubs on the weekend. You know, a chilled student life.
“It’s a privilege to be working in an industry that you love to do”
Just before graduating Brogan was still DJing and working in music venues, specifically for Life and Soul DJ and other live music agencies with John Carson, the man who had owned Life and Soul for twenty five years, and was able to build a relationship with him over the years of being in Southampton and other cities music scenes. This could be simply by going to rock nights at Popworld in Southampton and if you’re a student or graduate reading this then you know how good those nights are.
Brogan also DJ’d for other venues whilst providing the rock CD’s whilst Carson DJ’d during his few years of working for his agency. This is meant that whilst he was studying, he was able to get more creative with what he wanted to do and become more and more confident on the decks.
Just before graduation, Brogan was offered the DJ agency that John Carson had been running for twenty-five years. Carson retired to Spain and Brogan took the business over and hasn’t looked back since.
Brogan has spoken about how it’s a privilege to do what he loves as a job, but he’s found it stressful at times. He’s found that there is no guarantee doing what he’s doing will make him successful, how many of us can relate to that?
For a lot of us, music is something that makes us who we are and Brogan has found the DJ community in Southampton to be amazing, with the fact that music is more accessible than ever before, technology constantly growing and the fact that he’s able to play good music, help people have a good time and still do his passion, it’s not too bad for our graduate is it?
“If you are a student currently, make sure you have something to integrate with your studies”
During our time at university it can feel overwhelming, with the pressure of deadlines, the need to get real world experience so we don’t get rejected by the industry and being able to keep our physical and mental health in check is something that can be hard to keep up.
Especially when Brogan was still learning how to be in the DJ community, he found that sticking to the right people can be the most effective way of becoming better. He was able to land his own business by being loyal, hardworking and a good friend to the owner of the agency.
Although university life can be crazy at times it’s imperial to keep working on being able to integrate different experiences, whether that’s an internship, freelance work or in Brogan’s case being in a band, it can help massively. It’s important that if you’re a student to have something to integrate with your studies.
To close off this story, let’s finish with Brogan’s own words, don’t take negatives from people who claim to know it all, get drunk, go to gigs and leave a few bruises in the mosh pits.