After starting Relentless Beats in 1996, Thomas Turner has become the leading events organizer in Arizona, organizing the biggest festivals such as Decadence, Super Unnatural, Pheonix Lights just to name a few, and produces 400-500 shows a year. With other 20 years+ in the industry, he decided to take his expertise in the space to start East Meets West in January 2023 alongside partners Max Rosoff and Kevin Mitchell. And since then, they have been bringing bespoke experiences to the New York City dance music scene, hosting Anjunabeats at Pier 17, Tchami at Angel Orensanz Foundation, and Gareth Emery at the Kings Theater to name a few. More recently, Thomas and his company presented Chris Lake’s Black Book Takeover as a doubleheader at the Brooklyn Army Terminal which is an unique open air venue with a picturesque waterfront view where both nights had a stunning 9000+ in attendance. EMW Presents continues to shake up the market with novel experiences for both artists and fans alike, with their most recent announcement being Brownie & Lemonades taking place at Under the K Bridge.
I had the opportunity to speak with Thomas during the weekend to hear his insights on running Relentless Beats, EMW Presents, and the planning involved for the massive weekend with Chris Lake.
photo credits:: @jpeg_eric
You founded Relentless Beats in 1996 with a focus on dance music. What were the biggest challenges you faced in turning that passion project into a dominant force in the electronic music industry?
Thomas: Early on, when I started doing dance music, it was very subculture. Back at that time, or early 2000’s, dance music was not mainstream yet and most college kids weren’t interested in dance music. So, it was very challenging to stick with the passion project of dance music, when it was a subculture up until 2006-2008, when the EDM boom really happened. And then for guys like me, who had been doing electronic music for 10 years, it was an opportunity to grow a company, hire employees, and expand because it had actually become a commodity that more people are interested in.
To follow up on that, how did the Arizona market affect the growth in your company?
Thomas: If you go back to the 90s, I was a DJ in Arizona, and I was playing with the likes of Richie Hawtin and Carl Cox at Pompeii in Tempe. As a DJ and contributor in that way, I learned a lot about the scene and industry. Then the club owner named Steve Kusher that I played for about five years moved on to start a company called Mindful for Magazine. He would move on, vacate the space and it gave an opportunity for me to become a promoter in my market unobstructed by politics. And I’ve been the main provider for electronic music ever since in Arizona, and over the past 10 years, spread our wings into various other markets, developed many music festivals and special events, and produce between 400-500 events a year now.
You started EMW Presents in January 2023. What were some of the steps that you had to take in order to start launching and promoting events in New York City?
Thomas: The team that I work with as partners on this project, are people that I’ve been peers with and friends with for a long time and there was a lot of conversations around some other entities that we might have partnered with or purchased here in New York. Those were exciting conversations and when it became clear that those things weren’t going to come to fruition, we still had a passion to start a company together. We saw an opportunity to work together and advertise each other in this business and so I had a chance to make a difference for those guys by creating a bridge for them. So I told them I was starting a company and bringing them on as partners which led to the start of East Meets West.
EMW Presents seems to have a focus on using unconventional venues for dance music events. What initially drew you to this approach?
Thomas: This was an opportunity to do something from the start with all the experience that we have on the team from so many years of producing events. When I started my companies, we started those doing our absolute best, doing the best we knew how. But now we look through different lenses of experience, and we can do things the way we want. We’re looking for bespoke opportunities and venues to produce events that can identify us as a producer to watch, and a producer that can hopefully provide experiences that is at an elite level. That’s really the goal. So when you look at what we’re doing here, it’s a very expensive and unapproachable venue, typically. But we aim to change that and normalize something like this. A lot of the feedback that I’m getting in the market and artists is that they’re tremendously excited to do a show like this. Some of the phone calls we’ve had in the past couple days are the most important names in the game, and they want to play here, they want to do the show. So, the future looks really bright.
How do you go about securing these more unconventional locations as venues?
Thomas: We’ve worked with some of the city’s best lobbyists and if you’re new into the scene, you wouldn’t have the resources and you wouldn’t have the know how. Coming into this era of my career, it was part of the planning phase to hire lobbyists and to work with those people to help forge the right relationships with the right venues that might think that partnership with us is not conventional or doesn’t work. And through a lobbyist’s voice can say, you know what these guys are actually vetted and they would be good partner if you’re wanting to look at this and so that’s taken down some of the guard of some of the people that might have been harder to to get a relationship with sooner.
Can you tell us a little more about all the planning and steps it put on this weekend’s event at the Brooklyn Army Terminal?
Thomas: I’ve been promoting Chris Lake shows for about 20 years now, and I have a long extensive relationship with him, a very close relationship with his agency, his record label, his management, and produce a lot of great shows for Chris. So being in New York, and having this venue as something that I could pitch to him worked out. He wanted a new show and he wanted to have a bespoke experience for his fans. New York summer was a good time to interject something like this. Then having the venue willing to partner with me, and having the staff that I do to run events allowed me to say yes, in a time where it’s a little slower and hot in Phoenix and bring a lot of my staff out to execute an event perfectly.
In a recent interview with Pollstar, it’s mentioned that you feel NYC could do with some more competition in the dance space, how do you believe EMW Presents can contribute to a positive evolution of the scene?
Thomas: I believe that as a producer, you’ve got to go through your playbook and run all the shows that you have. But artists, managers, and agents are looking for something fresh, and something new to present their artist’s frame. And so I hope to be someone that can bring some different plays and some different looks. I’m not looking to dominate the market and be the only player. I think there’s a lot of great creatives in this market. I just want to be here and participate. I was looking for something a little bit more challenging at this point in my career, something that I could express my talents and all the experience that I have. In New York, at this transitionary time with everything in the market seemed like a good time to interject now that a lot of the main players that I respect and looked up to are not as active like they once were on the market. And so I stepped in during that time, so I could have the least friction with people being upset that I’m here because I’m here to make a positive difference.
Within the event promotion space, what advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs in the music industry?
Thomas: You can accomplish anything that you set your mind to if you put the work in. If you are good to the people that you asked to help you and you continually stay loyal to them and build as one unit, that unit can accomplish so much. Some of the promoters I even see in today’s day and age, lack the people skills within their own internal organizations to push their companies forward and I think that’s really where it start. If your team doesn’t have your back and your team is not there to deliver for you, you will have a really tough time delivering on your own. I’ve got Relentless Beats as my backbone and it’s carrying over to EMW Presents. At Relentless Beats, we’re all family. We’re a community. People don’t just leave. This is a special thing that we’ve got and we aim to do the same thing at EMW Presents.
Are there specific types of genre events you’d like to explore beyond dance music?
Thomas: I would like to apply all the knowledge that I have to the country music scene and create a festive party country music scene. I would like to build the classic rock scene because I grew up in that era and would love to be doing events with classic rock. Not as much of a market for that, but I thought about it my whole career., and so we will see.
photo credits:: @jpeg_eric
