Rag Satguru; Co-Founder & Director - GRADE Management
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About
Take a close look at some of the key events in dance music over the past
decade, and it won’t take long to spot Rag Satguru somewhere in the
background. Perhaps nestled in the corner of one of those superstar DJ
laden photos behind the booth at a key event or tapping away on a laptop
in the background at a villa party in Ibiza or a studio session in New York.
As one of the founders of Grade Management along with Ed Karney,
Satguru has held a pivotal position in helping underground dance music
find a foothold in the overground social media climate of today.
These days Grade acts like Seth Troxler, Patrick Topping, Eats Everything
are household names in the dance music industry with a litany of industry
accolades following in their wake. With offices in Bristol, London and
Barcelona, Grade has expanded to a team of six managers looking after 22
artists with a constant presence in media outlets such as Resident Advisor,
Mixmag, Boiler Room, or industry focused titles such as Music Week or
Mixmag/IMS’s Industry Insider.
When the company began in 2011, the industry was in a very different
space. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter’s influence on dance music was
just about to hit critical mass ushering in a completely new era of
opportunity for how dance music artists could be perceived and developed.
It proved to be a fertile time for artists and managers unafraid to do things a
little differently and armed with a small roster of acts little known outside of
the microcosmic world of underground house and techno, Grade set about
redefining the role of the DJ in today’s social media driven climate.
Satguru’s preparation for this incendiary time began while studying
Chemistry at Bristol University before graduating with a first class honours
degree in Rave. A prolific promoter as a student with seemingly a party on
ever night of the week, he went onto become one of the driving forces
behind respected party brand Just Jack and later rave super venue Motion
in 2006 which rapidly established itself as one of the UK’s flagship party
hotspots. He brought elrowTown to the UK in 2014 and is a partner in the
UK arm of the unstoppable elrow brand. These days he spends life mostly
on the road with his artists, with the occasional stop off to run half
marathons in Barcelona or attend a yoga retreat in Ibiza.
