Costa senior Katharine Rogerson interns for record label

India Pearman

Staff Writer

Senior Katharine Rogerson finds her beat in the upcoming industry of electronic music and lands herself an internship at Next Wave Records.   

Rogerson has officially been an intern for Next Wave Records since the beginning of August 2017, but has been attending their events and making connections with people in the industry at their parties since April. She is enrolled in the MCHS Internship class taught by Mr. Gezci, which meets once a week to teach basic workplace skills. She goes into Next Wave Records in West Hollywood for three hours at a time about three or four times a week.

“I started to get into electronic music because it was super fascinating to me that people could make music on their computers,” Rogerson said. “I knew that I wanted to work in music, but I was scared to dip my toe in the water because there are so many bad reputations with labels in the industry. I was really impressed with Next Wave Records because they really pride themselves in being an artist driven label and firm.”

Next Wave Records is both a record label and an artist management firm. Rogerson said she prepares artists to go on tour and gathers contacts to help the artists get gigs. She also organizes bi-monthly pop up shows, which are showcases of artists and their new music. Rogerson also said she spends a lot of time listening to music and trying to discover artists that the company could possibly sign.

“One of my favorite parts about the internship is that before I started working for them, I had been super interested in and inspired by all of these artists, but they seemed kind of distant,” Rogerson said. “As soon as I started entering the industry, it opened up so many doors, and I was able to meet and become really good friends with some of the people that I looked up to for years. I really liked a graphic artist named Drewvisuals, and now we are good friends.”

Rogerson said she grew up in a musical family and furthered her interest in electronic music starting the winter of last year by going to really small shows and concerts in Los Angeles and also networking with artists and people in the industry. Through this, she discovered Next Wave Records and eventually reached out to them and secured this internship.

“Its really cool to see her working at a place where she is so close to a lot of the people we listen to daily,” Senior and guest at NGHTMRE and Slander’s meet and greet held by Next Wave Records, Alex Gist said. “She is meeting a lot of great people and getting more involved in a community that she cares about a lot. She’s definitely putting in the work to something that she is passionate about.”

Rogerson said that through this internship she is learning to work in an environment that is constantly changing. The unpredictable environment is due to the fact that this segment of the music industry is new and does not have set rules or established ways of doing things. She also said that she has strengthened her ability to work with a large variety of people from different backgrounds because of the constant flow of new people and artists in out of the office.

“I love going into the office because every day that I am there I meet at least five new people,” Rogerson said. “They are always so artistic and very passionate about what they do. Everyone is so young and there aren’t really any rules, so you never know what you are going to get when you walk into the office.”

Rogerson says she plans on staying with Next Wave Records until at least next spring and is still deciding if she wants to go to university directly after graduating. If she decides to attend college, she is considering studying either Communications or something more specific to music like Artist Management.

“As of right now, I could see myself staying in music forever, because there are so many different aspects to it,” Rogerson said. “I am really happy with the music industry, and I think that music will always be prominent and that there is always going to be work there, so I would be very happy to work in music for as long as I can.”