By Zoe Parris

Before working with Metro, Lincoln Hall, volunteering at musical festivals, completing a Masters in the Netherlands, and working as a freelance professional in Berlin, Garee was a high school graduate unsure of what next steps to take.

If this uncertainty is familiar to you, hearing the stories of others can support your exploration and ease anxieties about the future. MAE Career Advisor, Amy Do, sat down with Garee to elucidate potential pathways into working abroad and shed light on the world of music business.

Life at DePaul

Before attending DePaul, Garee considered joining the music school, but ultimately chose to proceed with a Business degree. While studying at the Business School she took as many Music School courses as possible and worked closely with DePaul’s Music Business Organization (DMBO).

What really kickstarted Garee’s work in the music business was working the “Street Team” after networking with a recruiter from Metro at one of DePaul’s Career Fairs. The work was rudimentary, but the recognizable brand name was the resume boost she needed to find more involved positions.

Garee’s next position was an internship with React Presents (now acquired by LivexLive as an extension of their live event production) where she did a lot of “busy work”, posting on forums about various events. From there, Garee was able to find her favorite unpaid internships at Lincoln Hall and Shubas working in Hospitality and as the Production Office Assistant. These positions gave her access to network with touring companies and music business professionals, kickstarted her network. 

Studying Abroad

Garee always wanted to travel. When it came to study abroad, Garee said that cost was the deciding factor. “I picked the Budapest program because it was the cheapest of all the study abroad programs…” This Budapest program is still offered at DePaul! For more information check out the Study Abroad office.

When she arrived, Garee was struck by the work life balance. “…I don’t feel like I have to break my back to work 40 hours a week to make a certain amount of money, to receive a certain standard… The way of life is so much slower, but still really creative and fascinating. And Budapest was really really wonderful.” She brought this mindset back to the States, and once she landed back in Chicago she was determined to take her career to the next level. After graduation Garee applied to the Applied Musicology Masters Program at University of Utrecht in Utrecht, the Netherlands. 

Garee said that getting a secondary degree abroad was an amazing way to kick start her career. She was able to learn new skills, meet new people through her Master’s program, and utilize her time outside of class to dive into a new environment. After graduating, Garee was able to stay in Europe and begin her freelance career. She now splits her time between her home base in Berlin and travels extensively for various contracts. 

Gig Work as a Career

A huge benefit to freelancing full-time is the sense of freedom and autonomy. Garee said that full-time work is challenging for her. “…I had a full-time job at a sales company, and I really hated it. I was there working 9 to 5 and having to clock in clock out. It was so tiring and now I’m really learning my body and I have tried the full-time thing also in Berlin, and it’s structurally a lot more challenging.”

The majority of Garee’s work experience both abroad and domestically is contract work. Garee said, “…(when) I was back in the States… I was doing all these sort of gig works, anyway, where I would go to different festivals and do stage management and production jobs.” Her domestic experience translated well into working abroad in similar spaces. 

Garee also said that there can be a sense of internal pressure to find a full-time position, and a desire for stability: “I think I’m still growing into that, though, like what career means. I’m gonna be 31 soon, there’s always that fear that I need to settle down now. I need to settle down.” Despite her illustrious career, societal narratives surrounding what is a ‘real job’ still impacts Garee’s perception of success.

She’s thrilled with her professional life, and is aware that her resume is unconventional and finds it exciting.  “I’m constantly doing all these amazing projects… my CV… It doesn’t look the same as everybody else’s.” Garee’s thriving career abroad in the music industry is a product of strategic skill-building, networking, and following her passions.

Skills are Key

Garee hops from contract to contract, each one with its own nuances and set of clientele. She said that a lot of her positions focus on logistical and social skills. “In general I would say (my job is) making sure that people are in the right place at the right time and that everyone is happy. But it’s a lot of soft skills in my job, but also technical stuff as well. I work with clients and marketing firms, and like Fortune 500 brands.”

She says that managing relationships is sometimes challenging, “When you’re sitting there with a client, you have to make them happy. Which can be very stressful when people don’t show up or don’t take responsibility for themselves.”

Garee went on to elaborate that working with touring musicians has its own set of jargon and job titles. “In the tour management world, I have a bunch of different positions that, I think, would fit the umbrella of tour manager… supervisor for promotion or advertising, and project manager. These are sort of different roles but they all fit stage manager or artists liaison. I also do a lot of work with hospitality and at festivals.” Her wide range of experience capitalizes on her ability to multitask and work with a wide variety of stakeholders. 

Tips and Tricks

When asked about how to navigate freelancing Garee had the following tips. 

Get a therapist!

The cognitive dissonance between being socially conscious and working with large companies can be hard to manage as a contractor. Garee’s advice is to get a third party involved to manage expectations and put things into perspective. “Get a therapist. It’s like I have been this person that wants to do it all. You know? That wants to make everyone happy and always do the right thing, and there’s always gonna be naysayers…”

Garee emphasized it’s important to keep in mind that working with large corporations can allow for conscious change to happen on a smaller scale. “There’s going to be some reason why one should not be taking money from Coca Cola. They’re like poisoning the world. They’re one of the problems like, there’s always gonna be these sorts of spaces that are part of the problem…”

Freelancers establish their own set of ethics and norms when working with large companies. Creatives have the power to choose their own clients and weigh the pros and cons for themselves. 

Working Consciously 

Garee has a passion for marketing but her ultimate goal is to amplify the voices of marginalized communities. “I honestly love producing commercials… it’s really so interesting to get into the mind of these Fortune 500 brands. How they perceive the outside world and how they market a product and all of the science that goes behind it is so fascinating to me, and I really love being challenged by these relationships and commercial work. But still to my core, I know that I am on ground fighting for the people who don’t have a voice.”

Garee also makes conscious choices in regards to her environmental impact as an individual. “I travel for work. The ecological footprint that I have is really massive… I do try to take trains more often than I do fly, and I really try to decrease my footprint.” 

She says that the desire to be friendlier to the environment is also manifesting on a larger scale within the music industry. “This is a constant theme in the touring world of how to decrease your ecological footprint.”

Ultimately, when Garee takes positions with large corporations, she dives in with a dual mindset of making money to support herself, and to manifest her own vision for her future. “I take these brand jobs and really try to put this towards something that’s for the better creative good. Or I do these jobs that are for the creative world at a lower rate than I would for a corporate job.” 

Taking contracts from megacorporations allows Garee to bolster her finances, follow her passion for large-scale marketing, and enables her desire to work with smaller organizations for lower rates. 

What work are you proud of?

When reflecting on her career, Garee is most proud of the fact that she is able to travel for work. “I’m really proud of myself for going to different places, and I hadn’t really traveled growing up. I didn’t have the means to sort of travel outside of Chicago…”

Towards the beginning of her career, Garee scraped together money to volunteer and work on-site at various festivals. “I’m proud that I could find the resources to get my butt to Arizona, to work, or to Montreal…” This kickstarted her robust network within the music industry, “I think that set the pace for me traveling for work.” Garee trusted her gut to follow her passions and that investment paid dividends in her future career. 

Conclusion

When asked to give advice, Garee says working with smaller local artists honed her skills. “…working in the independent scene, I think it really really helped me.” She says that being blinded by big names can lead to discouragement and can be self-limiting. “Not limiting oneself to only working for the big boys or big girls or big theys like Universal or Warner Brothers…. You don’t have to move to LA or New York (to be successful).”

A huge thank you to Moira Garee for sharing her story, and for donating her time to lead a site visit earlier this school year. Check out her website to see samples of her work!

If you are interested in studying abroad, get in touch with the DePaul Study Abroad Office and learn more about what opportunities might be available to you! If Moira’s career has interested you, it would be worth it to meet with a Career Advisor to plan steps for your future.

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Not sure what the future holds? Need support along the way? That’s exactly where we come in. Whether you’re a freshman or an alumnus, it’s never too early (or too late) to utilize our services.

Book an appointment with Zoe, or another member of the advising community through Handshake, or by calling the front desk at (773) 325-7431.