Entertainment Engine with hosts Pete Moore and Rebecca Gregory from Seamless Entertainment is a podcast series spawn from the isolation and lockdown of the pandemic and the need to keep people relevant and current as well a way to keep entertainment alive when it had come to a complete standstill. “Seamless Entertainment” is a company that provides music solutions for film, television, commercials and brands.
The Entertainment Engine provides helpful hints on navigating the entertainment industry including music, films and television and presents artists, actors songwriters and creators whose experience inspires those listening. Based out of the UK, the series furnishes it’s listeners with a dazzling alchemy of art that transforms private anguish into a narrative of truth. It allows up-and-coming artists to turn the tide towards the future.
As a company what does seamless represent?
Pete: I believe the company represents, fairness, a knowledgeable team with clarity of the entertainment industry. I would also say its a really friendly team, with a corporate identity that does what is says on the tin – providing a seamless service with a smile! The company is as reliable as the people who run it, so its important to provide solid communication with our current clients, future clients and the community – which we hope builds trust for the company going forward! We were once told by a colleague, you move at the speed of trust, really like that thinking!
Rebecca: I agree, seamless for me brings quality and honesty to every client and project, we are always open for a discussion, providing our thoughts with what we can do from the outset, our strategy is to under promise and over deliver, which we believe is a good outlook to have. With everything going online it is important to be transparent.
What inspired The Entertainment Engine?
Pete: The podcast was born during the Lockdown when the pandemic hit, the whole entertainment business came to a stand still and we both wanted to create something positive and share our knowledge to help people navigate the entertainment industry. It was also important to show people we are human and not sitting behind a corporate name, but with a podcast show you can’t hide as you will be found out very quickly if you’re not delivering what you say you can do, so stick to what you know and deliver with passion and energy! The name was an important factor keeping the “engine” moving, which we liked from the start of this journey – and we want take the engine forward!
Rebecca: Plus, we also wanted to bring on great guests from the world of music, film and tv who have wonderful stories to share, and strong knowledge and deep insight of the business. Plus we’re passionate about helping to bring together the “indie” sector to provide opportunities for creatives in music, TV or the film industry, and having our own broadcast platform has enabled us to open up more to the world with an offering we can deliver with our team and colleagues. There are many podcast shows out there, but we felt combining solid information with great guests coming onto the show, was a great recipe!
What do you look for in a guest? What kind of guests do you try and avoid?
Pete: We look for guests who have extensive background and knowledge in their field. We like our guests to be engaging, friendly, open and honest about wanting to share solid information with our listeners. We try to dig deep to draw out engrossing information whilst maintaining respect for our guests. I don’t think there is a particular guest we would avoid as such, but I would say “life coaching” is not high on our priority list, as I am not sure this would be right or beneficial for our target audience.
Rebecca: I would say we try to avoid guests who bring any negativity or who just want to purely self promote. We know the entertainment industry is a tough business but we prefer constructive criticism which brings helpful feedback and positivity. We want a relaxed environment so our listeners can fully engage, learn valuable information from experts, and have some fun along the way too – just to enjoy the show and take away some good points to help people move forward, so we hope people have The Entertainment Engine in their favorite list knowing what they are going to receive!
You also help upcoming artists, please talk about that and is that part of Seamless Entertainment?
Rebecca: Yes, this is very important to us. We want to help the independent sector and give back to the community, with The Entertainment Engine we create a section each month called the ‘Artist Spotlight’ giving artists a platform to showcase their music on the podcast, we have had artists from all over the world including Australia, South America, USA, Canada, Europe and Ireland who have submitted music to us and have been showcased on the show.
This is something we are extremely passionate about, its a struggle to navigate this business for new and independent artists so at Seamless, we provide and open door and resource for artists and creatives to have the opportunity to have their music placed in music, film and tv projects on a non exclusive basis. It is a very competitive space but we believe that quality music speaks for itself if it can be put into the right hands.
Pete: The podcast works really well alongside what we do at Seamless, it’s a natural fit as the music we have on the podcast show we then consider for our music catalogue which is then placed into a system to help NEW and established acts gain more opportunities for Fim & TV through potential SYNC placements. We are also rolling out “mentoring” and “consultancy” services, to help creatives, bands and artists understand the entertainment space better – over the coming months we will be offering bespoke industry “mentoring & masterclass” courses, this will include; Artist Management overview, Music festival structure & Financing, Music business overview, Songwriting and music production and Record label set up.
Through my journey especially in the LIVE sector it was a difficult learning curve, as no one really shows you how to raise funding or how to book acts etc, so we thought this would be a great area to share, and of course help find the next BIG music manager, music artist or global music promoter for example – Plus one day in the future we would love to say that we contributed to part of that journey!
How long have you both been in the entertainment business?
Pete: After leaving school, I worked part time jobs, which worked nicely alongside playing semi-pro & professional football for several years, but this wasn’t meant to be due to an injury, which I was pretty gutted about for a couple of years not being able to play at that standard anymore, and then along came the entertainment industry which now, I have been in the business for nearly 30 Years working at major & independent labels in PR & marketing, plus tour management, and working as a music promoter – with my first event back in the early 90’s putting University summer & Christmas balls for up to 5,000 students, which I had no idea what I was doing at that time as a kind of fell into it, but with a BIG learning curve, it worked really well and began my festival event journey which started by running my own weekly night for 750 people per night, this was a great experience and taught me even more for the road ahead!
Rebecca: I’ve been working in the entertainment business for 15 years, I trained in London in performing arts and began my career in musical theatre touring and performing around the world for many years which I really enjoyed. During this time I always had a passion for songwriting so I decided to pursue my career in the music industry which led to the creation of setting up an independent music business writing and collaborating with various Producers, songwriters music artists, film and tv projects across the world, the business changes so much, not just yearly but weekly, and even hourly – but I am pleased I have gained some great knowledge and experience along the way which is invaluable.
Where do you hope to go with The Entertainment Engine in the future?
Pete: We would love for The Entertainment Engine to be the go to podcast for entertainment, covering knowledge, information, world class guests, masterclasses, and be an outlet for independent music artists and creatives to connect, network and showcase their art.
I think if we can archive this it would be a great success, anything beyond that would be a bonus for us – but I would also say, we would like to produce more shows going from 1 a week to maybe 2/3 a week covering many more areas. This will come down to having more people in the team for sure, but what an exciting idea and opportunity to take the show further, plus BeX & I will do a studio type format for Youtube, something we have looked at to give us more opportunities going forward, the podcast is GREAT fun to do, but it does take a lot of hard work, time and effort – we have now been up and running just short of a year and coming up to 50 episodes, which is a great achievement, so we are really pleased with this effort – and on to the next 50 shows!
Rebecca: We also see the podcast being a playlist platform to discover new talent – and we want to build in more Sponsorship too to help us push the podcast even further. By driving NEW music you are going to find that gem of a HIT for a film or TV project helping to maximize the opportunity for the artist or band, that’s an exciting thing to do, plus where film can help break an act, through the power of a theatrical release and streaming platforms, this could also work on our podcast show, especially with the global distribution across multiple podcasting platforms, so you never know who is listening and playing your music, this could be in the UK, South America or even India and that’s exciting for the artists and us.
Are there any guests that you’ve had that stand out in your mind?
Pete: This is a little tricky, as we have loved all of our guests to be honest, they all bring something different to the show from their knowledge and experience. With each season we do, we are looking to build the show further with more knowledge and interesting guest’s sharing some great experiences for our listeners.
Rebecca: I totally agree, every guest we’ve had brings something so unique and interesting. For me I interviewed our very first guest Layra Harmony, which was I was quite nervous about, but excited at the same time – as I was thinking so much about the sound and making sure everything went smoothly. I also enjoyed speaking with Jesse Kinch US singer songwriter, and Canadian composer/pianist Martin Mayer whose journey was really inspiring and ZMNY as well, who’s such a young talent with a BIG career in front of him, we had a great chat!
Pete: Some other’s that do stand out are, Ross King MBE, Dr. David Bull, Chris Johnson, Tracey Webb and Charlotte Armitage, speaking with David Helfant, Ken Atchity, Tony McHale, James Kennedy and of course you Eileen. But as I have mentioned all of our guest have brought something great to the show and we are very greatful for their contribution to the podcast show.
How did the two of you connect?
Rebecca: We have known each other for around 10 years now – Our first meeting was when I was performing a lead role at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London for a charity event and Pete was invited to see the show, we started talking at the after show party and we hit it off, we shared common goals and vision.
We both started working together and everything just clicked, it works really well with Pete’s background on the music business and commercial planning side, whereas I work more on the creative business side, so together we make a strong team.
Pete: This was after several conversations with Rebecca and one in particular, she wanted to transition from “musical theatre” over to the “music industry” as a music artist known as BeX – Which its a difficult thing to do, so I said to Rebecca do you want to know the fluffy version or the real side of the music industry? she chose the latter – but it took a few years for her to really understand the business fully, but I must say today her knowledge and understanding of the business is substantial, she has been on a big learning curve – but to be honest we are all on a big learning curve, you can never stop learning!
What do you think makes your show stand out?
Pete: We’re personal, friendly and informative. We wanted to make the show easy for people to understand with clear information, this combined with great guests coming onto the show from many areas of the entertainment industry, we felt this makes for a positive show – giving the audience solid information on one hand and with great guests in the other, and by not making the show too stuffy or boring, hopefully this is what we are achieving as the feedback so far has been really positive from our listeners and guests we had on the show!
Rebecca: I believe we’re authentic, a place where bands, artists and creatives can learn solid information and advice about the business. I think we also provide a friendly and open show, so people can approach us and receive an answer to a question about the industry, in our experience so far this seems to be the case and as we move forward we would like our show to evolve and really keep up to date with all the current trends the entertainment industry has to offer, so we stay relevant – but providing that fun element along the way!
How, where, and when can people view your interviews?
Pete: The Entertainment Engine is available weekly (every Thursday) to listen on all podcasting platforms, including: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon, Castbox, Anchor FM, Deezer, Listen Notes, iHeart Radio plus we have a dedicated page on our Seamless website. It’s been a very interesting time, especially with the global pandemic which has caused so many problems, it’s been a very difficult time for many people – but we have seen people consume more music, film & TV shows from the big streaming platforms like Amazon & Netflix over the last year, this has been no different with podcasting, with what has gone on in the world more people are tuning in to a podcast show, which is a good thing, with so much choice to choose from, this has to be a positive for podcasting and The Entertainment Engine going forward.
Rebecca: The beauty of podcasts is that you can listen to our shows anytime you want, whether you are on the go, in the car, doing sport, at home whilst doing the cooking, ironing or relaxing in the garden. The choice of listening is totally yours.. There seem to be so many more podcasting platforms coming to the table, the choice is endless (or so it seems), the more platforms the podcast show is on then this is a great thing! We also provide “blogs” for each each show, across our Seamless website, Medium, Get Pocket & Linkedin – we find this provides positive traction for people to land on your podcast and find out more about the show, plus to find which guest they would like to listen to – it gives us extra reach online.
If you could interview anyone on the planet that you have and who would it be and why?
Pete: WOW – That is a really difficult one, with so many talented people in the world – I would say for me there is a few; from Film I would say Tom Cruise based on his stunts, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro (need I say anymore) plus a chat with Charlize Theron and Gal Gadot – how they have both created such credible careers and not sold out. On the music side it would have to be Mick Jagger 100% and on the business side I think it would be a great chat with Richard Branson, again look at what he has achieved!
Rebecca: For me it has to be David Grohl from the Foo Fighters, he’s a great artist with such strong performances, he would be a great guest to have on the show. Then I would say Carole King who is such an icon, it would be a real pleasure to speak with her on the show and just have a great chat about her music and songwriting journey which is incredible.
Then on the film & music side, this would be a combination of Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga. I admire their craft, plus I love the film “A Star is Born” so to have both of these great performers on the show would be a fantastic opportunity and experience – maybe one day that will happen, you just never know!
Now that the planet is opening up do you intend to expand your business?
Pete: Yes, we’re currently building a strong network of people we work with closely with on a day to day basis, maximizing new and existing opportunities within music supervision, working with film and tv producers to assist them with their music requirements.
Rebecca: We didn’t want to stand still for this past year, so we have tried to maintain strong awareness and visibility with what we do at Seamless Entertainment, and the podcast has helped this cause enormously providing NEW opportunities and promoting what we do in a positive and cool environment, which we think works well!
Is there anything new that you’re working on that you can tell us about?
Pete: Yes, Music Supervision for NEW movies and our music mentoring & consultancy programs. The mentoring program has come about with the work achieved with the UK Government many years ago, we thought to set up a “program” to help creatives, bands and artists understand the entertainment business better, with informative masterclasses, courses & mentoring. So people can start signing up now via our website to stay updated with news and updates prior to the launch soon.
The entertainment business can be very tricky to navigate and to keep up to date, where you can find yourself drowning in so much information and areas you need to learn, or at least have a good grasp on, with so much to keep up on – it can be very daunting especially if you are on your own, sometimes its good to have support and knowledge to pull upon – plus no matter what you do, you will always be learning.
Rebecca: On the music supervision front, currently we’re working with several film & TV producers on their upcoming projects, plus we are building our music catalogue more and more and would love to take a relatively unknown song and place into a film or tv show which turns it into that “BIG” hit, of course – but one of the areas we are looking to help creatives is maximizing “the song” in the movie or TV show via the publishing area, working with creatives and rights holders to gain more opportunities and structure going forward.
Social Media & Website links;
www.seamlessentertainment.co.uk
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/seamless_entertainment/
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