About
Beginning his career as a musician, Derick Mackinnon founded award-winning press and marketing agency New Found Sound in 2006, started work as a music journalist in 2007 (he currently co-writes a weekly column in The Scotsman / Scotland On Sunday) and co-founded Edinburgh music business event Wide Days in 2010.
During his career, he's produced, managed, programmed and marketed thousands of gigs, festivals, seminars and crafted campaigns featuring artists including Lewis Capaldi, Twin Atlantic, Frightened Rabbit, ex-Snow Patrol member Paul Wilson as well as for festivals and brands such as XpoNorth, Un-Convention, Sonica, Miller Genuine Draft, Kopparberg, Common Ground Fest, and the Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup.
He’s also been an artist manager, provided mentoring for youth music projects like Hit The Road and is currently developing radical music / tech community interest company Off Axis. Over the past 18 months, the non-profit has organised over 300 gigs / festival slots, resulting in £50,000 going directly to musicians, thanks to their artist-friendly financial model. Grassroots venues also reported Off Axis gigs being 40% busier than other event organisers.
With Off Axis, artists tour the UK and Ireland independently (simply swapping / exchanging gigs), keep 100% of the ticket profits, and perform at festivals and build nationwide fanbases sign up https://offaxisgigs.com/join