Four International Speakers at BreakOut West 2024

BreakOut West is your portal from the west to the rest of the world. BreakOut West 2024 takes place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for the first time ever! This year's event will feature four days of informative and engaging music industry conference content including international market deep dives, one-on-one meetings with music industry professionals, artist mentorship and feature conversations, networking events, and more. 

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BreakOut West is about building bridges and navigating rivers. Developing functional industry infrastructure that supports a diversity of projects, that diverge into different lanes of artistic expression, and different points of origin. The speakers at BreakOut West mirror the breadth and depth of the community it represents. Here are four folks you will hear from at the conference this fall.

Meet the international speakers at BreakOut West 2024

Fiona Bloom - The Bloom Effect

As a leading music publicist, and her finger on the pulse, Fiona Bloom advises and develops careers for some of the most recognized figures in music and entertainment. In Bloom’s 30+ year career, she has developed an expertise across most major segments within the industry; promotions, publicity, radio, event planning/venue booking, marketing, host, curator, lecturer, and tastemaker.
Fiona was instrumental in bringing Hip Hop to SXSW in the mid-90’s, curated International Hip Hop showcases at CMJ and A3C and did publicity for the first ever Hip Hop Film Festival H2O Odyessey. Billboard Biz even voted her as one of the Top 50 Twitterati and one of the Top Music Industry Characters You Need to Follow.

Fiona has both signed artists and developed successful campaigns while working with some of the most renowned record labels, including EMI, BMG, and TVT. She even worked with Pitbull and Lil Jon at the inception of their careers. Fiona was also founder of two influential hip hop labels; 3-2-1 (a subsidiary of Zero Hour) and Sub Verse, which helped launch the careers of the iconic MF DOOM as well as Blackalicious.

After working in the music industry for nearly two decades, Fiona founded The Bloom Effect in 2007. Shortly after, she was named Top Consultant/Strategist of the Year by the National Association of Recording Industry Professionals (NARIP). She began to amass an impressive list of entertainment clients such as Blues Traveler, Simple Minds, Raul Midón, The Waterboys, Gangstagrass, Hollis Brown, Bruce Sudano, The Zombies, Jonathan Butler, Anthony David, Tower of Power, Avery Sunshine, Bureau Export, BMG, Mack Avenue, Mascot Records, as well as AntiFragile, among others.

Today, The Bloom Effect has worked with over 600 artists and has spearheaded over 2,000 events and showcases for artists, authors, fashion labels, and other lifestyle brands. Specifically, The Bloom Effect has carved a prominent space in music and entertainment in New York City and around the world.

Music entrepreneurship followed Bloom from childhood where she grew up in London, and lived across the street from the legendary Abbey Road Studios.

Prior to NY, Fiona was a widely popular radio personality in Atlanta, GA on WRFG 89.3FM and an assistant music director at WSTR 94.1 FM.

Fun Facts: Damon Dash sought her out when Roc-a-Fella was on the search for a publicist. She had a brief one minute interview with Jay himself.

Idris Elba showed up to one of her parties and asked if he could send her his demos. She never got back to him (SMH)

She was the Voice behind the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards.

Former classically trained concert pianist and violinist.

Fiona prevails dauntless amongst the chaos of a constantly evolving industry, and remains just as passionate today as she was when she first began her ascend nearly four decades ago.

David Bason - 7S Management

His life was saved by rock ‘n’ roll. With one foot in the practical and the other firmly on the creative tip, Ottawa-born, Saskatchewan-raised David Bason epitomizes the sometimes paradoxical term, “music business.” Equally at home playing guitar on a demo for the New York Dolls or serving as Head of West Coast for 7S MGMT, Bason is one of the few people whose artistic passion can co-exist with an understanding of the bottom line. He talks the language of artists and executives alike.

The son of an English Cambridge grad who worked in the Canadian telecommunications business and a mother who sang in the Ottawa Choral Society, the entrepreneurial teenager got his start working at Saskatchewan’s best music venue, a frequent tour stop for world-renowned artists. All the while, he kept his own rock dreams alive playing in a series of local garage bands.

“I did everything from pick up Jonathan Richman at the Greyhound station and share a beer-and- cheese soup with him to hanging out with Desmond Dekker,” said Bason, who eschewed the prospects of law school to return to Toronto to study the music business. He would eventually serve as a road manager for a Canadian band with a minor hit before taking an internship in RCA Records’ New York offices, which would complete his requirement to graduate the music business school.

“I was living off conference room pizza, crashing with 13 acting students in a one bedroom apartment in a Lower East Side apartment, walking a couple miles to work,” said Bason. “But I was happy.”

While working as an A&R coordinator, Bason recorded his own music. His producer friend simultaneously recorded David and another band from the neighborhood called The Strokes. As Bason proceeded on a one-man campaign to get them signed, blasting them from his office cubicle, a senior executive took notice and the two led a charge to sign the band.

Upon the success of that signing, Bason was suddenly very much in demand, and took a job running the music-publishing arm of Roadrunner Records. After running the publishing company for four years, he as asked to start and altertnative division of the label. His first signing was The Dresden Dolls – whose lead singer Amanda Palmer went on to become a Kickstarter cover girl with her indie success. He also penned The Cult and his beloved New York Dolls, even playing on the demos that led to the band’s celebrated 2006 comeback album, One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This. 

After several years at Roadrunner, running his own management company, A&R consultancy stints with both Decca Records and Century Media records (where he signed Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba and Blakq Audio, AFI’s side project) Bason was recruited to join the LA-based boutique firm The MGMT Company. While there, Bason managed major label artists, guided independent artists to bidding war deals. and inked infamous N.Y. punk band Cerebral Ballzy to Julian Casablancas’ Cult Records label.

Bason spent the next several years overseeing the day-to-day management responsibilities for multi-platinum sellers Thirty Seconds to Mars, and building a successful management stable of Grammy-winning, platinum producer/engineers, that has included David Kahne (Lana Del Rey, Sublime), Dennis Herring (Elvis Costello, Counting Crows), Jon Kaplan (Cage the Elephant, Gavin DeGraw) and James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins, A Perfect Circle), David Bendeth (Paramore, Bring Me The Horizon), Elvis Baskette (Slash, Incubus) Chris Shaw (Public Enemy, Bob Dlyan) Ryan Hadlock (Zach Byan, The Lumineers, Brandi Carlile), Karen Kosowski (Mickey Guyton), Ted Hutt (Dropkick Murphys, Old Crow Medicine Show). He also manages multi platinum selling duo Flora Cash, The Devil Makes Three, Jesse Malin, Ron Gallo, and Beta Radio signed to Canada’s own Nettwerk Records. 

A man of many hats, David Bason is a man who can hang with high profile artists as well as industry’s leading executives. Bason knows artists because he is one, writing and recording several solo albums, and several with his punk bands War Orphan, Barfbag and Lords Of The Drift. He has shared a stage (or recording studio) with the likes of Ian Astbury, Bad Brains’ HR, James Iha, Nicole Atkins, Hard Drugs, Sylvain Sylvain, Jesse Malin, Chad Van Gaalen, Gogol Bordello, Madball, Minny Pops (the Dutch experimental art-noise-band originally signed to Factory Records) and his childhood heroes Doughboys’ John Kastner and Asexuals’ Sean Friesen.

As he puts it, he does “a bit of this and a bit of that”. He has hosted a popular podcast in which he and guests like Side One Dummy’s Joe Sib, Matt Pinfield relate their own music business sagas. He co-wrote with Vancouver based animator Jeff Lee, a monthly graphic novel/comic strip for legendary Heavy Metal Magazine’s online site. “Anything to get rad” is also one of his favorite ways of explaining what he does. 

A hybrid performer/executive, David Bason is living the dream while at the same time successfully turning art into commerce. It’s quite a journey for a kid from the prairie of Saskatchewan to the wilds of L.A., but he’s still, as another of his heroes once put it...making cash from chaos. 

Ipek Ozsoy - Meta Artist Management & Consultancy UK

Ipek Ozsoy is a manager, educator and entertainment consultant who founded Meta Artist Management & Consultancy in 2017 in London, focusing on mentorship and project management. She looks after music projects across the UK, US and Europe, consulting record labels, educational institutions and other industry stakeholders on music business, DEI and community building. Her main career focus is developing emerging talent.

Ipek started out working at festivals and stadium concerts in her hometown Istanbul, including Roger Waters The Wall Tour and the Istanbul International Jazz Festival, where she later developed a symphonic concert series and managed renowned composers and producers. She managed tours and promoted events in Scotland, worked as an A&R Manager at a UK publishing company, then as a Production Advisor at #iVoted Festival in the US, which took place during the pandemic and became the largest digital concert to date.

After that, Ipek pursued a career in music business education and worked as a Programme Leader at London College of Contemporary Music (LCCM.) Ipek continues to develop social advocacy projects, with a passion for mental health awareness and diversity, as well as consulting the global industry on Turkey as an international market.

Element Everest-Blanks - Killer Inc as

A veteran of the local music scene, Element Everest-Blanks is best known as a member of former Milwaukee Hip-Hop group Black Elephant. In 2002, Element wrote and performed a song that appeared on the soundtrack and in motion picture “Deliver Us from Eva,” featuring LL Cool J and Gabrielle Union. She was also signed to the prestigious Ford Modeling agency and voiced television and radio spots for McDonald’s national 365 black campaign. In 2010 Element began crafting songs for NBA and NFL teams. She graced the cover of numerous magazines, and her music has also appeared on MTV.

Everest-Blanks was part of 88.9FM’s original on-air cohort of DJs when the station launched in 2007. She returned to the station as an on-air host in September 2021. In February 2021, she stepped into her new role as Music Director, making her the first Black woman in this role for the NPR station. On-Air Host and brand ambassador with HYFIN. Everest-Blanks leads their "Latest 1st Afternoon Drive." Everest-Blanks is also HYFIN’s brand ambassador working to create on-air and online content and build relationships within the community.

With the launch of her new position as Music Director, Everest-Blanks launched a new social media series called HYFIN Verified. This series highlights urban alternative music artist that will and are creating a new sound outside of what the music industry has pushed on triple A radio. HYFIN Verified was designed to shake up the industry by highlighting artist that don’t fit neatly into any box. Most recently Everest- Blanks launched a new NPR Music Sunday specialty show " Mic Dorp Moments."