Listen here, drink there

Aquamuzic.org founder says developing
countries can get clean water via music sales

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Thierry Deruelle

Age: 35

Occupation: Founder of Aquamuzic.org

Bio: When this hearty Chambly resident isn’t working alongside his father in the family business, the South Sea Traders Coffee Company, “the biggest fair trade coffee importer in Quebec right now,” he’s brainstorming a concept he’s hoping will someday have a major impact on infrastructure in the developing world, Aquamuzic.org. A musician who studied classical guitar in CEGEP but “got discouraged by all the virtuosos” he found studying alongside him, Thierry instead took his father’s advice and became a bush pilot, putting out forest fires in northern Quebec and later on in Ecuador. Returning to Montreal to come work in IT for awhile before signing up with his dad’s company some five years ago, Thierry says, “It’s a good job, I’m very happy doing it, but it doesn’t fulfill me completely, I need something to balance it out, balance is very important to me.” Hence the creation of aquamuzic.org, an online music distribution venture he started up over the summer that, when finally up and running, will see all profits going to water projects in the Third World. “Scarcity of water will be the issue of this century.”

The Aquamuzic.org concept: “Aquamuzic is here to sell and promote the music of independent artists. What we’re doing is converting music into water, turning something intangible into something that is the basis of life. Everything that we earn, outside of the royalties paid to artists, will be going towards water projects.”

The number of artists currently hooked up with Aquamuzic: One. Thierry himself.

Something Thierry is currently looking for: Artists to represent aquamuzic.org.

Something he feels he needs before the dream of Aquamuzic.org can become reality: “Credibility. This can’t come off at all like a scam. My friends know I’m a good guy, but that’s just them. What I need is a foundation that will allow Aquamuzic to be their dedicated music fundraising platform, with all monies going directly into their account, not mine, from the music we sell online. But it’s funny, I’ve approached a few foundations already and they’ve been quite skeptical. It seems, for the moment at least, that I need them more than they need me. But I think when some entrepreneurial people inside these foundations sit down with me and learn how I’ve successfully structured other businesses, they’ll see that I’m very serious and capable.”

Why hooking up with him maybe isn’t such a bad idea: Because whether you give two fucks about some thirsty Third World-er or not, you can keep and do what you want with your royalties while all of the monies Aquamuzic earns through sales of your music will go to said Third World-er and his/her community. Further, Thierry is definitely nobody’s fool on an intellectual, organizational or business level, is über-serious about and financially capable of promoting the artists involved with Aquamuzic, already has a built-in press hook with his water project endeavours that will make selfish you look like a benevolent champ just by association, and, even better, Thierry isn’t interested in exclusivity—meaning you can keep on making your shitty music that nobody ever listens to or cares about anyway for anybody else who might possibly want it.

Last book read: For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway.

Musical preferences: Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Adrian Belew.

Words of wisdom: “Think globally, act locally.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net