Roger Moore is the Managing Director of Gospel Link 360, Europe’s leading Media for Urban Gospel Music.
After 20 years in business, Roger has established Gospel Link Magazine, GL Records, GL360tv, GL Live, GL360 Creative Hub and a plethora of Urban Gospel artists such as Ni-Sheng, Natty Joshia and Treblez (just to name a few). In 2011, GL was presented with the Organisation Of Excellence Award at the Celebrating Youth Excellence Awards.
What do general tasks in your career consist of on a daily basis?
I don’t have any fundamental structure to my day. However, some of the key things I do include keeping a sharp eye of the latest technology in music and video – this is key. I keep an eye on apps such as ‘Scene It?’ to see what’s going on technology wise and to see how I can improve myself in a cost effective manner. Also I listen to a lot of music and watch a lot of music videos and analyse them, I then hold discussions with my team to work out the ‘how’s’ and ‘why’s of what we see. A major thing (which we fail to do) is short, medium, and long term planning which is crucial because it allows you to be proactive.
Why did you decide to become involved in the music media industry?
My love was football and I never had an inkling to be involved with music. I believe that everyone has a purpose, and for me being a Christian, at age 18 God had a purpose for me in music. I had a vision, it wasn’t clear straight away but I stepped out in faith away from football, where at the time I had trials which was a really big thing for me. My cousin introduced me to sampling, and I got into computing music and I enjoyed it and advanced there. I started producing, but then I noticed the media was bias towards London and as a Brummie it was really frustrating, so I built a relationship with printers to establish the Gospel Link magazine and that’s how I got involved with media.
When did you make a start on your career?
I started 20 years ago, my leadership skills started to develop from youth club days when I was 16, at the time I didn’t realise that these skills would assist me later on in music. Education wise, I did a BTEC in business and a business engineering degree, which helped me to develop skills and structure.
How did you set it up?
I can’t define how I set up, but all I can say is do things right and legally, also make sure you have a great team because you can’t do this as an individual.
Who helped you?
I got a lot of help including from my wife who has been amazing! One of the key people who opened the doors for me as a teenager is a person called Beresford Dawkins, no else took me seriously but he took me under his wing, showed me how to do production and we toured around the UK for different events and various artists such as Dawkins and Dawkins. I also worked with Shekinah Sounds who I learnt a lot from. As I have developed over the last 10 years, there are people like Antony Howe, Stephan Davies, Adrian Howe and various others that have helped and supported me.
What have you learnt during your experience?
Stay focused and keep going, if its truly what you want to do it will always work out in the end. I have seen many people drop off after like two years, but after meeting American artists like Lecrae and Mali Music, working with these guys taught me a lot in terms of work ethic and focus.
What advice can you offer to aspiring video and music producers?
Listen and learn. Trust in your talent and your gift and make sure you follow through to the end. Don’t live life with regrets, be wise and don’t throw all your eggs into one basket and learn from the experiences of people around you. My advice is to give it 100% because we only have one life, so live it to the max.
