EMA Quick To Plug Maloney Gap

EMA Telstar, Live Nation’s Swedish operation, has been quick to plug the gap left by Dave Maloney’s departure to arch-rival AEG by bringing in Richard "Sejka" Ardermark from Epitaph Records.

Ardermark was a senior marketing manager in the indie label’s Amsterdam office.

Before working in Holland, he was marketing manager for Swedish independent label and Epitaph offshoot Burning Heart Records, where he helped launch artists such as The Hives, Millencolin, Turbonegro, Moneybrother, Flogging Molly and The (International) Noise Conspiracy.

Ardermark told Pollstar he’s not concerned about the jump from recorded music to live music because both played a big part in his background.

Even before he worked with EMA and Luger on tours during his time at Burning Heart, he’d booked the local 2,500-capacity festival in his home village of Fagersta – also the birthplace of The Hives – where he put on some of the earliest Swedish shows by Radiohead, Green Day and Fear Factory.

He will be starting with EMA’s international artists’ team November 5 to work alongside 24-year-old Martin Nielsen, who moved across from working on the company’s major arena and stadium tours to becoming the new club promoter at the beginning of October.

Nielsen looks to be a direct replacement for Mikael Tillman, who was assistant to Maloney until both left EMA on September 3. Maloney started with AEG September 24, with Tillman joining him three weeks later.

EMA’s international team is headed by company chief Thomas Johansson, who’s also LN’s chairman for international live music, with Tor Nielsen, Jan Gille and Anna Sjölund as the senior promoters.

Maloney and Tillman are looking to build an AEG Live Europe branch that will provide EMA Telstar Group, including its subsidiaries at DKB-Motor in Denmark, Gunnar Eide concerts in Norway and Finland’s Welldone, with some stiffer competition in the Nordic markets.

Ardermark can be reached at [email protected].