Damien Aresta spends half of his time in his hometown Liège and the other half in Brussels. Together with his girlfriend, he has recently set up a music agency in Brussels where they combine their experiences and passions within the world of music, design and production.
It’s well known that there’s a strong link between graphic design and music, for you too it seems. You started out a professional career in graphic design and now works in music management; can you describe your path?
Indeed, in my case I was introduced to graphic design via my interest in music. I was born and brought up in Liège. When I left secondary school, I was already into music, playing in bands and performing live. Besides music, I wasn’t so sure about what to do but I ended up choosing architecture which I studied for one year. During that year, I discovered my fascination for record covers and I started doing research into the design of my favourite artworks; I learned about the work of graphic design studios like The Designers Republic from the UK. When I realised that I could study graphic design at Saint-Luc in Liège, I immediately switched to that. I had found my voice.
During my time as a student, in 2000, together with a group of friends, I founded a music label and collective called Jaune Orange. We were a bunch of bands performing in the same venues and we saw the idea of getting together in a collective. Some of the guys knew how to code so we set up a website in those early days and we started releasing our own music with compilations including our different bands. Local radios picked up the news about us and started playing our tunes. We also organised concerts in Liège where we invited American bands who were already touring in Belgium to play with us. I was designing all the covers and posters.
So, you grew up in Liège but when and why did you move to Brussels?
I lived in Brussels from 2004 to 2012 when I returned to Liège with my family. We were living in a Brussels loft apartment in Molenbeek and needed more space. In Liège, we could buy a house and be closer to our families. Today, I spend half of the time in Liège with my kids and half of the time in Brussels, together with my girlfriend.
I came to Brussels to finish my graphic design studies at ERG (École de Recherche Graphique) as I wanted to specialise in typography. During one year at ERG, with my student colleague and future partner Pierre Smeets, we took the Typography class of Renaud Huberland, from Salut Public. After one year, we were ready to set up our own studio. It was called PLMD (pleaseletmedesign). At first, we were located in the city centre in a shared design space. One day, I heard some great music playing from the room next to ours and I tapped the window to talk to them about the music. That’s actually how we got into doing graphic design for architects; the people listening to the music was the studio Label Architecture. At the time, they were applying for a competition with the Belgian pavilion at the Venice Biennale and we got engaged in the project with them. We won the competition and then it just went on from there. One year later, together with Label Architecture and the production company Michigan Films we took over the space where Atelier A1 had been located, in Rue d’Andenne in Saint-Gilles. Atelier A1 was a collective of young Belgian designers and that’s how I met Marina Bautier for the first time (Marina Bautier being a founding member of Atelier A1 – Ed.). It was an old commercial space where we also held exhibitions from time to time. In terms of identity, Pierre and I had quickly found our own style and we started working with the cultural institutions in town.
My musical career was running alongside our graphic design studio. I was part of various bands and around 2010, we started It It Anita, a noise rock band established in Liège. It went well for us and we began touring in Europe which meant I did less and less graphic design and more and more music. I was also teaching at ERG between 2009 and 2016. Around 2015, I was so involved with the band and I was part of setting up another music label, Luik Music, so it all became a bit too much. I stopped teaching, PLMD slowed down and Pierre and I closed the studio. Covid-19 was a very quiet time for all of my activities and it turned into a kind of transformation for me, professionally as well as privately. In 2021, I started Julia Camino with my girlfriend, Maureen Vanden Berghe, and this is now my full time activity.
Please tell us some more about Julia Camino.
Julia Camino is a booking and management agency for music artists. It’s Maureen, Jeanne Cassiers and me running it, principally working on finding shows for our bands. Besides the booking and management, we also create other types of content like a podcast, a newsletter, video production, some graphic design. All of this we label under Studio Camino.
After all your experiences in the different parts of the music industry, why did you choose to set up this type of agency?
I’ve initiated a lot of projects in the past but I always prefer doing it with somebody. It’s in the collaboration that things grow. Pierre and I were a good match. I was often out meeting people, creating a network and making connections, and Pierre was very good at working in detail on the projects. Maureen and I are also complementary. I’m good at connecting people which is the core of our work as an agency; putting people together.
We work with many Brussels-based bands, like Garance Midi, River Into Lake, The Bernadette Maries, Sïan Able, Échec, Oberbaum and Annabel Lee. We represent artists from all over Belgium though, from Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders, and international artists too. Our portfolio is quite eclectic yet we have an aim of being socially responsible, especially regarding gender equality. There are many male bands out there so we’ve decided to mainly work with bands of mixed gender or solely women. We are really sensitive to this topic.
Maureen and Anaïs, the singer in Sïan Able, are also building up a new platform called Discare where they address the mental wellbeing in the music industry and the challenges that music artists are often confronted with, like burn-outs, alcohol or drug abuse. During Covid-19, we saw how the sector was fragilized by the fact that everything stood still and the artists couldn’t perform live. I’ve also stopped drinking alcohol since 2019; after ten years of touring, it was enough. As artists ourselves, we understand what good it can do to be aware of the possible entanglements and how a healthy lifestyle helps your artistic output.
You’ve created your own newsletter and guide with cultural recommendations, Ma Petite Lettre. How did the idea for this appear?
I used to share a lot on Twitter and other social media platforms but I was longing to share my reflections and recommendations in a deeper and more direct way, to people who really appreciate it. I like writing and the newsletter has a very personal tone. I share cultural stuff on movies, books and music. Many of the subscribers respond to it so it creates nice dialogues, sharing discoveries. I’m not a journalist, not critical or analytical, the newsletter is light in writing but strong in content. I have about 2’000 subscribers.
I’ve always liked to share cultural information but last year I stopped being on Instagram for six months which gave me a good break. With all the algorithms, it was driving me crazy, making me unhappy. It took too much of my time and I didn’t feel good about not being in control of how my content was shared. If you don’t play Instagram’s game, they punish you in terms of visibility. Now, I’m back on it, but with a little hindsight, I think.
Spring is coming up soon. Can you offer us some cultural tips for the coming months. Like, where can we go out in Brussels to listen to your artists from Julia Camino?
Sure, River Into Lake is playing at Ancienne Belgique on the 14th of April. It’s a special event as they will be playing their first album from back when the band was called VO. marcel (it’s always spelled lowercase) has two concerts coming up, a release show on the 11th of April at Botanique and a concert during Nuits Botanique on the 18th of May. The Bernadette Maries will also play during Nuits Botanique on the 18th of May. On the 9th of March, we're hosting a Sunday afternoon event here at the office. I will be making vegetarian hotdogs and there will be a ‘vide dressing’, a second-hand yard sale, a blind-test, a nice atmosphere, I’m sure. All are welcome!
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Damien is one of the 73 locals who has generously contributed to our city guide 'Brussels by Locals' by sharing his favourite spots in town.
Pictures by Stephanie De Smet