Dave Shapiro, a revolutionary musical director of the Heavy Metal scene and Hard Rock, died in a plane crash in San Diego. He was 42 years old.
Shapiro had a pilot license and was listed as the owner of the plane that crashed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The Sound Talent Talent Group confirmed that Shapiro died during the accident on Thursday morning with two employees.
What you need to know
- Shapiro co -founded Sound Talent Group in 2018 with Tim Borror and Matt Andersen
- He was an ardent defender of independent musicians and co-founder of the national independent talent organization
- Shapiro grew up in the north of New York State in the “Dure-core” scene, a subculture that promotes non-consumption of drugs and alcohol in reaction to traditional punk
- Shapiro had a piloting school called Velocity Aviation and a record company, Velocity Records
“We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends,” the agency said in a statement.
Shapiro co -founded Sound Talent Group in 2018 with Tim Borror and Matt Andersen. The agency’s list focuses on alternative groups through the pop-punk, Metalcore, Post-Hardcore subgenres and other popular hard rock subgenres. Customers have included Hanson, Pierce the Veil, Parkway Drive, Sum 41 and Vanessa Carlton.
Shapiro was an ardent defender of independent musicians and co-founder of the national organization of independent talents. It was included in Billboard’s “30 Under 30” 2012 list recognizing Rising Stars entertainment. Industry veterans say Shapiro has paved the way for the training of other independent agencies and has helped many alternative groups to find an audience in the dominant current.
“To find something you like to do is only to do a better job because you really care. You are not only showing up for the pay check, this is not a 9 to 5,” he said in a podcast in the music industry in 2021. “It’s part of your life if you really like it.”
Shapiro grew up in the north of New York in the “hard-core” scene, a subculture that promotes non-consumption of drugs and alcohol in reaction to traditional punk.
In high school, he launched a group with his friends and was signed with Victory Records on their diploma. They did a tour for a few years, during which he established links in the music industry that would help his foray into the commercial side.
Shapiro said he had become instantly hung on aviation after taking his first introductory flight at 22 years old. He seemed to love music and fly with an equal passion, opening a talent agency office at one point in a hangar in San Diego.
Flying “helps me to concentrate and helps me not to be distracted by all the nonsense of the world, and everything that is happening outside the plane does not matter in these moments,” said Shapiro in an interview with Podcast in 2020.
Shapiro had a driving school called Velocity Aviation and a record company, Velocity Records.
He offered flights to San Diego and Homer, Alaska, where he and his wife, Julia Pawlik Shapiro, had a house, according to his online messages.
Shapiro married his wife in 2016 in the small town of Talkeetna, in Alaska. They picked up their wedding licenses, went on a plane and flew to a glacier inside Denali National Park, landing with skis attached to the aircraft wheels.
“When I met Dave, we have become instantly linked to the unconventional lifestyles that we lead and our constant need for adventure,” she wrote in a blog article.
In 2019, he posted on Instagram that he had obtained his rating of air transport pilot, the highest level of certification issued by the United States
“Although I have a career and I don’t plan to change that I always want to know more and be a better driver,” he wrote. He was also an adrenaline drug addict who loved the basic jump.
Tributes flocked on Thursday musicians and other members of the industry who called him warm, authentic and someone who helped groups little known to put their names on the map.
“He would listen to any group you put in front of him to give them a chance,” said Dayna Ghiraldi-Travers, founder of the Big Picture Media public relations agency, who has worked with Shapiro for over 15 years.
Nate Blasdell, a former main guitarist of the group I set my friends on fire, said that he had “absolutely a broken heart”.
“Dave was the first reservation agent with which I worked and was an important part of my musical career at the end of my adolescence,” he said in an article on the social platform X. “He was really the best of the game and one of the most respected people in the industry.”
Sum 41 The singer Daryck Whibley attributes to Shapiro to help strengthen the rock group during a “low point” of their career.
“His opinion imported so much for me,” said Whibley. “It was this guy I would go for advice on things.”
During their last conversation, Shapiro had proved to be in his new plane to see the enthronement of Sum 41 at the Temple of Fame of Canadian Music in March. He promised Whibley to be back.
“Me and my wife, we are going to fly to you,” said Whibley, said Shapiro. “We are going to pick you up and we are going to go to a crazy place for lunch.”