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And Finally Artist News Gigs & Festivals
Goldman Sachs CEO playing Lollapalooza
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 23 March 2022
When this year’s Lollapalooza festival line-up was announced yesterday many expressed confusion about who the event was aimed at, due to the apparent scattergun approach to booking artists, headliners ranging from Metallica to Dua Lipa. Personally, that sounds like a festival aimed directly at me. And the real confusion comes further down the line-up poster, four lines from the bottom, where you’ll find David Solomon. Better known as CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs.
It may not be news to you that Solomon dabbles in DJing. You may well have heard that he played a few tunes at a COVID rule breaking party headlined by Chainsmokers that took place in July 2020 at affluent summer retreat The Hamptons, and which earned the event’s promoters a $20,000 fine (for breaking the COVID rules, not booking Solomon to DJ). However, maybe you thought that was some sort of one-off – or a confusing joke even.
Actually, Solomon has been DJing since 2015, initially as a hobby and now with increasingly high profile bookings. He’s even released several singles – most recently ‘Heatwave’ featuring Robbie Jay in February – scoring more than thirteen million plays from 3.8 million listeners on Spotify last year.
Until recently he went by the name DJ D-Sol. But now he’s DJing under his real name, either because he realised DJ D-Sol was an absolutely terrible stage name, or because he’s just become less worried about people knowing about his day job.
Unlike his banking career, his work in music is seemingly an entirely philanthropic effort. He donates everything he makes from DJing to charitable organisations that support people experiencing addiction. Meanwhile, his label Payback Records – launched in partnership with Warner’s Atlantic Records in 2018 – also donates all of its income to charity.
Announcing his appearance at Lollapalooza on Instagram yesterday, he wrote: “Excited to play Lollapalooza for the first time this summer. Proceeds benefit various non-profits in partnership with Payback Records”.
So, hey, maybe this is a new trend. Maybe one day there will be a festival featuring only wealthy CEOs who DJ on the side. Especially given that everyone seems to want festivals with very narrow booking policies.
