by Maire Simpson, Vice President + Editor
Last September, WIMI was honored to host our first in person mentor session of the semester with the incredible Ren McConville. They were in town for the production and set up of the Lost Lands Music Festival because their job is just that cool. As an Ohio University alumni, they were eager to speak to us about their diverse involvement in most aspects of the music industry.
Ren loved OU and in their own words: “It was the tits.” They started off as a music production major and were incredibly interested in what the music world had to offer. Feeling trapped in the mechanics of school and small town Athens, they took it upon themselves to explore and find ways to involve themself. Ren attended the Bonnaroo Music Festival and decided to take the jump and become an intern with the company, AC Entertainment. During their internship, Ren learned about the true physical labor and intensity that goes into the activations and installations that are involved with music festival production and just loved it. That experience alone opened up so many doors to incredible opportunities to travel while attending school. Ren found a job at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre with help from her professors here at OU. They made the decision to fly out to Colorado and asked the manager to go get coffee. Ren preached to us the importance of passion and pushed us to take those steps out of our comfort zone. They got the job and a few weeks later, after graduating ahead of time, flew out to Colorado.
After leaving the Red Rocks, Ren accidentally moved to Nashville. Their lack of a job pushed them to get back into the festival circuit where they learned how taxing and toxic the work relationships can get. From this, Ren shared their most important advice: “everyone in this industry wants to do it and everyone wants to do it better….Every work environment, there are people who create competition, it can become toxic; but if you surrender to the idea of working together, then you can create amazing things. Nothing is more important than compassion.” Ren found that working together and putting heads together with a “LET’S FIND A WAY TO DO IT” attitude has been the foundation of the most fulfilling and incredible projects. Some of these projects include most of the major festivals around the country such as Coachella, Bonnaroo, and even the Sundance Film Festival.
When they are not working the festival circuit, Ren and other members of the LGBTQ+ community in Nashville have put together a music and dance space called Bitchfitnashville where women and other underrepresented communities can come together and celebrate their sexuality, bodies and gender identity through music. Ren left us with one final piece of advice as young women and non-binary folk who are aspiring music industry professionals: SAY YES TO EVERYTHING! We are thankful for this incredible opportunity to talk with such a bobcat badass.
WIMI 