Vasjan Zisi: Promoting Beantown-Q&A
Vasjan Zisi moved to the city of Boston in the summer of 2018, leaving a load of success behind in his home country of Albania. Vasjan (a.k.a Vas) has thrown events for some of the biggest artists and entertainers in Albania. Starting a new chapter here in America was something that Zisi valued greatly. In the two years since he has arrived, Vas has promoted and worked with artists such as the late and great Pop Smoke, NLE Choppa, Megan Thee Stallion, Boston’s own DtheFlyest, and many more. Vas’ story in the States has just begun and it is no where close to finishing.
Johnny Dube: What was your childhood like in Albania?
Vasjan Zisi: My childhood was interesting. Albania is a beautiful country. I was born in Greece and I lived there for 7 years, then I moved to Albania. It was fun because I had a lot of friends from school and I remember hanging out with them everyday. We would play football or computer games. Everything seemed pretty nice when I was young because I used to live with my family so I didn’t have to worry about anything.
JD: How did you get started in the promotion business in Albania?
VZ: I always loved clubs and partying. We would have parties at clubs in middle school when I was 13-14 and I would go to all of them. In my senior year in high-school, I realised that I love events and that I knew a lot of people in my city that would come to my event if I would throw a show. I decided to do the first summer party at the end of my senior year and it was a success. A lot of people came by and I felt great. After that night I knew that I could do events because people would show up and support me. I started throwing shows in my city and after a couple months I moved to the capital city of Albania, Tirana. I made a lot of connections and became part of a well known group that throws shows in my country. We threw a lot of big shows and most of them were sold out.
JD: Can you tell us a little bit about how the promotion business works?
VZ: There are different kinds of promotion. My promotion business consists of throwing shows and promoting music. When it comes to the shows, there is a long process that needs to be followed. This process includes: deciding club/venue for the event, booking of dj/artist, bartenders & security, ticket sales etc. To throw a show, you need to have a plan and start working on that as soon as you can. Every step needs time and sometimes things don’t go your way. You can’t give up, you just gotta find another way to get things done.
When it comes to promoting music, every promoter or influencer basically posts music on their social media. Having a big amount of followers matters, however is not as important as connections in the music business. I’ve made a lot of connections with other influencers and radio dj’s and that plays an important part in promoting the music on a bigger level such as radio. The way I promote music is through social media especially my instagram. Also, I send the music to people that I’m connected with so they can check it out and if the dj’s like it then they play it at the clubs & radio.
JD: When you moved to America, did you already have connections set up or did you have to build it all up? and what was the build-up process like?
VZ: When I moved to America I didn’t have any connections at all. It was very difficult. Not only that I didn’t have connections but also english was not my native language. I didn’t think that I would be able to throw shows because everything seemed so hard and impossible to build everything up from the beginning. However, I started to check out artists around Boston and listen to their music. When I would like the music I would share it on my instagram and some artists would be surprised because they didn’t even know who I was or if I was from Boston. That’s how I started to build connections with artists. After a while, a radio station reached out to me asking me if I was available for an interview. That was new to me and from the interview I got more artists hitting me up about their music. Everything was going good and I was getting more requests for radio interviews and different dm’s from promoters. I started pulling up on different events so I could learn how things work in this new place and to support.
Vas receiving MegaMassTV’s Promoter of the Year Award
JD: Which concert/festival/show has been your favorite since moving to the states?
VZ: My favorite show has been Tyga at Big Night Live. It was packed and he gave an amazing performance.
JD: What has business been like with the cancellation of shows due to COVID-19? how have you had to adapt?
VZ: It has been hard. I had to cancel my birthday party because of COVID and I wasn’t happy about that. Without clubs, promoters can’t do much. I have been promoting music since the clubs are closed and I can’t throw shows. Also, I did some instagram lives for local artists to rap/sing and show their talent.
JD: What are the first things you are going to do when the world opens up again?
VZ: I will travel and have fun at the clubs. Also, I’m going back to campus at Bentley University. I’ve made more connections in the music industry and I want to meet these people that I’ve talked to online.
Check out Vas’ Instagram: @vasjanzisi
