dynamic

PROFILE
Photos: Contributed
Sonic boom
Local company blends business and music By Jon Tattrie
I
t was the early 1990s and Louis
Thomas’ music career was starting to
take off. As a member of Thomas Trio
and the Red Albino, he’d put out two
records, had videos on MuchMusic and
toured Canada.
“Ultimately, when the group I was
in disbanded, I didn’t really have a lot
of interest in continuing on, and trying
to put another band together,” Thomas
says. “I was sort of the pseudo-tour
manager for the band, so I’d met a lot
of promoters and agents.”
He tried his hand as a booking agent
in Toronto. He got a job with one of the
big agencies and started booking bands
across the country.
He later went it alone and heard
about an upstart Newfoundland outfit
No one’s going to show
up at your door and
discover you. I think
you need to go to your
audience and have
an excellent work ethic,
those are the artists
I gravitate to now.”
– Louis Thomas,
President, Sonic
Entertainment Group
called Great Big Sea and started booking
them shows. He began managing them in
about 1993. He moved home to St. John’s
to work with the band on their break-out
album, Great Big Sea.
Thomas eventually relocated his
fledgling business to Halifax, which he
saw as a middle ground where he could
work with East Coast bands and stay connected
to the rest of Canada. “By default,
I started the other things. I started a record
company because I couldn’t get one
of the bands I was working with signed,”
he says.
The label needed a name, so he
called it Sonic Records. Someone needed
to promote the concerts, so he started
Sonic Concerts. He added a recording
studio (The Sonic Temple), artist
22 JULY & AUGUST 2016