Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter Hanna.
Hi Peter, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
It all started with the love of music. I’ve always had an obsession with music in general as a young kid always listening and looking for new music of all sorts of different genres. In 2013, I got introduced to my first taste of EDM (Electronic Dance Music). In 2014, I went to my first music festival which was EDC Orlando. I went with 1 friend that I had just met in college that year and his friends that were complete strangers to me. It was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life at that point and from that moment forward I knew I wanted to be in this scene.
From 2014 to 2019, I was just promoting local events and really just attending those events to have fun & meet new people that were interested in the music (EDM wasn’t as popular as it is now, so finding people that liked the music was a bit more difficult back then.)
From 2019 to 2020, I decided to pursue a career in the music industry. I joined a fresh new start-up company that started throwing weekly events at local. This company named “Injoy Events” really was the driver for quick start in the industry; through this company, I was able to really connect with all local venue owners & promoters primarily in Orlando but really all across the state of Florida.
2020 as we all know COVID happened; this was a bit demotivating for everybody in the music industry including me. I was able to power through and see it as an opportunity to continue to build and strengthen the relationships I already had.
2021 is where the real fun started to develop, with everything opening back up in Orlando and events starting to come back. One of my mentors at the time really pushed me to become an artist manager.
Shout out to Alex Akleh (He manages the world-renowned artist “ACRAZE”).
I already had the curiosity of jumping into artist management, but Alex really was the one to push me to just start the journey instead of waiting around.
2021 to 2022, I started managing 2 artists: DANNY TIME & SoSmoov. With these 2 artists, I started building a foundation of basic artist management skills and really just learning how to play the game overall with success.
In 2022, I started my own artist management company “Ambush Artists” and picked up 2 additional artists (4 total now) AVELLO, Sara Benyo, SoSmoov, DANNY TIME.
In 2022 alone, we have played multiple sold-out shows across Florida with big acts like: Excision, Seven Lions.
Played a sold-out show in New York City with Flux Pavillion
Played a sold-out show in Washington DC with Level Up.
Released on Major labels; Bassrush, Lost In Dreams, Subsidia, Lowly.
Played on EDC Orlando’s Circuit Grounds stage & Corona Electric Beach stage.
These are just some of the accolades accomplished this year.
It’s January of 2023 as I write this and we already have so many major festivals, shows, music releases planned for the year that I can’t wait to share.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not exactly been a smooth road. Artist Management is an unorthodox career field; none of my day-to-day activities are the same.
I think the main struggle in this journey is being patient and enjoying the process. As an artist, you want to be releasing music, getting millions of streams, touring worldwide, etc.
Obviously, it doesn’t start like that. You start with 3 followers and 19 streams from your mother.
Building a brand (that’s what an artist is at the end of the day, a BRAND) takes TIME.
The struggle isn’t just building a brand but trying to get other people to believe in your brand and building awareness & respect around the vision of the brand.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I specialize in helping elevate an artist’s career. I oversee and council everything that my clients do pertaining to their artist career; branding, music releases, booking live performances, contracting legal documents, and all the administrative/organizational work that comes with that.
What I’m most proud of brand wise is how quickly we were able to AMBUSH the Florida market. Me & my artists became the go-to artists in our respective lane of music.
This was done solely through hard work & talent.
No one gave us anything that we didn’t work for.
Becoming so undeniable in our local scene really helped catapult us to the HUGE opportunities we have now.
Any big plans?
I plan on continuing to expand the Ambush Artists team as necessary, hopefully looking to take in some more talented artists & also hiring some motivated artist managers under me.
2023 is going to be big; all the artists I currently manage already have major label releases scheduled, huge festival stage slots confirmed, AND some collaborations with other MAJOR artists.
The last one is super exciting to me because one of my artists is collaborating with an iconic group in EDM that I’ve been listening to since 2014.
(HINT: We just played support for a show with them recently)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ambushartists.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/peter_hanna
Image Credits
Ryan Fries
Ryan Sam
Taylor Regulski
