35 GENIUS INTERVIEW Stephen Mai
WE’RE BUILDING A BRAND THAT’S STRONG ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO LIVE ANYWHERE THAT YOUNG PEOPLE ARE STEPHENMAI
FEED: Can you describe the genesis of Boiler room for us? Stephen Mai: Boiler Room started as a webcam in a room broadcasting a bunch of people in East London partying. Through a kind of happy accident it developed into a global movement. We realised people were watching this live stream from all different parts of the world, and that there were all these cultural scenes in cities all over the world that were kind of hidden. People don’t get to experience them. But the internet has actually created this opportunity that gives underground culture a platform to appear on a bigger scale. Through that, organically the business grew to cover big parties with big live streams with some very interesting and diverse and exciting electronic acts. It’s diversified to include music from all different genres. It started off in London, but it’s become a global proposition where we’re activating in places like Japan, Africa, Australia, South America, and bringing and building a collective of young people who are really passionate about culture, who are really interested in politics. From having access to this audience, we’ve been evolving our proposition. We’ve started creating more video content. We’ve been creating
Stephen Mai has worked in marketing for major media brands, including MTV, Vice Media UK and the globally popular LADBible website. His innovative work at LADBible turned a site full of diverting male-targeted clickbait into an award-winning producer of global social awareness campaigns. His latest role is Chief Content Officer and Marketing Director at Boiler Room, an online intersection of club culture, arts and music. Boiler Room has also just launched a video on demand platform, 4:3. Mai tells FEED how his own style of radical innovation and risk taking has been a formula for success
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