Encouraging the best in homegrown talent

Andy Dowding and Justine McKay, producers for the Vodafone NZ Music Awards. Photo / Ted Baghurst

Sheer energy and enthusiasm are the two things you notice first about Justine McKay and Andy Dowding, producers for the Vodafone NZ Music Awards - these are people who not only embrace opportunities, they create them.

It was the traumatic events in New York on September 11, 2001, and a chance meeting on Waiheke Island that led to them becoming Project Managers of the NZ Music Awards. The couple had been living in New York - their apartment was blocks away from the World Trade Centre buildings and Justine was underneath Tower 2 when the plane hit.

McKay says: "Before that I didn't think I would ever leave New York - but after it happened, all my projects were cancelled and we really did have to re-evaluate our lives. Andy and I decided to get away - come to New Zealand. We had no real plans."

"In a way, I feel honoured to have been a witness to those planes destroying those buildings," says Dowding, "It changed my life and changed the way I think - it was a very traumatic time."

McKay was born in New Zealand, and grew up here, Sweden and Brazil, while Dowding comes from Horsham, a small town in England near London. Dowding says nothing prepared him for the life he's living now. "My Dad wanted a peaceful, quiet life and couldn't understand why anyone would want anything different.

"I didn't want to be a grey person - as soon as I could I moved to London and the fashion industry. I wanted to be a musician - this was the time of punk rock and alternative music. I envy young people today - they have a built in sense of confidence. I grew up in Thatcher's Britain and didn't have the confidence to think I deserved anything better than what I had."

Dowding attributes his success to never giving up. "I've been through a lot, but I was tenacious." He says he eventually worked out that he wasn't going to be a great musician - but has found a role in showcasing musicians. "It took me years to recover from a bad boss in the fashion industry who always brought me down - but I learned from the experience to never give up and I'm lucky to be in a position where I can help young people who are talented and enthusiastic, so I encourage them all the way."

Soon after their arrival in New Zealand, McKay and Dowding were with a friend in the PR business on Waiheke Island. "We came to New Zealand for a couple of months and had no idea of what we would do here," McKay says.

The friend's boss Deborah Pead was doing PR for the music awards, and suggested they get a pitch together to take over the awards. As it happened, the owners of the awards, Rianz, were disenchanted with the event and were looking at making some changes. "They liked our approach - we showed passion. We were prepared to roll our sleeves up, we had no baggage and weren't involved in any of the politics. We were in the right place at the right time so it was a great opportunity for us to launch the next stage of our lives in a very high-profile way," says McKay.

The couple's company J&A Productions has been managing the event for seven years now. "It's grown into this monster, but we have surrounded ourselves with great people - the best available," says McKay.

Dowding says he's a believer in collaboration. "I am a Jack of all trades, master of none. Everyone has input and knows more about their part of the puzzle than I do. It's about give and take. We respect the opinions of people who work on our projects. It's not about micro-managing - that would lead to disaster. I've been really impressed with the quality of people in New Zealand, there is so much talent here."

"I feel that everything I have done until now has come together at this point," says Dowding. "It's taken me until my forties to feel I am really successful in my work." In New York, Dowding was involved in production for music and television.

The couple met when McKay approached Dowding to help her with an online magazine focusing on fashion and music that she was creating. "It was great at first," she says. "We had so much investment in the project - but then the dot.com bubble burst and we literally watched millions of dollars disappear overnight. So I went back to working in film and fashion in New York."

"The key to success is learning from your failure," says Dowding.

The couple say that many people ask how they manage to both live and work together. "The key is that we're good at different things," McKay says. "We work together but separately." Dowding takes on the creative side of things, while McKay manages the business and sponsorship end.

"We have totally different temperaments," says McKay. "I am calm and detail oriented, while Andy can be less even-tempered and tends to look at the bigger picture. The combination works well."

What the two do have in common is a passion for what they do, for being a success for their client and sponsors, while creating an important showcase for musicians.

"We are really lucky to have a very supportive client and a family of very committed sponsors attached to this event," McKay says. "We do deliver for them - in fact we try to over-deliver for them. Corporate and government sponsorship is essential to the creation of an event like this in New Zealand, unlike in the US where the TV networks finance the awards shows."

"What is both scary and exhilarating about the awards is that although we are working towards them all year round and we plan carefully, there's one chance to get the event and show right because it's all live," says McKay.

She confesses to having a cry on the morning of the awards. "I suppose it relieves the stress," she says.

Besides the music awards, J&A Productions is involved with projects including working with the Lord of the Rings Symphony, an event for Nokia and the V Block Parties.

McKay says: "I love being back in New Zealand. We managed to establish ourselves here quickly. The fact that New Zealand is not the centre of everything is a good thing - there are plenty of people here who are world class but they do things in an easier way and there are opportunities here."