Meet Andrew Stasiw | Promoter & Event Curator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andrew Stasiw and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrew, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
One of the most important lessons my business, King And Queen Events, has taught me is that never hurt to fail. If you don’t fail you won’t learn how to improve yourself. Many parts to my business consisted trial and error. It taught me to learn how to try new strategic methods with taking strategic risk. The more events I create, the more I learnt what works and doesn’t work. As I move forward, I use what made these events successful to keep pushing the goals and direction I vision for this business. There will always be moments you need to pivot your business. The more you learn, the more you can achieve!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
King And Queen Events started in January 2020. I founded the business with my past partner. We were coming up with a name for the business and we saw a deck of cards lying around. The King card and Queen card came to our attention to create the name King And Queen Events, representing her as the Queen, and myself as the King. We have this quote that represents our brand known as “Join The Empire,” which means we welcome all kings and queens to our events. Our initial vision was to provide a platform for local DJs/Producers that usually don’t get the opportunities in Toronto, Ontario, that should be for their brilliant talent. We had a few clubs/venue contacts to get a local event started. However, we hit a roadblock as the COVID-19 pandemic started. We didn’t want to leave our business inactive as we just started. We decided to hop on the Twitch livestream world. I took the initiative to learn how to run a Twitch channel. We started curating livestream events providing local DJs to send us live/pre-recorded DJ mixes in a lineup style event to showcase their talent. The more events we did, the more we grew. We were fortunate to connect with some international artist agencies, managements, and worldwide artists. We used our leverage through some of the international artists we had on our events to reach out via email/Instagram to expand our talent. We noticed we were one of the only Canadian Twitch livestream platforms that were curating DJ events with international artists that usually don’t come to Canada or haven’t been at all, which we noticed was a good outlet to provide them exposure in the market. As we kept growing with more livestream events and artist relationships we managed to work with artists like Pink Panda, Firebeatz, Sevenn, DJ from Mars, Keanu Silva, Steff Da Campo, Sidney Samson, Mr. Belt & Wezol, Dastic, R3SPAWN, SMACK, Wh0, & more! Our initial vision pivoted, which we now realized we were providing a great outlet for up and coming international DJs/Producers that usually don’t come to Canada + have local DJs have opportunities on the lineup for these events. When the COVID-19 pandemic started to disappear and restrictions/mandates were being lifted we now we’re ready to bring the virtual livestreams to live events in person. We started reaching out to venues/clubs in March 2022 and an opportunity to showcase our first live event. Unfortunately, my partner left the business as I started our first live event on my own. Our first live event was a local event at Bar Cathedral in Toronto, Ontario for a 175 capacity venue. We managed to bring in 154 attendees that night and nearly sold out our first live event. The local artists on the lineup, my door team, and friends really helped me and encouraged the direction to make the event successful. I then started working with other venues/clubs like Wiggle Room Toronto, NOMAD, [BOX] Toronto, NEST. I partnered on some events with other promoting event businesses like Electric Escape and Overlord. Other branded businesses in the music industry I worked with were Ozilla Radio and RAVENS. I continued to host live events and even did some international events with local DJs on the lineups as well. Some of the events I was close to breakeven and other events I made profits. As I expanded my business, I brought new partners on board for the business who saw the vision and were willing to help me out. I thank my partners, Stefan and Michael for joining the team, who continue to help strive the vision for King And Queen Events. We learnt the music industry is a rollercoaster ride. You can have bad events and good events. My first international booking was with ANG. ANG is a duo based out of Mexico who have released tracks on labels like Revealed (Hardwell’s Label), Rave Culture (W&W’ Label), and more! As the business continues to grow, we continue to host international and local events. We managed to book/host international artists like GENIX, SaberZ, Masteria, No Thanks, King Topher and more to come! We are delighted to end 2022 strong with our upcoming event on December 30th with house music international artist Dillon Nathaniel and hosting the event at NEST, which is listed as Toronto’s top clubs in the city. October 2022 was our biggest month yet with 3 international events in one month. All 3 events resulted as successful events with no losses. 1/3 events in October was one of my favorite personal accomplishments when running this business. When I hosted SaberZ, a duo from Hungary, for their first debut event in Toronto on Friday, October 21st, 2022, the event was an absolute success. In addition, the next day (Saturday, October 22nd, 2022) Bassjackers, a well known DJ/Producer duo that are listed on DJ Mag Top 100 DJs in the world at #27 in 2022 was playing at Club77 a neighboring city. SaberZ and Bassjackers recently collaborated on a track together called, “Lose It” and since they were both close to each other by cities in the same weekend, we were invited to bring SaberZ to the Bassjackers event. We were invited backstage and I had the honor to record their collaboration track for them when they played it live that night together. At this point, we noticed we were headed to the right direction of the business and continue to strive to reach our goals in booking more up and coming international DJs/Producers + local DJs who deserve an opportunity to play a debut set in Toronto, Ontario or returning set but don’t usually come here. We want to provide an outlet for unique DJs/Producers who play a variety of genres to allow something new in the market. We can’t wait to continue this journey and provide more events in the future!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend was visiting the area and show them the best time ever I would first and for most have them come out to my events if we are hosting an event around his visitation period. I would love to show them how King And Queen Events parties and showcase the great international + local talent we showcase in the city. Scenic places in Toronto, Ontario I would take them to see a Toronto sports team game or the most know landmark the CN Tower. There are many places in Toronto, Ontario to check out but these would be my prime suggestions. As for food. Toronto, is a diverse city with many cultures and ethicists. Past international artists we booked to come to city we took them to a local brewery restaurant to show them our independent breweries our city provides. Another spot is a known restaurant called, Café Diplomatico, who is know for their homemade style Italian cuisine. They are also known for one of the best spots to host/watch the World Cup Soccer Matches. These are some of the interesting spots, places, and fun areas to check out!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would dedicate my shoutout to Phil Martiniello, a studio owner and DJ/Producer, in Toronto, Ontario who has been a great mentor in the music industry. When I started, King And Queen Events, he invited me to his studio to curate a few of my events as livestreams at the time during the pandemic. He has always been willing to guide me and see the vision I had in providing a platform for up and coming local and international DJs/Producers in the scene. The motivation, advice, and encouragement has always been greatly appreciated and fulfilling. As I directed the business to do live events, Phil, introduced me to my now partnering event business, Electric Escape, who have been curating events for over a decade. Having this opportunity was absolutely rewarding. The Electric Escape team had truly seen my vision with the talent I was providing and producing live events for. We continue to collaborate on live events together with both our event business’. In the summer of 2022, the Electric Escape team hosted an indoor Trance Music Festival, called U4RIA. I was invited to help backstage in managing the international DJs/Producers who were performing to keep them on schedule and guiding them for assistance. The Electric Escape team I truly dedicate a shoutout too for their continuous support in believing my vision with King And Queen Events and providing these opportunities. Look forward to more events together!

Website: https://www.kingqueenevents.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kingqueenevents/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kingqueenevents

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3AjO8Ty5T_pyRLiZNsgEIA

Other: Andrew Stasiw Owner/Founder of King And Queen Events Promoter & Event Curator

Image Credits
Stefan (Stefano DiMilan) Michael (Mazara) SaberZ Masteria ANG Electric Escape GENIX Pink Panda Bassjackers