The Collegian

Issue date: 9/24/09 Section: Arts

Media Credit: Chuck Grimmet Sharette stared The Dark North to promote up-and-coming artists and his business simultaneously

In the last year, senior and art major Tyler Sharette, along with his business partner Ian Sabbag, a senior marketing major at the University of Michigan, launched The Dark North, a business that not only makes T-shirts, but is also dedicated to finding and promoting new musicians and artists such as disc jockeys and dance teams.

"T-shirts are only 25% of our business," Sharette said. "What we are really about is promoting and managing unsigned and unmanaged, up-and-coming artists or musicians who we feel have the talent to make it in the current industry."

According to Sabbag, the company expanded after his internship in California.

Now, Sharette says, he and Sabbag are talent scouts.

"It's turned into this whole world of art and music and we keep moving forward," he said. "We take our ears to the street and see who we can promote. We want to help the little guy get recognized, while at the same time promoting ourselves."

Sharette said The Dark North enables artists to break into the industry with tools such as website and graphic design capabilities, photography and video and music production.

Brian Shepanek, a senior English major at the University of Michigan and The Dark North's web designer, said he hopes to give a visual aspect to artists who strictly have the audio aspect.

"Today, everything is visually based and people use this to decide if an artist is legit, so it's crucial," Shepanek said.

Sharette said he tries to find new talents he can present to his connections - friends and family members in the music industry who personally know famous hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Kanye West. Shepanek said these connections have helped a lot with their success.

"Our connections have kind of just fallen into our laps," Shepanek said. "Right now we are trying to cultivate our relationships with people in high positions of power."

Since the founding of The Dark North, Sharette and Sabbag have promoted four new artists across the United States from as close as Ann Arbor, Mich. to as far away as Los Angeles, Calif.

Although he said they go to shows to find new artists, Sharette said that the Internet has played a huge role in the success of The Dark North. He said they do a lot of online research and use online networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. By using these sites, they have gained a competitive edge because big industries don't look for new talent on social networking sites.

Though The Dark North has been successful thus far, Sharette said the company isn't quite where they want it to be.

"Right now we are thriving off family and friends and their support," he said. "We are still one step away from the big names in the business. We just got to play our cards right."

But the business partners are still optimistic about the future of The Dark North.

"Obviously business is slowing down while we are at college, but there is no reason to believe that we are going to be terminated anytime soon," Sabbag said. "We hope to continue after college and hopefully one of our artists will get signed and we can be right up there with the big names of the industry."

The Dark North is also making a name on campus by helping present Battle of the Bands this year and selling T-shirts on campus. Interested students can find out more about The Dark North by by visiting www.thedarknorth.com.

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