EXPERIENCE

AS AN ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY PROFESSIONAL

Garretson’s first employment was at the age of 18 in 1981, being employed by the alternative record company MAI AS.   There he began to work with sales of albums and singles, and soon branched into learning marketing and promotion.  He was also given responsibility of promotion for underground punk bands and labels, such as the English Rough Trade, Factory, Two Tone and Greensleeves labels.

From 1990 to 2004 he returned to work in the music industry after living in New York, gaining extensive professional experience as a producer, director, and as a consultant in marketing and promotion. He has been employed by PolyGram to head the labels Verve Jazz and Phillips Classics in Norway, bringing both labels into profit for the first time in that company's history; as Label Director for Sony Music he oversaw Columbia Jazz and Sony Classics in Norway and was responsible for the promotion and marketing of Christmas in Vienna III, which became the second best selling album of its release year.  

As a live event producer for NGM Ltd (London and Oslo) he produced stadium concerts, musicals, and tours with internationally renowned classical and jazz musicians and singers such as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Shirley Bassey, among many others.

In 1998 he formed his own creative arts and management company WildStar World with the intention of using his considerable professional experience in marketing, promotion and contracting, in the interest of furthering his own and other artists' artistic endeavors. His first signing to his company was in the management of acclaimed artist Lydia Lunch, whom he continues to have a close association with today. He also managed the jazz singer Silje Nergaard's career, raising her status from "a dead artist" in the industry to becoming the best-selling pop-jazz artist in Norway, and the no. 2 best-selling jazz artist in Europe, after obtaining a recording contract for her with Universal Music. Universal Music also hired him as an independent promotion and marketing expert, resulting in three consecutive no. 1, platinum-selling albums for that artist. He also booked national and international touring for Nergaard, traveling to Asian countries and also spent three weeks in Germany for a National Representation Tour with the Crown Prince of Norway, HRM Prince Haakon, hired by the Foreign Service (Utenriksdepartement) in Norway to produce the tour in 2002. In 2004, he decided to take a pause from the music industry and devote his time to university studies and to focus on his own creative works.  During this period he worked as a freelance producer and also as a teacher of photography, while simultaeously continuing to manage Lydia Lunch.

In 2018 he set up his company Guttersaint, as a comprehensive arts and production company in which he continues to work as a freelance consultant and producer.  He also continues his personal and business management for the artist Lydia Lunch, going on 24 years of association with her.   Together they have created a new form of artist-management relationship, defying industry standards and succeeding by doing so.   His handling of the sale of Lunch’s archives to New York University garnered international media attention, and he continues to work with clients in archive sales or other creative business areas.