Dave Shapiro, groundbreaking music manager, dies in the plane crash of San Diego at 42

(AP) – Dave Shapiro, a groundbreaking music manager in the heavy metal and hard rock scene, died in a plane crash from San Diego. He was 42.

Shapiro had a pilot license and, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, was listed as the owner of the aircraft. The Music Agency Sound Talent Group confirmed that Shapiro died together with two employees at the crash on Thursday morning.

“We are destroyed by the loss of our co -founder, colleagues and friends,” said the agency in a statement.

Shapiro was the sound talent group with Tim Borror and Matt Andersen in 2018. The agency's roster focuses on alternative bands in pop-punk, metalcore, post-hardcore and other popular hard rock subgenres. Customers included Hanson, Pierce The Veil, Parkway Drive, Sum 41 and Vanessa Carlton.

Shapiro was a strong lawyer for independent musicians and co -founders of the National Independent Talent Organization. He was recorded in the 2012 “30 under 30” list from Billboard, in which rising stars were recognized in entertainment. According to industry veterans, Shapiro paved the way for the formation of other independent agencies and helped many alternative ribbons to find the audience in the mainstream.

“Finding something that you like to do will only make you do a better job because you are actually interested. You don't just appear to be a salary check, it is not 9-to-5,” he said in a podcast in the music industry in 2021.

Shapiro grew up in the “Straydge Hardcore” scene in the upstate New York, a subculture that does not use drugs and alcohol in response to the mainstream punk.

In the high school he founded a band with his friends and was signed at Victory Records. They toured for a few years in which he made connections in the music industry that would help his foray on the business side.

Shapiro said he was immediately enthusiastic about aviation after taking his first intro flight at the age of 22. He seemed to love music and fly with the same passion, at one point an office of his talent agency in a hangar in San Diego.

Flying “helps me concentrate and helps me not to be distracted by all the nonsense of the world, and whatever is going on outside of the aircraft does not matter in these moments,” said Shapiro in a podcast interview from 2020.

Shapiro had a flight school called Velocity Aviation and a record label, Velocity Records.

He offered flights in San Diego and Homer, Alaska, where he and his wife Julia Pawlik Shapiro had a home according to his online posts.

Shapiro married his wife in 2016 in the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska. They took their wedding licenses, got on a plane and flew to a glacier in the Denali National Park, which landed with skis that were strapped on the wheels of the plane.

“When I met Dave, we immediately connected the unconventional lifestyle and our constant need for adventure,” she wrote in a blog post.

In 2019 he recorded on Instagram that he received his pilot assessment from Airline Transport, the highest level of certification in the United States

“Although I have a career and I don't plan to change that I want to learn more and more and be a better pilot,” he wrote. He was also an adrenaline junkie who enjoyed the base jump.

On Thursday, musicians and others in the industry fell on Thursday, which warmly, real, and someone who helped little -known bands helped to bring their names on the map.

“He heard every band who put them in front of him to give them a chance,” said Dayna Ghiraldi-Trach, founder of the Big Picture Media of the Public Relations Agency, who worked with Shapiro for over 15 years.

Nate Blasdell, former lead guitarist of the band that I set on fire, said he was “absolutely broken”.

“Dave was the first booking agent that I have ever worked with, and he was an important part of my music career in my late teenage years,” he said in a contribution on the social platform X. “He was really the best in the game and one of the most respected people in the industry.”

Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley attributes Shapiro to rebuild the rock band during a “low point” in her career.

“His opinion was so important to me,” said Whibyy. “He was the guy that I would go for advice.”

During her last conversation, Shapiro had flown out in his new plane to see the introduction of the sum 41 into the Canadian music Hall of Fame in March. He promised Whibley to be back.

“I and my wife, we'll fly to you,” said Whibley, Shapiro said to him. “We'll pick you up and we will be crazy somewhere for lunch.”

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Associated Press Writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report.

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