MEET THE TEAM
James Gilley
President & Sr. Executive Producer
Meet James. His passion for making things happen is infectious. 100% of his focus is on achieving impactful results for his artists and the businesses that he supports. James has a stay-in-the-pocket attitude that brings
positive drive in networking, collaborating, organizing and managing projects. His one-on-one interactions with clients and key business partners are paramount to delivering results. He is an engaged leader-advisor on growth strategies, contract negotiation, partner relationships and event planning, He is highly resourceful and focused on artist development, film production and commercial business ProMotion. He has strong ties in the music and film production industries and has performed with many bands at live events and studio sessions.
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ProMotion is his dream and it has become a driving force to expand the reach for many. ProMotion’s success has been built with the help of many talented and dedicated professionals. Take a minute and read the short clips about each member of the ProMotion Team.
James has a degree in Business Management and a second degree in Marketing and Computer Technology.
Josh Martin
Artist Development & Operations Leader
Josh is an experienced and focused leader who is involved in every aspect of operations and is driven to make sure everything happens as promised. He is "hands-on" engaged in A/V including artist recordings, music videos and studio / live session productions. He also manages content creation for social media, web sites, electronic press kits, commercials and works on artist, venue and commercial contracts. In addition, he is involved in event coordination, bookings, plus regional radio and tv channel artist interviews. Josh is a host on ProMotion's "LIVE from Market Square" conducting interviews of artists, actors, professional athletes and other notable individuals.
Josh has a broad range of experience – including working as an On-Air Radio Host for WNFZ 94.3, a Programming Director for 90.3 WUTK, an engineering assistant with Sony Music in Nashville, and as a Live Sound Producer and Engineer for Jupiter Entertainment. He hosted the “Local Show” on 94Z WNFZ showcasing local talent, and he was the creator of WUTK’s “Top of the Rock.”
He has a degree in Journalism and Electronic Media and the second degree in Audio Engineering.
Nate Wiles
A/V Production & Creative Media Leader
Nate and James have been close friends for many years, playing multiple bands together and in collaborating on writing songs. Nate leads ProMotion Audio Visual and Multi-Media productions including music videos, live sessions, live streams, pod casting, graphic design, social media and commercials for business clients. He has extensive experience in digital mixing and mastering of audio recordings and video integration to support cinematic video productions.
Nate is a hard driving "highly creative" perfectionist who makes sure that client’s objectives are instilled at the highest level in all audiovisual, social and digital media
productions. He has extensive knowledge of creative digital media graphic design platforms programs such as Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, After Effects, Davinci Resolve, Blender, and many others. He has also been heavily involved in audio production with Digital Audio Workstations including Logic Pro X, Ableton Live, and other music production softwares. His broad range of technical knowledge makes him ProMotion’s GO-TO for Multimedia Productions and all things audio visual. Nate is Google Cerfified in Marketing and Analytics.
Craig Jones
Audio Production and Session Musician
CJ is a highly capable audio engineer with special expertise in blending analog and digital feeds to produce exceptional recordings for ProMotion Artists. He specializes in guitar, dobro, slide, banjo, bass, vocals, keyboards and song writing. Over the past 40 years, CJ has performed with Edgar Winter, Elton John, Tori Amos, Lauren Woods, Leif Garrett, Susan Anton, Luis Cardenas, House of Lords, Renegade and many others. He worked as a session musician in both LA and Nashville. CJ is a valued team member in the ProMotion audio production machine.
Matthew Munsey
Audio Production and Session Musician
Matt is a GRAMMY nominated producer/engineer with expertise in both digital and analog recording and mix and mastering for ProMotion Artists. He is a master on the mandolin and has connections to many other highly skilled musicians to support our ProMotion artist’s audio productions. He is the leader of the Monroeville band whose debut album was nominated for Southern and Bluegrass Album of the year. Matt has honed his producing chops and helps our artists compose and produce top shelf recordings. Matt also helps with building client relationships.
Ben Qualls
Audio Production and Session Musician
Ben has a 25 year history in the music industry specializing in both analog and digital audio recording and mix and mastering for ProMotion artists. He also supports ProMotion’s “Live from Market Square”, Jon Mason’s “All Star Jam” livestreams, ProMotion’s Artist Live Sessions and video productions. He previously worked for Meat and Teeth Productions and Model City Records. He was the lead guitarist and song writer for Helio a national touring band, and for the Dirty Johns and the Billy Widgets.
Lee Zimmerman
Press and Publications
Lee is a freelance music writer who supports ProMotion with artist interviews and the “Live From Market Square” series. His work has appeared on Billboard, American Songwriter, Stories Beyond the Music, Goldmine, Country Standard Time, Performing Songwriter and many other outlets. He has interviewed Carlos Santana, Mick Fleetwood, Nancy Wilson, Suzi Quatro, John Fogerty, Joan Armatrading, Moody Blues and the Black Crowes. Check out Lee’s book Americana Music: Voices, Visionaries & Pioneers of an Honest Sound.
Amy Maxwell
Business and Marketing Coordinator
Amy is a key member of the ProMotion team. Her focus in on business strategies and the development of venue and artist contracts and client service packages. Having previously owned three successful venues herself, Amy takes a leadership role in working with venues for lining up events, artist bookings, social media ad support, development of commercials and digital media advertising. She also takes the lead with corporate sponsorships and liquor and beer promotions. Amy holds both an Undergraduate and a Masters degree in Marketing and has earned an MBA.
Jaymes Belk
Business and Marketing Coordinator
JJ works with the ProMotion team on business strategies, and client and music industry relationships. He also assists with “live” productions providing support with audio and videography. His focus is to develop relationships with artists, venues and commercial accounts. He also is instrumental in leading ProMotion and Nocturnal coproduced venue events and festivals, including the Maypop Music and Arts Festival, the Of the Werewolves Music and Arts Festival and other festivals. He has a degree in Audio Engineering and ran live sound productions at Dollywood, the Listening room and many other venues.
Katie Murphy
Booking Agent
Mandy Wilson
Audio Engineer / Session Artist
Mandy has been a Knoxville performing artist for 12 years and understands the needs and desires artists have for their work. Having played for rock, country, metal, and pop/contemporary bands around the area, Mandy is always ready to help get a project off the ground. Also an available guitarist/bassist for recording.
Katie is a booking agent at ProMotion, assisting in booking bands on our roster. She was in the music business program at University of Georgia. She worked at New Earth Music Hall as the head promoter, as well as a booking agent assistant at Nimbleslick in Athens, GA. She also worked for Tsunami Marketing and Publicity in Denver, CO doing PR for Tipper, Railroad Earth, Boombox, The Heavy Pets, EOTO and ComicCon to name a few. Katie graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Journalism and Media Communication and Business Administration.
Jim Johnson
“ProMotion Live from Series” Host
Jim is one of ProMotion’s on-air “LIVE! from Market Square” and “LIVE! from the Smokies” host. In this role, he conducts interviews of actors, comedians and musicians. He also spearheads the showing of upcoming documentary and other films. In addition, he also has works closely with James on-site client business location interviews and in joint business projects. Jim is a highly valued relationship of ProMotion and works closely with James on a number of business ventures. He owns A Life of Quality Productions and Jim Johnson Productions.
Clay Defoor
Video Productions
Clay is a skilled camera and drone operator. He has been instrumental in the production of many music videos, live sessions and live streams as well as venue, wedding and festival filming for ProMotion. He has a broad knowledge of dslr and cinema camera operations and works on music video production in premiere and other video production software. Clay also is a skilled photographer and drone operator supporting music video productions and artist and wedding photography and videography. He has a degree in Communications and many years of experience as a camera operator.
Jack Waite
Lighting Wizard
Jack is a key player on the ProMotion team. He has set up all lighting operation at ProMotion studios and including the designing, mapping, routing, and set-up and debugging of all integrated software and touch screen operations. He has extensive experience with ESPN in fiber optics and data systems in support of college and professional sports. He has set up and runs lighting for many concerts, indoor venues and festivals. He has worked for the International, the civic auditorium with large acts, Bijou, SVS, Concourse and many theatres and venues.
Sam Travis
Social Media
Sam takes the lead for ProMotion with social media distribution on Facebook, Instagram and twitter. He also supports graphic design conceptual development. He has eight years of experience with social media distribution for commercial businesses. He also is a performing artist, bass player who won the battle of bands contest at NAMM in Nashville. This lead him on to performing Internationally on tour in tour in Germany for Ergoweplay. Sam is available as a sessions musician for ProMoton Artists.
Jordan Lignon
Video Productions
Jordon assists ProMotion with both videography and drone productions. He has worked on several ProMotiion artist music videos, live performances, studio sessions, weddings and drone filming of music festivals. He has a FAA Part 107 license drone operator license and an aerial surveying/mapping and modeling certification. He is the founder of Northern Aerial Services and has supported projects with Fox43 and WUTK. He is finishing up his undergraduate degree now and also supports ProMotion with film editing.
Curtis Jordan
DJ "Smooth" & Video Production
Curtis serves in multiple roles on the ProMotion Team. He provides disc jockey services for venues, weddings, corporate events, and celebration parties. He also runs digital and analog sound for live artist performances and has assisted in filming some of the ProMotion Artist live sessions and venue performances. Curtis also assists with building business relationships with venues and artists. He has experience with many of the Adobe content creation software programs. He is working on his degree in media productions and has experience in content creation and video editing.
Julia Pope
Photography
Over the years, Julia has gotten personally acquainted with a lot of people around the country in the music business, such as avid fans, publicists and other concert photographers, and musicians of a wide variety of genres. An 8-week, non-credit course at the University of Tennessee in digital photography lit the fire for her enthusiasm about and talent for concert photography. She is a tax specialist and is experienced in Lightroom and Photoshop.
Reilly Chisholm
Production Lead and Business Manager
Reilly works to connect the many sides of the music and entertainment industry to the heart of ProMotion. Her focus is not only on developing new collaborations with artists, bands and event venues, but also expanding into marketing and advertising for businesses of all industries. With an educational and practical background in Advertising, Communications, and Music, she integrates these passions here. In addition to this work, Reilly does acting for theatre and film, singing, music arranging, and teaches voice lessons.
R.I.P. Jim Kuester
Marketing & Booking
Jim worked with ProMotion to support regional bookings of artist and provided linkage to artists for development services. These services typically included production of electronic press kits and live session performances. Jim had a long career going back to the 1980’s supporting artists like The Boys, Meatloaf and many others. He previously worked for Stardog providing artist bookings, and Star Bound Entertainment and Jason Productions provided staging, rigging, lighting and roadie services for county fairs, venues and concerts. Rest In Peace. Your due diligence lives on through ProMotion
FOCUSED ON BUILDING YOUR BRAND
ENDORSMENTS
Andrew
35 North
"The ProMotion team has been more than amazing since utilizing their services. Not only have we seen an increase in demand for live music, but the acts James sets up for us are top notch and always provide a wonderful show. The marketing he puts alongside each act have people coming in days before asking about it. James and his ProMotion team is definitely the way to go to handle your marketing and entertainment needs."
Ricky Armentrout
Pucketts
"Promotion has really helped us tap into the local talent in the Pigeon Forge area. The crew is very professional and easy to work with, highly recommended!"
Bobby
Just One More Bar and Grill
"Promotion is a great concept for helping out restaurants and bar owners. It takes out the hassle of the hiring entertainment. Just let them know what your looking for and they provide the rest. Great people to work with always."
Mandy Thomas
Dragon City
"Being new to the restaurant and entertainment industry has so many struggles. ProMotion was a breath of fresh air. They completely took over and made it so easy to provide talent. They're super flexible with my seasons and my last min requests. Thanks ProMotion!"