Music agent Dave Shapiro died on Thursday, May 22 in a tragic plane crash. Shapiro, a native of Delmar, near Albany, owned the plane that came crashing down into a neighborhood in San Diego.
Shapiro, 42, was a successful entrepreneur having co-founded Sound Talent Group. He was a licensed pilot and flight instructor, and owned Velocity Aviation.
Shapiro expressed a love of music from a young age and started a band with friends in middle school. The Bethlehem Central middle schoolers started off playing small gigs at birthday parties and cafes and within five years of its conception, the band had started booking shows in Albany and New York City.
One of the venues that the band, Count The Stars frequented was Valentines in Albany.
“Dave had this trick where he’d put lighter fluid on his cymbals and light it on fire,” bandmate Chris Kasarjian said. “When he hit it, a fireball would explode in the air.”
In a memorable NYC performance, with a label representative in the audience, Kasarjian said that lighter fluid had dripped onto the stage and their tour manager had to run over to put out the spreading fire.
Luckily, the label representative thought it was “the funniest thing” he’d ever seen. Count The Stars not only got signed to Victory Records after that performance, but they also stopped pulling the fiery cymbals trick.
The Albany-area band would go on to tour with bands including Fall Out Boy and Plain White T’s.
Shapiro’s former Count The Stars bandmates remember him as ambitious, determined, and a leader for the band. To fund the band in its early stages, Shapiro had worked at the Glenmont Price Chopper and as a delivery driver for My Place & Company in Delmar.
Shapiro continued pursuing music on the business side of things after his band broke up. At first, he worked as an independent agent and then eventually joined The Agency Group.
Shapiro was the founder of Velocity Records and co-founder of Sound Talent Group.
Clients of Shapiro’s included Pierce The Veil, Hanson, and Vanessa Carlton. He is recognized as a pillar in the music industry.
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