Simon Hopkins

Simon's twenty years in the digital media and culture & entertainment sector have seen him work in many guises: departmental head for a leading media production company and at the BBC, music journalist, web designer and developer, talent manager, A&R man, marketeer and press officer, new media consultant and, not least, musician.

Simon founded Unthinkable's precursor Double Shot after leaving the highly successful London-based cross-platform media production company Somethin' Else, where he was Head of Interactive for two years, running the company’s twenty-strong new media production team and leading business development in the interactive sector for the entire company. While there he worked with clients as diverse as O2, Orange, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Hit40UK, the BBC, Saatchis, BBH and Channel 4.

Simon joined Somethin’ Else from the BBC, where he had been Head of Music Interactive for the organisation’s Radio (now Audio) & Music division. Simon led a thirty-strong team working on music-based websites and digital TV services (including those with a specific educational purpose). As part of the department’s core management team, Simon played a decisive part in shaping the strategic future of the department.

Simon first began working in new media in 1998, as a close associate of pioneering UK web outfit state51. During his time there, he learned the fundamentals of great interaction design and online content provision and began to explore how metadata and linked data could best inform cultural consumption all through working as a designer, client-side developer and, crucially, project manager. He was also a founder of and major contributor to the online music journal Motion (now Sonomu). 

During this period Simon developed his career as a musician, notably recording and touring with composer Paul Schütze. He also managed several composers and musicians working in various areas of underground music

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Simon worked throughout his 20s at the company he joined fresh out of school – Virgin Records (later EMI Virgin). He worked in a host of roles there, but it was the body of work released under his supervision in the latter years which is most of note: the so-called AMBT series of compilations and single artist releases which saw him working with such notable music journalists as David Toop, Kevin Martin (British_musician) and Kodwo Eshun. While still at Virgin Simon also contributed widely to The Wire magazine and was jazz reviewer for HiFi World.

Alongside his work for Unthinkable, Simon continued to work in music as a musician, composer and co-leader of the digital music label Twilight Science.  He is currently working on the second album by the art-metal project NAPE and on the debut album for his own solo project Boom Logistics.  Simon still writes, too, blogging extensively about music, art, and film (and, just occasionally, technology) on DGMFS.