From Fandom to Founderdom: The Matt “Sherm” Sherman Story

Matt “Sherm” Sherman spoke to EDM Identity about Chicago Music Nexus and how his humble beginnings continue to influence his career. There’s less than three months to go before this year’s edition of Chicago Music Nexus. It’s the first year that the annual conference will take place across two days — and two venues — doubling the workload of co-founder Matt “Sherm” Sherman. “You go to [Chicago Music Nexus], and everything’s all there, ready to go,” Sherman told EDM Identity over video chat. “You just overlook all the things that go into it. I don’t expect people to understand that, but doing something this size for this many people and keeping it intimate while still expanding requires a lot of logistics.” But when the speakers take the stage, Sherman won’t let anything else distract him. He’s an artist, too, after all, and he learns just as much from the panel talks as the ticket holders who pay to be there do. “You might expect me to be on my phone or outside or not really paying attention,” Sherman said. “But I wanna sit down and listen to these panels. I want to learn.” He continued: “We literally picked these questions and topics and the panelists themselves. We don’t care abo...