Christopher Sharp

Christopher Maxwell Sharp (born July 18, 1954) is a Canadian businessman and record producer, and a co-founder of Everest Records, which has been called "one of the world's most famous and influential mini-major record labels."

Backed by founder, Everest's business and reach grew substantially within just a few years, and Sharp went on to forge the careers of Eve Arneberg, Months of the Year, Step 5, Cynthia Nicol, Brian Poland, Orlando Squad and Alida Gomes. He has produced many seminal albums, including the Months of the Year's Lethal Case of Homesickness and Alida Gomes' 1998 debut Alida.

Early life
Sharp was born on July 18, 1954 in, , , the son of Douglas Owen Sharp, a merchant in , and Isabella Sharp, an Argentine-born Italian-Canadian heiress. The family moved to when he was 6 years old where his father opened a department store in.

Career
In 1988, Sharp met Jan Burkett, a talent scout/agent/manager who was employed by Sjoerd Broekhuizen Presents, and served as the manager for the It's the Paul Taylor Program! cast, as well as a North American manager for several English comedians such as and the.

By his early 30s, Sharp, along with Burkett and radio personality Martin Sasaki as his initial business partners, formed Everest Records in 1989 with a start-up investment of $16,000 provided by Burkett's employer. Everest's debut release was an album by political hardcore punk band Freedom Seed. Using the royalty checks and payouts from the first 35 albums they released, Sharp built Antilles Studios on his uncle's property in as a destination recording facility for his acts and other artists.

By 1993, Everest Records was mostly dealing with licensing European and Canadian albums for release in the US market, but had also picked up several American/Canadian pop, synth-pop, dance music, hip hop and new jack swing acts that had been unable to sign to the majors as all the majors were investing all their financial efforts on alternative, adult contemporary and gangsta rap acts at the time. In 1994, Everest licensed the rights to an album by a young soft rock singer from, by the name of Eve Arneberg. The album, Swan, was a smash hit, scoring two top 10 hits with "Vision" and "You and Me", and selling over four million copies worldwide, as well as giving Everest their first chance at mainstream success.

Sharp later remembered his breakthrough release:


 * "None of us wanted to release any singles from it because we didn't know if it was going to be big. Our international distribution was rather limited, so we licensed the album and a couple of our own artists out for distribution with and . The album was a big hit at a time when grunge and gangsta rap shared a stranglehold on the airwaves, and I really wanted to look after Eve, so I went everywhere with her, which took me into the mainstream of the record industry."

After the success they began to have, Sharp formed Everest International B.V., registered in and based in, to control international distribution for the Everest Music Group. Everest became one of the biggest independent labels in music and a "mini-major" label during the mid-to-late-1990s and 2000s, with a roster that included artists such as Eve Arneberg, Sprawl, Michael Holmstrom, Step 5, Cynthia Nicol, Brian Poland, Months of the Year, Orlando Squad, Alida Gomes and B'more Crew. "Bigger labels, like those under Warner, BMG, Sony, Universal or EMI, are like big box stores", Sharp remarked. "I like to think of the Everest Music Group as being a cozy "around the corner" convenience store." However, Sharp has admitted to turning down some future major names, including, who he thought wouldn't be successful since he thought "larger-than-life pop divas with cartoonish stage names were a thing of the past."