Music maker

If you’ve ever had a ditty by teenybopper Jo-Jo stuck in your head, you can thank Matt Paco.

Paco (Foreign Affairs ’95) is the gatekeeper to stardom for rising musical talent at MTV, where he is a producer for “You Hear It First.” He’s discovered the likes of rapper Kanye West, soulful British songstress Joss Stone and the alt-rock band Franz Ferdinand.  (So we can forgive him for Jo-Jo.)

“I like making people famous — who deserve it,” said Paco, noting that Jo-Jo, who sings the infectious “Leave (Get Out),” is a very hard worker.  “If I believe in you, I will fight for you.”

To find the hottest new acts, Paco goes out almost every night in New York City, where he lives, to listen to live music. If he finds someone good, he interviews the would-be star on camera, writes the script for the show, and, presto, it’s on TV.

These are skills he didn’t learn in the classroom at U.Va.  He entered college thinking he’d end up as a diplomat.

It would have made sense. Paco, 31, was born in the Philippines and spent much of his childhood in Nigeria and Liberia, where his parents worked. But a summer internship at MTV after his third year at U.Va. changed those aspirations.

“It was the most amazing experience ever,” he said.

“I went back to U.Va. thinking, ‘Oh my God, I will not be a diplomat.’”

Paco stays connected with U.Va., not just because he was president of New York’s U.Va. Club for three years but also because of an epiphany just before Christmas in 1998. He was working late when a light bulb went off.

“You know what? There has to be a gay alumni association,” he recalls thinking at the time. He spent the night writing a long letter to the Alumni Association.

The idea bore fruit. Paco’s brainchild grew to hundreds of members who raised thousands of dollars. With this money, the Serpentine Society, as the association is called, helped create and continues to support the LGBT Resource Center that’s now in Newcomb Hall.

“People who may have had a hard time at U.Va. said, ‘I can help, I can give so that these kids can have a better time,’” he said.

Paco says he loves his job. And it’s this love that keeps him sane. Between working and going out (going out is technically work), he barely sleeps.

He has no desire to appear in front of the camera, though. He enjoys the anonymity of being behind the scenes. When he was growing up in Africa, and later, Suffolk, Va., he was always in the spotlight as the only Asian in town.

“People would come up to me and say, ‘Can I touch your hair?’” he joked.

After graduation, he got a job as a buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue. But he kept thinking back to that MTV internship and how he loved the frenzied, exciting environment.

With skills learned at Saks, he was able to get in the door at VH1, as a special events planner. He scouted the best clubs and bars in New York to throw parties for the cable network. But he itched to get into production, so he took some film classes at Film/Video Arts downtown and interned there at night. “By day, J. Lo was coming to my parties.

By night, I was taking out the trash” as an intern, he said.

“My entire career in the industry has been from people giving me chances,” he said.

And now the shoe’s on the other foot: He makes his living giving other people chances.  Life-changing chances.