The Management Rat-Race
When I was interviewing for my current job earlier this year, one of the topics of contention was that of new business, or to be more specific, new clients. In our business, that simply means BANDS, and really what we were talking about was signing on additional artists to complement our “primary” client. I like to think that I got to where I am by always thinking one or two steps ahead. I didn’t like the idea of having all of our eggs in just one basket, regardless of how big that basket was or how low maintenance. Plus, managing the career of an established, successful group didn’t sound all that exciting to me. It sounded GOOD, but not EXCITING. I wanted to find, develop, and break NEW artists. I still do want that, but that wasn’t really a priority here. I had to come to terms with that before accepting that job, which I later did.
The old man has a philosophy that I have come to believe in; it’s so much better to have one truly great band that doesn’t keep you up at night then a bunch of smaller bands that occupy all of your time and drive you nuts. For us, the one client we currently have is both large enough and low maintenance enough that they provide a nice income with little to no drama. We also don’t spend every waking second on them because truth be told, they are nice guys who are able to manage their personal lives and don’t call us up every time they want to record a show on Tivo. So, when the band is off-cycle we have some downtime to fill. The old man has his first love to keep him busy, golf. I have my first love, music. I still spend an inordinate amount of time searching for NEW music. I have always done that and will always do that, and thats why I wanted to work in this business in the first place. Anyway, once I got started here I learned that he wasn’t completely opposed to the idea of bringing other artists into the fold, but it wasn’t going to be that easy either.
The path of least resistance is to find a ready-established act that will bring in some significant income almost immediately with minimal effort. That means, no BRAND NEW acts, no “baby” bands or “buzz” bands. Again, not all that exciting at face value, although I could think of some that fit his criteria that I would be THRILLED to be managing.
We have discussed some bands that would be good for us to work with but as of yet nothing has happened. The relationship between manager and artist is basically like marriage, so you don’t just enter into that type of arrangement haphazardly.
Of course, I didn’t get where I am today by always “coloring inside the lines”, and in all honesty I think the old man knows me well enough to know that. So, in my spare time I have been looking for and even talking to some artists with the intention of possibly working together. My thinking is that I’ll figure out how to get the old man on-board after I get the bands cocked & ready. Lets look at the three that I have spoken with and discuss them a little bit.
1. The Drums
This band definitely qualifies as a “buzz band”, in my opinion they’re not even a baby band yet. As it looks right now they will probably get there soon because they are getting a nice buzz primarily on the blog scene. I found them on Hype Machine and to be honest, the music didn’t THRILL me, which ultimately is the litmus test that should tell you whether or not you are right to be in a relationship or not. I thought the music was catchy, but what really impressed me was their influences. Aside from the surf-rock vibe a la the Beach Boys, they were really into the early Factory records post-punk sound, in particular one of the more obscure bands on the label, The Wake. Of course, that band is one of my all time favorites but they remain mostly unknown, especially here in the US. So when I see a new young band from the states is so heavily influenced by them (they even go so far to state that it was one of their songs that was responsible for the band starting in the first place) I really took notice.
I went on their myspace page and they only had 2 songs up, so they were really just starting out. They also didn’t list a manager, so I thought what the heck, how many bands start-up because they love The Wake? Maybe you have to fully grasp just how obscure that band is and how much I have enjoyed their music over the years. The email I sent them was pretty simple, just saying that I work for a management company and dug their sound, and was also really into The Wake. Then I said that if they didn’t yet have any representation that I would love to chat with them about where they see themselves and where they’d like to go.
They responded, thanking me for the praise and inquiring as to what other clients we managed. So I told them, but added that we were interested in adding some new young talent to the roster (basically a lie, but what the fuck do they know. Like I said, I was looking for new talent and I was prepared to make the old man see that a new band could be worth the investment). I kept it pretty short and sweet. I could have pursued them a lot harder but like I said, I wasn’t insanely crazy about the music, I just thought it was good and had some potential.
Anyway, that was it. Never heard back from em. Being that the music didn’t thrill me I quickly forgot about it. A few months later, they are building a strong momentum and developing a solid buzz, especially in the NME who loves them (usually a good thing for US bands). I see now that they have signed on with one of the big management firms, so obviously I’m not the only one that sees some potential in them. I’ll definitely follow their career just to see how they do and what ‘might’ have been.
This one has a lot more back-story. I found these guys awhile back, either 2005 or 2006, before I even got myself into the music business. I always followed their career to the best of my ability, which was kind of difficult at times. They didn’t post that much on their myspace or on their official site. They kinda reminded me of my favorite band Deadsy (the band that gave me my first job in the biz) in that way. With WRM, I was absolutely crazy about their music, I searched for everything of theirs that I could get my hands on and still I wanted more. They passed the litmus test.
In 2007 when I was working on the road, I decided to try reaching out to them. I sent a message through myspace saying that I was going to be in town for a few days, I would love to have them come to the show as my guest, or even just get together for a beer or something. I noticed that they didn’t have a manager listed on their myspace page, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to achieve here. I was still trying to get my own footing in the business, but I had the idea even back then that I might like to manage them.
They responded. We got together to drink and talk, mostly about music. We had a good vibe, but ultimately I felt that I wasn’t ready, getting involved would only be a disservice to them because I couldn’t really provide them what they needed yet.
Fast-forward to this year, we have kept in touch all this time and I finally feel as though I am ready to work with them and can give them the service that they deserve. We talk again and the band seems very positive about working together, they even start forwarding me emails of people looking to do business with the band. There’s just one catch this time, there is another guy who is involved that is kind of the unofficial ‘acting’ manager. It turns out that the guy manages another band that is really starting to do some decent business, so I think great, we both have other big bands that we work on, and maybe together we can jam on WRM and leverage both of our assets. He was actually coming to LA on business so we could get together and talk. This was starting to sound really great to me.
We got together for Sushi and then went to see Franz at the Palladium. The talk was good, not great, but good. He was in town for his other band and so I gave him the benefit of the doubt why he wasn’t so enthusiastic about WRM; it seemed like he had a lot on his mind, but he did seem keen on working together on them with me. He told me he just needed some time to finish up some other business and go back to the UK to talk with the band.
After about a month I got sick of waiting to hear from him, so I emailed the band saying that I was ready to go to the wall for them, and it’s now or never. I got back a very earnest response from them saying that they were very excited about working with me, but unfortunately the other manager had just accepted a job with one of the big management firms that precluded him from getting into any other arrangements with anyone else. Later, I heard from the dude himself, he basically reiterated the same thing but he also added that “big mgmt. company” that he now works for is really into working on WRM, so that I could rest assured that they would be in good hands.
Now, obviously I was disappointed, but I do want whats best for them. If this other company is interested in working them, then thats great and I’m happy for them. I just don’t know if I really believe it. Time will tell I guess, but as of yet it doesn’t seem as though anything “official” has happened - there are a few things that are indicators of an “official” agreement happening and thus far I haven’t seen any of them, so we’ll see.
3. Wax / EOM
This one a buddy of mine put me onto. I’ll try to make this quick since this post is getting reallllly long. I have this friend from back home, we were buds way back when but then lost touch. Now through the miracle of social networking we have found each other and it just so happens that we both live in LA and work in the music business. What a coincidence.
So my friend asks me out to lunch and then pitches me. He has found some MC that he swears is the next eminem, maybe even BETTER than eminem. I’m skeptical, and not only that I really have no interest in hip-hop anymore. Even being involved with “urban” artists can be problematic, or so I’ve heard. A little back-story here, there was a time when hip-hop & rap were ALL I listened to. I guess technically speaking, I got my first REAL start in the music biz writing for the popular rap website, allhiphop.com. However, like Nas says, Hip-Hop is Dead, and with it went all of my interest in it.
So I’m very skeptical about this artist and even if he is good, I highly doubt that I would want to be involved. We go out to the car and my friend pops in a CD.
Hmmmmm…
ok, this is really good. Really, really good. I’m pleasantly surprised, and I didn’t want to be. It felt weird, it was like listening to the good rap music that I remember USED to exist, but hasn’t for awhile. The song was so clever, full of witty one-liners, metaphors and pun’s, all the stuff that makes rap music fun and interesting. It reminded me of Chino XL’s “No Complex” which for a long time held my #1 spot for “most clever hip-hop track”. Wow, I thought, this guy really COULD be better than eminem… not that that means he will ever touch his success, but Em was so big that even a fraction of his success would be pretty great. Maybe… just maybe…
I get the other details about this guy, and the picture just keeps getting better. He’s white, not like nerdy white or thug white, just like, a cool white guy. Very marketable. He has a good look and a good vibe. To me he seemed like a white version of Mos Def, but with more musical talent. Whats more, it isn’t just the MC that we’re talking about here, he had been working with this sick new producer that I could really see being a bonafide success on his own. Honestly, I wouldn’t make this shit up, see for yourself. On his myspace page, he has some really sick music, studio stuff & random freestyles… he even has three extremely well-done music videos. Clearly some other talented people are finding this guy and offering to donate their hard work for him because they see how talented HE is and they want to get involved at the ground floor. I know how this works, it’s exactly how I got into the music business with Deadsy.
Well, we have a meeting with him at Interscope, then afterwards we go out for a couple beers at the other room. My friend Brendon from PATD even stopped by and he did a beatbox while Wax dropped a freestyle over it. It was impressive.
Even though I think this guy is insanely talented and probably very marketable, I still couldn’t really see myself going to the wall for a hip-hop artist. Of the other two artists I mentioned, The Drums have the marketability and WRM has the musical ability. Wax has BOTH, and could very well have the best chance of all three of actually making a lot of money someday, but even so, I just couldn’t get myself on board. My friend got the message and decided that it would be best to go solo on it. No harm, no foul. I will be mad at myself though if he goes on to have great success. Maybe I can sue for some damages or something.
So, whats the point of all this? Well, the point is that it isn’t easy to get into a management relationship with an artist, even when you may want to. It is a really big deal and you need to be ABSOLUTELY sure that you can commit your time and energy for at least 3 years to them. I also wonder what the artists think about when they’re making a decision. I think usually the big companies can WOW a new band with their rosters full of both successful artists and some credible artists - thrown in for good measure, but to me I feel like in that situation you can get lost in the shuffle, and you’ll be fighting for the attention of the staff with the other bands on the roster. Basically what I’m saying is bands should go with us because we’re a small company that can properly focus on all of our clients and give them all the attention that they deserve, DUH!
There is something big that I’m leaving out of this story, that the bunch of other amazing and talented young bands that I have found while this other stuff was going on that I would have liked to work with, the only problem is THEY ALREADY HAVE MANAGEMENT! And I’m talking about unsigned, new bands here. Some with only a few songs that they have written. It seems so fucking insane to me, it’s like a band starts up and boom, immediately they have someone managing them. There are virtually no talented bands out there without management, no matter how new they are or how few songs they have. Some can even get signed based off of buzz alone and hardly any music!
Now, a lot of the smaller bands just have some random managing them, not one of the “big dog” companies. It is probably a friend or maybe someone that books a local club that sees some potential and hopes to make a little money of them. If I wanted, I could probably negotiate with their existing manager some arrangement where they would cease their working relationship, the old manager would get their “sunset” (decreasing revenues of future earnings) and I could go on with the artist, but even that seems like too much trouble for an act that hasn’t shown an ability to generate any revenue. If you do something like that you want to make absolutely sure that band is not only amazing, but could definitely make you some coin to justify your time and the hassle of dealing with the former manager. Thus far, I haven’t found that band yet, but there are a some on my radar that I may change my thinking on. We’ll see.
If you know of anyone that you think is worthy, please feel free to send me a link to their stuff and I’d be happy to check em out. Until then, I’ll take my own advice and stay hungry on the hunt for the next great band.
