Department of Touring

This is a truism I learned from Jonathan Poneman of Sub Pop Records. This guy has been round the block a few times and is like a wise old druid. I remember he said this to me after I had a whole bunch of excellent booking agents interested in the band I was managing…. And probably because the word had got round about their interest – a very important booking agent said she would throw her hat into the ring. Until this time she had never shown particular interest in booking the band… but now I was torn – to go with one of these really great people who were emailing me, phoning and trying to fly across states to see me or go with this Big wig. Before I had even finished explaining it to Poneman – he said ‘O, go where the enthusiasm is – everytime.’ He was so right and I have since been involved with so many situations like that – the enthusiastic people versus the fat cats! The fat cats sometimes just want to sign everything that moves if they hear it’s hot – and after that you can never get them to return your call – but the enthusiastic people want to work for you.

This is also relevant if you have a friend who is really super keen to help your band out – or a well connected but perhaps a not-so-approachable manager or agent around town who shows the odd interest here and there – but never comes up with the goods – go with the enthusiastic friend. Same goes with the enthusiastic versus what is cool – and this of course happens a lot in our scene; a label might be going through its cool stage, or a publicist round town might be in with the cool crowd – but what is going to help you is the square who actually does the work! And with this I can segue into sharing a few of my own former insecurities. Although I have worked in the music business my whole career, I often felt quite out of place, being sober and not dressing alternatively etc. I was never going to be the cool looking band manager at a party and also I don’t know everything about every band that ever existed. I was pleasantly surprised once I got out of New Zealand and was on the road touring to discover many people like myself! I came to learn that all the successful agents, tour managers, promoters etc were square too and it dawned on me that I was in fact exactly the right kind of person for my job – no one wants to deal with a manager who is snorting drugs up their nose – integrity and reliability is what is going to help get your band to the next level!

This article ran as part of a larger article in the Oct/Nov 2008 issue of New Zealand Musician magazine.