Booking Agent Natasha Bent Speaks To Stereoboard About The Live Music Industry (Interview)
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Written by Rob Sleigh
In the eight or so years that The Agency Group’s Natasha Bent has been a booking agent, she has booked over 600 shows in approximately 25 countries, as well as 130 festival slots at the likes of Glastonbury, Latitude and Reading and Leeds. Natasha currently represents a roster of 25 acts, including Foals, Amy Macdonald, Noisettes, Cage the Elephant and Passion Pit. At the end of another busy year, which has seen her sign Foster the People and Darwin Deez and travel to approximately 200 shows, Natasha took some time out to chat with Stereoboard about the life of a booking agent and the future of the music industry…
How did you first find your way into the role of a booking agent?
I’ve always been interested in music. After getting a degree at uni, I went to music college for a year, wanting to be a singer. The more I learnt about the business, the less I felt that I wanted to make money out of my music. I started the same way most people in music have to start, I worked for free in every area, whether it be labels, publishing, PR. Someone said I’d make a good agent and I had no idea what that was. A manager that I’d been working with for a year introduced me to Charlie at 13 Artists. I did admin for about five months and then I became an agent. I just loved it, it felt right.
What artists were you working with at the beginning and how did you find those early experiences?
13 Artists is an incredible company to start with. They’re probably one of the top independent agencies, who’ve booked bands from Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys to Duffy and The Maccabees. When I started, I worked with Charlie on Bloc Party and Dead 60s. It was a really good place to be educated about the role of an agent. There was no better way to delve in, being given great bands from an early stage. The first band I ever signed off my own back was Noisettes. For me, being a good agent is about sustaining a live career for an artist. I think that has to be one of my top priorities for them.
With the recent decline in recorded music sales, live music has become one of the most popular forms of entertainment within the industry. What impact has that had on your job?
There’s no replacement for live music. In a way, that makes it safe, but on the flipside, it’s still tough. We don’t have the support for new bands from record labels as much because they’re not selling records. It’s very hard to break new bands at the moment.
What impact do you think that will have on the future of the music industry?
I think all of us in the music industry have to learn to adapt to change and we can’t be afraid of new ideas and new ways of working. I can only speak for the 10 years that I’ve been working in the industry, but the change has been massive. Rather than fearing change, we need to embrace it.
There have been a number of stories in the news over the past year or so about some well-known music venues closing down due to financial difficulties. How have the closures affected your role as a booking agent?
I have noticed a lot of venues closing, but at the same time, I always see a lot of new events and venues popping up. I don’t know if I can comment and say that there’s a massive decline, but I’m just wondering whether it’s a constant shift. When I started, I used to book 30-date tours for my bands. But now, because we don’t have as much tour support, we have to make the tour as tight as possible without them spending too much money. I’m sure that will have an effect on the smaller cities. I still believe that for a great touring band, the more they tour, the bigger the chances of them having a long-term career. The kids that don’t get to go to London or Manchester get so excited when you book a gig in their town that it’s sometimes one of the best gigs for bands to play.
How important, would you say, is the role of a booking agent in the early stages of a new band or artist’s career?
A lot of new bands make the mistake of thinking that, when they have an agent, everything is going to be great. Sadly, we’re not magicians. I’m only as good as my bands. The appeal for me with new bands is, not only do they write great songs that I love, but that they get out there and do it themselves. Before I pitched for Foals, they’d done a year of touring off their own back. For me, there’s nothing more attractive in a band than to see the drive they have and that they’re not waiting around. When you have a full team onboard – a manger, an agent, a label – I think that’s when the work begins. A lot of bands have the misconception that that’s when they’ve made it, but it’s not at all the case.
To most gig-goers, it isn’t very clear exactly what goes on behind the scenes when bands go on tour. What factors go into where and when to tour when these things are being planned?
It depends on the stage that the band are at. Say I take on a band that have just signed a deal and have a manager and a team onboard. I’ll speak to their manager and maybe we’ll have a team meeting. In the past, you would put a tour together to support a new record. Whereas now, you’re often putting a record out to support a tour. You’d sit down and find out from the label and the manager what the priorities are for them. Then I’d go away and put together ideas and a routing to accommodate those plans. Say that you can only do four of five shows. You just make sure that you cover all sides of the UK and, if you can afford to add more things in, then great. For new bands, what we try and do as agents is, rather than putting a lot of pressure on them to try and sell hard tickets, we’ll try and find events and small festivals to put them on so that there’s an audience there. But it depends on the agent – we all work in different ways. Personally, I’m not a fan of my bands supporting other bands, because I think that it’s very difficult to be aware of who your audience are. It’s quite disheartening for a band to play in front of an audience that aren’t there to see you. It’s about starting small and making sure that you build a loyal fanbase.
We’ve all heard stories about bands walking offstage or cancelling gigs at the last minute. What other kinds of things can go wrong on tour, from your point of view?
Anything can go wrong on tour. For me, it’s the challenge I enjoy. When it’s live, no matter how much planning you do, things will always go wrong. It’s about having a good team that can deal with it. The van might break down, the flights might get cancelled or someone might be genuinely sick. Being a good live band is about how they cope with it. There’s one band I had that recently went on tour, and everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. The van broke down, their luggage got lost… The list was endless. But what I was most proud of was that they made every show, they didn’t complain and the whole audience had no idea about what was going on. That, to me, is a great live band.
Moving away from the more difficult experiences, what do you think has been your favourite experience so far?
There are loads. I’m pretty blessed that I have a roster of bands that I absolutely love, so I’m passionate about every band I take on. There are so many things, like Foals selling-out Brixton Academy, signing Noisettes and booking my first Glastonbury slot. Going up against great agents that I aspire to and then beating them in getting an act, that can be a fun feeling too. I go to all my bands’ gigs as well, I love it. There are so many great things about being an agent, but I can also tell you about the tough side. It’s 24/7 – you’re working with managers and acts all around the world, so sometimes it feels like the work doesn’t stop. You sacrifice a lot of your time to do this job. It’s the same as being in a band – you have to have a passion for music and you have to have a passion for what you do. There are no contracts between agents and bands, so a band could leave you at any time. You should always be very close to your manager and your band and have a good relationship with them. It’s a high-stress job, but lots of fun.
Travelling to so many shows each year can’t always be easy either. What keeps you motivated at some of the more difficult times?
Summertime is tough, because I’m always at festivals. What I’ve started to do, because I miss my family and friends a lot, is to take a different friend with me to each festival. So rather than just seeing it as work, I’m also spending time with the people that I miss. I think it also comes down to genuinely loving the bands that I book because, otherwise, I wouldn’t handle this job. I’m good at giving advice, but you need to learn when it’s OK to go out and have a bit of you time. I’m no good at that, which is why I can’t wait for Christmas. It’s the one time that it all stops and everybody has a break. It’s brilliant.
For anyone considering becoming a booking agent, how would you suggest that they go about working towards such a career?
It’s a hard one to advise because I didn’t start off wanting to be an agent, I just fell into it. You need to be willing to start from the bottom and work your way up. You need to be very open-minded and come in with no expectations, even if you have a degree. Don’t expect things to fall on your plate. Don’t sit at home expecting it to come to you, just go out and grab it. There are probably certain qualities that you need like learning to be good at multi-tasking, dealing with all sorts of people, being diplomatic and extremely organised. Maybe if you feel that these are qualities that you have, then maybe it’s worth pursuing. Maybe start off doing an internship at an agency. Get in touch with agents to find out what they do. A lot of agents were promoters before, so that’s an angle to get in. Start meeting local bands and booking gigs for them. Experience it and see it it’s something that you like.
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We’ve all heard stories about bands walking offstage or cancelling gigs at the last minute. What other kinds of things can go wrong on tour, from your point of view?
