Sell Out.

I’m not old enough to retire, but retirement ages come before your time in the entertainment industry.  Hell, most people never even make it in the music business (which is of course, relative).  I, however, have been on the business side of allthingsconsidered for going on 12 years now.  This is about the point where my Dad would chime in, “My aching back!” and he’s not entirely wrong.  Maybe I should be happy my pending retirement from Sony Music, or whatever it may be…

I define my start as most people should and that’s by my first dollar which came with my Sweet 16th birthday.  That glorious day was surrounded by a number of events and challenges – meeting with some kid who wanted me to be the booking agent and promotions manager for a charity event and Provo High School (which I didn’t even attend), getting contact information for bass player and sound guy Chad Bolton who gave me just enough information on booking venues that I walked the walk and did the talk for what would become my 16th birthday party in less than 8 days, and of course… having my first Red Bull which probably resulted in half of my success in actually pulling off this event at the time.  Five bands and 285 people later in just over a week of booking and promotions, the venue was far over capacity and all money was made.  My cut?  $20.  After going to Denny’s with Chad?  $0.  I couldn’t even pay my Mom back for having my hair dyed for my birthday.  I knew perfectly well that 285 people equated to nearly $1,500 in door sales not to mention what the bands had made individually in merch sales.  $20 was not a promoters fee, it was the fee of a 16 year old girl getting gipped.  From then on, shows were anything but a party – I booked the bands, I booked the sound, and I booked the venues.  I ran the back door.  I ran the front door and I knew exactly where the money was going at the end of the night.  My bands were paid more than any other shows in the valley.  My sound engineers were paid and I went home with hundreds at the end of the night, not $20.  Welcome to “This Business of Music” 101.

My Mom and I fought over the car keys like a typical 16 year old girl.  I stranded her at home to work the shows I had booked.  She didn’t believe that what I was doing was healthy, right or good for me.  To make up for it, I returned the car to her each time with a full tank of gas and kept my grades up at school.  By second semester I had dropped off the swim team to earn co-op/internship credit (something only for Seniors despite the fact that I was a Sophomore) for booking shows and spending time at the Recording Studio.  I received more credit that semester for “working” than I would have being in any class.  My parents still didn’t approve.

As soon as the school year was complete, we moved to Texas and my life was over as far as I had known it.  There was nothing about the Texas “scene” that I could get into. Every club was 18 or 21+ and I was barely 16 years old.  My friend Aaron snuck me into clubs in Deep Ellum at the time, but even then most of them were dance related.  The entire place was a bar scene.  This was not my scene.  I didn’t want to be in a band.  I was done playing instruments.  I was bitter enough to quit speaking for weeks as my parents and I lived in a cramped hotel room together waiting for our home to be built.

I tried managing a band out of Florida that I met on vacation.  I went to a few good shows – namely Glassjaw opening for Deftones at the Bronco Bowl in Dallas.  I longed for some great connection until my Mom passed away rather quickly, that New Year’s Eve.  At that point I simply wanted a nostalgic connection – anyone who knew where I was coming from, who knew her, who knew what it use to be like.  The night of her funeral I went back to the recording studio I use to hang at as a sophomore in high school where to my surprise the most influential local band of my short lived “high school career” happened to be recording their album and walked outside.  In that moment I received so many of the greatest and most needed hugs, one most particular who understood what it was like to lose your parent as a teenager.  Moments and music like that have never let me forget why I love what I do.  Despite so much drama, rumors, and what have you, a real moment can define a lifetime because music creates family when people are really in it for the music and not for any other self-serving reason.

With that strength and the love of music to live off of, I went on with my life to move back to Utah about a year later where I became involved in the scene again.  I got to know the bands.  When I lost my job as a computer programmer I invested in a small, crappy venue called The Jamshed as a partner where I booked bands 7 days a week until my partner tried to screw me over for my contacts.  He literally tried to wage war and ruin my name.  Thankfully these wars against me had already been tried and fans and bands alike were not having it, very few people sided with him and I was able to move on to a venue much nicer and about 5 times the size to book bands 5 nights a week called Johnny B’s.  I booked bands there for about 9 months before I made a promise to Corey Fox at about 3am one night that I would not compete with Velour and that instead, I would side with him.  At the time, I focused on being a music journalist for Next X News and NowOnTour.com.  I also focused on doing the Public Relations for Velour Live Music Gallery and other music related projects and sending press releases to all local papers for various events.

That winter I was a judge for Velour’s semi-annual battle of the bands as I have been most every year following.  This introduced me to a local director of film where I spent the spring filming and co-producing a music video for I Am The Ocean.  My tenure as a venue owner and travel led me to look into my future with film and/or music which is how I became the College Marketing Representative for Sony Music Entertainment and have been for the last 4 1/2 years now.

In addition to these experiences, I have been a band manager and tour manager for Skies Over Berlin where I lived and toured with the band in 2004 and 2005.  I have consulted on a number of band projects, electronic press kits, traditional press kits, written bios, helped with websites, booked the occasional venue, designed merchandise, designed sites, managed all areas of social networking, etc…. I have done so many things in so many years and yet somehow when you get all the way up there to a label, to “the top” and then your reign is over, when it is time to let go where do you go from here?  Starbucks?  It’s like getting a divorce when only one of you is unhappy.  All I can say is this is my time to grow.  This is my time to figure out something bigger and better.  This is my time to keep banging my head against the wall until someone listens.  I didn’t get a brilliant collection of degrees and certifications combined with the perfect resume of experience just to paper-mache  it as a Christmas ornament.

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Filed under: Daily Life, Rock the Caz*ba, band management, music business, my first dollar, retirement age