Inside Coachella: A Booking Agent’s Perspective

Next time you’re in the center of a music festival like Coachella, take a careful look around – there just may be Agents in your midst.

If you see these people at Coachella, grab their card! Natasha Bent (center, in hat) flanked by live booking colleagues at the festival.

Not the menacing Matrix kind with wires sticking into their ears, but booking agents. The people who book international touring acts are renowned for their long hours negotiating on the phone and calculating mileage on maps. But the fact is that these specialized pros have to catch their artists live as often as possible.

For Natasha Bent, an agent for eight years and a Vice President at multinational powerhouse booking firm The Agency Group (TAG), Coachella is a perfect excuse for her to jet from her London office and go out into the field. And she had plenty of company – her bands Passion Pit and Foals were joined by 20+ TAG artists on Coachella’s bill this year, including Dinosaur Jr, Father John Misty, Gaslight Anthem, Lee Scratch Perry, Metric, Rodriguez, Social Distortion, Stars, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Selector and Tegan and Sara.

With another weekend of Coachella to go, we got Bent’s perspective on why agents like her make sure to exit the office and descend on the live scene. Read on for our Q&A:

What would you say is the common thread between all of the artists you currently represent?

I book different genres of acts / music but there are indeed similarities such as: the artists being passionate about what they do, the artists knowing that it takes hard work, that are proactive early on and of course extremely talented.

Ultimately they all write music that I absolutely love and are great live.

What are the most significant ways that the role of an agent has evolved in that time? How would you say there’s both greater opportunity, but also greater challenges?

I can only talk about the past 10 years in which I have been an Agent, but I do feel a bigger responsibility as an Agent with acts. With the music industry facing new challenges, resulting in — for example — fewer album sales, the pressure on earning money is directed more to the live sector.

So it’s our job, as Agents to work on delivering a long-term and financially viable career for our Artists. That has always been the ethos of working with acts, but we seem to be more at the forefront. Its almost as if, in the past, tours were booked to coincide/support an album release, but now releases are done to coincide with touring.

That’s an important reversal! On that note, how do you think the role of festivals has changed in executing an artist’s touring strategy?

I am not sure if the role of the festivals have changed in executing an artist’s touring strategy — but perhaps it’s more down to what stage the artist is at in their career.

Bent’s band Passion Pit on the desert stage.

Strategy is certainly key, when booking, something that The Agency Group are incredibly good at. Early on in an artist’s career, you have to look at whether the festival makes sense, when that artist isn’t yet known. If your album isn’t out until the end of the year, you also have to consider whether its better playing the festivals the following summer — which is more often the case — because you can’t play the same festival two years in a row usually.

One change I have noticed though is that festivals – some — aren’t selling as well/selling out instantly. There are obvious festivals that do such as Glastonbury/Coachella, but we have also seen a lot of festivals no longer doing business like they used to.

Because of this, it’s even more important to consider what your artist is doing: You have to question whether an artist can do headline touring AND festivals in one album cycle campaign/side-by-side, or is it better to just headline tour/just do festivals.

With the lack of “new” acts being given the headline spots at festivals, it seems to be the same acts again and again, and is that perhaps a change in why sales aren’t as good as previous. That’s why I’m super proud that Foals are headlining/closing Latitude festival (UK). It’s a bold statement, and one that Foals are going to deliver — and that the fans are excited about.

There were over 20 TAG artists at Coachella this year. Why do you and the other agents of The Agency Group make sure to watch your band’s live performances at Coachella – how do you work as a team while you’re there?

Firstly, there was a great number of Agency Group Agents/staff at Coachella, a fantastic presence. We, as a company, have a good relationship, not only with our artists and managers, but with each other too.

So it’s very easy for us all to be together, to work together and go to each other’s artists Coachella sets. It’s a “human” business we are in, and artists will love that we are there to support them. As an Agent too, I think it’s important to feel supported by your company, something I am proud to say The Agency Group are great at.

When you watched your own artists, Passion Pit, and Foals play, what were you watching for in their performance?

There is nothing I am particularly watching for. But there is no better feeling, on putting in the hard work months and months in advance, to then go to the show and see the results of that work — particularly at festivals when you have pushed for the greatest / best slot  and opportunity for your artist.

Foals performing in the Gobi Tent.

Dave Kaplan at Agency Group New York office booked Foals’ Coachella set, so it was also nice for me to go to Coachella as a fan, and truly enjoy. It’s not uncommon to see me singing at the top of my voice at the front — there is nothing better than seeing a band you have worked closely with, and built over the years, to have a fantastic show and to enjoy themselves.

What are the kinds of things that the agent and artist might discuss after the show – how do you seize on this opportunity to communicate face-to-face?

There is no set thing spoken about — every artist and Agent is different.

Personally, I like to be someone positive to be around, particularly in times of stress at festivals. Before an act goes on stage, there isn’t time for much distraction/discussion, apart from a quick “have a great show!”

So it’s usually when the artist has finished their set, they feel more relaxed, so you can sit down and chat. Some artists will want to speak about how their set could have been better, what was great/what wasn’t. Some artists just come off stage and want to socialize. You have to be ready for all occasions.

You said that the professional networking that goes on at festivals is also important to you. Can you elaborate on that point?

Absolutely. At a festival such as Coachella, there are many people, worldwide, from the music industry that go including managers, artists, and promoters. You aren’t often in a place that has so many people you work with.

Not only that, but you are with your colleagues who can then introduce you to people they work with. Having so many people from The Agency Group down, made networking great at Coachella. It’s always good to “put a face to the name,” for someone not to just be an email address.

Please characterize the artistic range of Agency Group artists that were at Coachella this year. What does that say both about the festival itself, and about the direction your own company is taking right now?

Coachella’s multi-genre approach is a boon for booking agents.

It’s great to have a festival that is open to booking all genres of music.

You can see from the list of Agency Group acts playing, that we book all genres of acts, and successfully. From our great indie acts Foals/Passion Pit/Metric to our incredible long term acts, such as Rodriquez, to hip hop, such as Danny Brown, to rock such as Dinosaur Jr/Social Distortion.

As a worldwide company with offices in London/Malmo/Toronto/LA/New York, we have over 1,000 artists that we represent. Not only in music, but we have a speakers and literary department too.  We truly are a worldwide company that embraces the entrepreneur in us, and our acts.

Lastly, you mentioned to me that you appreciate being in a job where you can “completely be yourself”. Why is that important for professionals, whether they’re agents, artists, or any other occupation for that matter?

When I first became an Agent, I was given the “low down” on what an Agent “should be.” To me, that just didn’t sit right, but I promised myself that day, if I had to change who I was to be an Agent, that it wouldn’t be for me.

I feel — and I hope my family/friends and colleagues agree — that by actually being myself, and working to the best of my ability, being totally open and honest, is actually what has helped me build a great roster of acts like Foals, Cage The Elephant, Foster The People, Amy Macdonald, First Aid Kit, Gotye, and Passion Pit for example. They seem to like the way I work.

To me, life is short, and I am so incredibly blessed to have found a job I love, that I believe in, working for a company I love, with acts I’m a fan of and believe in, and managers I respect and enjoy working with. And I’m constantly learning more.

— David Weiss

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