Road Survival Tools of a Pro Agent: Touring Tips from The Agency Group’s David Galea

MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN: You’re not ready until you’re ready to take it on the road. With all bets officially off on all other forms of music revenue, touring is one of the most tangible avenues available for promoting a band.

Book it, Batman! David Galea of the Agency Group keeps bands on the move.

David Galea, an agent at the NYC office of the elite booking specialists The Agency Group, knows that as well as anyone. Currently, he represents the traveling interests of approximately 35 indie/major label acts including Paramore, Relient K, Dredg, and Brooke Waggoner, and it’s his job to make the most out of his artists’ time up on the stage – show by show.

Before the energetic Galea was on the payroll of The Agency Group, he was a client. As the trumpet player for ska act Edna’s Goldfish, Galea toured with the group from 1998-2000, at first booking their tours himself before their manager signed them with an agent at – you guessed it – The Agency Group named Jeremy Holgersen. Even after Galea had had enough of the road himself, however, he found that the lure of the tour was still there – it’s just that he wanted to book jaunts, instead of being on them.

Galea nabbed an internship at The Agency Group, a multinational agency with 50 agents and a combined roster of 1,000+ artists. Combining patience with natural aptitude, Galea moved up the ladder to assistant, and then on to full agent. Today, he’s got a clear passion for his field and sharp experience to share with all the bands, managers, live sound engineers, FOH mixers and labels who need to make the most of touring.

You said that part of what you do is “Plan people’s lives.” What did you mean by that?
With retail making a lot less money, and merch (merchandising) more, touring is an increasingly strategic part of a bands career. Touring used to be an accessory. You use to tour to promote the record. Now you tour to exist.

It’s important to have a vision for your live component. When you’re building a band, you need eyeballs. You need people to see you, and you can’t be too precious about the bands you tour with.

Paramore hits the road with Galea's help.

When should a band book their own tours, and when should they look for an agent?
It’s an interesting question – there’s not an exact science to it. In the indie hipster world, things tend to blow up quickly because of blog activity. Couple that with really good press: If Picthfork gives your record an extremely good review, you’re off to the races.

That said, touring is becoming more and more valuable to a band’s career, and when they come out of festivals like CMJ and SXSW a lot of those bands are being gobbled up by bookings agents as if they were real estate. I try to keep my roster manageable – with a small stable of bands I can also develop real relationships in each market with each buyer.

I think a lot of bands just want to go out there and tour, and see the country. You can go to Seattle, and 100 people might be into your band because of MySpace/Facebook. I’m very traditional: conquer your home town, conquer your region. If you’re from Milwaukee play Chicago, Des Moines, Grand Rapids, Detroit – build up followings in those places, before you leave the Midwest.

If you’re from Seattle, there’s not as many options – Portland, Eugene, but then it’s out to Boise. It’s not like the Midwest or Northeast, where a lot of cities are aggregated closely.

So that’s important. That way you build your following and your buzz, and then you get a booking agent.

That’s great advice. What else?
The other thing is perfect your show. Master your craft. If you’re a baker, you might not want to open your first bakery until you’ve perfected your confections. Why not wait until you’ve perfected your show to be out with professionals? I would stress that point more than anything else – be good. And there are a ton of bands with agents that are successful, that aren’t that good live.

What do you want to let artists, managers and/or labels know about booking shows or a tour – what are the mistakes young bands make booking themselves?
Well, I was in a young band booking myself — with Edna’s Goldfish — at one point. Obviously, you need to be smart about the geography, and don’t overextend yourself. What you’re doing is arduous: You’re not eating well or sleeping well, and you’re doing a lot of traveling. So get the most bang for your buck, and see the most in a small amount of time.

Agency Group client Dredg is all the rage on stage.

Also be smart about your health. When I was on tour I ate Taco Bell three meals a day, and my stomach is still suffering for it. If you were living at your home, you wouldn’t spend three weeks in a row partying every day, not eating well and sleeping poorly. Don’t do those things on the road either. And insure your vehicle! Because otherwise when the alternator blows, you can’t play the show.

This all sounds like a sensible approach to indie touring.
Early on it’s your health, well-being and your vehicle. Make what you’re doing, doable! Don’t say when you’re booking a tour, “This drive from Philly to Atlanta will be really shitty, but it will be a good show.” Unless the gig is just undeniable, don’t go from Philly straight to Atlanta! You may have a bad show because you slept in the van all night.

Play the places you should be playing. If you have fans in Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, play those places, and don’t hit Muncie, Indiana, just because it’s on the way.

Geography is important, in terms of building careers. Don’t just focus on major cities, play around in the suburbs, and then when you do play NYC or Los Angeles later on, they’ll come and see you. Go to where the people are.

How do you also make sure you’re doing all that as economically as possible?
Again, by touring regionally. It’s a big country. In terms of economics, once you cross that Mississippi River, the drives get loooonger. Texas is a big state, and it takes a long time to drive through it.

If you’re in school, you may only have the summer to tour. Divide a six-week tour up so it’s a bit easier to get from place to place.

Dave sez: Use the map to your advantage.

We’re both here in New York City. Why — or why isn’t — NYC a particularly good place to be involved in live music as an agent, artist, venue owner or whatever?
It’s the biggest city in the country, thus it will have the most people going to concerts, and in turns a wide range of people with a wide amount of interests. Conversely, that’s what makes it tough: the competition. There are lots of opportunities to play live and put on shows, but in a recession economy it can make things difficult.

But, hey, this is NYC! It’s greatest city in the world. If you look at what happened in Brooklyn in the last 10 years – just like how scenes emerged over the decades in Montreal, Toronto, Seattle, Indianapolis – NYC is a marquee city.

There’s always a lot of marquee value for being an NYC band — not to disparage LA — but a lot more so than being an LA band. You don’t hear about a lot of huge acts coming from there right now. It’s a different world. And people are looking for entertainment more here in NYC. In a place like San Diego, people are less interested in shows.

Thanks for a terrific introduction to the basics of booking bands. Anything else?
This sounds cheesy, but go after what you believe in. I was in a band because that’s just what I wanted to do for a couple of years. And now I’m continuing to grow – I’ve just scratched the surface in terms of my professional goals.

— David Weiss

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