This year, one of the key guests for Face the Music is American booking agent Marshall Betts, who works for the prestigious Windish Agency out of New York. Speaking from the Big Apple, he agrees “pressing the flesh” is absolutely vital, and networking is the major value of conferences such as this.
“Personal relationships, getting to meet people face-to-face [are so important],” he emphasises. “Email is so easy to be dismissive [on], and it’s hard to avoid someone when they’re right there and standing in front of you. The relationships that you get from these conferences, whether it be Face the Music or South By Southwest or CMJ, are so much more valuable.
“Even though, at the end, you meet a ton of people and you’re not going to remember all of them, or at least go on to be best friends or something like that, but I do think it’s very valuable that way. From an artist’s perspective, if you have a room full of a bunch of taste-makers, these could be the people that help you sell out venues.”
This will be Betts’ first trip to Melbourne in any capacity, and he’s very much looking forward to immersing himself in one of the world’s great musical cities.
“I’ve never been to Melbourne, and from what I’ve been told, the scene there is up my alley in terms of indie rock and things like that. A key to being an agent is finding people early, discovering them early, and I think this could be pivotal in that.
“If I can find some bands down there, or maybe some managers that I think have some great tastes, I’m just really looking forward to it.”
Part of the attraction to Australia and Melbourne for him is one artist he managed to discover relatively early: Melbourne-based indie pop/rock, singer/songwriter and guitarist Courtney Barnett, whose career’s been on a very steady upwards path in recent times.
“I was with her last night,” he enthuses. “She played a 1500 capacity room and it sold-out here. She’s doing really well, and she’s such a great person too, I really get along with her well.”
So who’re some of the hardest and easiest artists he’s worked with? “You know I can’t tell you that,” he laughs. “Are you trying to pull a fast one on me?
“Both are Courtney Barnett,” he laughs uproariously again. “No, I’m just kidding.”
Betts continues to be busy for the rest of this year and moving into 2015, including some tours in Australia. “I’ve got tours going on all over the world,” he states. “I’ve actually got Cibo Matto coming through Australia in a week, and Courtney’s doing the Laneway Tour, and I’ve got a few other bands doing that. But overall, I’m just booking tours and festivals all over the world.” Tough life.
BY ROD WHITFIELD
