Last year we sat down with Lee Woolhead for The Indie Files to discuss how he got into artist management and what his advice would be for those that want to work in the music industry, this is what he said...
Meet Lee Woolhead the artist manager of North East band Bear Park who have recently performed at North Shield's Coastal Crawl and are set to perform at festivals such as Coast Fest and Hardwick festival throughout the summer. I sat down with him to speak about how he got into artist management and what that entails for up and coming artist managers.
Lee starts the interview by mentioning that he never wanted to work in music management, and how it all happened quite bizarelly. "I'll be totally honest I never really wanted to get into music management, it all happened by accident, although I'm not the first in my family to be an artist manager. I've put on shows since I was a teenager but moving to the North East I was out of the loop with it all, until a friend of mine told me about his band and an opportunity that he could hire the cluny free of charge but wouldn't know how to put a show on, so I said I would.
Throughout the day of an artist manager can consit of a lot of different scheldues that needs done which Lee mentions. "So day to day artist management involves keeping an artist in check, sorting shows, promoting them at any given opportunity, making sure all avenues are covered from live shows to merchandise. When your just starting out as an artist the team is me and the act, we have to be the hype man, the Press person, the merchandise manager, the Personal assistant."
Lee goes on to talk about how the North East music scene is becoming more and more popular and the talent is becoming more unreal."I know it gets said alot but honestly there is no music scene like the north east. The talent is absolutely unreal and the support for local venues and businesses is great too, it's been helped by the likes of Sam Fender making it big, now everyone doesn't want to miss the next big thing.
"It's better to be upfront and at least you know where you all stand."
Lee mentions how if you want to get into artist management you need to expect to not make any money and to just give it a go."Give it ago! Start by helping a friend that you know and trust. Sort their merch out, ask them what they need and try to help out wherever you can. Don't expect to make any money as you won't for a long time."
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