MBW’s World’s Biggest Managers sequence profiles the most effective artist managers within the international enterprise. Within the final of 2023’s profiles, we meet Drew Simmons, supervisor of Noah Kahan, the largest breakthrough artist of the final 12 months. World’s Biggest Managers is supported by Centtrip, a specialist in clever treasury, funds and overseas alternate – created with the music business and its wants in thoughts.
When Drew Simmons first discovered Noah Kahan on SoundCloud, he was satisfied he’d found somebody particular. Just one drawback: the sensation was not mutual.
“Noah actually didn’t have any idea of what the music business was,” laughs Simmons. “He didn’t assume I used to be actual – he thought I used to be catfishing him.”
So, Simmons drove a whole lot of miles to Kahan’s rural Vermont residence so as to persuade the musician that, not solely was he actual, however that he was the supervisor to assist the nascent singer-songwriter tackle the world.
The truth that, proper now, Kahan is the most popular breakthrough act on the planet exhibits that Simmons succeeded in his mission. However, though there was lower than a yr between Kahan supporting Amos Lee at Pink Rocks, and promoting out the storied venue in his personal proper in July, this was no in a single day viral success. Kahan’s rise has been an old school story of artist improvement, albeit one through which he reversed the standard alternative-to-pop route of journey.
As a result of Kahan really began his recording profession making mainstream pop music, his apparent songwriting prowess made him a very good match for collaborations with high hitmakers corresponding to Joel Little and Julia Michaels.
He had some success too. Damage Someone was massive in Australia in 2018 (“We joked about how inconvenient it was for a child from Vermont to have his first hit on the opposite facet of the world,” laughs Simmons. “However he realized how one can journey, tour and go do it”). Nevertheless it wasn’t till Kahan went for a radical alt-folk overhaul of his sound on 2022’s Stick Season album that issues actually began shifting.
Since then, the title observe has grow to be a worldwide smash, gone platinum and been lined by Olivia Rodrigo and Maisie Peters; the album has gone Prime 10 on either side of the Atlantic; he’s collaborated with everybody from Submit Malone to Zach Bryan to Kacey Musgraves; he’s bought 600,000 tickets for his North American tour; and he’s even raised $2 million for his personal psychological well being initiative, The Busyhead Venture.
No marvel Kahan is up for each the 2024 Finest New Artist Grammy and Pollstar’s New Headliner of the Yr prize.
“It’s the dream mixture of economic success and inventive respect from the group,” says Simmons. “Which means the world to Noah.”
Simmons’ personal success has additionally been of the slowburn selection. Rising up an obsessive music fan in Buffalo, New York, he had no apparent approach into the music business till he realized singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco ran her personal Righteous Babe operation out of the town. He blagged an internship there after which, when at Northeastern College in Boston, he labored safety, did manufacturing work and anything that might get him into gigs without spending a dime.
He graduated to managing native artists from his dorm room after which took a job at Mark Kates’ Fenway Recordings administration firm, serving to out with the likes of Doves, Mission Of Burma and The Cribs.
Simmons aspired to maneuver to New York and his buddy Steve Bursky – who’d additionally lower his administration enamel from a college dorm room – instructed him that James Brown’s administration staff (with whom Bursky shared an workplace) have been in search of somebody.
Simmons spent 18 months working for the Godfather of Soul till Brown handed away in 2006, then joined Pink Gentle Administration on his personal mission to fill the emptiness for hardest-working man in showbiz. As Coran Capshaw constructed his empire, Simmons helped steer rockers OAR to large stay success earlier than discovering, signing and breaking one other rock band, Younger The Big.
In 2011, Simmons turned a accomplice in Bursky’s Foundations Music (Brian Winton and Max Gredinger are additionally companions), a administration firm which additionally has boutique publishing and masters operations. He carried on managing Younger The Big till 2023 and, in addition to Kahan, now takes care of COIN, Dayglow (with co-manager Ryan Langlois) and writer-producers Gabe Simon (who produced Stick Season and has labored with the likes of Dua Lipa and Lana Del Rey) and PVRIS producer Carrie Okay (with co-manager Emily Harlan).
“My mentality is that the artist must be fulfilled. Now we have to attempt to discover essentially the most rewarding path for his or her profession as potential.”
Foundations – whose roster additionally contains Foy Vance, Laufey and Samia – now has 20 employees between its New York and Nashville workplaces and has solid a popularity for constructing artists from the bottom up.
“My mentality is that the artist must be fulfilled,” says Simmons. “Now we have to attempt to discover essentially the most rewarding path for his or her profession as potential. I’m interested by growing touring artists which can be round for many years – and it’s actually uncommon to have the ability to do this again and again in your profession…”
Uncommon it may be, however Simmons appears to be making a behavior of it. Time for him to quiet down in his Nashville workplace, ignore the thrill of garden work exterior the window and speak MBW by means of how he does it…
IS IT AN ADVANTAGE THAT NOAH KAHAN TOOK HIS TIME TO BREAK BIG?
Sure, as a result of with every step of the way in which, he’s grown and developed. You modify most between the ages of 18 and 26 and the maturity he’s capable of acquire from that eight-year course of is basically what put him within the place to jot down these songs, have this attitude, perceive what he desires to do and align his ambition together with his music.
A whole lot of artists don’t get that chance; they get thrown proper into the short ascent of the worldwide music business they usually aren’t ready for it. They don’t have the stay present prepared or are incapable of following it up, so it’s been the right eight years of improvement for him, even when persons are seeing it as an in a single day sensation!
DID YOU ALWAYS THINK HE’D BECOME A SUPERSTAR?
Nicely, I didn’t assume him shedding the pop songwriting, introducing banjos and mandolins and making a really time-specific, place-specific album about New England can be the catapult!
We’ve talked about making this album for 4 years now, so it was only a matter of him attending to that place the place it felt like the proper time to make it. However I instructed him when he was 18 years previous, ‘You’re going to have a songwriting profession, it doesn’t matter what occurs’, as a result of he’s a gifted lyricist and a pure songwriter.
WHAT PROMPTED THAT CHANGE IN DIRECTION?
It was a traditional state of affairs of following the artist’s intuition. Now we have received superb pop songs that we’ve not put out, as a result of it didn’t really feel like they have been substantial sufficient.
He has an unbelievable capacity to speak very particularly in lyrics that put you in a spot and time and the pop construction wasn’t the proper discussion board for that.
It was actually him being like, ‘That is the place I wish to go in my profession’ and me and his staff being like, ‘Yeah, these folks songs are nearly as good, if not a lot better than the pop stuff, as a result of it feels very genuine to you, it’s telling your individual story’. It’s following the artist’s instinct, however he occurred to again it up with unimaginable songs so it was very straightforward to do!
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM WORKING WITH JAMES BROWN?
I used to be getting into the periphery of the worldwide icon enterprise, and what a stratosphere that was to witness!
A couple of yr and a half into that, Mr Brown handed away and the very last thing I did was assist plan his memorial on the Apollo Theater in Harlem. I used to be the youngest particular person there and it was a singular expertise. I simply want I might have had extra time being round that stage of operation.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MANAGING AN ARTIST AND MANAGING A SONGWRITER-PRODUCER?
Working with [songwriters and producers] is much more administrative. They’re writing songs and creating IP; much more alternative comes out of it in consequence, however you will have much less management over how that’s launched to the world – you hand over the child for another person to lift.
“I like connecting individuals to inventive alternatives, having the ability to put a producer and a author with one other nice author or an excellent artist, get on one thing early, take some bets on issues.”
However I like connecting individuals to inventive alternatives, having the ability to put a producer and a author with one other nice author or an excellent artist, get on one thing early, take some bets on issues…
And managing writer-producers permits me to be a part of each dialog – each label, each A&R, different managers. Whenever you’re an artist supervisor, you usually keep in your artist’s world. However with writer-producers you might be consistently in everybody else’s world and that’s actually rewarding. Additionally, there’s no touring, little or no press – managing writer-producers is rather less chaotic!
WAS GETTING GABE SIMON TO PRODUCE NOAH PART OF A MASTERPLAN?
(Laughs) Nicely, I undoubtedly thought they need to work collectively and I’d had that thought for some time, however the crossroads of their careers got here at a very good time.
Neither of them had made a folks file earlier than, in order that half was dangerous! However we have been already ready to take a threat in altering Noah’s sound, so it was extra about creating an excellent surroundings.
We had tried making Stick Season the track with an unimaginable producer in Nashville, who’s had a variety of success, however the expertise was a bit too [similar] to what Noah had skilled within the pop area.
Noah was searching for one thing extra pure and natural and Gabe is an unimaginable confidante and collaborator; he’s form of a therapist of a producer. So, him going up there in the midst of the woods with Noah and having a blast, recording songs with no expectation for both of them, was the right uncooked expertise that the album wanted.
HOW DO YOU BALANCE NOAH’S RUNAWAY SUCCESS WITH MAKING SURE YOUR OTHER CLIENTS GET WHAT THEY NEED?
[Laughs] With an absence of sleep, additional wrinkles and lot of labor! No, we’ve an unimaginable staff and I very a lot respect the truth that each artist wants a worldwide infrastructure and the job of the supervisor is to be the voice for the artist however, on the similar time, quarterback and direct a staff globally.
It requires the ‘it takes a village’ mentality of elevating an artist. The toughest time the administration group has had with that is post-pandemic, as a result of the world unnaturally stopped and, for a enterprise that depends traditionally on album cycles and for artists to ebb and circulation, it was actually laborious on managers, as a result of all their artists got here again, out of necessity, at the very same time.
It’s beginning to fall again right into a extra pure cadence however the ever-present, always-on mentality of each track releases and social media presence now does make it more durable to have the ebbs and flows of on- and off-cycle, as a result of your artist wants to stay related and lively to a sure diploma, whether or not they’re writing and recording, or touring and performing. That does make it a problem.
HAS YOUR APPROACH TO MANAGING NOAH CHANGED NOW HE’S MADE IT?
Publicists all the time chortle and say, ‘Artists need the whole lot below the solar – till they will get it, after which all of them say no!’
It’s about saying ‘no’ much more now, being extra strategic within the actions of the artist, what they’re collaborating in and what that claims to the artist and shopper communities.
However the strategy doesn’t actually change the manager-to-artist relationship. There’s a better quantity and frequency to our communication, the stakes are larger and the worldwide consideration is bigger, however the developmental strategy nonetheless requires budgeting, planning, technique, calling the brokers, the tour being aligned with the label… That good storm mentality applies to every stage of a profession.
The great factor is, you’re not ready on responses from emails for as lengthy, you’re getting solutions on cellphone calls, artists are saying sure. That makes the job simpler and extra enjoyable; it’s much less of a gross sales job, it turns into extra inventive.
ARE YOU FRIENDS WITH YOUR ARTISTS?
It’s a really distinctive dynamic. I’m a coach to them, I’m buddies with them, I’m parental to them in some methods… You need to be all issues. You could have to have the ability to relate to your artist, you will have to have the ability to have a very good time with them and you’ve got to have the ability to inform them, at occasions, why you assume they’re incorrect and develop that respect with one another to allow them to hear that data, even when nobody else is keen to say it to them!
“It’s all the time enjoyable enjoying the nice cop and the dangerous cop in that relationship, and it’s why administration is so extremely advanced.”
It’s all the time enjoyable enjoying the nice cop and the dangerous cop in that relationship, and it’s why administration is so extremely advanced. However having that pleasant rapport is crucial to the day-to-day manager-artist existence.
Hopefully, they see you combat for them day by day and that you’ve got their again; you’re pushing for his or her imaginative and prescient, even when it’s compromising your individual imaginative and prescient as a supervisor typically. Then they’re in all probability extra keen to listen to from you why you assume they’re incorrect typically.
However crucial a part of that’s acknowledging that I’m incorrect typically too. I don’t shrink back from saying, ‘I don’t know the reply to this query’ or ‘Let’s get a specialist concerned’. You do swallow your pleasure so much on this function, however there are additionally so many issues that Noah’s doing proper now which were helpful to his enterprise that I might by no means have dreamed up in any advertising and marketing assembly.
He tweets hilarious issues at occasions and also you’re like, ‘Oh man, if we’d have tried to give you that in a boardroom, it could be a comedy of errors’. And that’s what’s making him appreciated by his viewers, as a result of he’s one in every of them. Typically, you simply need to let the artist be the artist.
IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT TODAY’S MUSIC INDUSTRY, RIGHT HERE AND NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
Artists having extra management over their artwork, their IP. The enterprise has made strides in direction of artists having leverage and energy; that’s an excellent results of the streaming period. Having distribution choices and extra licensing preparations strikes the dial nearer to a real partnership.
Nevertheless it applies to the whole lot from assortment of royalties in publishing and masters, to ticketing and combating the secondary market, to promoting T-shirts… All of the layers of enterprise that go into creating alternative for an artist.
For instance, Live Nation simply introduced they’re going to waive merchandise charges of their [club] venues. That’s going to be an enormous injection for the event of touring artists in golf equipment and small theaters. That margin is what retains them alive.
Photograph Credit score: Brian Friedman/Shutterstock
FINALLY, HOW BIG DO YOU THINK NOAH KAHAN CAN GET?
Nicely, we’re wanting in direction of Ed [Sheeran] and Taylor [Swift] proper now because the inspiration. That modified eight months in the past, I began realizing I needed to begin paying extra consideration to Ed and Taylor; what they do and the way they do it, as a result of that’s the following step.
We bought out two nights at [Boston] Fenway Park in an hour and that’s fairly mind-boggling, similar with [New York] Madison Sq. Backyard: two nights in below an hour.
The subsequent step is stadiums, but it surely’s received to occur in a approach that feels just like the fan expertise is saved in thoughts. It’s not nearly going as massive as you probably can, it’s about going there when warranted. And it looks like we in all probability are going there in 2025.
However the truth that songwriting on the whole appears to be profitable in 2023 is a extremely encouraging second, and hopefully a very good indicator for what’s to return within the subsequent 5 to 10 years.
