by Lee Seelig

In an effort to present a behind-the-scenes look at the business side of the jamband scene, my feature articles have sometimes been autobiographical. The first article I wrote told the story of Gamelan's office burning down in February of this year. I also wrote a piece on a Jiggle the Handle tour that was booked out of Gamelan's offices. This article will once again reflect on personal experiences as the events of the past few weeks have been rather dynamic.

As a general rule, the music business can be characterized by a high rate of employee turnover. It is common for agents to move around quite often and for partnerships to dissolve. Gamelan is no exception to this rule. Due to a number of different reasons, Gamelan is no longer going to have a booking agency in the company. Todd Walker (who ran the agency) is no longer working at Gamelan and I have begun working independently as well. The "break-up" was completely mutual and everyone involved is happier for it, myself included.

Just to give a quick background, the booking agency at Gamelan consisted of Todd Walker, who grew the agency over the past two years, and me, an employee of four and a half months. Todd represents Soulive, John Brown's Body, and the New Deal. Besides the booking agency, Gamelan (which is owned by Andrew Stahl) also promotes shows, produces the Berkshire Mountain Music Festival, and has a management division. Basically, Andrew is a promoter and a buyer of talent while the agency represented bands and sold talent. Buying and selling talent all under the same roof proved to be too difficult as the conflicts outweighed the synergy. In talking with both Andrew and Todd, I can sense a feeling of relief that the split was done on such positive terms.

What has transpired at Gamelan is nothing unique for the music business. The past month has also seen the break-up of Tom Baggott and Chris Cate, two agents in Atlanta who worked together at thebookingagency.com. The two represented such acts as the Disco Biscuits, The Recipe, Ominous Seapods, Smokin' Grass, Sector 9, Wise Monkey Orchestra, and other bands. After working together for the past year and a half, Tom and Chris have dissolved their partnership in a move that leaves both of them much more optimistic about the future. According to Chris, "everyone was surprised how amicable the split was." Tom echoed these thoughts, saying, "we retained our friendship and respect...we get along better now than we ever have."

In talking with Todd, Andrew, Chris and Tom a word that has come up over and over is "volatile." It is my opinion that the music business is so volatile because of the nature of the business itself and the nature of the type of people who want to work in the music business. Ask anybody on the business side of the music world and they'll tell you what crazy work it can be. Todd thinks the reason for this is because of the lack of guidelines or standard operating procedures in the music business. This being said, it certainly takes a unique kind of person who chooses to pursue a career in the music business. As Andrew put it, "people who are attracted to this kind of psychotic work are dreamers and visionaries in general."

Combine dreamers and visionaries with a business context that has no set parameters and you are going to run into another problem: focus. The word "focus" came up just about as much as "volatile" in the course of writing this article. Because of the way the music business is, the opportunities are basically endless. One basic example of this is the fact that there are many more bands than there are agents. So, if you are an agent, any non-represented band could be considered an opportunity. It is difficult to focus on your current business if you are always considering new opportunities. Basically, a lot of people in the music business try to do too much and they end up losing their focus. This can happen especially in partnerships when two people overestimate what they can accomplish together.

Sometimes the only way to regain your focus is to do it yourself and hone in on your particular vision. This is the sense I got from Todd and Chris, two agents who have chosen to leave their employer to pursue their own goals. Stahl, at Gamelan, is building a multi-divisional company which was not appealing to Walker. Todd told me, "I'm looking to really try and focus on the artists I have on my plate...I want to carry things out to the fullest to develop my artists in the best way that I know how to." Todd recently accepted a job at International Music Network (www.imnworld.com) where he will begin working on June 26. The bands he will be booking have not yet been finalized.

Although I did not witness Chris's situation firsthand, it seems like he also began to develop a vision that was not what the larger company had in mind. Baggott, at thebookingagency.com has always focused on diversity in his roster, and intends to add further diversity in the future. "I'm very interested in going back to the rock and alternative worlds," Tom said. "My musical interests span the spectrum...I want a hard-core band, I want to have another rap artist...although I represent some of the top jambands, I do not want to be exclusively a jamband agency." Chris, on the other hand, is looking to focus much more on the jamband scene. As Chris put it, "I want to do one thing and I want to do it well. I'm very much opposed to spreading myself too thin." It will be interesting to see how thebookingagency.com and Treeline Artists (Chris's new agency) develop over the coming years.

As for me, I am not too sure what the future will bring. For the next month I will be preparing to go on the road with Addison Groove Project and Uncle Sammy for their summer tour of which I am tour manager. The tour ends at Berkfest and hopefully I will have a plan by August 13. I will also be sending out my resume over the course of the next month to booking agencies and other various companies to see what my options are. I have even entertained the notion of working for myself and starting my own booking agency. One thing is for sure, though, I will continue writing for Jambands.com in the hopes of bringing interesting business-related stories out into public view.

If you have a great story that you think people would like to read about (or you want to hire me), email me at leemseelig@hotmail.com. Thanks.