The Music Business: What I Learned Working for AgapeFest

Disclaimer: Due to the sensitivity of the certain situations given, I'm going to keep names of non-Agape staff folks out of this blog.

Earlier this school year, I was asked by Micah Chapman to be the his assistant as the Director of Artist Relations for AgapeFest. From about October on, Agape quickly ruled my life. Whether it was calling band managers, collaborating with the production company and deciding what was needed, or planning a theme for the hospitality pavilion, I stayed quite busy for about 7 months.

Come April, it was go time. We got all of our bands lined up and we had our catering done. On the 10th, we had the Battle Of The Bands in the Blackroom, and I was the guy who spearheaded that. I spent that morning running around setting up the sound gear, getting the bands rolling, and keeping things on time. Things went very smoothly and it was one of the most successful Battle Of The Bands we have ever had.

Then came the festival.

Wednesday, we show up, set up the staging. Thursday, the entire staff shows up, we finish setting up stage and do audio work as well.

Friday comes, day 1 of the festival, and stress starts to take it's toll pretty quickly. We have to send two folks to the airport to pick up an artist. The two runners wait for approximately an hour and a half trying to find the artists, but have no luck. Despite our phone calls and text messages, we get no reply. So we send the runners back to campus and hope that word will eventually get to the artist so we can get them going. Finally, I get a text from one of the members saying their flight was delayed and that they had already gotten rental vehicles anyway, so our runners were useless. Despite all the worry, everything worked out great for all parties and things went on without a hitch.

Our next Friday near-crisis was the end of the day. We knew a huge storm was coming, and so we were trying to plan accordingly. We had talked to the headliner and told them that if they were interested, we could put them on Second Stage and they could play their set there. They told us that they would gladly do that if the storm hit. And sure enough, the storm hit. So we scrambled, moved their stuff there, set up the mics, and they helped us out with a huge smile on their faces and were just happy as could be to do this for us. So they played to 600-800 folks in a tin can. And it was incredible.

Saturday morning came quickly and harshly. We started the morning with two artists, and they weren't exactly easy to work with. They came in knowing what they wanted, and they treated us like we were little kids and that we did not have a knowledge of what was going on. We, especially Micah, was treated with absolutely no respect at all, and it was very frustrating to see. We even heard them talking over their radios about Micah. At one point they said:

Manager - "Have you seen Micah?"

Band Stage Hand - "No, which one is that?"

Manager - "The kid who keeps telling me no."

BSH - "Oh, no I haven't seen him."

Manager - "Figures. He's probably off somewhere crying."

Saturday for Micah and I was by far the most stress inducing day of the festival. There were more than a few times where we both felt like we were just going to vomit we were so stressed. It just seemed like every tiny thing was just building and building exponentially and there was nothing we could do to stop it. Once we got started, the first several bands went on and off with zero hitches thanks to the great work of Dallis Garber. It didn't get stressful again until the end of the night again. One of the managers, the one giving us the most trouble, was all over Micah trying to tell him how to run the stage and how to run the festival. When Micah continued to tell him no, the manager got pissed, and told him he was a useless kid who couldn't do his job. Micah took the high road, said he was done, and left. The manager said "Yeah, you better leave. And don't you ever come back!"

So here are just a few things that I have learned from this weekend:

1) If you are a music business major, it should be required to work for AgapeFest. If you want to have the business revealed to you, this is a great place to start.

2) AgapeFest staff is filled with wonderful folks. Whether they were on Main Stage, Artist Merch, Ministry, or Staff Services, everyone had a crucial job and this festival couldn't run smoothly if one job was missing.

3) As much as I love doing what I'm doing, I couldn't work with live production. I'm sincerely glad that there are people out there who love doing this kind of work, because this line of work is necessary. But I have quickly realized that this is not the part of the business that I want to work in.

4) I had the opportunity to work with lots and LOTS of wonderful bands. I feel like there are a lot of genuine folks that played in the bands that were at AgapeFest this weekend and that they sincerely do what they preach. It's people like this that make me glad to be involved in this festival.

5) Conversely, there are a few bands that I lost a LOT of respect for after this weekend. Their management was incredibly terrible to work with, and they made our lives a living hell.

6) I realize that to an extent, the bands don't have a whole lot of control over what their managers do. But whether they know it or not, every single aspect of their entourage represents every single member of their band.

7) I would not be where I was if it were not for Micah Chapman. He did a spectacular job of showing me the ropes and plugging me in as often as he could. I hope that two years down the road I can be the kind of leader that is willing to step back a little bit and show someone what this is all about and encourage them to be a great leader.

Do I still want to be in the music business? I think now more than ever. I know that I have a lot of ideas as to how I can improve it, and I know that I wouldn't be in that position if it weren't for AgapeFest.

If you are reading this and wondering whether or not you should get involved with AgapeFest: Give it a shot. I will admit, it's pretty time consuming. But it is such a great feeling of accomplishment to see all the hard work and all the time you put into it come together so beautifully and to realize, "Wow, I was a part of this." I realize that AgapeFest isn't for everyone, but if you have any interest in it at all, please come talk to me about it and I will try my best to sway you one way or the other.

-matthew
4:37 pm

My Sweet Escape
Run Kid Run
Album - Love At The Core

Friends

Friends? Friends are awesome.

Growing up, I was a loner for the most part. When you have a brother with Autism, you learn to just entertain yourself. And it didn't help that I grew up in the country, so I had no neighbor kids to play with. In school, I had a fair amount of acquaintances, but once summer came, I was a loner again. When I was finally old enough to drive, I got closer to Ryan and Keelan, but that was about it.

Then I went to college, and living in a dorm really changed all of that. I was constantly surrounded by people, and it was something that took a little getting used to. Freshman year I made a lot of acquaintances, but I feel like this year I have made a lot of friends. I could go on for days about the people who I would call my friends, but I think I'll stick to an overview of what makes these people my friends.

I have people here at school who are willing to listen to me whine, listen to my stories that take forever to tell, pray for me, pray with me, listen to my songs, sing songs with me, allow me to listen to their stories, make random McDonald trips at midnight, invite me to their house for a weekend, invite me to stay with them all summer, and everything in between. When I think of being a friend, I think of it in these terms: "What can I do for this person to put them ahead of myself and show them that I care?" And when it comes to my friends, they do a wonderful job of showing that.

If you fit into any of those categories listed above, thank you. I love you all and I will not soon forget any of you, friends.

-matthew

11:07 am

Remains
Matt Pond PA
Album - The Dark Leaves

Live

I love concerts. One thing I love about them is that it really brings to the limelight whether a band who has a good sound on record can pull it off in real life. Sometimes I'm very impressed (Between The Trees). Sometimes... I'm disappointed (Hit The Lights). Nevertheless, I love seeing bands live. Here is a list of bands I have yet to see live and really, really want to.

In no particular order:

The Classic Crime

John Mayer

Sherwood

The Fray

Death Cab For Cutie

The Fray

Anberlin

Sufjan Stevens

The Dangerous Summer

Matt Hires

Jack's Mannequin

Jimmy Eat World

Barcelona

City And Colour

Foo Fighters

Snow Patrol

Phoenix

Myriad

If you want to make my day, buy me tickets to a concert featuring one of these guys' shows.

-matthew

11:18 am

Vagabonds

The new album from The Classic Crime is really good. I love the lyrics in this song. This is the title track of their new album, Vagabonds.



-matthew
9:56 am

New Music

Jakob Dylan recently came out with a new album called Women And Country, and it's really been stuck in my head. Here's a video of him, Neko Case, and Kelly Hogan playing live for NPR.



-matthew
12:29 am

Song writing

I love writing songs. I just finished writing a song, and I'm really excited about the potential it has.

I started writing songs out of necessity, really. When I first started playing guitar at 16, I wasn't skilled enough to cover songs. So instead of just giving up on guitar, I started making up my own chord progressions and putting words in with them. Like most songwriters when they start, my songs were absolutely terrible. You know what I mean, the kind of songs that have rhyme schemes like "me" and "be" and "us" and bus." But my Mom thought I had potential and encouraged me to keep writing. Once I got a couple buddies to join me, I started writing more frequently and slowly improving my rhyme patterns and schemes. But trust me, my songs were still pretty pitiful. I enjoy looking back on them every once in a while and getting a good chuckle out of them.

It was probably around my senior year when I started writing songs that I was confident in. Songs like "You're Not Alone" and "Hit And Miss" are songs we still play today, and they still mean a lot to me. I also started writing some singer/songwriter style songs, too. One of my favorite songs I've written is "I'll Always Love You," a song I've described as 'a love song to no one.'

Since I got into college, my songwriting has gone to a different level. In high school, I would often sit down with a chord progression in mind, a pen in hand, and just write the song in one sitting. Now, I tend to spread my songwriting out over a few days and give the lyrics time to soak in and resonate until I like them.

I'm certainly in no position to give songwriting tips, but if I could give three tips, they would be this:

1) Write often. Songwriting is just like any other skill; it takes lots of practice and patience. Do your best to write as often as you can, whether it's a whole song or just a little verse.

2) Have someone critique your music honestly and brutally. You'll never get better as a songwriter if your critic tells you "This is great!" after every song. I'm thankful to have a friend like Mike who isn't afraid to ask "What are you trying to say with this line?" or say "I don't like how it flows right here." If you have someone who can help you in that way, you can see what you are doing wrong so you can not only fix the problem, but strengthen your writing ability.

3) Have fun! Songwriting can certainly be stressful sometimes, but don't be afraid to step back from the process and remember why you are writing songs. For me, I write songs because it's a great challenge and it's fun. Enjoy doing it.

-matthew

11:54 pm

Rescued
Jack's Mannequin
Album - Everything In Transit

Song Lyrics

Song lyrics are something that have always been a huge reason as to why I love music. One genre of music that portrays lyrics in a very beautiful way is folk/acoustic music. I feel that the simple instrumentation of this music immediately puts the focus on the words instead of the music, and I love that. A great example of that is City & Colour's "Body In A Box".

There's a funeral procession on the highway

Traffic screeches to a halt

There's people searching for a better way

To live their lives, oh

Johnny lived a good life

You'll hear them say

As tears of sadness soak the ground

The reaper crept in

Took his breath away

In the middle of the night, oh

We celebrate the lives of the dead

It's like a man's best party

Only happens when he dies

We gather round

To pay our respects

While their souls are still searching for the light

Searching for the light

So please don't come to me

On my dying day

Just let me go in peace

With all the things

That I've forgot to say

Racing through my mind, oh

And don't you bury me

Six feet underground

Just burn my body in a box

And let my ashes

Blow with the wind

Out into the night sky

We celebrate the lives of the dead

It's like a man's best party

Only happens when he dies

We gather round

To pay our respects

While their souls are still searching for the light

Searching for the light

-matthew

5:59 pm