Recently I caught up with Daniel DeFonce (Veteran Booking Agent) and talked to him about his experiences in promotion, labels, booking, SXSW and a lot more. This man is one of the best I know in his field and continues to strive. Give it a read and get to learn more.
Please introduce yourself and how you have been involved in the music industry over the years?
My name is Daniel DeFonce. For the past 8 years, I have been a booking agent. Two of those years I was a promoter in Poughkeepsie & Peekskill, NY. For the past 7 months I have been doing marketing for Third String Productions and South By So What?! Music Festival.
What would be your top 3 pet peeves with promoters?
The top 3 for me would be promoters taking their time on confirming their venue, starting promotion for the show later than they were told, and not having enough money on hand to pay the tour package day of show if the show falls short. I try to give newer promoters a chance “sometimes”. Sometimes they pull through and kill it and sometimes they don’t and that leads into a headache. So I rarely use “newer” promoters nowadays, it’s not worth the hassle and stress.
What are some strong tips for promoters to run a successful show (in your eyes)?
Learn how to promote your events. Don’t just rely on “Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram”. Go print fliers, go to shows and hand them out, don’t rely on a Facebook Event to make your show successful or rely on local bands either. There are some promoters who do not make their local bands sell tickets. A lot of local bands are against doing that. To me, there is no point of adding a local band onto a show if they can’t prove what they are “worth”. When I was younger, my old bands used to sell 50-200 tickets a show and ALWAYS sell them because we weren’t lazy.
Besides that, just be on top of your promotion for your events. Don’t slack and then blame the touring bands for not drawing what you “thought” they would draw. Touring bands can promote their tour dates as much as possible BUT there are still people out there that have no idea that band is coming to their town. So do yourself a favor and invest money into printing fliers, posters, doing Facebook ads, and having locals sell tickets (25-50 per show). Pay your locals from the tickets they sell. When I was a promoter, I would pay my locals $2 per ticket AFTER 25 tickets were sold. So if they only sold 25 tickets, the band would get paid $50. If they sold all 50, they would get $100. Seems fair to me.
You work with lots of people be it labels, promoters, etc.
Who are some of the people who stand out to you as going above and beyond and why?
There are a few close managers/labels I do work with a lot. Some of them would be Artery, Victory, Century Media, InVogue, and Rise Records. Some close management companies I work with are Artery, Outerloop, and EMG. Some promoters that stand out who I’ve worked with really well over the years would be Mike, Orlando, Jose, Casey, and Ryan at Third String Productions, Steven in Las Vegas, John McCrary at Two Hearts Shows, Ryan Levey at Monumental Booking, Jennifer at The White Rabbit, John at Lightsout Booking, Jason Malhoyt from Empire, Nick Salle in Buffalo, and there are some others. They’ve been in this for awhile and work their asses off. They know what they’re doing and have my full trust and support.
Currently you are working with Rock The Nation USA and added some new clients, can you tell us more about that and how its going?
I officially started working at RTN a month ago. Since then, I have picked up Arsonists Get All The Girls, Demolisher, Martyr Defiled, Monuments, and Sepultura. The agency is massive and Stephan and Maurizio who run it are some of the most genuine guys I have ever met. They have my back 150% and believe in me as an agent. They came from the streets just like I did. No one taught me how to book tours or anything. I learned this all on my own just like they did years ago. The agency is partnered with Century Media which is great. Some awesome people over there. I honestly couldn’t be happier with working with Rock The Nation. I brought up Jesse Johnson and William Quintana from my old agency (The Phoenix Agency) and they have also been doing great and growing. All in all, we are all stoked on it and it’s just going to grow from here.
Recently you just did South By So What?! Music Festival, how did that go?
Yes, this was my second one. It went really well. We had a little over 17,000 people attending it this year throughout the 3 days which is incredible. We had some crappy weather on day two and some cold/windy weather on day three but we pulled through and overall it was a success. It’s A LOT of work putting something like this together. I handled most of the marketing for it and also helped out with anything day of the festival (which includes a lot of running around). All in all, we had a blast. 2015 is just going to be bigger.
How do you feel the music scene has changed in the past decade?
It has changed A LOT. I remember putting together tours like 5-6 years ago and it was easy. I was putting together some CRAZY line ups. Whenever I posted about a tour I did years ago, everyone is just blown away by the line (example: Dr. Acula, American Me, Attila, and Chelsea Grin tour I did years ago). I remember I posted the flier about that a few weeks ago and everyone was blown away by it ha ha. That tour did between 150-300 kids a night. It ruled.
But besides that, I feel like the change from Myspace to Facebook really sucked. Facebook is now making it harder for bands to “reach” most of their fans. Bands are going to start having to pay for each post they put up so it “reaches” more of their fans. It’s bullshit. I’ve been saying it recently but if Myspace wants to make a comeback then they should just wake up and go back to the old layout (update it slightly) and I guarantee every band/person would switch back. I sure as hell would. Stuff is going to start changing soon with Facebook. I feel that EVERY band needs a website and concentrate on using their Website, Twitter, and Instagram as the promotion tool.
Facebook is out the window unless bands wanna start spending more money on advertising on it. Which the smaller bands won’t be able to unless their labels wanna come in and help.
What was your favorite label that has come and gone and why?
Okay there are TWO labels – TRUSTKILL & FERRET RECORDS. Period. Two of the BEST labels. Every band they had ruled and got me into the music I listen to today. Both owners from those labels now have new labels (Bullet Tooth and Good Fight). I actually met Carl from Good Fight back at SXSW in Austin in March 2014. He is the singer of NORA who is a band that I absolutely loved growing up. We always kept in touch via Email but never met face to face. So when we did finally meet, it was awesome. That guy rules, period.
What are some bands you feel have not really been discovered yet and have a lot of potential and you believe they should be heard?
As far as let’s say “Unsigned” bands go, if you haven’t heard of Gift Giver, Demolisher, Lionfight, & Desolated then you need to check them out.
As far as “Signed” bands go, everyone needs to know about Boris The Blade, Martyr Defiled, InDirections, The Last Ten Seconds of Life, Seeker, & Mouth of the South.
Where would you like to see yourself in ten years?
Doing what I’m doing now but on a way larger level and maybe get married? Who knows. I’m not worried about marriage or anything. My concern is making sure I grow as a booking agent and my bands get bigger and bigger.
In closing is there anything you would like to add?
If you are wanting to become a “Booking Agent” then give up your girlfriend and any free time you might have on your hands. This job is 24/7. If you are starting off, good luck. This is a hard industry to break into. Be patient and BE HUNGRY!
Awesome job, Danny!