Published 11 September, 2020

Amy Laidlaw’s love for live music started when she volunteered at Falls Festival at age 16. After years of working in various roles for music festivals and later teaching event management at TAFE, Amy now runs her own music and events agency, i hear django.
We spoke to Amy about how she started her business, what she’s currently working on and how she’s adapting her business strategy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please tell me a bit about yourself (how did you start in the music industry, where have you worked previously)
I got my start in the music industry as a teenager organising FReeZA gigs in Geelong. At 16, I volunteered at my first Falls Festival and I quickly fell in love with the buzz that is live music. I vividly remember that moment when everything clicked into place for me. I was standing side of stage, looking out into the crowd as The Cat Empire played and I knew that’s what I wanted to do; bring people together through music. It was absolute magic!

I spent the next few years getting as much experience as I could, working at festivals, booking shows and running music events. I even did a course to become a security guard (which only lasted for about 6 shifts!), because I wanted to know everything about organising festivals and events. I worked for the Falls Festival for about 8 years and it was such a fun festival to be involved with. After volunteering that first year, I quickly talked them into letting me be their Volunteer Coordinator. The next year, I was the Staff & Volunteer Coordinator, then later I moved on be the Operations Manager for the Lorne festival. After finishing up with Falls, I went on to teach event management at TAFE for a few years and continued working for a bunch of festivals, including the NightJar Festival in Torquay. After organising events for so long and being surrounded by musicians, it wasn’t long before I found myself working as an artist manager and tour promoter, which is what I do now.

Please tell me about your business i hear django.
i hear django is a music and events agency that provides a range of services. Originally, the focus was touring international artists. So in it’s first 3 years of operation, it was lots of booking tours, scouting for international talent and applying for visas. My first tour was The Fretless from Canada and my most recent tour was John Smith from the UK. Unfortunately, that one got cancelled mid-way through due to Covid-19, but I’m looking forward to getting back up and running with tours when the world opens up again. Currently my international roster includes: Jenny Mitchell (NZ), John Smith (UK), The Fretless (CAN), Rosier (CAN), Kittel & Co. (US), Red Tail Ring (US) and Ordinary Elephant (US).

As the first year or so passed, artist management became another key focus of i hear django. It was something I’d been doing in the background for some years, but now having an agency banner to fall under, it made sense to lean into this more. I currently manage Victorian singer-songwriter, Nigel Wearne and Brisbane folk-pop artist, Monique Clare. i hear django also programs and curates festival lineups and works on projects and events.

Why did you decide to start i hear django, and why in regional Victoria?
I started i hear django in mid-2017, after I got a rush of blood and emailed an international band asking them to tour Australia. Before then I’d only booked tours for Aussie artists here in Australia and New Zealand, so it was very much a shot in the dark.

It was one of those things I’d been thinking about for years, but I hadn’t actually said it out loud. It just made sense to me. Like all the work I’d been doing for years, was leading up to this. In the end, all it took was chatting with a friend over dinner one night and it was in motion. I sent the email and the band said yes. Thankfully, a bunch of festival directors agreed to book them and I became a tour promoter. So, I had to come up with a business name and I came up with i hear django. In Romani, django means “I awake”. So it translates to: I hear, I awake. I’ve worked in a bunch of diverse roles over the 20 years I’ve been in the music industry. So I wanted to create an agency that reflected that, whilst remaining open to new possibilities. It was very much born out of wanting to bring new music to Australian audiences, but also to represent artists that resonated with me and music that wasn’t currently being presented here in Australia.

Why regionally? Because as much as I love the city, the wide-open space, bushland and coastline of South-West Regional Victoria is balm for the soul. Also, because that’s where I live at the moment whilst I finish building my tiny house on wheels. I still plan to operate regionally when the tiny house is done, but hopefully I’ll find a patch of grass a bit closer to Melbourne.

What are you currently working on at the moment?
Given there’s going to be no international touring for some time, I’ve had to have a good think about what comes next. At the moment, I’m working on developing my local roster for when touring opens up, but I’ve also been using this time to build connections globally with other tour promoters, agents and managers.

Mostly though, I’ve been focusing on artist management and this is the direction I’m going to be moving in…at least for the next 12 months. I’m currently working on a couple of single release campaigns and I’m also doing a lot of work on strategy and goal setting with my artists. The music industry is going to look a lot different on the other side of all this, so I’m putting in the work to prepare ourselves for that and also to help my artists navigate their way through this uncertain time. I’ve also got an exciting new project that I hope to launch soon, working directly with independent artists as a management consultant. Working so closely with artists both as a tour promoter and artist manager, I’ve seen how devastating the impacts of the pandemic have been on musicians. For many, it’s derailed years of planning and momentum, and I think most significantly, it’s rattled their sense of identity and confidence to dream big. So for me, I feel it’s really important to direct my energy into supporting artists right now, and I’m really looking forward to broadening the scope of i hear django to do that. Stay tuned!

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to launch a music business, especially during a challenging time?
Go for it! Absolutely, it’s a challenging time right now, but don’t let that stop you. Launching a business at any time is daunting, but it can also be incredibly energising and fulfilling. My business is definitely what’s kept me going during the pandemic. Of course, staying focused has been challenging at times and there’s the obvious loss of income from all the cancellations. But the support from my industry peers during this time has also reminded me how grateful I am to work in music. I would say though, think long and hard about how you’re going to support yourself financially during this time. Think creatively about how you can use your skills and consider the different income streams you can tap into to. If the pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that versatility is key to survival and it’s going to be just as important in recovery.

To learn more about i hear django visit: www.iheardjango.com