Lighting Up New Torch

Given by Nick Susi ’12 to Mark Small

While still Music Business/Management majors at Berklee, Nick Susi ’12 and Ethan Schiff ’12 began helping their friends with bookings, record release events, and more. A series of small successes during their student years inspired Susi and Schiff to form an artist management company after Berklee. The ink was barely dry on Susi’s degree when he moved to New York and began filing the paperwork to create an LLC for their company, New Torch Entertainment. (The name “New Torch” comes from a Feist song lyric.) With Schiff’s experience with bookings and Susi’s in marketing—plus the knowledge each had gained at Berklee regarding record labels, publishing, contracts, and more—the two had the confidence to begin signing artists.

Their first client was Betty Who [aka Jessica Newman’13]. When she signed, Who hadn’t yet released any music. The New Torch team generated a buzz with the pop-dance material she cowrote and produced with Peter Thomas ’13 for her first EP, The Movement. Their song “Somebody Loves You” from her follow-up EP, Slow Dancing, became the soundtrack for a viral, third-party video. Soon, New Torch signed Who to RCA for her debut album Take Me with You When You Go. New Torch’s top artist at present, Who has toured with Kiesza, Katy Perry, and Kylie Minogue. During the three years of New Torch’s existence, the company roster has grown to include eight up-and-coming artists. Susi, manager, CCO, and cofounder of New Torch, took a few minutes to share some thoughts on the company’s business model and approach.

Is the New Torch philosophy to keep the artist roster small so that you can give each artist a lot of attention?

Absolutely. Part of our ethos or mission from the start has been to stay small and nimble with a laser focus on what we have set out to do. Some agents or labels sign a lot of whatever is really new and hot and then throw it against the wall and go with whatever sticks. Ethan and I disagree with that approach because it doesn’t benefit the artists that don’t stick.

How do you decide which artists to take on?

We don’t have a standard A&R process to find new artists. Most of the people we work with have come to us through personal relationships and friendships. We want to work with those we really care about professionally and personally. I couldn’t imagine working with someone I didn’t like with the closeness and capacity that’s required to be their manager.

Is having a limited roster an unusual approach for a management company today?

There are plenty of companies that have massive rosters and many managers within the company. Our ultimate goal is not to become a huge corporate entity. But, we’re not the only ones taking that approach. We’d rather keep it more like a small, passionate community. There are many other managers that we deal with on a day-to-day basis that are awesome, smart people doing cool things. We are not in a really big industry; we all have to work together. Our approach is not incredibly progressive, but it’s our thing. We find that you can’t apply the same formula to each artist you work with. Every artist has different things that they want to express with their music, image, and brand as they speak to the world. A manager can’t say, “Well, I did this before with [such-and-such an] artist so I can do it again for you.” It’s more about creatively getting to the core of what the long-term vision and goals of the artist are and telling their story through the press and media. You don’t just tell them to release a single, then a remix, then a video, and then a second single.

Do the eight artists on your roster fall within certain musical categories?

We don’t limit ourselves to a particular style, but Ethan tends to lean more toward the pop and mainstream side and I lean toward the indie and alternative side. That creates an interesting dynamic and let’s us offer each other a different perspective on how we should handle a certain opportunity or problem. I appreciate talking to someone who has a different viewpoint than I have.

Do you have outside agents doing the tour bookings for your artists?

An artist manager’s role in general does not involve booking live engagements. In fact, there are some states with laws against that because it can be a conflict of interest. If a manager is commissioning 20 percent and an agent is commissioning 10 percent, it’s not fair to the artist for a manager doing both to take 30 percent; that’s a big chunk. So yes, we work with agents. An artist may have an agent working on bookings for North and South America and another agent looking after the United Kingdom and the European Union, and another for Canada or Australia.

Betty Who has had a lot of success, what’s happening with your other artists?

We’ve been working with Vérité since last summer, and things are moving quickly for her. She had an EP come out toward the end of 2014 that got a lot of buzz in the press and lots of live streams from Spotify and SoundCloud. She recently completed her first tour on the East Coast with an appearance at South by Southwest. Another act, Coin, is an indie pop band, and they just did a bunch of live dates with Passion Pit.

Then there’s Peter Thomas [’13] who has written songs for Betty Who. He’s been behind the scenes as a writer and producer. The dynamic between Pete and Betty is special and part of why she’s been successful. He was also part of the writing and production for Hilary Duff’s recent single “Sparks.” That was big for him. But while he works a lot behind the scenes, he is interested in doing more as a public-facing artist.

Does New Torch help its artists connect with other artists for tours and collaborations?

Part of our responsibilities involve reaching out to managers, agents, and labels to find other artists to pair with our artists for cowriting or doing a tour together. We are trying to put creative individuals together in a way that will make sense, get a certain demographic excited, and ultimately make money for the artists so that they can build their careers. Ethan and I are trying to make more collaborations within our roster. This summer Betty Who and Coin will do a tour together.

Is it your goal to get your artists to major labels?

For an artist like Betty Who, there is potential for her to be a massive pop star. A major label can get her to that point because they have the infrastructure, connections, and money. That’s not to say an indie label can’t do that, but for Betty’s musical direction, a major makes the most sense for her. Some of our alternative artists may not fare well with a major label because they may not be trying to have a massive radio hit. Many labels are looking for radio hits and if an artist never writes a song that the label feels is radio friendly, the label will drop them. There are plenty of pros and cons for deciding whether an artist should go with a major or a small label. It’s all about what is the best fit for the artist.

You also never want to try to jump to something that an artist isn’t ready for. There can be disasters if you force things too soon and your artist gets negative feedback in the press. It may not be the artist’s fault if their live show wasn’t ready and something goes wrong on the late-night TV show you’ve booked them for. That can make people think they aren’t a good live band when in fact it’s a growing process and they weren’t ready yet. So, you can’t just jump to a higher level and expect that everything will be great.

What is on the horizon for New Torch?

As we look toward the rest of the year, we will stay focused on taking our artists to the next level. Then we will look toward 2016 and keep things growing.