How I Got Backstage

We are wrapping up our 3rd season of HIGBS with the fabulous Jackie Jones, V.P. of Artist and Industry Relations at RIAA. Most of you probably think of the beautiful gold and platinum plaques presented to certify music sales when you think of the RIAA, but in reality they do so much more! Jackie spends her time on the ground with with legislators negotiating change to help artists and music professionals financially and legally. Hear how she does it in this week’s episode!

What’s it like to intern at Crowd Surf? Find out in this week’s episode when our Spring intern class takes over the show to talk about their internship experience. Want to apply? Email us your resume + cover letter at: [email protected]

Want to know what it’s like managing one of the biggest pop acts of all time? Jenn Sousa and Karly Brecher of Patriot Management spend their days and nights kind of like Cassie and Jade did in their teens - engulfed in the Backstreet Boys. Hear what it’s like to manage the biggest boy band of all time while balancing personal life and being mobbed in airports. To say these women are badasses is an understatement!

Selling music has gone through a total revolution over the past 20 years and streaming is more saturated than ever. How does an artist keep up and stand out?

Find out from Will Tenney, Head of Streaming Strategy & Promotion at the legendary Crush Music. Working alongside rock superstars like Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Alanis Morisette, Tenney spends his days mastering the art of competitive streaming and digital promotion.

This week we are joined by Gabz Landman, artist manager and VP of A&R Warner Records to discuss the process behind your favorite songs and how she grew from fan girl to working with songwriters to create hits for artists like Dua Lipa, Selena Gomez and Harry Styles.

The ladies of EVA started booking their friends’ gigs in college and are now changing the booking game for everyone by integrating technology and virtual events. Hear how two female entrepreneurs managed to get their idea off the ground and grow their company through a pandemic.

Handling celebrity talent sounds like the best job in the world, but it can be stressful, unpredictable and full of great stories! Join us as we relive the golden days of MTV and TRL with former Manager of Talent and Studio Relations at MTV, Sara Kantathavorn.

This week we hang out with Sheila Hozhabri who has worked on the digital and management teams for many superstar artists including Miley Cyrus, Steven Tyler and Fifth Harmony. Hear how Shelia made herself invaluable during her early career in the country music industry and how she genre hopped to the pop world in LA.

This week we welcome JoJamie Hahr, Senior Vice President of BBR Music Group / BMG Music Nashville. To say she is a badass would be an understatement! JoJamie dives in and talks about her early days in radio - making herself invaluable in her part time job, moving to Nashville to help break Jason Aldean at country radio and being a part of LGBTQ history with BBR’s newest release “Sunroof” by Brooke Eden. Also, congrats to Justin Horowitz on his first episode of HIGBS as a co-host. He’ll be back real soon!

Join us this week as we talk about the not so glamorous world of touring with Jon Lucero & Stacy Pyle, who run the show for acts like Why Don’t We and Eben while they tour the world! Think you want to be a tour manager? You better listen to this first!

This week we are joined by "The King of Nashville," Peter Strickland. Former Chief Marketing Office of Warner Music Nashville and now founder of Marathon Talent Agency, Strickland survived the digital revolution that rocked Nashville in the early 00's and embraced the changes to help make artists like Blake Shelton and Hunter Hayes super stars! 

This week we welcome Beverly Keel, Dean of the College of Media & Entertainment at Middle Tennessee State University. After an award-winning career as a journalist, Keel took on teaching at the university in 1995 and is still going strong. Keel is one of the founders of Change the Conversation, an organization created to help fight for equality for women in the country music industry; and is a founding member of the Nashville Music Equality, which is committed to minimizing the equality gap that exists within the music industry in Nashville.

This week we welcome Pete Stormer, Digital Marketing Manager at Vector Management. We discuss the hustle, the hard work and long hours it takes to make it in the music industry and some key things you can do to help move you along your journey. There is a place in this industry for anyone that truly puts in the effort to get there.

This week we sit down with Josh Terry, founder of Workshop Management, which woks with Mayday Parade, Ashland and Chad Copelin to name a few. Getting his start in South Carolina and moving to Chicago to work at Aware Records for 9 years, Terry has now planted his roots in Nashville with Workshop Management.

Artist management is no easy street. We touch on the boundary issues that run rampant in the music industry, the delicate relationship between artists and their managers and the importance of changing course when you feel it’s not right anymore.

Recorded and edited by: Tom Michael / Zodlounge
Additional editing by: Hannah Humphress
Music by: Cody Falkosky
Art by: Summer Dominquez
Produced by: Crowd Surf

Jade Driver and Cassie Petrey are back with Season 3 of HIGBS! They survived, and maybe even thrived in 2020 by being forced to get to those long term tasks that have been hiding in their to do lists for years. Cassie got her life organized and Jade jogged a few blocks. 

There's a long road ahead to getting everyone in the music industry back to their normal paying gigs, but until we can be backstage, on stage, side stage or in front of the stage again, we'll keep that spirit alive on this podcast!

This week we sit down with the Manager of Music Strategy at CMT, Stacey Cato. After getting his start in Silicon Valley, Stacey followed his heart to Nashville in the late 90s and found himself working at Country.com - an early version of CMT - as a web developer. After 20 years of working at CMT through the digital revolution he’s seen it all and worked closely with the biggest stars in country music along the way. This episode is chock full of advice and anecdotes and also guest stars our surprise co-host Benny Driver - Jade’s mom and Crowd Surf Billing Manager.

Production and artist team Solomon (Soli) Olds and Lauren Olds join us this week for some old time anecdotes from our time working together on rock band Family Force 5 to their current success as a production and writing team working with artists such as Hunter Hayes, Tessa Violet and Sam Tinnesz. We'd suggest turning your volume down, because this episode gets a little loud! ;)

This week we sit down with 14 year old actor and musician Jet Jurgensmeyer to hear about his southern upbringing hanging out at his parents' honkey-tonk, The Nashville Palace, with legends like George Jones to his success in Hollywood working alongside Tim Allen on "Last Man Standing." Jet is now embracing his Nashville roots and has recently released his debut self-titled country album. Hear about his songwriting process, inspirations and enjoy a live performance!

Johnny Garcia, band director for country artist Trisha Yearwood since 1991, joins us to talk about how the stars aligned to lead him to country music, the new generation of artists he’s working with and how an overheard anecdote from Loretta Lynn lead to the hook in the latest release from his artist Sarah Ryder who joins us to talk about the song and launch of her career.

At age 16, Ford Fairchild, a street team member, was snuck into a club by Cassie and Jade because he was too young to get in and see his favorite artist Michelle Branch perform a showcase. As a fan, Ford was obsessed with artist imagery and photographs. He ran a successful Michelle Branch fansite, which he eventually sold and used the money to buy his first camera. Ford is now a full time music photographer and videographer and has  professionally photographed artists like Jason Aldean, Greta Van Fleet, Maggie Rose and Lady Gaga.