Matt H. A'd me something
"Arts and Crafts have an amazing lineup of artists. Mind sharing how you started your relationship with them and any other fun tidbits from your time together?"
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Dear Matt H,
Here is the story of how I got signed.
That is to say, it’s a series of linear events that seem relevant. So much of this business is voodoo, and who knows how much credit I can take for whatever successes (and failures) I’ve endured.
There’s an adage about being in the right place at the right time. Perhaps, to accomplish pretty much anything, you actually need to be in the right places at the right times over and over again. So we must put ourselves in the line of fire and hope for a stray bullet.
MARCH, 2006
I applied to showcase at Canadian Music Week, but was denied. Artists perform (for free) at industry conferences in hopes that somebody from the music industry might be in the room (most likely, they are elsewhere).
It’s a battle of attrition: nobody knows of you or cares, so you must infiltrate their subconscious. Once they’ve read your name on enough posters or pamphlets or showcase lineups, they will have decided one of two things:
a) you are more cool than they are, and they must know you
or
b) your are less cool than they are, and they must avoid you at all cost
I asked my dad for some air-miles so I could fly to Toronto and attend CMW even though I would not be performing. I paid for a badge and attended every keynote speech and industry panel I could find. I took notes. I wrote down the names of speakers who seemed smart or worked with cool bands. In my backpack was a stack of CDs for anybody who happened to have hands.
After a panel about Canadian radio, I approached someone named Jeff Leake who curated the playlist for an XM satellite station called The Verge (pre Sirius/XM merger). During his panel, he mentioned a band called Birds of Wales. Coincidentally, I’d recently supported them in Vancouver - I had an icebreaker. I gave Jeff a copy of Postcards and Daydreaming. We talked for about 30 seconds, then I excused myself.
FALL, 2006
Jeff Leake put So Much For Everyone on heavy rotation on The Verge. For anyone not in the know here, SMFE is a six minute song with no chorus. I was an unsigned artist, charting alongside Sam Roberts and Billy Talent. It was incredible. That winter, he invited me to perform at a taping of Live @ The Verge at The Media Club in Vancouver.
NOVEMBER, 2008
I was staying with family friends in Toronto’s east end, taking the streetcar across town to Parkdale daily to record Nice, Nice, Very Nice with producer John Critchley. I’d told Jeff Leake that I was in Toronto and he invited me to an XM event at The Bovine Sex Club. The headliner was Moneen and the support act was a little known band from Hamilton called The Arkells (who I’d met over tacos at SXSW in Austin, TX earlier that year).
While at the bar, I ran into Todor Kobakov, who had recently written the string arrangement for my song Basket. Todor was the only person I knew in the club so I followed him back to where he was seated, next to someone named David Tysowski, who was a radio tracker. I did not know what a radio tracker was, but David said that he worked for a company called Arts & Crafts.
It’s hard to convey just how cool Arts & Crafts was in 2008. To an upstart indie folk dude, the label was mythical. They helped launch Broken Social Scene, Feist, Stars, The Stills, The Dears, and… had released my very favourite Canadian album of that era: Idols of Exile by Jason Collett.
I made sure not to leave The Bovine Sex Club without David’s email.
DECEMBER, 2009
Nice, Nice, Very Nice had come out in Canada that summer thanks to a local indie label called File Under: Music. Things were starting to happen…
The album was at #1 on the iTunes Canada singer/songwriter download chart (pre-streaming era)
I’d won the $25K Verge award (thanks again to The Verge and Jeff Leake’s support. Once nominated, I ran a huge online voting campaign and used the winnings to repay recording debts and put a down payment toward a touring van. We named it “Verge-inia”)
Robots was at #1 on the CBC R3-30 Countdown. This was a huge deal in Canadian music at that time
I’d started touring around Australia, the USA and Europe. Even Dubai!
I was selling/shipping about $500 worth of CDs every month directly from my website, where I’d built a Paypal widget.
Things were moving quickly, but I still didn’t have a manager or distribution outside Canada. I’d learned how to do most things on my own, but I was dropping balls everywhere and needed help.
I’d started talking with a music manager from Montreal named Gillian. She was managing Plants and Animals at the time, and I thought they were rad. We hit it off on the phone, but before committing to anything, I figured I’d ask around the industry for references.
I reached out to David Tysowski at A&C, asking if he knew her. I was on tour in Europe at the time, and had been subtly updating David with every tiny victory along the way (remember the whole infiltrate their subconscious tactic above).
Reading this email, I was floored. Who was Kieran?
I’ll never forget getting on a Skype call from Amsterdam with Kieran. My girlfriend Kirsten was sitting on the bed in our infinitesimal hotel room trying not to make any noise. This was before video-calling was a thing.
We talked for nearly two hours. I told him everything - my whole story. How I’d made separate email lists for every city I’d ever played in. How I’d sent a cold email to The Georgia Straight called “10 Reasons why Dan Mangan should be on a cover of the Straight in August” - and that magically, it had worked. How every time I thought I’d written my best song, I tried to write one a bit better.
Minutes after getting off Skype, Kieran sent me this email:
My mind was blown. I couldn’t begin to muster a response in that moment, so I just closed the laptop. I hugged Kirsten, and we found a delicious tapas restaurant down the street in Amsterdam.
I signed a management deal with Arts & Crafts. Shortly thereafter, I signed a 3 album contract (now 6), and then a publishing deal.
Kieran has been my manager ever since with the help of some wonderful colleagues including Chris Slorach (who quit to pursue his band METZ full time), Stefan Babcock (who quit to pursue his band PUP fill time), and in recent years, uber-mensch Bled Celhyka. Many ups, many downs. Always a dependable homie. He tells the truth and does the right thing. He deeply gets me and believes in me. He really is an amazing cook, and a total baseball nerd. He’s one of my closest friends and I love him dearly.
Best,
Dan
What an awesome pull-back of the curtain from a seemingly innocuous question! Really enjoyed this read!