Co-Owner/Co-Founder
Alternate Side Management
Years with Company: 13
Address: Nashville, Philadelphia, N.Y.C., L.A.
Web: alternatesi.de
Email: info@alternateside.co
Clients: Hot Mulligan, Beach Bunny, Citizen, Dayseeker, Knuckle Punk, Bad Suns, Carseat Headrest, Cavetown, Chloe Moriondo
BACKGROUND
Evange Livanos began her career in the music industry booking bands, which eventually morphed into her true calling for management. She created Synergy Artist Management in 2012 and then changed the name to Alternate Side in 2018.
The First One They Call
When you’re booking, you’re in charge of the live show. When the artist doesn’t have a manager, you’re the default phone call they make when things go wrong or they have questions. I like knowing everything about a band’s business. I identify with the whole picture of an artist’s career versus one part of it, so being an agent naturally evolved into managing.
Manager By Happenstance
I was repping this young emo band named Emanuel. Fans loved them, and labels were after them. I was their booking agent, so I helped them. As I was getting them on the road, I was also fielding these phone calls and kind of defaulted into their manager. I had them do a record with a big rock producer named Machine. We signed to Vagrant and the band asked me to be their manager.
Another Side
I worked at other management companies when I was living on the East Coast. Then I moved to Los Angeles and was doing freelance gigs. I started my own company in 2012 and had somebody working for me named Zack Zarrillo. [When he became my partner,] we changed the name to Alternate Side.
Searching for Artists
Sometimes, I lurk online and come across something. Most of the time, an agent or lawyer will bring it to us. My company is 12 people deep, so there’s a Slack channel that’s buzzing all day long. We have managers all over the U.S., and they hear things. It’s always, “This artist fired their manager, and they’re looking to take meetings.”
Beyond Music
I’ve got to love the music, but it has to go beyond that. It also has to be an artist that knows how to work their fan base. Do they have the right attitude? Are they in it for the right reasons? Are we going to vibe? Are they going to work as hard as I am? I’m a very in-the-trenches type of manager. If they’re not going to respond to my texts, how hard is this going to be? I don’t mind a challenge. What I mind is if the artist is the challenge. They can’t get in the way. Everything else can get in the way.
Being a People Person
I used to waitress for my dad’s diner. I went to school to be a teacher, so I have a degree in elementary education. In those courses and in that life, you have to talk to people. You’ve got to be able to level with a difficult customer. I’m not always going to be able to have an artist see the big picture. But you have to learn their personalities. It’s usually the younger artists that are easier to motivate. With older artists, you can be matter-of-fact. It usually takes a good year to get a feel for how a band works.
Instinct
You either have a gut instinct on how to work with people, or you don’t. And if you don’t, you probably will not be a successful manager. I had people who interviewed really well and it was awesome having them in the office. They had a good vibe but just didn’t have that thing I can’t teach—that ability to speak to an artist to get a point across. Either you can deal with people in creative and talk to them in a way that gets to them, or you can’t.
Seeing the Big Picture
Is the artist awesome, and do I have a vision for it? I’m never going to pick up something that I don’t know what to do with after a year. That’s not good for them or me. What am I going to do for the next five years for this artist?
Create Your World
I like [for artists] to have done stuff already. They’re not just looking for me to invent this whole world around them. They have to have fans and want to amplify that. If you’ve never played a show before, that’s going to be a challenge. If an artist comes with their world intact, it’s much more effective.
When Is a Band Ready for Management?
It’s when they start becoming overwhelmed, and not in a way that’s just, “I don’t feel like answering this email.” They’re constantly on tour. Labels are hitting them up. Maybe managers are hitting them up. Something in their career will suffer. They’ll either not be able to rehearse as much because they have to ship out all their merch orders, or they may not be able to make a record because they’re too busy touring. Things will be happening for them. They will be like, “I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m scared.”
The New Manager’s Crucible
Are you ready to struggle, work really hard, and not make a lot of money for many years? It takes a long time for some bands to pop. You don’t get paid a salary unless you work at a company and you’re hired as a day-to-day. You are being paid 15 percent of whatever that artist makes. You have to hope you have an artist that makes money, because that’s artist development—taking on an artist that’s only making $500 a night. Hopefully, that leads to them making $50,000 to $500,000 a night. But that takes a long time. So you have to be ready for that to be your life.
Distribution
Alternate Side is lucky enough to have in-house distribution through Merlin, which is just like major label distribution. [Our artists] get paid the same rates they would if they were signed to a major.
Know Your Goals
One of the first things I ask an artist is, “What are your goals?” Some artists want to play Madison Square Garden. Some artists don’t. Both of those artists are right. And for both of those artists, it’s a career. If the artist has no goals—“I just want to play music and have fun”—that’s not a business. That’s a hobby. And I’m not trying to help somebody with their hobby. I’m trying to help someone build a business based on art.
Negative Sentiments
Maybe it’s just what I came across when I was working among a bunch of emo rap artists, but there was this big anti-manager kick. “Managers take your money.” “Managers are dishonest.” “Managers are money-hungry.” “Managers ruin everything.” I’m sure there are some managers that are pieces of shit. In fact, I know a few. There are managers that take their artists out to dinner for their birthdays and then bill them back for it. We don’t do that here. We absorb all the costs. It’s a lot out of our pocket, but we want our artists to be profitable. We stand behind our artists. We also stand in front of our artists to absorb any bullshit that’s going to hit them. Managers are the protectors of artists, so they should be seen as that.
A.I. Rip-off Artists
You know what’s getting my goat right now? A.I. music. It is beyond not okay. These artists create these songs, and then someone can just be like, “Make songs like Dayseeker,” and make money. That is so fucked. I think any A.I. artist should just go away. There should be some sort of filter—did you create this? It’s going to kill the industry.
