Agency Intel: Sound Talent Group’s John Pantle ‘I Am Tired Of Apologizing For The New Normal’

John Pantle might not seem like the most obvious Latin talent agent, and that’s because he’s neither obvious nor a “Latin agent.”

“The people I work with on my Japanese artists think I must be Japanese somehow, the people who know me within the Latin sphere know me as the guy who is Latino, the people who know me from World of Dance think I work in all sorts of dance companies, and we handle a lot of ska bands too,” says Pantle, who joined the independent Sound Talent Group shortly after its 2018 launch following a stint with The Agency Group and APA. 

Before becoming an agent, Pantle was a talent buyer at the Los Angeles House of Blues, booking artists that spoke to the sizable Hispanic demographic. He even filled in on trombone for Tijuana No!, which he called akin to “the Dead Kennedys of Mexico” and eventually toured Mexico with the band between booking duties. This led to more opportunities. 

“Cafe Tacvba, which I was friends with,  asked me to be an agent,” he says. “They wanted someone who knew their music but they felt that a company having a Latin department intrinsically creates an information deficit for an artist – they felt there was a lack of communication between the Latin department and mainstream department,” he says. “The band wanted to work with a company that just saw them as part of everything.”

His own skills improved in the meantime. 

“I started picking up the language and learning it, and I put together a sponsorship deal for a band called El Gran Silencio, a ska punk band from Monterrey, and got a deal with McDonalds,” Pantle says. “I spoke enough Spanish to explain to the artists the advantages and disadvantages of working with the tour. So after that, I said, ‘Hey, I put together a deal for all of these artists, so OK I guess I’m bilingual.’”

 A few years later, Pantle’s roster now includes Calle 13, El Tri, Kinky, Julieta Venegas, Molotov, Natalia Lafourcade, Residente, and still others. 

“We never had a ‘Latin roster’ at the companies I worked at because we were cognizant of that aspect,” says Pantle, who from The Agency Group went to UTA and then APA before joining Tim Borror, Matt Andersen and Dave Shapiro’s Sound Talent.  

Pantle says not only is it important to not emphasise the difference between a Latin or Japanese music roster from the rest of an agency’s client list, but to take experiences from different markets and genres.

“You want an agent to reflect innovations and be well versed in the businesses’ different variations,” says Pantle.  “I’ll take ideas that I got from Natalia LaFourcade and take it to Run DMC, I’ll take something from Hatsune Miku and present it to World of Dance. Throwing out ideas and coming up with different ideas and concepts is crucial to succeeding right now.”

“It’s the whole concept of pivoting from artist to artist. Certain things occur with each artist, where they play changes, what language they speak changes, what format they play changes, but protecting the art and the artist – that never changes.”

As the pandemic hit, STG has been active in the livestream space, with major ticketed events put on with its collaboration with the LiveFrom platform, including shows by longtime Borror client Clutch and Pantle’s own The Slackers. Pantle says STG has done 65 livestream shows, playing to fans in 150 countries and grossing more than $600,000. 

“I find our traditional role has changed,” he says, adding that he looks forward to getting back to the old headaches of tour routing and challenging third and fourth holds. 

“What we do now is share information about the key areas they want. In one sense, that’s all you do as an agent anyway – share information and negotiate in certain parts. But we’re doing a lot more sharing information with epidemiology situations and what’s happening in other countries and being on top of everything the client needs. It’s not impossible, but I think you can characterize everything in 2020 as potentially impossible.”

Other recent concerts include the El Patio Tecate livestream, of which Natalia Lafourcade headlined episode 2 for a Dia De Los Muertos event (See page 23), and a drive-in performance from cumbia/bossa nova fusion band La Santa Cecilia Nov. 1 at Cal State San Marcos near San Diego for Day of the Dead. 

Pantle says performing these days is more than just dollars and cents.

“They loved it, they had a great time,” he says. “Obviously, the economics were much different than selling out three shows in Los Angeles, but they loved it. Nothing is going to take away from how the band felt, how the fans felt, how the promoter felt after that show on Nov. 1. They were all there, they experienced it, and they loved it and thought it felt great.”

He says all anyone in the greater concert business can do right now is deal with the here and now.

“I am tired of apologizing for the new normal, I’m tired of saying ‘I don’t know,’” he adds. “We choose to say what we do know. We choose to say this is where we are now. I can’t be revisionist when I’m in charge of ensuring the food is in the mouths of our clients. 

“I refuse to view it as the new normal. I choose to view it as now. And, just like everything else, now will change soon, and that’s going to be great.”