Drew Simmons On Managing Noah Kahan: ‘It’s Always Been Guided By What Is Fulfilling For Noah’

Noah Kahan’s year just keeps getting better, having recently confirmed a headline appearance at High Water music festival in North Charleston, South Carolina, and unveiled his latest Stick Season collaboration with Kacey Musgraves shortly after adding additional dates to his 2024 “We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour” marking the biggest trek of his career including multiple nights at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, New York’s Madison Square Garden and Boston’s Fenway Park.

Manager Drew Simmons, partner at Foundations Artist Management, has worked with the 26-year-old singer/songwriter for the past nine years since coming across Kahan’s song “Sink” on SoundCloud and says “at no point in his career was there ever any doubt that he was going to achieve this type of success.”

He adds, “Fast forward to where we are now, it happening on the back side of a folk record – that probably wouldn’t have been what we expected. But what is fully expected is that he was going to do it in a way that was fulfilling to him. His magic is being able to communicate so specifically about his life, but have it be relatable and universal. I think that just comes from him being such a grounded and humble human. It makes working with him an absolute joy.”

Kahan’s 2023 box office highlights include stops at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre, New York’s Radio City Music Hall and the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland (15,000 tickets sold and $906,355 grossed).

Simmons also manages COIN and producer/writer Gabe Simon, who produced Kahan’s Stick Season. He also co-manages Dayglow with Foundations Artist Management‘s Ryan Langlois and co-manages producer/writer Carrie K with Foundations Artist Management‘s Emily Harlan. He previously managed Young the Giant for 13 years.

Simmons got his start in the business with an internship at Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. While in college at Northeastern University in Boston, he worked security at shows and then took on the roles of a production assistant and runner, along with working in the box office for local venues throughout New England, at the time promoted by Don Law Company (now part of Live Nation). Simmons also managed a few artists out of his dorm room and after graduating he spent time at Mark Kates’ Fenway Recordings and Red Light Management.

Pollstar: What attracted you to the role of manager?
Drew Simmons: It was always the desire to be close to the creative process. Also, the decision making. I’ve always sought out entrepreneurial opportunities and I felt like this was a great place to be able to work alongside an artist and be able to make decisions with them as a partnership. I just found it to be fascinating how managers have to maneuver through the changing landscape of this industry, and the path has not led me wrong at this point. … Working closely with artists, there’s a lot of overlap in friendship and also a professional advisory role, which I find to be fulfilling.

Was there anything that stuck with you from your experience at Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records?
Yeah, absolutely. The independent spirit they had, and Ani’s music is so much about her independence as a human and where she fit into society. It was really amazing to see her team as a reflection of her personal vision and kind of gave me a little insight into building company culture and what a company’s identity can stand for when it represents an artist or multiple artists. That was a pretty important lesson early on.

How would you describe your strategy for managing Noah Kahan’s career?
It’s always been guided by what is fulfilling for Noah, and I feel like that’s super important – to identify the goals of your client and tailor the philosophy toward them. Noah’s grown into being an incredible live performer. At the time, when I first started managing him, he didn’t have a whole lot of live experience – he’d done some open mics, he had played some local shows – so we worked toward that. He’s always loved writing and recording, particularly the writing process has been therapeutic for him, it’s been one of the primary interests he’d had in this business and his career. So letting his songwriting and storytelling, letting his ability to craft a narrative lead the strategy and put that in the forefront. And once we had aligned with and found “his people” in the business – producers and writers – they all saw what we collectively saw. It was creating a community around him.

Noah just announced the biggest tour of his career – including two stadium shows at Fenway Park. Has the success sunk in yet for Noah and the team?
It’s starting to become a new reality a year into his album cycle. It’s been a total whirlwind. I can’t say enough about Noah. The growth as a human, as an artist, as a songwriter, as performer has just been absolutely incredible to be a part of. … While it’s been nine years of chipping away at this to get to this point and establishing this base of a career that he’s had, it has been very enjoyable to do that with him as a partner.

Having been in this business now for 20 years, it requires a great team of people. I’d love to include the mention of my day-to-day on Noah – Ryan Langlois, who was [previously] my assistant … and he’s now co-managing Dayglow with me and has been an integral part of the team with Noah over the years. Noah has the same core team – his booking agents [Wasserman Music’s Joe Atamian and Paige Maloney], his attorney, his business manager – [that] we put into place since day one … we’ve been able to keep that crew together and really create a great bond between all of us.

And Mercury Records has been his label since a year into his career and has been incredibly supportive and patient with his development in each step of the way. They’ve been vital to our whole team approach and continue to be.

Anything else you’d like to share about Noah?
Another point of pride in this story is the development of the Busyhead project, which is his effort to raise funds for mental health and mental health services and awareness that we set out seven months ago with the goal of raising $1 million for mental health.

We’ve already surpassed $2 million. And that will be a part of his ongoing career structure – a dollar per ticket for every show around the world goes back to Busyhead project and we’re sending those funds to regional mental health services and have found some amazing partners that have been supportive through that process. … It’s super important to him that he’s gonna keep raising money for a cause and something that has been a big part of his personal life and personal story.

What’s the latest with your other clients?
COIN and Dayglow are two other artists that I manage that came off of album cycles last year and are in the process of making records right now. [They’ll be] putting out new music and touring next year. Both are in 2,000- to 6,000-capacity venues. … In addition, Gabe Simon, who is a producer and writer who worked with Lana Del Rey, Maroon 5 and Dua Lipa and made records with The Wombats. He is making records right now that we’re excited about, I probably can’t talk about yet

And Carrie K, a writer/producer, is my most recent signing who I co-manage with Emily Harlan in the Nashville office. Carrie played drums on Noah’s record and assisted in some production and co-wrote a little bit on the record as well and she’s writing in producing with Jessie Murph, Suki Waterhouse and Sasha Alex Sloan and she’s fantastic. The music world needs more female creatives and female producers and writers, and I’m so thrilled to work with one now. She’s wildly talented, an amazing drummer, an amazing producer and writer.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned over the years working two decades in the music industry?
I think the biggest lesson is just to be a constant student and to listen. … acknowledging at each stage of growth in a career that you don’t have all the answers is super important in having that drive to find answers and find new solutions to problems is what breeds innovation in the business.