Agency Intel: Liaison Artists’ Andrew Kelsey Talks Agency’s Growth

Since its launch in 2004, San Francisco-based booking agency Liaison Artists has dedicated itself to representing international dance music acts, with a roster that includes Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep, Bicep, Jamie Jones, Honey Dijon, Eli & Fur, Mat Zo and more. While the team is only made up of 18 people, the agency and its president, Andrew Kelsey, get a lot done.

Kelsey got the idea to begin his own agency following a trip to San Francisco back in 1998. “The music scene was off the hook at that time,” says Kelsey, who was then living in Buffalo, New York. “I didn’t think at the time I wanted to move here, but I wanted to come back and spend more time. The trip ended after three months, I was completely out of money. I needed to figure out what I wanted to do … I wanted to make a drastic change; I sold everything and moved to San Francisco with one bag.”

Pollstar: What have you and Liaison Artists been working on this past year?
Andrew Kelsey: The team has evolved quite a bit. Most of the agents we have were assistants and coordinators at one point. We have grown and evolved into agents over time. Ryan Smith came from another agency maybe eight years ago and brought a couple key clients with him: Honey Dijon, Bicep, Horse Meat Disco. That was a big moment for us. Then, another moment was coming out of the pandemic, which was obviously horrific, and we ended up being able to pick up two senior agents during that period. That was another big moment for us in 2021. The pandemic being what it was, we were able to come out of it at strength and really felt great.

You have a relatively small team with only 18 people. What are some strengths you have with that, and what are some challenges you face?
One strength we currently have is just our infrastructure. Our accounting teams are fantastic. All of our booking coordinators that support our agents are ace. We’re just a really tight-knit team. We are operating on all cylinders and it still feels like a family vibe. Everyone is extremely dedicated and good at their jobs. We’re just in a really great place.
Some challenges — some of the majors and other companies obviously have full arms of the company doing actors and sponsorship and some of these marketing departments have more marketing support and branding opportunities that we strive to grow into as well.

What sub-genres have been selling the most hard tickets within your own roster?
I think there’s been a surge in hard techno with artists. House music in general is having a resurgence again for the fifth time. It always comes back to house eventually with artists like Jamie Jones and Honey Dijon really leading the way with a classic house, funk-infused house, and big room stuff as well. Afro house and World house are really taking off super quickly.

The fan response to these kinds of artists has been fantastic. Some of them have performers on stage and vocalists, rappers, drummers, and people are really responding to that. Also, in general, watching some of these guys perform is just incredible. How another agency maybe eight years ago and much fun they’re having on stage, you can’t help but join them. It’s infectious. It’s a newer kind of trend into the kind of DJ performance. But brands and concepts are a huge thing right now.

Artists like Bicep and their new Chroma brand, the level of production these artists now bring is incredible and really changing the game. I feel like there used to be a clubbing culture, people would go clubbing on the weekends with cheap tickets and sometimes they didn’t even know who was playing, they’re just going clubbing with their friends and promoters have really hot programming week in and week out. And they did. But now, with these huge shows with heavy production and high ticket prices to cover it, that’s unsustainable. These people can’t do that every weekend. They have to pick and choose, “Am I going to see Dixon’s Transmoderna?” And people are going to feel these shows cannot be missed. If it’s a standard club date, maybe they’ll catch that one next time, but they’re certainly not going to miss these shows. They have to plan how to spend their money. These are expensive shows; [fans] come early and stay late. This is kind of a clear change from how it used to be when people would hop around from club to club, maybe go to several in a night. It’s just their whole kind of post-pandemic and habits in going out have changed.

Harder techno and Eurodance exploded last year, even the year before a little bit, and then this year as well on a whole other level. I don’t think it’s hit anywhere near its peak yet. And the Eurodance artists, like Heart String or Marily Hitat, they’ve barely touched the U.S. yet, it’s just starting. It’s hard to see where that’s even going to go, but it’s going to be big. Melodic techno, that’s always been big in the last five to seven years, but that’s main stage music now that’s doing 30,000 to 40,000-capacity stages and tickets. The return of house music is starting, too. I think even in the last two years, it still has a lot of runway.

How much of your business is shifting into “hard tickets” right now?
It’s shifted quite a bit. Even things that were just kind of soft ticket are moving that way, even a club show. The club’s not right in the center and isn’t as soft ticket as it used to be, because people aren’t going out, going clubbing and bopping around. Walk-ups on shows is not what it used to be. Everything’s very artist-driven and slightly hard ticket, even if not completely hard ticket, with some of these brands and more expensive shows. They really want a show, that artist, that experience. It’s a much bigger part of our business model.