On Tour With Tash Sultana: Q’s With Paradigm’s Jackie Nalpant, Rob Zifarelli & Aaron Pinkus

Dara Munnis – Tash Sultana
Represented by Jakie Nalpant, Rob Zifarelli and Aaron Pinkus at Paradigm Talent Agency

As part of this week’s Hotstar Tash Sultana, Pollstar spoke with her agents at Paradigm Talent Agency, Jackie Nalpant, Rob Zifarelli and Aaron Pinkus.

Jackie Nalpant: We began working with Tash in 2016, prior to seeing any live performances. But as many did, we discovered Tash’s brilliant living room and busking videos from the streets of Melbourne.

Rob Zifarelli: In Early 2017, Tash debuted in North America playing a run of 300 capacity sold out shows. Jackie, [Aaron] Pinkus and I first saw Tash in NYC at the Mercury Lounge in Feb. 2017 along with 250 fans. It was an absolutely electric night. I think I speak for everyone who saw these early shows that we all knew that Tash was an extremely special talent; a dynamo.

Zifarelli: Toronto was a special situation and experience for me. Two decades into my agent career I have never been in a situation where we had booked an artist into one of the usual first play venues in Toronto, the 500 capacity Legendary Horseshoe Tavern. It’s one of those rite-of-passage type venues and what we believed was a good first play, albeit a little big. 

But immediately after the onsale it was obvious that we were going to have to upgrade the room, which we quickly did and moved to the Opera House at 900 capacity. Remarkably, the show continued to sell very well and much to everyone’s pleasant surprise, sold out shortly after moving and we had to move the show again, this time to the Danforth Music Hall. Tash sold that out too! So, two major upgrades and the artist sold out their first show in Toronto three times, settling on 1,450 sold out tickets. Remarkable.

Nalpant: Our first Bay Area booking for Tash was at the Swedish American Hall at 350 capacity. This date sold out two months in advance but after considerable thought as a group we elected not to upgrade at that time in order to set the table for the coming play in the Fall of 2017. 

Pinkus: Tash returned to the Bay Area eight months later and this time sold out The Fillmore six months in advance at 1,199 capacity. Thirteen months later, Tash has sold out a double at the Fox Theatre in Oakland with a combined sale of 5,600 tickets.

Nalpant: She is in the 3,000-5,000 capacity venues now.

Nalpant: The current priority is to return to South America in order to follow up on the very successful Lollapalooza appearances this year.

Nalpant: Festivals deliver an opportunity to play outside of the core audience; it’s a chance to convert what we hope is the convertible. Tash playing in these settings, just one person on stage with no backing track, producing each song in layers through looping and reminding everyone what real multi-instrumental talent looks like…thus far, all of these amazing opportunities have been wins.

Nalpant: The current plan for the western hemisphere is that Tash will play in three blocks; one in Spring and two in the Fall.

Nalpant: On stage Tash is 10 feet tall and all energy, inspiration and experimentation. Off stage, perhaps only slightly shorter.