Lorde’s First Manager Sacked By Warner For Harassment

Scott Maclachlan, who discovered Lorde and served as her first manager, has been sacked as an A&R consultant at Warner Music Australasia.

This decision came after harassment allegations were levied against Maclachlan by a former employee of his Auckland-based Saiko Management company in New Zealand’s Stuff. 

The employee, identified as Amy Goldsmith, said Maclachlan sexually harassed and emotionally manipulated her. 

 “He would insinuate he wanted more (than their professional relationship) he would comment on my body, he would ask whether I wanted to kiss him. Most of the time I just told him to shut up,” she said.

Maclachlan has since acknowledged in Stuff that the claims were true.

Maclachlan told Stuff, “There’s not a day goes by that I don’t regret the harm I have caused people around me and most importantly the pain and embarrassment I have caused my wife and children. I have to live with that guilt, knowing that people I worked with have also endured pain and stress because of my actions.”

He is receiving intensive psychiatric treatment and was trying to “live a simpler, less selfish life.”

After 20 years in the music industry in the U.K. Maclachlan moved to New Zealand in 2008 and discovered Lorde, then 13, a year after. 

The Grammy-winning singer left Saiko Management in 2015, while it continued to handle best-selling tenor trio Sol3 Mio, Balu Brigada, LEISURE and Thomston, Australia’s E^ST and Glades and US outfit The Aces.

In 2018 Warner Music Australasia hired him as senior vice president A&R, commuting between Sydney and Auckland while he continued with Saiko. But within five months, after a complaint, he was banned from the Sydney offices and demoted to the role of A&R consultant for the NZ arm.