#tom windish

Tom Windish’s main mantra in life seems to be: don’t take no for an answer.

It’s not a bad rule for a talent agent who specialises in breaking artists whose appeal might not be immediately obvious, either through ultra-poppy hooks or off the chart social numbers.

It’s certainly the right attitude for someone who has launched and steered the live trajectories of artists from Low to Lorde, Alt-J, The xx, Diplo and beyond. read more at musicbusinessworldwide.com

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Q: When you break an act like that and they’re booked on all the festivals does that change the process of how you’re routing a tour? Like, waiting for those festival offers to come in or do you know well in advance when that stuff’s gonna happen so you can work that stuff out?

Tom Windish [Booker at Paradigm Agency]:  You know well in advance, yeah. I wouldn’t say we’re really waiting longer than we should to book venues. I’m having these conversations with festivals 12 months in advance, sometimes more than that. Not every offer comes in 12 months in advance but often the festivals will be the tentpoles and then we’ll figure out, “Okay, what’s the strategy around it?” And I’ll figure out every market I want that act to play on an album cycle and if there’s certain markets they should play twice or something. And then I cross them off the list and make sure we hit them at the right times. 

Q: Well, the success of Lorde, you guys couldn’t possibly have  known when that first broke that that was going to break as big as it did?

TW: Nope.

Q: So, Coachella was in that first album cycle through, and wasn’t on the main stage, it seemed like the crowd was so big that that obviously, would’ve been something that if they could’ve adjusted they would’ve but obviously billing in a lot of those things is locked in that you can’t just move some of those bigger bands off the main stage. Does that become a problem, historically, or does that just show the amazing demand for the act?

TW: Yeah, I mean, that’s not a problem, she had a moment there. And she doesn’t need to be on the, whatever the biggest-biggest thing when she played. And we’ve had a lot of other bands like have those moments at festivals or whatever. It’s kind of like when you sell out a any size venue and there’s people outside clamoring to get in. It’s a moment. And I love those things, and I mean, that’s part of my strategy with booking these artists, like, try to create those. I find that people never complain about sold out shows. And they add fuel to the fire, you know, but when you leave stuff on the table it leaves people nervous or something or scratching, wondering, “Uh, why did we do this?”

Tom Windish on an agent’s role in an artists life:

Paradigm partner Tom Windish teams with Future Classic to launch WILDER

Future Classic and Paradigm super-agent Tom Windish has announced the formation of a new record label WILDER, a singles oriented joint-venture set on creating a release pipeline for emerging young artists and bands. Named after his newborn son, it was launched on October 16, 2019 with the re-release of ”Applesauce” the first single from Indiana-based singer and producer Sam Latty, 19, who is…

Q: What do you believe is the most-influential trend changing the music industry today?

A: The way people consume music. It is easier now than ever before to listen to whatever you want to at a moment's notice. This is an incredible development for artist's and their ability to connect with people. It's also easier and cheaper to make an album. Gatekeepers used to be economic. It used to cost a lot of money to promote and record an album and certain individual's and corporations controlled those resources. Now that is largely removed from the equation. The result is that it's easier than ever for a talented musician to become recognized by fans and to make a living.  

Q: If you could change one thing in today’s music industry to make it better, what would that be?

A: Taxes levied against foreign artists in this country are 30%. There are some ways to decrease that percentage but it is very expensive. Visas for foreign artists are very expensive to obtain and last less time than in the past. This makes it much more expensive to tour the USA. It makes the financial barrier for a new band to tour the USA incredibly high. If anything, it should be cheaper and easier than before.  

Q: The United States is the only industrialized nation without a Ministry of Culture, yet culture is the country’s greatest export. What are your thoughts about that?

A: We have never placed the same value on art as many other countries. Look at our venues compared to venues in France, Germany, Japan, Australia, etc. I'm not sure what to think about it, to be honest. I am a supporter of many elements of capitalism but not when it comes to art, education, transportation, the environment or health.

Q: There are a lot of business models floating around for recorded music? Which one do you think makes the most sense?

A: Business models should be centered around the overall artist brand, not around their recorded music. The combination of revenue streams combine to form an amount of money much greater than what an artist was getting from record sales before.

Q: Who’s your favorite artist right now?

A: Any of the ones who choose to be represented by our agency for starters...

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Tom Windish first dove into the music industry by booking concerts and hosting college radio shows while attending State University of New York at Binghamton in upstate New York. Soon after, he began booking tours for bands, some of which he had booked to play at his college a few months or years earlier.

Originally starting in his apartment in Chicago, The Windish Agency began with minimum expectations and the desire to be the best agency possible for artists that he loved. The agency continues to keep the goals and needs of the artists at the center of its business by finding inventive and thoughtfully constructed ways to bring their live performances to fans.

Currently, The Windish Agency holds offices in Chicago, New York, Toronto and Los Angeles. The company books tours in the United States, Canada, Central America, South America, Australia, Asia and parts of Europe and Africa. Windish and his growing staff of twenty five oversee the tours of many artists including Animal Collective, Crystal Castles, Matt and Kim, Dirty Projectors, Fever Ray, Girl Talk, Hot Chip, Jose Gonzales, Justice, Lykke Li, Miike Snow, Pink Martini, The xx, Yeasayer, and one of his very first clients, Low. 

Browse the more than 500 acts on The Windish Agency's roster and there are bound to be a few recognizable names. It's a who's who list of current indie and dance acts ranging from Foster The People to Girl Talk to Ra Ra Riot. The man responsible for amassing such an impressive collection of talent is founder Tom Windish. Since starting his Chicago-based agency in 2004, Windish has emerged as the preeminent talent booker bands jumping from the indie circuit to slots on major festivals. Billboard even proclaimed him in 2008 as an "índie visionary."

Here is what Windish told The Daily Swarm about his first concert experience in upstate New York:

"Oh, man I wish I didn’t have to be honest with this question, but it was Huey Lewis and the News! I saw them with my dad at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. I smelled pot for first time there; I was like 'What’s that smell, dad?' He didn’t answer. That experience made me want to go more shows, though.