Tom Windish is a booking agent and founder of The Windish Agency, first started in 2004 out of his Chicago apartment with two employees, 50 bands and a commitment to building something unique.
The Windish Agency is an independent booking agency devoted to the artistic development and vision of its incredibly talented roster of musicians, bands and DJs. Over the years they have gone from 50 artists to around 600, with a top-notch team of 55 people booking nearly 13,000 gigs a year. Their roster consists of a variety of artists ranging from indie bands like Alvvays and Alt-J, all the way to billboard chart toppers The XX. Tom is coming to by:Larm this year to connect with the Nordic music business, and will be participating in the “by:Larm in cooperation with Music Norway presents: Go Live!” panel.
What are your biggest focus areas in 2015?
“The main focus is always developing our artist roster and continuing to bring them more and more opportunities. One year ago we started hiring people to find opportunities outside of live performances, for instance helping our artists pursue other ideas that complement their music careers, for instance film or charity.
Beyond that, there is real estate. We are moving into larger offices in Los Angeles and New York (and hopefully Chicago) so that we have more room for our growing business”.
How does a festival like by:Larm contribute to the music industry?
“Fundamentally it’s a place to showcase bands. I’ve been to many, many things similar to this around the world and I must say that bylarm does it very well. The quality of the bands selected is very high and it’s easy to get into the venues, the artists play on time, and the venues are good quality. That is a far cry from some of these conferences. Bylarm also bring together delegates from the music business from around the world and expose them to Nordic artists. Again, the quality of people attending this conference and the impact they have on the world in music are very high”.
What is the Nordic music scene’s best attributes?
“The quality of the bands is very high. They are very good musicians and songwriters and are making their voices heard around the world”.
And finally, which Norwegian meal will you NOT be trying?
“I’ll stay away from reindeer this time!”