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Rating: With this interview, we try to talk about music from a different perspective than the usual one. In the other proposed interviews, I have always sought to go beyond simple musical content and really try to get inside what are the stories of the interviewed people, their relationship with their music, and generally the context in which they operate, which obviously includes social and cultural aspects.
I can say that I know Monica Melissano aka Monique Emme (e-mail: melissanomonica(at)gmail.com) well, and I consider her a skilled professional in her work and an excellent listener of music.
Monica has worked in the music field, focusing on promotion and management, for almost twenty years. In 2010 (after gaining various experiences over the years, starting with Suiteside in 2000), she launched the project A Giant Leap (Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AGiantLeap.MoniqueM), which deals with booking and management on a European level.
When I suggested an interview to discuss her role comprehensively and her direct experience in the field, Monica graciously agreed to answer my always lengthy questions. I thank her again for her courtesy and availability.
The result is a substantial interview (available in both Italian and English) that essentially serves as a true representation of both the Italian and European musical landscape from an insider's viewpoint. It includes a sort of "historical" reconstruction regarding the last twenty years and touches upon social issues and the world of communication and interactions among people at all levels.
Enjoy the reading.
1. Hi Monica. Let's say this is a different kind of interview because instead of interviewing a musician or a band, we're talking with someone who can be considered an industry insider. Since early 2010 (correct me if I'm wrong), you have been the owner of A Giant Leap, a booking agency where you deal with promotion and management. We are talking about an experience that has been ongoing for almost ten years. Can you tell us if this is your first experience in the sector or if your journey started differently? Was there a context or a particular situation that pushed you into this kind of activity or did you just find yourself in it?
M. Hi, and thank you for the opportunity.
As you said, A Giant Leap – as European booking and management – started in 2010, but its genesis is a sort of phoenix-like rebirth from the ashes of what was Suiteside, the independent label I created and managed since 2000. Suiteside (https://suiteside.wordpress.com/) was among the very first indie labels in Italy, alongside Gamma Pop, Wallace, Homesleep, and Snowdonia, back when the term indie had a precise and not distorted meaning, aligned in attitude and ideas with American indies like K Records, Dischord, Kill Rock Stars that made history.
I worked with bands that I hope some will remember, such as Rollercoaster, Lo-Fi Sucks, Morose, Candies, The Banshee. At some point, when in the late '00s Italy started to fold back into Italian-sung music, these bands were getting more recognition abroad, both in terms of tours and reviews. Add to this that both I and some bands had invested significantly in UK press offices that – perhaps knowing they were dealing with foreigners – did not do a great job, and by the end of 2009, the decision was made for me to move to London to test and feel the situation firsthand. I decided to focus on European-level booking and management, letting go of the label side. Hence the name change. My initial intent was to promote Italian bands from the Suiteside catalog who were still active. Then... things took a different turn!
2. I imagine that to carry out this kind of activity, one must first have a certain open-mindedness and a predisposition to interaction with others, but above all, it must be impossible to do it without a particular love and connection to music. I believe it's also essential to be, in some way, part of the contemporary musical reality at least at the European level, not just Italian. My first question is, do you actually believe it's possible to work in promotion and management without the two prerequisites I mentioned? And second, over the years, have you indeed found a certain liveliness from this perspective in Europe and in our country? What are the differences between Italy and elsewhere, and would you like to share a significant experience on this matter (assuming there are any)?
M. Yes, it's certainly possible to work in music without having a passion for it, or for other reasons. I've seen many labels and venues that have completely changed genres following current trends. Honestly, it's also the easiest way to have economic returns.
I became passionate about music right in the midst of the new wave era. At 13, I already had my first radio show on a local station in Lecce, my hometown. My flaw is that I can't work on things I don't like, don't love, or wouldn't listen to from morning till night. My asset is that I'm among those people who have contributed to inventing and growing "scenes" - from Italian indie to the so-called psych.
Then business comes along and distorts everything. And this is true everywhere, with the difference that in Italy everything arrives years late (just think of trap, which is widely discussed, but in the Anglo-Saxon countries, it's already "old news"). What I can say is that I achieved more in the two years in London than in the previous ten in Italy. There, enthusiasm and ideas mattered more than connections, and after just a few weeks, I already had English bands asking me to handle their booking.
3. How do you connect with the musicians who enter your "roster"? Do you primarily have contacts with record labels, producers, or do musicians who know you somehow contact you directly, or do they introduce you to others? Over the years, you've collaborated with a lot of groups, can you list some for us? Was there an experience, in particular, that gave you specific satisfaction? Of what kind?
M. It generally worked through word of mouth. When I started in 2000 with the booking and management for the Rollercoaster, the very first band I ever worked for, once they broke through in the press and live scene, other bands began to contact me.
The same happened also for foreign bands, mainly through word of mouth: as A Giant Leap, I have worked with quite a few bands in the “neo-psych” (a term I hate) circuit: The Tamborines, The Telescopes (who I first brought to Italy in 2003), The Cult of Dom Keller, The Underground Youth, The Lucid Dream, Singapore Sling, Dead Rabbits, Adam Franklin of Swerwedriver...
There was maybe only one occasion when I contacted a band, and it connects to the second part of your question! In 2006, I randomly saw Piatcions, a garage r'n'r band from Domodossola, play in Genoa – the city where I live. They blew me away... Fuzztones meeting The Verve! I wrote to them on MySpace the day after, and we started collaborating from there. I met them when they were kids, and we've been through a lot together. They've truly believed and persevered where many stopped: absurd tours with nonstop drives from Lille to Zagreb, nights sleeping in groups of 10 on cots in the Czech Republic, historic concerts like the one with Anteloids and Koolaid Electric Company at Corsica Studios in London, or the first Bad Vibration all-dayer at the Shacklewell Arms in London in 2012 (when we were discussing in the backstage the birth of Fuzz Club). Not to mention the first Liverpool Psych Fest when I was arguing with their stage’s sound guy to start them 10 minutes later to avoid clashing with the Dead Skeletons, who had started late on the main stage due to technical problems!
I've seen them grow along with A Giant Leap and a whole scene that at first was mostly a group of friends united by common passions. Now Davide and Franci are Thrown Down Bones and are about to release their second album, which has anticipation everywhere, and even though we are not working together at the moment, I’m very proud of this!
4. I know this question might seem almost "provocative," but it's not: how crucial do you think good management and promotion are today in the music world? Clearly, we're talking about a different level from mainstream music. But I also want to ask you another question, in your opinion, what are the differences between the two levels? Or, how many levels really are there?
M. There aren't levels, there are those with talent and something to say and those without. You can have all the money in the world, but if there's no substance, hype eventually deflates. Just as you can be nobody - as a band or manager - and have so much to say that you find ways to do it. Malcolm McLaren, Andrew Loog Oldham, Tony Wilson... we all know their stories, right?
What would you say to someone who might argue that there are no particular requirements or qualities needed to do this kind of work? Do you feel you've specialized over the years? I don't like doing maths on anyone's pocket nor talking about money, but I think it's a pertinent question: can you live from managing and promoting bands that are part of a certain scene or are in some way referable to an alternative or independent dimension? And what about the musicians? In your experience, do you work with people who solely live from music, or with those who juggle between different jobs?
M. Look, over the (many) years, I've had people asking to learn, and since sometimes I've had to say no to interesting proposals because I couldn't do everything alone, in some cases, I’ve accepted. But never with success. Firstly because I’m not particularly good at teaching, secondly because many lose patience when they find that doing booking is mainly about pestering people! Requirements I consider necessary are patience and passion. And – at least for me – a sort of addiction to the semi-real dimension of the concert/festival/road life settings.
Moreover, your connections are built over the years for both promotion and booking, I contact people who I've perhaps known for 20 years, people who perhaps wrote for ‘zines and now are editors of national magazines. They listen to me because there's a trust in the quality of what I propose. Of course, there are also people I no longer work with because I've had fallouts (as happens not only to me)... and from this point of view, those starting have the advantage of having a blank slate!
Regarding the economic side... I chose to live on a low budget (living in the province and no frills) so as not to be a slave to a desk job and to be able to do what I love. You live well if you have bands that cash in thousands of euros, but 90% of the time when they reach that point, big agencies snatch them away. Almost everyone I know in the circle, even label managers of well-known labels, has other jobs that often finance the label.
Musicians often face the crucial choice of having to choose between music and work, especially those who have families or mortgages to pay, and paradoxically this happens when things start to work out, and holidays are no longer enough for tour days. It's better for those who have freelance jobs or other musical settings like sound engineers or producers. But it's always complicated.
5. I’ll divide the last question into two parts. First, are you currently working with any particular group and/or artist, and do you have anything planned for the near future? The second question relates to what you believe doesn't work in the music world, and if you could change something (assuming one has the capability). My feeling is that many things, even at the level of alternative and/or independent music, operate according to schemes not very different from the mainstream world. Often, it seems as if there's either a struggle to prevail over others or the formation of closed circles of people. There is often a lack of a culture truly open to cultural exchange. Is this simply my feeling, or is there some truth, and according to you, is this negative also on the production and dissemination of good music? And consequently, perhaps, to what could be working in a healthy and even productive manner.
M. I have resumed booking at full speed after a period where – due to various practical personal issues – I concentrated mainly on a press office angle.
Currently, I am working on autumn tours for CHICKN, an Athens-based band that I think has a devastating talent that goes beyond the genres they can be associated with (psych, punk, prog...) and for Weird Sex, from Liverpool. I’ve known Joey – the frontman – since 2010 when I was booking Suicide Party, the band he was in with Nicholas, now KVB. As soon as the release of the new album is defined, I’ll start working for Lisa Papineau, also an exceptional person I've known for over ten years, a collaborator with Air and M83, and part of Big Sir with Juan from Mars Volta, who I’ve brought to Europe twice at the beginning of the decade. Additionally, I’ll handle the booking for An Early Bird, Stefano De Stefano’s new indie-folk project, whom I know from the Pipers days, releasing his debut album in October for Dead Bees Records in Toulouse. I'm open to other proposals for 2019, with a preference for garage/proto-punk/space rock.
Regarding what doesn’t work, I have a thought, and it’s not only tied to music. When I started nearly 20 years ago, we built solid relationships with promoters; gigs were confirmed by phone; we knew each other, talked about everything, the latest releases, scene issues... Now everything is done not even via email, but through social media. It’s impossible to have decent conversations, and it slows down processes because sometimes getting responses with such scattered contacts is a real ordeal.
Moreover, people don’t listen... It’s one thing to send a CD, which was listened to and appreciated (or not, but at least evaluated). It's quite another to send a Bandcamp link where only the first 30 seconds of 3 tracks are listened to, if lucky. While promoters would become infatuated with a band and push them on their conviction, now dates are set based on how many likes the band has on Facebook or how many "likes" to the posts. There's a lack of curiosity to go out and discover music firsthand. And there's a lack of basic etiquette often, like not disappearing in the middle of a chat, or giving (or not confirming) dates that have been optioned.
In 2000, when I started working as a manager for Rollercoaster, I mailed their first demo to John Peel. I’m talking about John Peel, not a webradio. John Peel replied, by mail. With appropriate comments and advice, making clear he had listened. I still have the letter, typed and signed by hand. He had passion and curiosity, and respect. These are now often missing. And greatly needed.
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