Nadia Mitic

HELVETIAROCKT: MUSICIANS IN CONVERSATION SEASON 3 NADIA MITIC [Helvetiarockt is a Swiss national association raising awareness about gender inequality in the music industry while supporting promoting and connecting professional female inter non-binary and trans artists. Through its grassroots projects such as producing, DJing, band workshops and songwriting camps, it offers platforms for young people of all levels to dis-cover music and be part of an empowering community find out more on our website hel-vetiarockt.ch, sign up for the newsletter and follow us on social media. Musicians in Con-versation is sponsored by SUISA The Cooperative Society of Music authors and Publishers in Switzerland SUISA is celebrating its 100 year anniversary in 2023. [Music] Hi everyone my name is Natalia Anderson and I'm a presenter content creator and DJ in this episode of Musicians in Conversation I speak with agent artist manager and artistic director of Le Port Franc in Sion Nadia Mitic we discuss how the skills she learned as a teacher helps her in her music career today and the importance of understanding the various roles within the Music Industry. Nadia also gives practical advice to people want-ing to work within the music industry and to artists and bands when it comes to planning a release and building a career. Nadia answers an audience question and don't forget if you have the question simply send a direct message to Helvetiarockt on Instagram. In the meantime here's my conversation with Nadia Hi this is Nadia Mitic and you are listening to Musicians in Conversation Backstage Nad thank you so much for joining me today on Helvetiarockt Musicians and Conversa-tion thanks for the invitation my absolute pleasure I'm going to get started with the first question that I ask everybody and that is how did you get started on your musical jour-ney. So when I was five I received a little radio portable radio that I was listening every time I was coming back home and just taking it put it on and listening to music I think that's my first memory of listening to music yeah and now you work in the music industry but I want to go back a bit because you were a teacher for some time and then you studied geography these are quite academic you're laughing these are quite academic subjects and then you've gone into such a creative world of music so how did you make that transition but first of all what led you to become a teacher and also do a masters in geography well I think that music was always with me I mean when I was a teenager I was singing in the band fortunately I stopped but then with these people they intro-duced me to a live music introducing me at La Dolce Vita in Lausanne so when I was 17 I began to work there and then from that moment really music was like live music and be-ing in a club and seeing concerts where just my awakened life at least after school I had to choose something and I didn't really know what to do because I didn't know that working in the (music) business was a possibility so I follow a friend who went to a teach-ing school and I did the teaching school and I teached and I really liked it but definitely it wasn't what I wanted to do when I was 30 and I finished my studies I was really at the point I mean everything was going great with teaching and with my studies and every-thing but it wasn't what I wanted to do I wanted to work into the music business and if I stayed in Switzerland for me it was like impossible because it's a really small world so I de-cided to go to Belgium to see which were the possibilities for me into the music business and I stayed there five years I built a really big network I made a lot of contacts and I had the opportunity to directly work in a festival and had contact in venues and I came back in Switzerland in 2014 and there I decided to build my own agency yeah that's the moment when I really began I mean it was 100% of my time and I became like a profes-sional oh my goodness so much to talk about I actually want to go back a bit and focus a little bit on the fact that when you were studying or when you were younger you didn't realize that there were opportunities and jobs available in the music industry do you think things have changed for people now coming up well yeah I think it changed now there is there is schools you have courses you have contacts and it's more and more visible I mean we are more and more talking about what's an agent what's a manager what's a sound engineer what's a light engineer but also I'm so fascinated by the fact that you know in your 30s or when you turn 30 you decided to have a career change and for a lot of people that is something incredibly scary to do you know to move country and also kind of start on something completely different where did you find that kind of strength or the kind of passion or the I don't know the drive to push yourself to do something quite daunting and scary it's funny that you say that because when I moved to Belgium no-body understood what I was doing they were at the time I was teaching also theater because I did a lot of theater and everybody was thinking okay you go there for studies oh you go there for a theater school and I was just like no no yeah yeah absolutely and I didn't even have a job when I left it was really like I mean things were going super well in Switzerland with work then with the teaching but the thing is I really wanted to touch this music world and not being on stage but really I wanted to organize and I thought I don't want to have any regrets so I'm gonna try if it doesn't work it's okay because I can just like come back in Switzerland and find work super easily because when you had a profession yeah exactly yeah and it was also easy because I didn't have any family so I have no children so it's easy to move and yeah I wanted to have a try I mean when you're a teacher you accumulate a lot of skill of organization and how to work with people and how you help them to go from one point to another one I think that it helped me a lot to do what I'm doing oh my goodness because that was actually gonna sort of guide me into one of the other questions that I had for you which was you know what does it take to do your job so right now you actually you've been an artist agent for 10 years booking agent for artists artist manager and press officer these are the things the roles that you that you inhabit which is a lot so I was wondering like what kind of skills you need in order to do these sorts of roles it's a lot of organization and contacts at the end the most important in the music business is the networking definitely it's a young business so the skills you need to be able to work in into that business is really organization to be super precise with what you're doing for the for administration for example yeah I mean you do invoices contracts you're looking if you got all the information and you are you transmitted it to other people so at the end it's not super specific I mean being a Booker is being a Salesman a woman because you're selling a musical project to do the production is the same as being a commercial assistant and then it's managing skills if you're managing people yeah what's different is that you're not selling furniture or cars you're selling musical projects and with those musical project it's a human being on the back it's what make this this sales men or women work interesting for me it's that we you have so much interaction with people and it's so intense it gives you some pride to help someone to make his dream or her dream happen what I'm hearing is a lot of relationships before you mentioned networking and meeting people and then obviously the relationships with the artists themselves and the people you represent what is the kind of technical side to building relationships and last-ing and good relationships if there is such a thing I'm gonna say something sad but maybe it's better not to have so much interaction and contacts because people is naturally grateful for your work and the more you give the more they think it's normal to have somebody 24 and 24 7 and 7 which it's not the case I mean for sure I'm passionate for sure it's a passion job but it's still a job and to be able to make it for a long time and to keep a healthy mind you have to put some distance yes yeah if it's not easy for you to to be in contact with people maybe you can do more about production maybe you can do more about speaking about money with the people and let this managing at the end managing a job to others yeah yeah that's really I think there's space for everybody that's very good to hear actually going into like artist management booking agents what is one of the best ways if there is for somebody to just get involved or get their foot in the door is it a case of maybe they have a friend who's an artist and they want to you know jump in and represent or is it trying to find an internship with an established agency what would you say is the best way for somebody to start a career as a either like a booking agent or an artist manager for me the best way is to first of all to understand the business and to understand these busines is to be in so maybe do internship to be a trainee in a venue also to begin as a volunteer in a festival just to see how things are organized and then yeah for sure if you're absolutely fan of one band or one artist and you can contact them and propose them your service because at some point for example there's a big lack of agent at the moment in Switzerland so there's a lot of bands looking for agents you can propose them to work for them because also an agent is not paid by the band you earn a percentage on top of the fee you dealed wow so yeah for the band it's no risk and at the end better have someone who is not so good doing the job than nobody because at least they can do a little bit of job and then doing that then learning like often I have this this sentence a young people told me like oh I better I send so many mails and nobody is answering and that yeah that's how you have to begin even me it's a part of the job so you can train doing that and at one point somebody will answer and meet the people to make them answer so go to the pro-festival and do the Pro-aperos the prom meetings check like the pictures of the people you want to talk before to go to the festival so you can recognize them yeah exactly or go with somebody who knows the people because it's difficult I mean when people tells you okay you have to do networking but when you don't know anybody I mean it's you can go and just say like hello I'm Nadia and I would like to sell you something so you have to you have to prepare when you go to the venues you can just ask okay is the promoter in the venue tonight okay can I just meet him to say hello and just say hello so he can see your face you can see his or her face and then you can recognize the next time and doing that at the end like step by step it will build some-thing so it's work it's a lot of time a lot of energy but at some point it will pay If you are involved in music as a hobby profession or both sign up for free on the Helvetia-rockt music directory. It's a platform for women, non-binary, trans and intersex people in the Swiss music industry. For singers, instrumentalists, bookers, managers, sound engineers, photographers and many more of all levels. It's about visibility, it's about community, it's about empowerment. We invite all of you to participate in the project. For further informa-tion go to musicdirectory.ch When is the right time for an artist to reach out for representation for an agent I think that as a band you have to you have to try yourself for a bit just to also to know what's the work and how hard it is so that when you ask somebody else to do it then yeah and you and you're going to be thankful and respectful of the work of that person you have to do a few concerts before already and also have a little fan base at least in your city at least be a band that if people say like okay what's the five no maybe the 20 bands of this city you have to be part of these twenty because as I said the booking agent is not paid by the band but it's 15% on top of the fee I mean if the booker will earn 50 francs for I don't know maybe 10 hours of work for sure if it doesn't work quickly then then they will say like okay I'm losing time and money so you have to reach I mean if you can have thousand that is as a fee then it feels more worth it yeah and that means that at least you know that you you're gonna go forward with your band too because when it's the very begin-ning some sometimes I don't know after one year like one is living because he is doing a new school in another city then then the band just crashed because or it's not the same you have to have a solid project and also to figure out what you want have a faraway dream that's gonna sort of pull you along and guide you exactly because motivate you yeah because when they come and they say like oh yeah we just want to do our con-certs okay but it's not building a career you have to also know are you ready to give your time and it's a lot a lot of work it's a lot of time if it's going well then okay maybe you're gonna have every weekend a concert are you ready to be on the road every weekend are you ready to let all your free time to do that without earning a lot of money and being in competition with a lot of other projects it's a way of living it's a way of living yeah it is a huge investment yeah and it's and if you involve somebody else an agent, a manager in that then as respect you have to know that you won't change your mind in two years or in three years yeah I mean that person's gonna work for you you have to work for that person yeah it's this whole collaboration Nad I am so happy we are having this conversa-tion because I have honestly never thought of it like that I have never considered the time and I'm sorry let me apologize for my ignorance for somebody who's coming in as an artist manager or a booking agent is their time it’s their energy and so as an artist having a goal a destination having the work ethic you have to and to be at a certain place where you can say I'm ready for you now because I've shown that I've put all of this effort in and we are here for the long haul because it's this kind of it is a collaboration and you don't realize that this is people's time people's effort people's energy especially at the be-ginning like you said there's not a lot of pay at the beginning so thank you for that per-spective thank you to you to sharing it so yeah so everyone now listen okay listen and realize that the relationships here that we have it's a community isn't it and it's kind of an ecosystem that everybody has their role to play yeah and if it's too early then there's a lot of frustration from the band because they thought that it would be magical and getting an agent will open you all the doors that's exactly what I thought yeah absolutely not I mean there's a lot of work to do and also for the booking agent because you're giving a lot putting a lot of energy to make it happen but it takes time the moment you talking from a new band sometimes it takes at least one year and most of the young bands they think okay we have an album we we're gonna release it next month okay I can do any-thing because I need at least six to eight months to prepare stiff. Coming through, Nad with the nuggets come through with the information this is gold these are nuggets of gold Bands please give type please consider what it takes to really get the word out you know so we cannot be having one month and then expect to get a full venue and all the promo and everything sorted like we need to have a consideration for the bigger picture exactly yeah it's a you have to build your career and it take times and that I totally get that when you are an artist and you just recorded a new track I mean for sure it's the best track the fresher track you have and you want that track to spread the word with but I mean it's not possible to release things at as soon as they get invented you have to wait I mean maybe you record it two years ago that album but then to find a label to find the good strategy to release it then it's two years and for sure when you're gonna release that album your head is already far away for what but that's this difficulty when you're an artist that you're gonna promote an old stuff while doing a new stuff and it's super tricky that is so tricky to get your head around you are effectively promoting something that you've written two years ago for example maybe even 10 maybe even 10 years ago and then you've got to sit in front of someone like me answering questions about a headspace that you were in 10 years ago and also what is super important when it's your very first album don't release it as soon as you don't have a solid plan or a solid strategy because as soon as you release your first single or your first EP people's gonna ask for the next so I mean the first album that you made all your life to create because I mean the first album is really like from the when you were a child absolutely till that moment at the moment it's gonna be released the next year you you have to release something new because now things are going really faster so are you ready to compose and record something new in one year no so keep the first album as long as you as you really as the strategy settled and the people around are settled and also begin to write before the release of the album yes because after that okay dream picture your lazy album it's a very it's super successful directly then you're gonna tour like hell you will have promo like hell and you have no more time to compose to be able to find new ideas yeah and to record so do all this stuff before yeah absolutely oh my God I'm loving this information I hope people are listening because this is so important I've never come across someone to break it down so concisely like you have so thank you for that we've got to think in advance we've got to like plan the strategies well when we're releasing something thank you I want to talk about your project Salto can you tell us first of all what is Salto? Salto is an accompaniment project for young musical artists in Valais we give them tools to be able to go forward through professionalism into actual (pop) music here it's on seven months and every month they have a workshop on for example Administration techniques, communication, booking and they have swiss specialist that comes and talk them about their subject once a month so they can accumulate tools and use it then for their career they are together for seven months like they see each other every month they talk together so they can see that themselves are also resource for each other so it's to build the kind of resource family and when they have questions they can all ask us or ask their peers or ask the professional when they come to the to the workshop that is absolutely amazing I think that it's such a great resource for artists because I think the industry has changed so much in terms of what the artist is kind of responsible for doing I wonder how you feel about the fact that what you're doing is so good first of all but so necessary how do you feel about that because I think if I'm not mistaken I think years ago like an artist will have a record label and the label would do it so they they'd be able to sort of focus on just creating and then you'd have people and a machine doing the promotions doing all those bits and bobs but now it's kind of true and really is true that an artist has to do all those things you know be aware of communication be aware of how to get bookings and all these things that you're teaching how do you feel about the fact that an artist has to be responsible for these side of things as I was saying before I mean it's super important that you know what's happening around you when you are into this business I mean that's a fact that at the moment you have more and more you have to do it your-self but even if you have a label even if you have a press relation person who is doing the work you have to know what that person is doing you have to know how it's working a label to see if they are doing well the job to be able to tell them what you want for your project because at the end it's your project so you really have to know I mean for me I'm really happy about this program because the goal is that they have an agent they find a label I mean the goal is that they are able to give that work to people, professionals yeah to professionals to focus into music because it's what they do the best normally. It would be awkward, a really good booking agent is now a singer. so yeah but they to be able to hire the good people yeah I mean you have to know what they are doing and yeah that's important absolutely I want to talk about the fact that what's quite important to you is mentoring you know earlier in our conversation you were talking about being a teacher and that you actually quite enjoyed it so you enjoy sort of being around young people or having that kind of guidance role but when did you discover that you wanted to sort of continue with this sort of role and when did you discover it was important to you to mentor young people but that's pretty funny because when I did that teaching school it was just like hey okay it's gonna be fun and it turned well but when I see now what I'm doing and how I can use what I learned being a teacher it helped me really a lot for what I'm doing now because it's the same for a pro-ject I see a way to make it happen but I have to listen to them and I have to make it their way and not my way and it's really a I mean they teach me as well as I teach them I mean I have information but I have in also super important information for me and I like this fact of joining yeah being together to build a new way to make it happen yes to reach a common goal yeah [Music] What can governmental bodies and the state really do to support artists and to support people like you and you've got your label your agency Glad We Met what can they do to support the industry in your opinion yeah that's the that's the big discussion at the moment because with COVID the state realized that artists in actual (pop) music exist and weren't structured as classical music or theater so at the moment they are pushing to make them structure I mean to be able to be paid and to live from their work the music but then they discovered the whole world of the music business and really I think that nobody knows and still understand what's doing an agent what's doing a manager it doesn't exist at all so many people is still mixing agent and manager it's two different things it has nothing to see the salesman is not the CEO it's totally different yeah but as it's a new world I mean it's a new it's a new business then we have to talk about it and we have to show that what we are doing is important for the music business for example I think that for 10 years the Swiss music scene is really we reach a quality that we never reached be-fore really like at the moment it's really crazy how many excellent musical projects we have in Switzerland for example Switzerland was the special guest of Eurosonic two years ago in 2020 and everybody was so proud that Switzerland was shining and be being able to show so many quality acts but to make that happen it's because they are work-ing with people around yeah I mean we are getting more professional agents, managers, labels, Public Relation but as we are in the shadow then nobody thinks that we are exist-ing but to make that happen to make Switzerland being the special guest of Eurosonic is because the last 10 years all this music business in Switzerland got professionalised absolutely so it's a case of really kind of shining a light on the industry and showing the importance of the people that work within the industry and this and the ecosystem you know because I think I've had a discussion before where there seems to be that kind of gap between how like classical musicians are treated and maybe respected versus kind of contemporary musicians and popular music in Switzerland so I suppose it's a case of having continued discussions and showing that as a business as a music business and even for as an export that is incredibly valuable but I think also the difficulty is that music business is a business it's a private business I mean if you look Opus One if you look Paleo if you look I mean the big producer it's a business and at the same time it's also a cultural field and it's about young people it's about mediation so all the social teaching mentoring for young people but at the moment it's in the same field so at some point they say like okay it's business it's a private business so we won't help but it's not only that it's really about culture and it's something new that have to be a I think that I don't even know if the people who are deciding yeah about money at the state I don't even know if they know that there is sound checks and that we have to organize the concert six months before to make them happen I think at one point the thing that we arrive at eight open the door at 8 30 and then drink beers and then get hangover yeah no I mean we are at the office in the morning we are working all day long and then and addition we go at the evening at the office because the venue is the office and yeah and they don't realize that that we are really it's work I mean it's super interesting in Neuchatel, during the COVID when everything was closed young people were doing parties in the woods and in the parks and it was really super messy and the city asked Case à Chocs for help be-cause they knew how to handle young people doing parties and I mean yes now you need us now you need our expertise I mean if there are no clubs then the young people's gonna do parties and they're gonna get drunk and they're gonna get high but if some-thing happened I think as a parent you really have better for them to be in a club with security that at least can call an ambulance or have a look after them then get them lost in the in the they're gonna find a park a wood absolutely a place to make it so at least there we have an eye on them and we can help if they need help they can ask for help and they are not alone so yeah. Nad I'm so it's wonderful this what you've just been saying but also I cannot believe that what you've just said about these parties actually leads me nicely onto the audience question that we have for you it's a voice note and it's from Pamela Mendez Music so let's hear what she says my question would be if it's true that the pandemic crushed the market especially like an electronic music because I heard that kind of the people learned how to have parties underground and that venues are really struggling to get their people back if that's true and what they would recommend how new artists would go about that or artists that haven't been touring for a long time and now have to kind of build up again what if they would recommend to actually not even try to play but just build their they're following online to a point where they can kind of guarantee more audience or if nothing should change in in the way new artists and maybe you know artists who yeah as mentioned if we should just keep going as if nothing was happening so just to kind of summarize it's about the fact that during COVID like what you were just mentioning people making their own parties young people doing sort of underground parties what does that mean for new artists if people aren't going back to the venues should as a new artist should they focus on building their audience online maybe wait until they have a guaranteed audience to bring to a venue what is your take on that question that's a very interesting question because it's not only because of COVID or so but more and more now it's gonna be about having a fan base online so you definitely have to build something to build your listener first and then to tour because what I notice I do like with the booking agency we are doing a lot and we always did the the emerging artists it's really our signature because it's what we like to do and it's difficult because now the venues are really asking for okay how many tickets will I sell with this band and what are they looking they're looking the views on YouTube, on Spotify on so you really have to build your fan base so you can come and say okay I have so many people on my newsletter I have so many views it's how the direction it takes at the mo-ment yeah yeah it's just how it is now that's really what's going on the Landscapes I'm afraid it's gonna be worse and worse but still I mean this it's like always you always have the big things but I mean the small will always exist yes just that the small one will have less money so it's gonna be difficult to live with that yeah yeah that leads me on to one of my final questions which is from SUISA which SUISA is sponsoring our podcast and their question is how can people make money in music how are some of the ways and maybe even from your perspective as someone sort of not in the artist realm but working in in behind the scenes if you're a big one then definitely with live music but if you're building then there's always this publishing and editing solutions that means to have your music taken for an ad or a movie or to compose for a movie that's really where the money is at the moment in the music business if you're not doing the Hallen Stadium tomorrow but good if you are but in 10 years because you have a goal exactly oh I love how we brought it right back Nad thank you so much for this conversation with me thank you for joining me thanks to you so it's a pleasure really If you want to join the Helvetiarockt community or find out more check out the website, sign up for the newsletter and follow us on social media. If you'd like to support Helvetiarockt you can also become a member or donate and if you like what you heard today please share it with your friends. Helvetiarockt Musicians in Conversation is a concept by Natalia Anderson in collabora-tion with Helvetiarockt. It's presented and produced by Natalia Anderson music is by Jackie Brutsche and The Jackets.