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Interviewed: Tim Borror
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Date: 2011-11-04
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You might not know the name Tim Borror or his company The Agency Group, but if you attend metal shows you most likely have seen his work. Tim is a career long booking agent who has booked everyone from Type O Negative to Steel Panther and In Flames. The Gauntlet recently had a chat with him to get his thoughts on the music industry.

The Gauntlet: How did you get your start in tour booking?

Tim: I am happy to say that most of the bands I work with, I started with at the beginning of wherever their career started from to wherever they are now. I would say 80% of the bands I have that history with. Where it all starts is me loving the music. A lot of it is me taking my vision of seeing where these bands and seeing them to a place where lots of fans will be able to see them. I love checking out new things. I find out a lot for other people who hear new stuff, or sometimes I might be out at a show and see something that just kicks my ass that I love. I love talking about music. Once that connection is made, we talk about music and where they want to be and see themselves going. If it is a match then we get on with it. That is kind of the basis and foundation of where it begins.

The Gauntlet: How important is being a fan of the music?

Tim: I am sure there are plenty of people out there that are book smart over being passionate about the music and are still successful. I think that anyone in the business of music is probably here because the music is an interest to them and exceeded any of the other interests that might have been presented to them as a career. I came up through punk rock and metal. I made a decision in my twenties that before I went around fucking with some other job that I was likely going to hate to take a look into the thing I was the most passionate about. I went to about three shows a week from about fourteen until I was twenty-five. Sometimes I won’t work with something that I love, and would rather to just be a fan. As a matter of principle, you have to love this music to be successful. The more that you discover music that umbrella gets wider and your artistic perspective grows.

As a teenager I was promoting my band and hardcore shows. That was where I got a taste of it. I would talk to people and they’d realize I could do a job for them and not fuck it up. When I was about twenty years old I started working for a management company as an intern. They managed the Cro-Mags and some other bands. A lot of the bands they had were small. They didn’t have any work for me to do on the Cro-Mags. They had these bands that no one ever heard of though. They told me to take these bands and book them a tour from Portland, Maine to Florida and back. They just handed me a Pollstar directory book and I figured it out. I got a couple tours booked for these bands. As I did that, I got a couple of bands I knew growing up to let me start booking them. At that time, a lot of the hardcore bands that I knew personally had me start booking them. It wasn’t a business at that time, it was just dudes playing shows. There was no structure. Some guys let me book their tours and then they started introducing me to bands who introduced me to bands. Before long, I was booking Life Of Agony and Type O Negative. Type O Negative in particular got so big and really huge while I was booking them. I was twenty-one years old and literally hearing terms for the first time. Type O Negative was getting offers to support Nine Inch Nails, Motley Crue, and Queensryche. I am literally flying by the seat of my pants. I had some loyalty out of the bands and the people with them. A lot of the bigger companies where trying to take Type O Negative away from me and rightfully so. One of those companies came to me and said “hey kid, one of these days someone is going to take some of your bands and quite frankly we are one of the companies trying to do that.” They offered me to come work for them and bring my bands with me. They offered to teach me what it was I was trying to do. It was really cool for me and that was how I officially got into the big leagues. They helped take a lot of the bumps out of the road. It helped me to not lose a big act because I didn’t have the knowledge. I was going to be able to ultimately deliver what it was I was setting out to do. This company had people around me that wouldn’t allow me to fuck up. I wouldn’t say it was smooth sailing since then, as their has been a lot of bloodshed, but it is where I got locked in for life.

The Gauntlet: There have been a lot of changes in the industry since you started. Do you find yourself adapting to them or pushing back?

Tim: A little of both. I think you have to adapt even when you don’t want to adapt. I think you can also insert some will against change that isn’t right and slow it down. You can move it in a different direction and try to hold it back. I think there is a time and a place for both.

The Gauntlet: Is the touring industry experiencing a lot of the problems like the record industry is or are you somewhat immune from it?

Tim: We feel it. I think first and foremost and this is exactly in line with what is happening with the labels. I think in general is the economy blows. People don’t have money in their pockets and this is happening while labels are trying to get people to buy a product without taking it. While there is confusion from the people that usually help market the bands, there is also a beef with the economy. I think the way people are getting music is not a one size fits all. Bands are growing in different ways, some through the internet, some by touring, etc. That one size fits all push is now gone. At the club level, nothing beats finding a band that is all your own and turning that fanbase into something big. When you can find that band, the labels are irrelevant and always have been. They will take that momentum and push it forward anyway. The trouble the labels are having and how it affects the touring world can work best when we are all on the same page together as a team, as a group of people. If we can find out how people want to find out about music, then we can all move something along in that lane and right now that lane doesn’t exist and that makes everyone’s job harder.

The Gauntlet: I hear a lot from people that pirate music that they might not be paying for the album, but they go see more shows and buy more merch to support the bands that way.

Tim: It is hard to say. I don’t think the concert business has gotten bigger as a result of the record business getting smaller. I am not on one side or the other about giving a shit about whether or not the labels are surviving. I am not saying I do or I don’t. I don’t believe that people are using that money to go to more concerts. I think less people are going to concerts right now overall. People just don’t have money in the pocket like they did five years ago. Any tour hot now would have been hotter five years ago.

The Gauntlet: You don’t think that is because of over dilution of the bands and tours in certain areas? I live in Los Angeles and any night of the week I can hit two or three metal shows.

Tim: I think that is a separate issue entirely. I do think that the dilution does harm shows. If you have $20 in your pocket and live in Columbus, OH you have about four bands coming through a week that you listen too on your iPod. You are now only able to go to one of them because of the amount of money you have. I think five years ago, people had $40 in their pocket and could see two shows. It does hurt though having to choose. Having both of these at the same time makes it hard. With music exploding a few years ago on the internet, I think it caused the number of tours to explode also. It is not a bad thing though. It is good that more bands can be out there on the wide scale level that they can be. It does make the competition harder and makes it more difficult to be that great band that filters through all the crap.

The Gauntlet: How does social media play into everything?

Tim: It helps a lot. It helps us with finding bands and picking bands. We can see what bands have more traffic than others and who people are talking about. People can also find out about the bands and tours we work with. Bands can go from obscurity to gigantic without a record label. We can promote shows on Facebook now. It is a value to everyone. It can also be a bit of a distraction as well. I think it is a classic case of taking the good with the band.

The Gauntlet: I hear a lot of bands complain about needing so many likes on their facebook. Is that a good measure of how a band will do on tour?

Tim: I think some people certainly think that it is. If a band has a bunch of fans on their page, that is a clear sign that people give a shit. If a band doesn’t have that, it isn’t a bad sign. It might just mean they are bad promoters and need people who can help them. I will make that call on whether I think they are good. If they are good and just don’t have the best brains in their head, I will find brains for them. Personally I wouldn’t get involved with a band that has more likes than another band but that is just me.

The Gauntlet: What was your one artist that got away from you, your biggest regret?

Tim: There is probably not a person in this business that hasn’t had that happen. I am going to leave that one out though. Regret is funny because there are bands I have passed on that have gone on to be huge. I don’t regret not liking them though. I would probably have a nicer house and fancier car if I wasn’t so in my own way. Am I going to regret that I have principles and gut instincts about things? No, it has made me just as successful in finding bands as passing them by. I am not going to regret that.