You and Andrew both have backgrounds in journalism and media, what made you want to transition from media into the music industry?
Parisi started his career selling ads for Beat Magazine. He’s a natural networker and entrepreneur and has a long history of talking himself into jobs on the strength of his self-confidence and creative vision. When he left Beat, he went straight into artist and venue management, so he was always in the industry, really, aside from a decade-long stretch when he ran a film distribution company and managed Chopper Read.
After Chopper died, Parisi was looking for his next project, which is when he found and relaunched The Croxton Bandroom. A couple of years later, circa 2017, Amyl and The Sniffers played in The Croxton Front Bar. Parisi had a nice chat with Dec on the night and then ran into the band on the street the following week. They asked him for some advice and support - which he gave freely, because that’s what he does - and six months later they asked him to be their manager.
I didn’t intend to work in music, I just followed the opportunities as they came up. I loved music and I could write, so I wrote about music. I was actually hired by Parisi to do PR for his film distribution company, where I ultimately worked as Head of Acquisitions. Parisi asked me to write Chopper’s last book, and the publisher was impressed with my work, so he kept giving me ghostwriting projects. I wrote seven books while working day jobs in marketing and communications for various arts organisations and festivals, and I used my writing income to travel and go to music festivals and gigs around the world.
About six months after opening The Croxton, Parisi asked me to come on board to help with promo and marketing, and eventually handed over most of the day-to-day business to me. Then about six months into managing the Sniffers, faced with Russian visa applications that were about 40 pages long for each band member, Parisi asked me to co-manage them.
On one hand, you could say I rode into this industry on my partner’s coattails. I wouldn’t have this career if Parisi hadn’t opened a lot of doors for me. On the other hand, creative vision and self-confidence only get you so far in life. You also need hard work, strategy and attention to detail. I worked very hard across my career to develop a constellation of skills, knowledge and experience that are useful to an artist manager. Then when I had the opportunity, I ran with it. Long-winded answer, but there you go.
