MAPPING OUT CAREERS.

Navigation: Main page

Author: Waddell, Ray

STARS

After working on the concert board at Syracuse University, Adam Kornfeld jumped into the agency game right out of college in 1982, taking a job in the mailroom at International Creative Management.

Kornfeld was promoted to assistant to ICM club agent Jeff Kramer (now manager of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon), and then became assistant to arena agent Bruce Eisenberg before taking a job as Dennis Arfa's assistant at the William Morris Agency in the spring of 1984. When Arfa left WMA to start QBQ in April of 1986, Kornfeld went with him.

Today, Kornfeld is responsible for booking Metallica, Def Leppard, Rush, Ted Nugent, Tesla and Richard Marx. But, as a senior agent, "my role here is also to oversee everyone else on different levels," Kornfeld says. "I'm their sounding board."

A quick look at Kornfeld's clients would lead one to believe he's a hard-core headbanger. "I love the bands I represent, but it's more coincidence than anything else," he says. "I would just call it rock. Metallica is certainly heavier than Def Leppard, but they're still both rock bands and they're treated as such."

Kornfeld has been responsible agent for Metallica since 1991, with his first project being the mega 1991-1993 Metallica world tour.

Kornfeld enjoys the challenges of working with developing and superstar clients. "Certainly they have different concerns, but a lot of the concerns are very similar," he says. "Everyone wants to play the right rooms on the right nights in the right cities and be routed properly, charging the right price, with the room full and all the promotions running right."

Kornfeld has acquired his personal credo from the late agent Bobby Brooks, with whom he worked at ICM. Brooks was killed in a helicopter accident in 1990 that also took the life of guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. Kornfeld quotes Brooks: "'I truly love what I do, I respect my clients, and I realize that life is too short. While I take my job very seriously, I try to have as much fun as possible.'"

Michael Arfin started at AGI in March 1996 after working at a number of different entertainment companies, soaking in all aspects of the business.

"My first job was at Concrete Marketing," Arfin recalls. "I then went to work for U2's merchandiser and had the opportunity to travel on the Zoo TV stadium tour of North America. That experience inspired me to get into management and try to find my own U2."

After Zoo TV, Arfin pursued independent artist management out of his New York apartment for several years before landing a job at MCT Management, home of Moby.

"Coincidentally, one of the employees at AGI was a big fan of the band I was managing and the relationship developed and eventually led to a job as Adam Kornfeld's assistant," Arfin says.

Arfin's primary list of clients is a heavy one, with Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Sevendust, 10 Years, Type O Negative, Rammstein, Mindless Self Indulgence and others. He likes the flexibility of an independent agency.

"I believe working at an independent agency gives more of an opportunity for your voice to be heard, and it gives you more freedom to take chances that you might not get with a major agency," Arfin says.

"I like the fact that I can develop bands from the ground up but at the same time I also have the resources, information and knowledge from working with some of the biggest career bands in the world," he continues.

Arfin is setting up and confirming international dates for Linkin Park's 2006-2007 touring cycle. "In regard to new acts I am really excited about 10 Years, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Evans Blue, Hollywood Undead and Faktion. All of these acts have new CDs out or will be releasing albums this year."

New Jersey native Pete Pappalardo began working at AGI in 1997 as Dennis Arfa's second assistant.

Today he handles day-to-day booking duties for Mötley Crüe, Meat Loaf, Yes (along with band members' individual projects), Everclear, comics Andrew Dice Clay and Jim Norton, Pat McGee Band, Josh Kelley, Happy Endings, Michael Tolcher and Alexa Ray Joel.

Booking acts ranging from hard rock to comedy requires some flexibility, but the mechanics are more similar than different, Pappalardo says. "For the most part, booking is booking. It's all the same except where the decimal points and the commas are.

"Sometimes developing bands are a lot harder to book, you're begging, borrowing and stealing to get them on shows," he continues. "An extra hundred bucks here or there can make or break a baby band's income for the month."

While there is some crossover between agents, Pappalardo thinks it is a plus that AGI agents tend to book acts exclusively. "I know what all my clients are doing at all times, I don't need to wait on another agent to tell me in the Midwest these dates are available or not available," he says. "We have the overall national and sometimes global picture of our clients at all times and can talk to the clients and managers about every single date on the tour."

Each client gets plenty of TLC, Pappalardo says. "'Quality Before Quantity' is still a motto we live by here," he says. "We only take on things we are passionate about and that we can give our attention to. I think that's what sets us apart."

Pappalardo is enthusiastic about up-and-coming clients like Norton, J Records act Happy Endings and Joel, daughter of star AGI client Billy Joel.

"It's more challenging to find the next big thing," he says. "You have to be more creative in working with other agents and packaging and looking for alternative ways to tour bands. Bands almost have to break on the road, which makes our job more important than it used to be.

"I've spent my whole professional career here," Pappalardo adds. "The company is great. All the agents are home-grown. We've all worked here as assistants and grown through the process. The fact that we've all been around a long time says a lot about the company."

Justin Hirschman started at AGI in May 1998 as Michael Arfin's assistant, and within two years was tapped to search for new acts and work with Arfin in developing artists.

"Pretty quickly after that I started working with Days of the New and Shaggy, then I started building an up-and-coming, developing act department," Hirschman says. "The company always had lots of big headliners, but over the past five to seven years, we've been able to bring in and develop the next crop of rock acts."

Day-to-day, Hirschman works with HIM, the 69 Eyes, Meshuggah, Soulfly, Strata and Mushroomhead. He splits duties with Arfin on Cradle of Filth and Evans Blue. "We've built a nice little culture between our two offices. We work off each other and share as much information as possible, like Dennis has taught us along the way," he says.

"I can't speak for Mike, but we come to this business as rock fans, music fans," Hirschman says. "It's always fun for me to feel like I've found something before the general public has, to see a little something in an artist that I hope will work with a little bit of hard work. It's about playing the right tours, or if they're doing their own tour, packaging them properly and charging the right ticket price."

It is a busy roster. "The beauty of it is all these bands have a great work ethic," Hirschman says. "That's why a lot of rock bands started in the first place, to play shows, even if it's the local shithole in town.

"When you get a band together for the first time you want to go play and see if people get into your music and meet chicks," he quips.

"From the level of opening for someone for $100 to being a headliner and making a lot more than that, rock bands get together to play because it's something they enjoy doing."

Hirschman is optimistic about the health of the business. "A lot of times people want to point out the negatives, but it's such a broad stroke to paint on a more specific piece of art," he says. "Some things don't work because they're too expensive or they've been out too much or they're overexposed. Every act and every person that works with every act has different marching orders that they have to follow."

PHOTO (COLOR): ADAM KORNFELD, agent for Metallica, among others, has worked with Dennis Arfa since the launch of QBQ in 1986.

PHOTO (COLOR): 'Working at an independent agency gives an opportunity for your voice to be heard,' MICHAEL ARFIN says.

PHOTO (COLOR): 'We have the overall national and sometimes global picture of our clients at all times,' PETE PAPPALARDO says.

PHOTO (COLOR): 'We've been able to develop the next crop of rock acts,' says JUSTIN HIRSCHMANN, the newest AGI agent.

~~~~~~~~

By Ray Waddell